Archive for the ‘Random Stuff’ Category

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!

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)

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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Ok, so details are basically finalised.. as is staff, hardware and such.  Click the image to see the timetable.

There was going to be a laptop, but logistically my laptop is my life and I couldnt bear someone breaking it….old consoles stand up to alot of beating…the same can’t be said of modern technology.

There will be spot prizes for various games, and possibly some Overworld vouchers up for grabs throughout the weekend!

We’ll be in the NZ Comics/Collectables area, just across from the Timezone stand!

If this goes well, motions will be put in place for Auckland Armageddon in October later this year!

Please note- this timetable is subject to change a few more times probably before the con itself, keep looking here for updates, we will have up to date timetables available at the stand!

Hey guys! Big announcement time!

RetroActive will have a stand in the Collectors Area, at the up coming Armageddon Expo in Wellington on Easter weekend!

We’ll have a selection of consoles to play, most likely 2 TV and a laptop (for soem old Windows 95/DOS fun). Timetable for games will be out soon, and don’t worry, we’ll have a good selection and even some times where you can choose what you want to play (depending on what console is out)! There will most definitely be a few games that no one has heard of or knew hit NZ, possibly a Micro tourny for Goldeneye 64.

Watch this space,  it’s going to be a fun weekend!

Head to www.pulpexpo.com for full Armageddon event and ticket details.

Fury 3

Developer: Terminal Reality

Format: PC (Windows95/3.1)

Released: August 1995

Features: Game save, customisable controls with joystick/game pad support, detail settings.

First a little story. WARNING: Rose tinted glasses ahoy!

It was September 1995, my dad has just purchased a new PC to move on from our old Amstrad cassette tape driven machine. My dad asked me if I wanted a game for it for my birthday. This machine was top of the line- brand new os on it, a whole 16mb of RAM and an 800mb (!!!) hard drive. It cost about 2000 pounds sterling. It was a BEAST. I was the coolest kid on the block. I also got a nice beige joystick with it.

Cue 2008, I’m now up to 8 years of living in New Zealand, 13 years after my first real PC experience. I hadn’t forgotten about this game. I have no idea where my original discs went even. They were probably lost in the move. Anyway, I waltzing through Cash Converters and in a bin full of CD’s, sitting at the top, is the first REAL 3d game I ever played or owned. For $3, I couldn’t pass it up.

Putting my aforementioned rose tinted glasses on when I get home, I’m amazed to find it actually runs perfectly in Windows XP. In about 20minutes I get further than I did in all my first few years of PC gaming. What. The. Heck. Still, it was a blast.

Now I get to tell the world about it.

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