With Halloween only four days away, it’s getting quite late in the game to figure out what you’re going to dress up as this year. Here to the rescue, as always, is VC&G with the first of two parts on last-minute Halloween costume ideas. This first part deals with vintage computer-related costumes. The second part will deal exclusively with video game-related costumes and will be published soon. So if you’re desperate for some ideas, feel free to take a look what we’ve cooked up for you below. And by all means, share any of your own ideas with us as well.

By the way, if you like these, here’s even more costume ideas:
2010 Video Game Edition
2009 Video Game Edition
2008 Video Game Edition
2007 Video Game Edition
2006 Video Game Edition

[ Continue reading VC&G’s Last-Minute Halloween Costume Ideas: Computer Edition » ]

For someone who was highly disappointed with the Generation NEX, I’ll have to admit that Messiah’s latest product looks pretty cool. But then again, the NEX looked awesome when it was announced, and you know how that turned out.

The product is the “NEX Wireless Arcade Stick,” a supposedly arcade-quality wireless arcade stick for Messiah’s NEX system. And that right there is the catch, and it’s a major one: it’s “exclusively” compatible with the NEX system, which is likely a horrible business move on the part of Messiah. Why would they limit a great stick design (which looks…absolutely nothing like a NES Advantage, by the way) to such a cheap NES-on-a-chip famiclone machine when they could probably triple their sales if they included a wireless receiver that worked with a standard NES? This stick is essentially what the Advantage should have been back in 1987, and NES freaks would love to get their hands on it for their own NES. But sorry, folks, you’re out of luck. That’s Messiah for ya — just shy of the target, as always. Gotta love ’em.

So why on earth am I telling you about it?

[ Continue reading Messiah Announces “NEX Wireless Arcade Stick” » ]

Just yesterday I was browsing through the wonderful video and computer game resource that is MobyGames.com, and I noticed something very peculiar. All of the top 25 most highly rated games of all time on MobyGames were adventure or RPG games, and many of them were just straight up adventure games. All of the RPGs on the list are typically considered “adventure/RPG games” — in other words, RPGs with strong adventure elements. Upon checking again earlier today, a lone exception — Super Mario Bros. — had creeped into 25th place (see screenshot to the side), and as of this writing, it’s risen to rank 22, so the list is fairly dynamic. Still, the clear dominance of adventure/RPGs remains.

Conspicuously absent from the list are the usual game pundit “all time” favorites like Tetris, Super Metroid, Castlevania: SOTN, and Super Mario 64. Adventure, a genre that is supposedly “dead” in modern PC gaming, reigns supreme. So what gives?

[ Continue reading MobyGames: “Adventure” the Best Game Genre of All Time? » ]

You guys have probably figured out by now that I try to avoid “link dumps” and the like here on VC&G. But every once and a while something cool comes along that I have to share with you. In this case, it’s PC World’s list of the “25 Greatest PCs of All Time.”

The reason for the sneezin’ is the 25th anniversary of the release of the original IBM PC in 1981. However, PC World’s list is extra special because it covers all personal computers from every manufacturer and every era. It’s nice to read something in the mainstream computer press about old computers that isn’t full of misunderstandings, mistakes, and misinformation. PC World actually knows what they’re talking about in this case. And while the list (like any “Top # List”) is far from definitive, it’s still a fun read. So mosey on over to their site and check it out. After that, feel free to comment on what would be in your “top 25” list.

Alas…I possess only ten exact models of the top twenty-five personal computers of all time. I better get crackin’.

I’m doing research on the history of commercial online services such as Prodigy, Compuserve, AOL, GEnie, Delphi, Q-Link, The Source, Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service, any videotex or teletext service, and many others for an upcoming project of mine. I would like to talk to, and perhaps interview, former employees of any of these online services if possible. If anyone out there knows how to contact former employees of these services (especially Compuserve and Prodigy), please send me an email. Of course, if you’re reading this and you’re a former employee yourself and wouldn’t mind sharing some history with me, please email me as well.

Thanks so much for your help.

It’s official: Brett Martin has a metric buttload of video game memorabilia. By Mr. Martin’s own estimation, his collection clocks in at about ten to fifteen thousand individual pieces. But not all of those trinkets of molded plastic, cast metal, and fluffed polyester are depictions of Nintendo’s famous Italian plumber. His gaming nicknack collection actually spans a diverse range of characters from different franchises, companies, and eras.

Martin is married to a loving wife that is tolerant of his collection. But in the process of settling down and moving on to a new phase of his life, he recently realized that some things have to go. So Brett set up a new website to help him thin out his massive collection, while also sharing it with the world. The site, called the “Video Game Memorabilia Museum,” is a virtual museum of Martin’s pieces, which he is always updating with new photos and entries when he gets the chance.

The main gallery area of the VGMM site is divided into sections dedicated to specific video game franchises like Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby, Mega Man, and Crash Bandicoot. Each main franchise section has sub-categories based on characters from within the franchise. Within those are further sub-categories based on the type of item (keychains, plushies, figures, and pins usually among them). Further probing reveals individual items from his collection, complete with pictures. He also has a section with a number of items for sale, as well as a community forum. It’s a lot of fun looking through all the stuff he has up there — I definitely recommend taking a stroll through the museum at least once yourself.

Brett recently sent me a new batch of photos his collection, which are splashed throughout this article, and agreed to an email interview, which is reproduced below.

[ Continue reading The Land of 10,000 Plastic Marios » ]

Well, the auction ended last night, and “bunikmonkey” is the winner. The final price? $282.73 (US). Not bad at all! This will definitely help take care of the kittens. I’d like to thank everyone who bid in the auction, and everyone who helped spread the word.

Before you start thinking “Wow, that’s a great price! I should go into business selling NES DVD players,” remember this: eBay is a strange market that sells to the highest bidder. Usually only a couple people on earth are willing to pay eBay prices for high profile items. I believe much of my NES DVD player’s value is seated in the fact that it’s a one-of-a-kind item. Once you start churning them out, the value per unit goes waay down. And I’m not going to make any more.

Anyway, I hope you don’t mind, but I might post an entry about some more VC&G-related items for sale soon. I won’t litter the blog with eBay crap, of course, but I might just do one more post to announce another round of VC&G fundraising / housecleaning in the future.

Thanks again, everybody, for your help.

“Ok, RedWolf. Now you’ve gone and done it. Selling out to the Man!” That’s me. I’ve got a lot of clutter to clear and a lot of hungry kitten mouths to feed / fix, so I’m going to be auctioning a series of vintage computing and gaming related items in the coming weeks. The first item on the block is my very own custom NES DVD Player, which I lovingly crafted by hand and featured in an article on this very site back in early March. The article was very popular and I received a number of offers to purchase the unique player. I figured I’d never sell it, so I turned them down. How silly I was — here it is, for sale. I’m not planning on making any more of these, so this is your only chance to get the real thing. Tell all your friends and help me spread the word. It’s for a good cause, after all…feline population control. Thanks!

Here’s a site worth noting for all you historians out there. For the last ten years, Kevin Savetz has been hard at work transcribing the text of hundreds of vintage computer and video game magazines. Better yet, he’s received full permission from the original magazine publishers to provide the articles for free online. And they’re all available in the Classic Computer Magazine Archive. Kevin’s focus was originally on magazines about Atari consoles and computers, but it’s no surprise since the whole operation started out as the “Digital Antic Project,” whose aim was to put the entire text of the Atari-centric magazine “Antic” online. In September 2000 he met that goal and soon turned his attention to other magazines like the Atari ST-focused “STart” and multiplatform magazines like “Compute!” and “Creative Computing.” Now the site contains articles from nine different publications, either in whole or in part, available for online view.

Kevin loves sending me news of his latest additions (and I’m not complaining), which I’ve meant to tell you about before. Just this morning he wrote:

AtariMagazines.com has added the full text of 21 more issues of Compute! magazine: Fall 1979 (the first issue!), January 1981, February 1981, March 1981, April 1981, October 1981, December 1981, February 1982, June 1982, July 1982, October 1982, November 1982, January 1983, March 1983, June 1983, August 1983, September 1983, October 1983, September 1989, November 1990, and December 1990.

Published from 1979 through 1994, Compute! was a multiplatform computer magazine covering Atari, Apple, Commodore, Texas Instruments, Timex/Sinclair, and other early personal computers.

If you’re the kind of collector / historian who likes to delve deep into the news, thoughts, and reviews of the period, I definitely recommend checking the Archive out. I’d also like to thank Kevin Savetz for providing a valuable service and resource for the vintage computing and gaming enthusiast.

Søren Ladegaard recently sent me news of his new Commodore-related website. Sure, there are plenty of Commodore-dedicated sites out there, but this one has a twist — it’s geared exclusively towards Apple Macintosh users. He writes:

I have created a website called Think Commodore. It’s about everything Commodore 64 & Amiga such as emulation, games, demos, music etc. from a Macintosh perspective. While there are tons of sites about Commodore emulation for Windows users you’ll be surprised of the amount of sites along the lines of “last update 2002, Mac OS 8.5 required etc.” That’s why I decided to do a Commodore emulation site that’s 100% up-to-date.

I’ve created a real nice and active forum too. I was fed up with posting “Any Mac users out there?” on all the popular Commodore forums. Here’s your chance to join a Commodore forum where every user is a Mac user.

After poking around the site myself, I find it quite nicely designed and very informative. If you’re a Mac user and you love Commodore computers, be sure to check it out (www.thinkcommodore.com).