Monday, June 28, 2010

I Would Find This Comforting. I Am Strange.



I'm just saying...if I walked out of the Victory Pellet Vault every morning and looked to the Sun to see a full scale Gundam mecha standing ready to stomp vault to vault salespeople...I would be the happiest man in the world.

Thanks to Kotaku for the link!

Back and Forth - Dr. Steel

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Saturday Supercade...You've Got Mail Edition.


Wrapping up this Saturday Supercade with this incredibly awesome Space Invaders mail box...this makes me want to try something along the same lines with Pac-Man...maybe Donkey Kong.

Still More Saturday Supercade!


If I didn't have the awesome Legend of Zelda wallet in my back pocket I would be sorely tempted to pick up this Space Invaders version!

Still Saturday Supercade!

Sticking with the Space Invader inspired clothing at this point. I'm going to have to say that I like this jacket more than first one posted this morning. This stylish piece of clothing is designed by Scandinavian Junk de Luxe.

Saturday Supercade!


Yep. A Space Invaders inspired jacket. This photo comes courtesy of the awesome Stuck in the 80's site. There were only 60 of these jackets made and each sported a price tag of $125.00, so you better start saving up those quarters.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Friday Flyers.




Click the pics to make 1981 sized!
Of the three games offered for this installment of Friday Flyers I have only ever played Frenzy but I have to admit that the Funky Fish looks like it would have been a real blast though. I unfortunately have no more information on Cosmos but it sure has that late 70's, early 80's spaceship artwork that I find so irresistible!

I only wish the Frenzy arcade cabinet would have continued to showcase the amazing art of Jim Steranko like they did with its predecessor, Bezerk.

Raven's Fair - Charlie Clouser

Thursday, June 24, 2010

It Must Be Thursday.


Last week for Pac-Man's big celebration they apparently had to have willing sacrifices to the big guy...yikes, and I thought I was the one of the biggest Pac-Man fanatics out there.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Box Art Wednesday.




Check out that Beany Bopper box art, you could have snatched up that cartridge for a meager $6.95 from Montgomery Ward! I also like the 'programmed by Sirius' in the lower left corner.

As always a big thanks to Atari Age for the awesome box art pictured above.

Mercy - Duffy

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Tron. Toys. Tron Toys.






You readers might recall that I am bit excited about the upcoming Tron: Legacy feature film this December. Well, Disney today has released the first few pics of some of their upcoming products that...quite truthfully I will have no problem with laying down my hard earned moolah.

Oh, that lightcycle on the top most pic...it can go up walls...yes, that is it doing so in the second picture. How cool is that?

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up on these products!

Monday, June 21, 2010

1977 Never Looked So Good!






Stop reading this blog right now and head over to http://www.behance.net/gallery/ALT1977-WE-ARE-NOT-TIME-TRAVELERS/545221 to see one of the keenest things in at least a week.

Alex Varanese has used his artistic skills to create a 1977 that had access to our current technology but still retained the 1970's need for everything to have a fake wood finish. Make sure to click on the pics above and read the print ads for not only does Alex have artistic design skills he also has a fully functioning sense of humor!

So Long - Randy Newman (Toy Story 3 Soundtrack)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Saturday Supercade!





We've got an offering of toy related merchandise for the 1983 hose-nosed wonder* this Saturday Supercade with a bit of I am 8-Bit Frogger art finishing us off. Check out the groovy Mega Man art to the right of Frogger!

*Does anyone else start to hear Olivia Newton-John's "Let's get physical" when they see that topmost pic of Q*Bert?

Far Away - Jose Gonzalez (Red Dead Redemption)

Friday, June 18, 2010

Friday Flyers.





Click on the pics to make 1990 sized!

As always a very big thank you to the Arcade Flyer Archive for the above flyers.

Human Rocket - Devo

Thursday, June 17, 2010

It Must Be Thursday.


To Infinity and Beyond that is a scary looking Buzz Lightyear! I'm not sure but I think kids might be incredibly frightened by old Buzz standing over them...I know I would be.
However thanks to Kotaku for the heads up about this story, but a very big fan of the Kingdom Hearts game series decided to make her own Keyblade out of common household items and get some pictures of the characters she bumped into posing with the fabled blade. She was able to get quite a few to pose with the prop weapon until security decided to kindly ask her to disassemble it.
Hop over to http://micechat.com/forums/disneyland-resort/138579-keyblade-adventures-disneyland.html for the full story and more photos. I liked reading about her encounter with Goofy. Good stuff!
Strange Things - Randy Newman (Toy Story Soundtrack)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Box Art Wednesday...Boomstick Edition!






Out of the mists of 1984 comes this bit of information that I suppose was kept safely within the pages of the Necronomicon itself. There was a Commodore 64/Spectrum ZX Evil Dead computer game! Palace Software developed and published the title on a data cassette tape.

You take on the role of Ashley Williams as you try to collect the pages from the Book of the Dead while trying to protect yourself from the Evil that lies in the woods as they assault the cabin trying to 'swallow your soul'. Ash doesn't have to fight back the evil with just his cutting wit alone, he can get his hands on shovel, axes, and some good old fashioned boomsticks as well as...Excalibur? Apparently this is considered freeware now and Deadites.Net claims it is available on almost every Commodore 64 Emulation site.

I would have given some of my treasured Infocom titles to have had this in my collection back in my youth. A big thanks to Deadites.Net for the above pictures!

If any of you readers have been lucky enough to play this title, please drop us a comment below.

Good Old Reliable Jake - Evil Dead: Original Broadway Cast Album

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

"That was just a game, Centauri!"





I've mention on this blog before that during my high-school years I had a very good relation with my local video store, enough so that I could call in on Wednesday afternoon and they would cheerfully tell me what games had come in and which they had pulled for me to play. One such afternoon I was excited to hear that they had got in the Last Starfighter for the Nintendo Entertainment System. I almost dropped the phone I was so shocked...six years after the movie I was finally going to get my chance at piloting a Gunstar and taking on Xur and the Ko-Dan armada!

It was a long three hours until I was able to get home and have my father drive me up to the store so I could rent it. On the way back I was humming the Last Starfighter theme, what movie besides Tron so captured the dreams of an 80's game like the Last Starfighter had back in 1984?

Boy my dreams were crushed shortly after inserting the cartridge into the machine and giving it a play. Turns out that Mindscape pulled a fast one on us Starfighter fans...it was actually a Commodore 64 title called Uridium with a new title screen, music from the movie, and reworked sprites to resemble a Gunstar and the Kodan warships. It was a big disappointment to say it lightly, the play controls were horrible, and the game was in truth pretty dang hard.




In a fit of disgust I ejected the game and took it back to the video store quite hastily. Luckily they had a copy of Castlevania II in and I spent the weekend making ghouls and skeletons pay for Mindscape's crimes.

Some interesting bits of info from the Wikipedia:

"A real The Last Starfighter arcade game by Atari, Inc. is promised in the end credits, but was never released. If released, the game would have been Atari's first 3D polygonal arcade game to use a Motorola 68000 as the CPU. Gameplay would have been taken from game scenes and space battle scenes in the movie and would have included the same controller that was used on the first Star Wars arcade game. Ultimately, it was not released because the arcade machine would have had a sale price of $10,000, which the vice president in Atari considered too high.

Home versions of the game for the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit home computers were also developed, but never commercially released under the Last Starfighter name. The home computer version was eventually renamed and released (with some minor changes) as Star Raiders 2. A protype exists for the Atari 2600 Last Starfighter game, which was in actuality a game already in development by Atari under the name Universe. This game was eventually released as Solaris."

Well, maybe someday I'll finally get that chance to pilot a Gunstar...because there is that rumor that a sequel to the Last Starfighter is in the works.

Ballad of A Well-Known Gun - Elton John

Monday, June 14, 2010

One Shall Stand...




...Many Shall Fall.
Over the weekend I was able to find an hour free to myself that didn't require my rushing back to work to settle issues here at the Vault. During that time I found myself playing the multiplayer demo for Transformers: War For Cybertron on X-Box Live. It was an hour that I enjoyed immensely.

While what the player is offered is a neutered version of the game that will be released on the 22nd of this month there was enough there to see in the demo that I feel confident saying it will be a very popular game online.

The hour that I was able to dedicate to the game had me filling the large metal shoes of an Autobot soldier class. An EMP shotgun toting, missile launching master of destruction, who when things get up close and personal (The best way) happens to pull out an Energon axe to swing into the head of any unfortunate Decepticreep that gets in his way. Of course I can also fall back on my alt mode of a futuristic tank if my weapons suddenly run dry...which I did...and the joy of running from a Decepticon soldier, turning the corner, and transforming into a tank before blasting him into eternity was quite priceless.

The next round I found myself with a Decepticon allegiance, it seems in the demo that you have no control of what side you will aligning yourself with, and once again I chose the soldier class but this time I picked a new set of weapons to see the difference in how they work. Now I need to add that the demo leaves out the Leader class as well as the Scientist class so the game will be a very different field of battle come the 22nd.

Hopefully tonight I might find some time to go back to the war torn surface of Cybertron and try out the Scout class, my bot was taken offline more than a few times by the Scout's ability to cloak and put a sword through the back of my head.

If any of you readers want to give me a yell on X-Box Live look for my gamertag: Unicron2005. A big thanks to IGN.com for the above pics.

Short Change Hero - The Heavy

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Saturday Supercade!






If you have a Saturday morning where you can find some excellent art of Lego Pac-Man/Super Mario Bros, homemade Tron suits, a Mega Man profile shot, Tron inspired V.I.N.C.E.N.T. from the Black Hole, and a real life Super Mario Bros. Level...you can call it a day and sit back and relax.

Battle On The Parapets - James Horner (Krull Soundtrack)

Friday, June 11, 2010

Friday Flyers.




Click the pics to make 1986 size!
I'm afraid I've not had the privilege of playing either of these three arcade titles before but I'm thinking that since FireTrap has a Crazy Climber feel to it from the look of the flyer that I would have probably enjoyed that one most.

Please feel free to let me know if you've had an experience with one of these titles. We here at the Victory Pellet Vault always enjoy reading your arcade experiences.

Beetlejuice: Main Titles - Danny Elfman