It’s been a month, possibly more since the last update which I majorly apologize for- with a small staff and busy lives it is bound to happen every so often! Personally I’ve just had a wisdom tooth taken out, which has reared its ugly head since Armageddon last month, but thats sorted now, and I’m ready to announce a project for RetroActive.

Are you a seasoned “Starcraft” player? Retroactive wants to hear from you ASAP for a documentary about to hit pre-production in the next month, and hopefully release a few weeks after Starcraft 2.

We’re looking at interviewing modders/mappers/and players both casual and “hardcore”, as well as filming the release of the game’s sequel in Wellington.

Please email ross@retroactive.co.nz for more information. NZ’ers only for interviews sorry!

Star Wars Arcade

Developer: Sega Interactive/LucasArts

Publisher: SEGA

Published: 1993(Arcades) , 1994 (32X)

Platform: Sega 32X, Arcades

Features: 1-2 Players

Star Wars will always have a special place in my heart, I always get a rush when I see Luke Skywalker flying his X-wing down the trench run on the Death Star. Star Wars Arcade allows you to feel a part of the battle like no other game of it’s time, except perhaps the Super Star Wars Trilogy. Star Wars Arcade was originally released in arcades in 1993, then was ported to home consoles in 1994 as a launch title for the infamous Sega 32X.

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Until recently (I’d say at least the last 10 years), living in NZ we have been subject to games being released months after their release dates, same with movies and music, it’s only in recent years that we have caught up due to things like the internet and publishers realising they can’t with hold product from us for too long otherwise we may find other ways to watch/play/listen (this doesnt always stop them from holding back though).

This will probably be the last in the line of the Thrill Of The Hunt series, I wanted to keep it strictly inside NZ but at Armageddon I had people asking questions about imports from overseas.

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As if our rather broken twitter, and functional Facebook page isn’t enough, alongside RSS feeds, we now have a mailing list!

Just flick an email to ross@retroactive.co.nz with the subject line SUBSCRIBE and I’ll add you to it.  It will likely be a monthly affair, with volume ZERO having just gone out.

You can unsubscribe any time by sending UNSUBSCRIBE in the email subject.

I am also available at this address for offers on games I may be on the look out for- bear in mind I’m currently only after games for systems I own (N64, Mega Drive, SNES, Master System, Mega CD).

Currently I’m after the following:

Perfect Dark (N64)

Mario Kart (SNES+N64- The N64 version at Armageddon wasn’t mine)

Ultimate Qix (Mega Drive)

Ground Zero Texas (SegaCD)

Sonic CD (Sega CD)

Resident Evil 2 (N64)

Knuckles Chaotix (Sega 32x…bonus if you have a 32X for sale)

Hi every one, I’m the new guy Impish. As my first appearance at You Tube may have shown, I’m a bit of a Sonic-head, and so, for my first review, I will be covering one of my favorite games, Sonic Adventure. It might not seem all that old, but Sonic Adventure came out in japan in 1998, definitely fitting into our pre-1999 policy.

Sonic Adventure

Platform: Sega Dreamcast (Original Release). Nintendo Game cube & PC (Director’s Cut), Xbox live (Coming Soon)

Released: 1998 (Japan) 1999 (Internationally) on Dreamcast (2003 Director’s cut)

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher: SEGA, (PC version by Activision under Sega PC)

Features: 6 different single player storylines, dozens of mini-games, A-life Virtual Pet Chao Garden, VMU game Chao Adventure (DX also includes 12 Game Gear Sonic Games)

Sonic Adventure was the first actual 3D Sonic game. It was released as a launch title for Sega’s final Console, the Dreamcast. Sonic Adventure was the best selling dream cast game during the consoles entire history, selling 2.5 million copies. And in my humble opinion was one of, if not the greatest, Sonic titles ever.

The games story focuses around six different playable characters, Sonic the hero, his young sidekick Tails, the gruff and tough Knuckles, Sonic’s wannabe girlfriend Amy Rose and newcomers Big the Cat and E-102 Gamma. These six characters have a wide variety of game play, and give the game a huge amount of replay ability. The game also introduced the English speaking world to Dr Eggman, the name of the villain known to us English speakers as Dr Ivo Robotnik .

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We originally met Impish on day 1 of Armageddon, which lead onto his mighty feat of clocking Sonic 3 over the course of 3 hours during day 2 and nabbing him a nice little prize in the process.

After some discussion after Armageddon, and looking over some material he wrote, we decided to bring him into the RetroActiveNZ  family as a new writer. Expect his first reviews to go up in the next few days!

“Tom Gluck, more commonly know on the internet as Impish, began gaming at a young age, first playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Pokemon Blue in his homeland of England, then continuing his obsession on his PlayStation. Moving to New Zealand he quickly got an Xbox, forgetting about his Mega Drive and Playstation until he discovered emulation, and now he is far more of a retro-head than a hardcore, but he wont say no to a game of Halo. He owns an Xbox 360, Playstation, Game Boy, Game Boy Colour, GBA, Nintendo DS, and a busted Mega Drive. He is knowledgeble about after-market SEGA systems and rom hacks.”

Wow.

What. A. Weekend.

Sorry this didn’t get done Sunday night, but I think you can probably forgive me for doing 3 x 10+ hour days in a row relating to Armageddon. I slept from 9pm-10am last night so am suitably refreshed and my back is sore from standing up all that time.

Anyway, onto the write up!

We ripped down our timetables, and just let people play what they wanted, kicking off the day with Sonic and Mario Kart (which never failed to draw a crowd). I was seriously deluded in thinking Sunday was going to be a quiet one, and I couldn’t have been more wrong with the Cosplay competition kicking off the day in the main area an hour after the TSB Arena opened to the public.

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Wow, another massive day. It was way less stressful than Day 1 of the expo, but still madness nonetheless. Last minute calls at midnight last night to solve a staffing issue and hit jackpot with having my friend Hamish come to help out the second half of the day while our other temp staffer for Armageddon Chris, went off to play in a Magic Tournament. None of this is his fault, I honestly thought it woudn’t be so busy at our stand so didn’t bother getting a 2nd person on till the very last minute before I went to bed. Biggups to Hamish, you did yourself good.

Today was very much a day for meeting people. Plenty of conversations had and people pointed not only to here, but various stores that sell retro games (one guess where They are in Petone…also pointed to Cash Converters). Met a few people from England/British Isles who remember owning the never released in NZ, SNES Super Scope.

Gallery, day2 roundup and a video with a special interviewee at the con after the jump

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Wow. What a day! Busier at the booth than we honestly expected, and even with 3 people we were run off our feet!

Early technical problems plagues the booth with me running around like a headless chook when both the Master System and the N64 decided to play up, and were fixed with 5minutes to spare before the torrent of people swarmed the TSB arena floor for what seems to be one of the biggest Wellington Armageddon Expo’s yet!

Write up,  more pictures and a video after the break!

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Developed and Manufactured by Nintendo

Released- 1992 in North America/Europe and Japan

The Super Scope is the official first party light gun for the Super Nintendo and was released in 1992 to North America, Europe, and gained a limited release in Japan due to a lack of consumer demand at the time for another expensive and limited use addon (after salt most likely being rubbed into the wounds of Power Glove owners after they purchased that….”so bad” is right…).

This thing is huge.

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