Music4Games.net has an announcement posted up that the popular Video Games Live show has announced new music for their Los Angeles show on October 19th.

From the announcement: "Video Games Live has announced their upcoming performance at the new Nokia Theatre at LA Live in downtown Los Angeles on October 19th will feature new music segments. Aside from updated versions of Mario, Zelda, Warcraft, Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid, VGL will also now feature music from Halo 3, BioShock and Conan. Additionally they announced new arrangements of Contra, Chrono Cross, Pac-Man, Tetris and Final Fantasy plus new segments from Blizzard including The Burning Crusade and Starcraft II."

I've yet to catch this show as it hasn't come to our city, but  I would love to hear some feedback from other retro-gamers about what they think of these shows.

Read more here  

Video Games Live website

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Steven Winn of the San Francisco Chronicle has a review of the recent First Annual Pacific Pinball Exposition, in San Rafae, California a couple weekends ago.

He had this to say: "I played a few of the machines I remembered and some I did not. I watched the other players take the timeless pinball stance, back hunched, hips still, one foot forward, arms straight, eyes intently trained on the field of play. The sense memories, untapped for decades, came pouring back.

The spring of the ball shooter in your right hand. The satisfying feel of planting your palms on the side rails and settling your fingers into the concave flipper buttons. The rising arc of the ball. The helter-skelter adventure of bumpers and slots, targets and rollovers. The snap of the ball hitting the cover glass. An inspired combination flip that would make your nerves hum. A deflating drain. The gratifying tock of the machine registering a free game. The beguiling, maddening, addictive illusion of control."

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The London Games Festival Site has been updated with this year's schedule of events.

Already happening now through November 4th, 2007 is Tha Click exhibition .  The site says the event presents a group exhibition of video game related artwork by the American art crew Paper Rad along with Beige Programming Ensemble artists Paul B. Davis, Cory Arcangel and Joe Beuckman.

Of special note is "a playable hacked version of classic Nintendo game Hogan's Alley; an abstract hacked Mario Brother's cartridge with any of the original graphics difficult to place".  We would love to hear from some of you UK'ers on this one.

Also at the festival is Video Games Live presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra on October 22nd. 

The main festivities run October 22nd through November 2nd.  Head on over to the official website to find out more. 

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A poll conducted by MSNBC rated the following as the Top 5 Clasic Arcade Games

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Darth Nuno's at it again .

This time, going that extra "kilometer" for you by creating a video digest of his recent exploits to swipe, erm....save a 1980 Battlezone from the U.K.

The video was originally put together for his 10th trip to the U.K., only to realize that it was actually his 9th trip.  But hey!  Who's counting!   Check it out here.

And....it must be Battlezone news week.  From the other side of the pond, here in the good ole' U.S. of A. comes arcadefever with his picture diary of a beautiful Battlezone in prime condition as well.  Head on over to his site and have a looksee .

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It would seem our Japanese brethren are experiencing the same decline in market as are Arcades and Pinball locations across the world.

Of interest, a survey found that the number of pachinko players dropped to 16.6 million in 2006, the lowest level in a decade and about half the number reported in 1982.

For those of you who don't know what Pachinko is, it's commonly referred as Japanese Pinball.  It's past is riddled with shady practices and is often times compared to the lure of Vegas-Style gambling.

Have a read, the article will both enlighten you and give you a look at trends happening in other countries. 

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The gang over at 1up.com has a retro roundup article up talking about several retro arcade games that have been ported to the Xbox Live Arcade .

The give a run down of over a dozen games and whether or not they're worth your hard earned points.

Doom on the 360?  Hey, I had no idea.  Nice to see classics like Galaga, Frogger, Pac-man and yes, even Robotron have made it to the 360.

Not long ago I was lamenting on the fact that it seemed that the Wii was outpacing the 360 when it came to retro offerings on their live shops.  I now stand corrected. 

Head on over and check out the 1Up Retro Roundup: Special Edition . 

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Looking for a more rugged case for your Motorola C168 Cell Phone?

A contributor to instructables.com posted an quick article and how to on taking your cell phone and putting it "inside" and old NES controller.

In fairness, the author of that article does give credit to one Sam Garfield who apparently did the same thing back in 2006. 

Not to mention, if you check out the comments on that article, you'll see that several people are taking off with this idea and throwing all kinds of new tech into older consoles.

Got a console that you gutted for re-purposing?  Drop us a line and let us know. 

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RetroBlast! Contributor James Hills gave us a heads up today about an article over at Entrepreneur.com titled 10 Businesses Facing Extinction in 10 Years .

On that list, the Coin-Op Arcade comes in as number 10.   From the article: "Ten years ago, there were 10,000 arcades in the nation, and now the number is close to 3,000, according to the American Amusement Machine Association. Revenue from arcade game units brought in $866 million last year, which sounds good until you consider that in 1994, the industry was pocketing $2.3 billion..."

So what does that mean to you and me, besides the fact that we're not going to see a lot of arcades in malls anymore?  It means that game room you're contemplating building in the basement or garage or spare room just became all the more important to the preservation of classic arcade gaming. 

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Looking for something different to do next weeked?  How about trying to win the 2007 Professional/Amateur Pinball Association's World Championship?

That's right, the Professional/Amateur Pinball Association, or PAPA for short, is holding thier tenth World Championship pinball tournament next week from October 11th through the 14th in Pittsburgh, PA. 

According to the PAPA website, there is a total prize package of $36,000 to be won.  Best of all, competition is open to the general public.  Whether you think you're a pro or you're just a rank amateur, there will be divisions for you. There will be divisions for professionals, amateurs, seniors and even a junior division.  Do you love classic pinball?  There will be a classics tournament as well.

There is a small registration cost for all players and another small fee for each entry into the tournament.  For those players that just want to play some great pinball, there will also be a bank of games set up to play.

The PAPA tournament is held in a 30,000 square foot facility dedicated soley to pinball.  There are over 300 machines expected to be available for tournament play or in practice banks.  So, if you think you can compete with the pros, head on over to the PAPA website and get registered and make a road trip to the 'burgh for some great pinball fun.

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