|
|
|
| Have You Played Atari Today? |
2600|5200|7800|Lynx|Jaguar|Forums|Store |
Please visit the official Portland Retro Gaming Expo website to learn more about the show. We've also created a Portland Retro Gaming Expo Forum to discuss the event. If you're attending the show, please stop by our booth, say hello, and play some new games! Discuss online: 10 comments in 2016 Portland Retro Gaming Expo Forum
 The 2016 Classic Game Fest is right around the corner, taking place in Austin, Texas on July 30th and 31st. Now in its ninth year, the Classic Game Fest is bigger than ever, expanding from 25,000 square feet in 2015 to a whopping 45,000 square feet this year! Organizers expect over 6,000 attendees at this event, making it one of the largest video game conventions in the country. The Classic Gaming Fest caters to fans of classic gaming systems, featuring retro gaming tournaments, live panels with video game celebrities, costume contests, and live video game music. Over 100 vendors and artists will be present, offering a plethora of consoles, games, accessories, video game art, clothing, and much more! Special guests at this year's show include Warren Spector (Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Deus Ex), Ernest Cline (Ready Player One, Armada), Keith Robinson (Intellivision Productions), and more! If you love video game music and chiptunes, fifteen different bands will be on-hand keeping you entertained all weekend long. Compete against other gaming fans in a variety of tournaments throughout the show. Dress up as your favorite video game character in the cosplay contests. There's so much to do, see, and hear at the show, this is a must visit event if you're in (or can get to) the Austin area for the weekend. The show schedule details all the events taking place both days. Please visit the Classic Gaming Fest website to learn more about the event! Discuss online: 45 comments in Events Forum
8-bit Generation, the team that brought us the Growing The 8 Bit Generation – The Commodore Wars documentary are back, this time with a documentary focusing on Atari: Easy to Learn, Hard to Master - The Fate of Atari. This 100 minutes long documentary about the Atari story will be narrated by Bil Herd, former Commodore senior engineer and will feature a list of unreleased interviews with the key people of these events. These include a very rare interview with Warner VP Manny Gerard and a unique interview with Atari CEO Ray Kassar, the man held responsible for Atari's success and the video game industry crash at the same time. Ray Kassar has never appeared in a documentary before. From the Kickstarter page:
Before Google, Yahoo and even Apple, before the Silicon Valley cliché of informal dress code, skateboards running the corridors and wild creativity became commonplace, one company embodied the digital economy lifestyle and business style: the one firm coming out of the Age of Aquarius was Atari.
The story of Atari is two-thirds the story of Nolan Bushnell, founder and visionary, and one-third the first and probably biggest boom and bust of the new economy some 20 years before the new economy even existed.
Atari was showing that technology is cool, way before the personal computer revolution took place and they were reaching out to an ever-growing audience with something that is still cool today: video games. Atari literally introduced the digital world to the mass consciousness. Nolan Bushnell and Atari have a huge collection of firsts: the first successful video game company, the first coin-op video game ever, the first general purpose console to win the market, the first marriage between video games and movie industry in the history of entertainment, the fastest growing company in history, the biggest industry crash ever, the weirdest anecdotes in Silicon Valley, the coolest brand on the planet… Atari is a story to be told for two main reasons: it is pure fun and it is impressively educational. This project is already close to its goal, let's help push it over the top! Visit the Kickstarter page for more details. Discuss online: 0 comments in Gaming Publications and Websites Forum
Our friends at HighScore.com are holding a new high score competition for several classic gaming systems, with great prizes for the winners! Categories include Atari consoles, ColecoVision, MAME, classic Nintendo consoles, and PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. 
High Score is a competitive gaming community, with multiple levels of competition. Gamers earn trophies for their accomplishments (including virtual patches for classic Activision games), which are displayed in a trophy case on their profile. The contest runs through August 28th, 2016. You can learn full details about the contest here. Good luck! Discuss online: 4 comments in Contests Forum
Conjoined: The Atari 2600 Game is a new homebrew game based on the surprise hit independent horror/comedy feature film of the same name. The game is programmed by Gemintronic's Jason Santuci (AtariAge member "theloon"), who has been involved with many homebrew projects in the past. Jason worked closely with the film's director Joe Grisaffi to design the game.  You play Stanley. You must catch the hearts Alina is throwing to you while avoiding the broken hearts and daggers Alisa is throwing at you. With a little skill, you might just make it to the operation! The game's creators are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to sell copies of the movie and game. You can choose from several different pledge levels, including $10 for the Conjoined DVD, $20 for a copy of the 2600 Conjoined game cartridge and manual, and $60 for a boxed, limited edition, numbered copy of the game. The Kickstarter ends on Thursday, June 30th at 10pm CST, so don't delay if you want to help support this original 2600 homebrew project! Discuss online: 24 comments in Atari 2600 Forum
Before game trailers and the internet age, even before magazines, our first contact with video games was the cover art on the front of the box. That's the image that "sold" the game. It was the promise of an experience, and an extrapolation of game play regardless of the game's actual graphical capability. Box Art - A Gaming Documentary will explore the history of video game box art and discover the unsung artists responsible for gaming's great images. Written and Directed by Rob McCallum (Nintendo Quest, Kittie: Origins/Evolutions, Power of Grayskull) the film will look at video game box art from all eras, for both consoles and PC, foreign and domestic releases and variations, and showcase both the famous and infamous stories that surround the gaming cover art we know and love. Rob McCallum says: "No one has told the story of the people who've created some of the most iconic images in video game history - but that's about to change. I'm excited to learn everything about box art from the people responsible. You can only research a subject so much before you start going in circles but hearing the history from those responsible will be an experience you can't replicate reading or by searching on Google. We have stretch goals that give us a lot of freedom to restructure the material and I hope we hit that level so we can share as much of this experience as possible." To learn more about the project, please visit Kickstarter, where the team is looking to reach a modest $30,000 goal in order to make this project a reality. There are stretch goals as well that will allow additional content to be produced for the documentary if reached. You can discuss the project in our forums with AtariAge member Tim Lapetino, who is serving as a producer on Box Art - A Gaming Documentary, and is also one of the authors of the upcoming book Art of Atari. Discuss online: 6 comments in Classic Gaming General Forum
Our friends at Edladdin, who have been selling great arcade controllers for the Atari 2600/7800, have launched a Kickstarter to bring new arcade controllers and adapters for the ColecoVision to market! Edladdin has designed four new products for ColecoVision enthusiasts:
 The Edladdin Kickstarter campaign runs for 30 days and has a goal of $9,650, with two stretch goals of $13,295 and $16,995. If you're a ColecoVision fan, this Kickstarter is a great way to support a company that's already developed new hardware for classic consoles, and we'd love to see them continue doing so with more systems in the future. You can discuss this Kickstarter in our ColecoVision/Adam Forum. Discuss online: 200 comments in ColecoVision / Adam Forum
 Thanks to the work of Kevin Savetz, the unreleased, almost-finished sequel to Star Raiders for the Atari 8-bit computers, written by Atari programmer Aric Wilmunder, has been released! Aric created and developed Star Raiders II while working in the R&D lab of Atari coin-op, and the game was only a few months from completion before work was stopped on it. Aric has written up an Authoritative Star Raiders II document describing his time at Atari and how this version of Star Raiders II came to be.
This is an incredible find for anyone who's enjoyed (or continues to enjoy!) Star Raiders, which originated on the Atari 8-bit computers, but was also released for the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200. This is a true sequel to Star Raiders, not to be confused with the version of Star Raiders II Atari did release, which was a rebranded version of a game based on The Last Starfighter movie. Aric's version expands upon the original Star Raiders in several ways, including the ability to fly down to planets. Kevin Savetz has published an interviewed with Aric Wilmunder, which you can listen to at ANTIC, The Atari Podcast. And here's a video showing the game in action: You can discuss this Atari 8-bit Christmas present in our Atari 8-bit Forum with other Atari 8-bit enthusiasts. You can also download the associated files attached to the first post at the above link. Please be sure to thank Kevin and Eric for working to make this treasure available to everyone! Discuss online: 239 comments in Atari 8-Bit Computers Forum
It is Christmas time once again and the fourth annual Carol vs. The World! Championship is upon us! Throughout the entire month of December, all boys and girls--naughty or nice--will have the opportunity not only to earn bragging rights, but to win actual prizes! 
This year we've changed things a bit. At stake now is a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind Ultimate Video Arcade Marquee. Made with the same process and materials that classic arcade cabinets use, it will look just as great on your MAME cabinet or wall. Plus, the winner gets to help design his own Christmas Carol themed artwork!  That said, there are prizes for players of all skill levels, veterans and novices alike, and many surprises! We encourage everyone to participate, submit their score, and join in the fun! Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost Of Christmas Presents is an original game concept, designed and programmed by James Pujals for the 1980s Intellivision® game system. It follows the adventures of Carol Greenleaf, Santa's most resourceful elf, as she tries to recover the presents stolen by an Evil Snowman, and save Christmas for the children of the world. The game was originally released at the Classic Gaming Expo 2012, and went on to become a smash hit in the retro-gaming community, voted Game Of The Year and then Best Home-Brew Of All Time by Intellivision® enthusiasts of the site AtariAge.com. To enter the contest is very easy:
Good luck and MERRY CHRISTMAS! Discuss online: 708 comments in Intellivision / Aquarius Forum
 The 2015 Houston Area Arcade Expo is taking place November 13th and 14th at the Houston Northwest Crowne Plaza. Hosted by the Houston Area Arcade Group, this is an annual event celebrating the electronic games people love to play. Gamers buy, sell, and trade pinball, video game and game console items, and, best of all, pinballs, arcade cabinets and consoles are set up on free play for the duration of the show.
Highlights for this year's show include:
AtariAge will be at the event, and we're setting up a large console area with a variety of classic systems and games, as well as some newer homebrews for you to try. There aren't many opportunities to enjoy large collections of classic arcade games and pinball machines, so if you are in the Houston area (or can get there!), you should be at this expo! Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day (you save $10 by purchasing your tickets in advance). For more information, please visit ArcadeCenter.com. Discuss online: 34 comments in Events Forum |
September 27, 2016Did you know?Commavid was originally called Computer Magic. ContestsMailing List |
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube