Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Welcome to 2012, apparently according to lore this will be the last year of human civilisation. Ah well at least there is plenty of things to keep ourselves busy before the apocalypse is upon us. 

For a start several Retro Gaming events are happening at the first half of this year.

The Last Retro Computer Games Festival Ever

Aldershot, 21st Jan 2012, 2pm - 1am

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/315957585085840/

Scale: Est. 30-50

Homebrew Gaming Weekend

The Lass O'Gowrie, Manchester, Fri 27 - Sat 28 January 2012

Scale: Est. 100

GEEK 2012 (Gaming Expo East Kent)

Margate, 15-19 February 2012

Homepage: http://www.geek2012.co.uk

Scale: Big!

RV 2012

Oxford, May Bank Holiday (Friday 4th - Monday 7th May 2012)

Scale: Est. 50 - 75

HISCORE 2012

Arcade Barn, Exeter, 26-27th May 2012

Scale: 40-50

Games Britannia & Games Britannia: REPLAYED

Rotherham, S Yorkshire

Schools/Students: Monday July 2nd - Friday July 6th 2012

General Public: Saturday July 7th - Sunday July 8th 2012

Homepage: http://www.gamesbritannia.com/replayed

Scale: Big!

All information lifted from the RetroGamer.net forum. I do hope they don't Mind

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Also it was 30 years ago this week when the insanely ace Commodore C64 was first introduce to the world. The loveable brown bread bin became the worlds best selling computer to ever to be hooked up to a BW portable TV. 

The Commodore 64 was an 8-bit computer that dominated the home micro scene all over the western world for more than ten years. Although even at the time the 6510 processor running at 1MHz was a bit cack compared to dare I say the Z80 (personal opinion only - no hate mail please), with 64k of memory, a 16-colour graphics chip and the awesome SID sound chip the C=64 could really make arcade quality games for the home. 

The Commodore 64 was not only great for kids playing games but was a  really useful computer for the small business and budding musicians.

Selling up to 17 million units, Commodore managed to make millions of kids in the eighties have the best Xmas or Birthday ever. With thousands of brilliant games available some classics such a Uridium, Bruce Lee, Paradroid and many other ground breaking titles changed the face video games into to what we have today.

Many Happy Returns...

Thank You Commodore!!!!

See Many Great Commodore Games, Computers and Consoles in our Retro Games Shop Here…

This does sound like a very promising series of events. It's just a shame that it is so bloomin far away from me...

For more information visit the web site: www.handbakedarcade.co.uk

Admittedly, I have never had much experience with Neo Geo Hardware, it was always far too expensive and ruddy hard to find in the shops anyhow. These days nothing is too far away thanks t-tinterneb. Of coarse recently I have had the opportunity to become a little more au fait with the Neo Geo monster from SNK. The Neo Geo AES and MVS and CD were all base on the first generation of modular hardware, using hi-res 2D sprites and super smooth animation. Before the Neo Geo, SNK already had released over 20 stand alone arcade games including the ACE Ikari Warriors and its follow up (and my personal fav) Victory Road. 

By the mid 1990's SNK really needed to update its current hardware. The original Neo Geo MVS is a marvellous 2D powerhouse, but the vogue in the arcades and home consoles was for 3D games. With the offerings from Sega; the Virtua Fighter series, its amazing driving games, Sega Rally and Daytona, and Namco's seminal driving game Ridge Racer, these games were something that the Neo Geo MVS hardware was unable to compete with. It was time for an upgrade!

The Hyper Neo Geo 64 was introduced in the guise of 3 base (console) boards; Fighting, Driving and Gun. The graphics looked amazing and some great games were released that showed the potential of what was possible with the new hardware. Although at the time the some of the fighting games were met with criticism from fans of the originals due to the new dimension. 

I managed to get a hold of a brand spanking new fighting board recently with 3 different games. Buriki-One, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition and Samurai Shodown 64: Warriors Rage. They all work really well with my Super Gun and Neo Geo pad.  I am really impressed with the visuals of all three games, but it will most likely take a while to get to grips with games mechanics especially Buriki-One as this has an especially strange control system where the stick makes the combat moves, kicks and punches and the buttons move the character, very strange, but I'm sure to get used to it. Samurai Shodown 64 2 IS REALLY IMPRESSIVE, I really like the visuals and plays really well, I have a lot learn, but I am sure I will have fun doing so. I still have to try out Fatal Fury properly, but when testing it again visually it looks pretty cool.

It is just a shame that the Hyper Neo Geo 64 system was so short lived only being in production for 2 short years. I for one would have loved to build up a collection of games.