In my youth, victory was a power pellet.

The Vault Has Been Sealed...

2010-11-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

It has finally happened, the Radium Chimps, that so many of you dear readers warned me about have staged an uprising on the lower decks of the Victory Pellet Vault. I barely have time to type this announcement that I am locking the Vault doors for good, never to return to it.

Luckily my good friend, the Retroist, has taken pity on my situation and allowed me to post on his site:

http://www.retroist.com/

So you may now see my rambling messages up on the main site, so please come on over and if you feel like it, drop a comment if you like what you see over there. Many people like myself share their gaming, television, toy, and movie memories everyday on the Retroist site and a more friendlier bunch of people you'll be hard pressed to find.

All silliness aside from the topmost writing, I want to thank each and every one of you, friends, for not only improving my life with your humorous and heartfelt comments but for giving me something to look forward to everyday, a new post to share with my online friends.

It has been a pleasure to post...nearly...six days of the week, missed a few here and there, and I hope you've enjoyed what you've read. It's been almost two years since I started up the Victory Pellet Vault and it was originally conceived to keep in contact with my local friends with pretty much what you see every day of the week here, it was a way to not clutter up their e-mail boxes. I cannot truly express how surprised and happy I was to find so many people who held my interests just as close to their own hearts.

Remember though, this is not a good-bye but a good beginning over at the Retroist site. Look forward to seeing you there!

VicSage

Still Saturday Supercade!

2010-10-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

From the Official 2010 report on Agricultural Affairs: "Gaming pumpkins make Halloween at least 100% better!"

Saturday Supercade!

2010-10-30T05:45:00.001-07:00

Things are getting a little spooky around the vault!

What better way to begin the celebration of Halloween than some awesome Atari 2600 Haunted House art? Even better, thanks to Playeronepodcast.com we have the above photo of Haunted House pencils...that is just so incredibly awesome that I can think of no better word for it at this moment!

Friday Flyers Break...For Tron Legacy!

2010-10-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

Tron Night 2010. Was it worth a combined driving time of 7 hours to see 30-35 minutes of scenes from the upcoming movie? I believe my friend Bit from the original Tron says it best, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

I've included this little 55 second clip by way of ComingSoon.Net just to wet your whistle without really giving anything away. I will say my head was spinning after watching the preview last night, wanting to talk about every little thing that made my synapses explode in utter geek happiness. The film seems to be far more dramatic than it's predecessor. There is a dark tale I believe we will all enjoy when we get to see the full feature on December 17th.

Let us hope, dear readers, that this will not turn into another Scott Pilgrim incident where the fan base just doesn't show to support the film. Let's hope that Disney has a blockbuster on their hands and we shall get to see more of Sam Flynn and his adventures on the Grid.

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-10-28T07:56:00.001-07:00

Yah! Sorry about no real gaming news today but I'm headed off to another city, braving the open highways, swollen creeks, and possibly undead bears to go and attend Tron Night 2010. 20 minutes of footage will be screened from Tron: Legacy at various Imax 3D theatres across the world tonight...so if for some strange reason I do not make it back...it's been fun.

Box Art Wednesday...Halloween Edition!

2010-10-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

Oh, my friends, look at what we have here! The ultra rare and some say mythical Universal Monsters and more importantly, Monster Squad, Atari 2600 titles. Unfortunately I was unable to secure the boxes for Monster Squad, The Wolf Man, nor Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. I've spent almost everything I have in the bank for these rare items but the Gypsy I bought them from swears that there is a Frankenstein and The Mummy cartridge in the back of her wagon.

I'd probably be even more ecstatic about these purchases if not for two things:

1) I was able to post some screenshots of the gameplay. My primitive computer won't let me.
2) When I purchased these titles I was bit by the Gypsy's dog, well, it was more like a wolf.

At least she threw in the Invisible Man title for free after that...huh...never noticed how bright the moon is tonight...friends, it seems so very hot here in the vault...Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

And So Our Story Begins...

2010-10-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Well, Lionhead studios certainly knows how to make a game...and as the photos I've taken above prove they also are a fair hand at crafting a collector's edition to boot.

Coming in a tome-sized hardcover 'book' you will find the game when you open the cover of the book as well as a secret compartment at the bottom that slides out and reveals a set of playing cards create by Lionhead studios that depict all the manner of people and creatures you shall encounter while journeying in Albion. There is also a metal Guild Seal coin to "assist players in making critical decisions that will impact the fate of the world forever." which has a blue side for Good decisions and a red side for Evil.

The collector's edition also contains some downloadable content to help your Hero place his or her foot in the right direction on the trail of overthrowing your evil brother and freeing the good people of Albion.

Best of all, the thing just looks pretty nifty on my shelf.

Great Scott!

2010-10-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

I can officially say that I am just all manner of worked up over this upcoming Back to the Future episodic games by those fine folks over at TellTale Games...and this video just makes the wait for the official trailer of the title on December 2nd all the harder. So please allow me to introduce the voice of Marty McFly for the upcoming games, Mr. AJ LoCasico!

Thanks to LazyGamer.net who say that the game takes place six months after Back to the Future Part III...this is...heavy.

Saturday Supercade!

2010-10-23T13:23:00.001-07:00

All manner of awesome artwork this Saturday Supercade! From the WWII inspired propaganda posters, I particularly enjoy the Dig-Dug one, to a Pac-Man chair and Super Mario Bros. table showing 4 stages of the classsic NES game!

Everyone have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

Friday Flyers.

2010-10-22T07:22:00.001-07:00

Click the pics to make 1998 size!

I never had the chance to play the Lost in Space pinball game but I sure wish I could have because the flyer makes it look like it was a nice little table. Check out some of the awesome table action thanks to YouTube and the Pinball Wizard!

Now of CarnEvil I can proudly say that I have beaten it, not in an arcade but at a local gas station...on a Halloween night dressed as Ash from the Evil Dead series. I loved this game so much but it sure ate the quarters. Check out the incredibly awesome opening from YouTube!

I'm not quite sure just how much money I've spent playing Monster Bash, I'd probably be too afraid to know the real answer but for many years it was at a local amusement center and I would stop off after work in the afternoon and plug in at least five dollars worth of tokens! Check out this table review by dadofducks from over at YouTube.

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-10-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

Getting ever closer to not only Halloween but next Tuesday the 26th when you can download the new Red Dead Redemption DLC, Undead Nightmare, and lay low the walking dead with Holy Water, Zombie Bait, set them on fire, or even better use zombie pieces in your blunderbuss to transform the living impaired to a fine red mist. Yee-haw!

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-10-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to make Atari 2600 size!

Intellivision's Astrosmash was reworked for the Atari 2600 and released by Mattel's "M" network as Astroblast. Just like in its original form, Astroblast requires you to control of a laser cannon trying to destroy falling asteroids and other debris.

Spacemaster X-7 is probably based on the sci-fi 1958 movie of the same name, at least I assume it is since 20th Century Fox games released it. In terms of gameplay you are tasked with destroying enemy bases, they are protected by shields that expand and shrink so you need to time your shots well...and not touch the shields.

I haven't been able to really find anything about Sprintmaster other than you compete against the console or other players on a variety of tracks, dirt, pavement, and ice. Barriers also litter the tracks to add difficulty to the gameplay. I was able to find a YouTube video for it at least.

When you are through checking out the above video, make sure to head over to www.Retroist.com to check out all the cool Halloween themed posts that are being made! I believe there is even a game review of John Carpenter's Halloween for the Atari 2600.

Mega Man Meet Lego.

2010-10-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the awesome talents of Raphael Phillips we can now see what Mega Man Lego figures would look like...if the world were more perfect. A big thanks to the 8-Bit Cubist for the heads up and the photos you see above.

When you are through wishing you too lived in this world where Lego Mega Man figures were stocked on toy shelves make sure that you hop over to Retroist.com for all manner of awesome Halloween fun.

Thanks NES For All The Memories!

2010-10-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Closing out this 25th B-Day celebration for the NES we have Mega Man 2, Spy Hunter, Punch-Out and at the top a River City Ransom Mod. I think the Spy Hunter, Mega Man 2, and River City Ransom artwork are particularly awesome. Thanks to Joystiq once again for the images seen posted above...and no matter how you celebrated the Nintendo Entertainment System's 25th birthday I very much hope you enjoyed it.

Angel Land?

2010-10-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

Well, here is another excellent NES Mod suitable for the system's 25th B-Day celebration! Thanks to Joystiq.com for the above photo of the modded NES depicting the secret ending of Kid Icarus after having been turned into a teenager by Palutena, and just before he gets the kiss.

Nintendo Units Worthy Of The TriForce!

2010-10-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

A big thanks to Kotomiblog and Videogameblogger for the above photos of these Legend of Zelda inspired NES mods. A worthy tribute to the 25th B-Day of the system! I'm not sure about the rest of you readers but I wouldn't mind having one of these beauties on my gaming shelf.

Happy B-day to the NES!

2010-10-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

Feel that something special in the air? Why that would be millions of excited gamers across the globe as they rise wearily from their beds to discover that the Nintendo Entertainment System has turned 25 years old!

Super Mario Bros., Excitebike, Kid Icarus, Duck Hunt, Metroid, and Legend of Zelda to name only a few of the early titles that I burned hundreds of hours playing in my youth. Good memories.

Of course how does one celebrate a day like this? Well, you can do what I'm going to do and play some M.U.L.E. but I personally think that should be done everyday. I guess I'll just have to browse this crazy series of tubes to find suitable photos worthy of the 25th birthday celebration of a classic gaming system.

A big thanks to Kotaku for the heads up and to Smithore.com which is just an incredibly awesome site about M.U.L.E. so make sure to head over there and give them a look!

Pardon me but I need more tea and I should see if the Vault has anymore of the Nintendo cereal in stock.

Saturday Supercade!

2010-10-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

I figured you all were due a break from my Tron and Lego madness...it seems that another type of madness has overcome me these last few weeks. Movie Madness! You'll need to hop over to the Retroist site to see what I am talking about. http://www.retroist.com/

Now since it is the month of haunts and haints what could be better than pieces of artwork that deal with the supernatural and those that hunt them. The third pic has nothing to do with that...I just though loyal reader, Vinvectrex, might get a kick out of this hat he can order off of CafePress.

Have a great weekend everyone and see you on Monday!

Saturday Flyers?

2010-10-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to make 1986 sized!

Those darn Radium Chimps accidentally locked me in the decontaminate chamber the other day thereby causing me to miss a Friday Flyers post! Luckily my good robotic friend, Tupa01, heard my cries of protest and has set me free. So let us make up some lost time shall we?

I haven't been able to really find any information about Express Raiders but thanks to Youtube we can watch a few minutes of gameplay...hit the coyote for points!

Empire City 1931 appears to be a first person shooter using an 8-way joystick. Thanks again to Youtube we can see some of the arcade action, not to mention how sorry we feel to see whomever is playing this shoot that innocent lady.

Darwin 4078 was released into the arcades by Data East and was a vertical shooting/spaceship game much like Xevious. There is an interesting use of Darwin's law as your ship which looks like a tiny microscopic organism may transform up to 10 ten times with varying weapons and defense capabilities. Once again we go to the all powerful YouTube for some footage of the gameplay!

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-10-14T10:52:00.001-07:00

Mr. Driller, son of the main character from Dig-Dug, thanks to Namco celebrates with the rest of the world the safe return of the trapped 33 Chilean miners. I really do not know what to say...

...except thanks to Kotaku for the above pic, they too seem just as confused by the picture.

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-10-13T13:34:00.001-07:00

Another Box Art Wednesday and we have a collection of NES titles that I've in the past like to classify as shelf warmers from back in the days when I worked at a local video store. The NES titles that you could always no matter if it was Christmas break find in the exact same spot on the shelf.

Bee 52 was developed by Code Masters and released by Camerica in 1992. You take on the role of Bee #52 in this flying side scrolling as you navigate the obstacles that come your way, you can also fire straight ahead with the A button and with the B button you will sting the enemies below you. Check out the video below thanks to Nesguide.com!

Is Best of the Best: Championship Karate based off the 1989 movie starring James Earl Jones, Eric Roberts, Chris Penn, and Sally Kirkland? I'm not sure but the game came out in 1992 so I guess it could possibly be meant to ride the coattails of that popular VHS tape back in the day. Of course the title's original name was Panza Kick Boxing...so maybe not. NesGuide.com comes to our rescue again with the video below!

Finally we have Crystal Mines, developed by Color Dreams in 1989. I've mentioned before that since Color Dreams didn't offer officially licensed NES games they had to reverse engineer the machine to get past it's "lock out" chip. I've never played this title though I do like the box art with the robot and the Earth Golem looking very much like it has just been woken up with the mining machine on its back. Once more let us all give a big thanks to Nesguide.com for the video posted below!

Go And Save The City!

2010-10-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

A little late to the party on this announcement but the Konami arcade classic X-Men after 18 years is finally coming to home consoles on X-Box Live and the Playstation Network! A big thank to Pixel Enemy for the above video. No pricing or release date info has been given at this time...but I'll gladly take the Dazzler slot for online play!

Who Is Gillian Seed?

2010-10-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

Let me start off this post with a huge thank you to loyal reader CritAnime for directing me to this incredibly awesome Sega CD cyberpunk graphic adventure released back in 1994, Snatcher. In the game you take on the role of Gillian Seed, a amnesiac with a vague recollection of something called Snatcher when he is awakened from Cryogenic sleep in Siberia. He joins J.U.N.K.E.R. in the hopes of reclaiming his lost memories.

The game was originally developed by famed Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima for the NEC PC-8801 and MSX 2 back in 1988 before being ported to the Sega CD. There have been some changes from the the original Japanese version due to fit in with what would be allowed by the censors in America. Such as nudity and a few very graphic death scenes. Check out the intro I've included below for the rest of the story...and some very nice music to boot!

Saturday Supercade Pt. 3

2010-10-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

Would you like a Tron watch like those seen in the art mock-up above? Then head over to : http://www.tokyoflash.com/blog/2010/10/tron-inspired-led-watch/ and vote for these things...there is a little over two months to go before we are able to see Tron: Legacy and it would be nice if I was wearing one of these when I did so.

Everyone have a great weekend and I'll talk to you on Monday!

Saturday Supercade Pt. 2!

2010-10-09T08:33:00.001-07:00

The Lego genius known as DM Meister created the above giant sized Luigi and now thanks to YouTube you can watch a time lapsed construction of Yoshi!

Saturday Supercade!

2010-10-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

Fun fact: Every time I type Saturday Supercade! I hear the announcer for the Medieval Madness pinball game when you start the multi-ball.

Fun Fact 2: See that image above of Luke, Leia, and Han? That is done completely with Legos. The person responsible for this hereby never has to pay taxes or work again for the rest of their life. I hereby decree this.

Friday Flyers.

2010-10-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

Click the awesome pics above to make 1980 sized!

There is not a single pinball machine pictured in these flyers that I wouldn't put good money down to be able to play this very evening. I'd probably have to pick the Buck Rogers one as my favorite for this week.

When you are finished reading the flyers above make sure to hop on over to the Retroist site, you might even find a couple of movie reviews that I have done. Give it a look and join the rest of us in the enjoyment of retro discussions on the forum at www.retroist.com

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-10-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

The awesome folks over at UberEnt have taken some of their cast of Monday Night Combat (One of the greatest games online beside something called World of Warcraft!) in this piece of art to honor the late Stephen J. Cannell, the man responsible for many hours of enjoyment on television in my youth. Because when it is all said and done we gamers as a whole "Love it when a plan comes together."

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-10-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Since it's drawing nearer to Halloween I felt it would be appropriate to turn the Box Art Wednesday posting to something a little creepy. I present for your enjoyment Alone in the Dark parts 1 -3!

Developed by Infogrames and released in 1992 to PC and later the Playstation console (Where I found it) it went on and spawned four sequels.

The first game deals with the suicide of famed artist Jeremy Hartwood who has hung himself in the attic of his Louisiana mansion, Derecto. His death appears suspicious but with all of the rumors of the evil power that infests the place none of the locals can say they are surprised. To get to the bottom of this mystery you are able to play Edward Carnby who makes his living as a private investigator or Jeremy's niece, Emily Hartwood. The game is heavily influenced by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft with appearances by Deep Ones, Night Gaunts, and a Cthonian. The famous Necronomicon as well as De Vermis Mysteriis can be found in Jeremy's library as well.

Alone in the Dark 2 continues the adventures of Edward Carnby as this time he is mixed up with a group of gangsters who are operating out of an old mansion known as, Hell's Kitchen. Carnby later learns that the gangsters are actually possesed by the spirits of the pirates who lived there hundreds of years ago.

Alone in the Dark 3 once again has Edward Carnby as the main character and this time it is 1926 and he has been called in to investigate a western movie set in the Mojave desert where Emily Hartwood has gone missing. A little research since I have not played this title shows that by the end of the investigation, Carnby, has to fight off radioactive creatures as well as zombie outlaws.

Say Hello To Captain America!

2010-10-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

Based on the upcoming Joe Johnston big screen Captain America: The First Avenger comes its prequel game developed by Sega and Next Level Games, Captain America: Super Soldier. What little we know thanks to Kotaku is that the good Captain is infiltrating Hydra's Castle during WW 2 (You can see some Hydra banners in that second pic from the top) and supposedly there is some artwork that shows Arnim Zola as he appears in the title.

Much like most of the gaming public I am hesitant though to get to excited as the last Sega Marvel game, Iron Man 2, was practically unplayable it was so bad. Now I must say I actually enjoyed their fist Iron Man title and the Incredible Hulk game they produced...which puts me in a minority.

Still, I do like what I'm seeing graphics wise in the above photos from Kotaku!

Red Dead Redemption...Now Comes With Zombies!

2010-10-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

We thought John Marston and his family had seen the worst of things when Red Dead Redemption hit the shelves back in May of this year...looks like things are going a bit further South come this Halloween as Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare comes to DLC.

Perhaps all of this is indeed a nightmare that John is having? I just can't see how they are going to be able to tie this into continuity otherwise. The trailer certainly makes it look like you'll be doing a fair bit of running away from the undead hordes no matter what.

Still Saturday Still Supercade!

2010-10-02T18:12:00.000-07:00

Closing out the Saturday Supercade weekend with a vintage Tron bookmark, thanks to the hard working programs over at www.tron-sector.com for the above photo.

Everyone have a great weekend and I'll see you all on Monday!

Still Saturday Supercade!

2010-10-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Too many Legos on a blog about gamin? Pshaw! You will not be able to say that once you lay your eyes on these Lego masterpieces of art, dear readers. Misterzumbi is the artist responsible for what you see posted above, thanks to Neatorama.com of course!

I love Hellboy but I'd have no problems laying down some money for that Predator creation!

Saturday Supercade!

2010-10-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Do you like Zork? Do you like stained glass art? Then I have the very thing for your, dear reader! Thanks to Neatorama.com for the borrowed photo up above. I can see how this all came to be:

You are standing in your living room. To the North is a fireplace. To the East is the door you just entered from. It is dark...you think you hear a Grue. What do you do?

>Turn on light.

Which light?

>Turn on Zork light.

You flip the switch on the back of the Zork stained glass, the Grue that was lurking behind you with its hideous maw stretched wide shrieks and trips over your sofa as it scrambles down to the basement of your home. Congratulations you have earned 20 points out of 100 for this Saturday Supercade.

Friday Flyers.

2010-10-01T12:13:00.001-07:00

Click on the pics to gaze at the majesty of 1973!

Would you believe I have not been able to find any real information on these arcade titles? I will say that the Duck who has been shot on the cover of the flyer for Fowl Play oddly looks happy to me.

Sorry about the short post but at least it will give you plenty of time to hop over to the Retroist, they've started the Halloween celebration early, while you are there you should check out the amazing game reviews already submitted...maybe even submit your own! In fact why don't you sign up at the forums and join us all on some wonderful retro discussion? www.retroist.com

As always a big thanks to the Arcade Flyer Archive for the scanned images posted above!

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-09-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a tough day here at the Vault for your host, dear readers. Want to know what makes a day better though? Capuchin monkeys. Especially when Sir David Attenborough narrates the BBC special Capuchins: The Monkey Puzzle.

Though I need to add that if I hear one more time that Ted has been holding out on giving grapes to Vulcan...science or not...I'll take my hovercraft and a squad of Radium Chimps and pay him a visit. Hear me, Ted?

When you are through watching the the Capuchin video above make sure to jump over to the Retroist site, they have a review of the C-64 game of Short Circuit! http://games.retroist.com/games/short-circuit/

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-09-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to Embiggen!

I've not had the pleasure to play Mr. Do!'s Castle on the Atari 2600 but I can honestly say I had no knowledge of the other two titles existence until this evening.

Doing a little research on the Mr. Do! title it seems that it was ported to almost every system during its time with the likes of ColecoVision, MSX, Atari 5200, and the Commodore 64 to name a few. Gameplay seems to consist of Mr. Do! trying desperately to avoid horned monsters that slightly resemble Unicorns by climbing up and down ladders and when standing above the beasts, using his giant mallet to slam the ceiling down upon them. I've included a video of the gameplay from YouTube below:

I have to say that I absolutely love the music that is in that title, very catchy.

Off the Wall was released in 1989 by Axlon, the game company that Atari founder Nolan Bushnell created after leaving the company, and is basically a breakout clone with a Chinese theme. Players take on the role of Kung Fu Lu as he tries to destroy an evil Dragon that is hiding behind a wall. YouTube has once again come to the rescue:

Finally we have Rescure Terra 1 where you try to combat Space Pirates, Asteroids, Robot Interceptors, and worst of all the galaxies most horrifying force fields...Fish Force Fields! What? Perhaps luckily we have no video of this title from VentureVision...at least we have the box art and advice from it's designer, Dan Oliver.

As always a big thanks to Atari Age for the box art posted above as well as to Highretrogamelord89 for his awesome YouTube videos!

Atari 2600 Surprise!

2010-09-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

No, you haven't skipped ahead a day and arrived on Box Art Wednesday, dear reader. As I stated yesterday I had planned on reviewing Dead Rising 2 after I picked it up at my local Gamestop at midnight. However that was not to be. I arrived at the store to pick up my collector's edition to learn that they were delayed and wouldn't arrive until this afternoon. I did get my copy today though so perhaps I'll write up a quick review for a bonus Box Art Wednesday post.

What you see posted above, rather crookedly, thanks to the scanner here at the vault are Atari 2600 titles I purchased today at my local Vintage Stock...still in box and miraculously still containing their instruction manuals. Good friend and loyal reader, Jon B., spotted these as they came into the store and was kind enough to send me an e-mail.

Jon, we here at the Victory Pellet Vault salute you! Expect one of my best Radium Chimps as a present...just keep it away from small children and pregnant women.

The Robot Revolution Is In For A Surprise!

2010-09-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Gizmodo for the update today on the XOS 2 that you see pictured above with its human user playing a bit of soccer. The video below shows some very awesome footage of the XOS 2 in action with actor Clark Gregg (Iron Man & Iron Man 2) taking the suit for a 'spin'.

This will certainly give us meatbags a leg up when the robot revolution kicks into high gear in 2023 but Clark should really keep an eye out for the unit behind him around the 2:33 mark...because it looks like it's getting angry at what Gregg is saying. The Raytheon Company definitely has some amazing looking things on the horizon...and I can only hope that I will get to wear one of the suits before I die.

Dead Rising 2 comes out at midnight by the way so expect a report on some zombie killing tomorrow!

Saturday Supercade!

2010-09-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry, but there is only the one post today. The Victory Pellet Vault has been busy beyond belief the last few days. It seems that Radium Chimp #34 contracted some type of strange flu during his brief journey to the Moon and spread it to me...which is of course when the electrical systems start to fail and my hands are just full with keeping my prisoners-ahem, I mean guests from leaving their cells. I mean suites.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up on this photo snapped by Meeko from the South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa, California. It seems the mall made this display to celebrate Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. Wow, that makes me feel old.

Everyone have a great weekend and assuming I can crawl out of bed come Monday I will see you all then. If you get some spare time though make sure to jump over to:

http://games.retroist.com/

They were kind enough to post my review of the Spider-Man Atari 2600. While you are there make sure to check out all the other great reviews and hop over to the main site, the Retroist just put up a podcast about the classic Adventures of Superman television show!

Friday Flyers...Sick Day Edition.

2010-09-24T06:48:00.001-07:00

Due to feeling like loyal reader, CritAnime, has somehow transmitted his plague symptoms to me electronically and the warm reception to yesterday's post I'm using a sick day and posting pictures of the rest of the Pac-Man car.

This car went from having neat tires to becoming a vehicle of legendary status! A big thanks to Vinvectrex for requesting what the rest of the car looked like.

Now if I could just get someone to come in and work for me...I'd go home and straight to bed. If I get to feel better I'll post some Flyer tomorrow perhaps.

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-09-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

This is how I roll!

Sorry, I cannot believe I just typed that...but to be fair I think I am coming down with something because curling up in bed and calling it a day sounds like just the thing for me. Still, while I actually kind of like these Pac-Man tires, I'm sure the wife would hit me over the head with a frying pan if I bought them.

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-09-22T15:33:00.001-07:00

Click the pics to make Commodore 64 sized!

I was lucky enough thanks to school associates to have many cracked copies of C-64 games in Junior High, but I never had the pleasure of playing any of the three games presented today.

At least the all powerful Wiki can give us some information on the 221 B Baker Street title:

"Up to four players compete against each other to solve various mysteries in and around Victorian London. Each player can assume the role of one of four characters from the Sherlock Holmes books—Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Irene Adler or Inspector Lestrade -- and can select from 30 different adventures. Case file for each mystery are provided in the manual and give the particulars of the case, including key clues and suspects.

To solve the case, players roll dice to move among 15 different locales throughout London, collecting the clues necessary to unravel the mystery. Each player also visits Scotland Yard to collect a badge, which allows him to "lock" a particular location on the map, making access to it by the other players more difficult. Once a player believes he has solved the case, he returns to Baker Street where he must successfully answer a quiz. Play ends when a player successfully passes the quiz."

With Badlands I didn't find any information but thanks to Youtube I found the video below:

Reminds me a little of the SNES version of Rock N' Roll Racing.

Lancelot was a text based adventure game that also had some limited graphics depending on what system you played it on. I found one review of it on the Lemon Amiga site that states :

"An interesting text-adventure based around the Lancelot legends. A complicated parser and some obscure puzzles made it quite fun. Also had two parts - the early years of Lancelot's adventuring, and the later Grail quest."

Just a quick plug but since you obviously enjoy blogs about gaming, pop on over to the Retroist site and make sure to take a gander at the games section at http://games.retroist.com/ They have a wonderful selection of games that have been reviewed and they were kind enough to even let me post a few. Give it a look today...you'll be glad you did I bet. :)

Great Scott!

2010-09-21T16:34:00.000-07:00

Remember how bad the Back to the Future game was for the Nintendo Entertainment System? I know I sure do...collecting bowling balls indeed. Sigh. Luckily the fine fellows at Telltale Games are bringing us a new Back to the Future title with Bob Gale as consultant on the characters and storyline (a good thing since he co-wrote and was co-creator of the original trilogy) with Christopher Lloyd performing as Dr. Emmet Lathrop Brown, at least vocally. Though if you look at the photo sent to Kotaku up above it doesn't seem like he is just reading his lines does it?

To say I am excited by this bit of news is an understatement. Look for the first chapter in this episodic game to debut next year for most gaming platforms!

New Donkey Kong Record!

2010-09-20T07:25:00.000-07:00

The Donkey Kong world record has been broken yet again, the third time this year, and it's title is now held once more by Steve Wiebe! Billy Mitchell's previous record breaking score was done the same day as his induction to the International Video Game Hall of Fame on August 7th of this year, Billy score a whopping 1,062,800. Steve has pulled off 1,064, 500 as his record breaking score!

I know I am a little biased here but I'm thinking that Steve needs to be inducted next year, am I right?

All of us here at the Victory Pellet Vault give you both a mighty salute, keep up the awesome gaming! A big thanks to NintendoLife for the above photo and story.

Some More Saturday Supercade!

2010-09-18T07:41:00.001-07:00

There are some that have claimed that I post far too many things concerning Tron on this site...those are the same people that I now have in chains and are tasked the dubious honor of feeding my Radium Chimps!

Up top we have some wonderful digital Lego Tron artwork from Gil P.'s site: http://gil.acroyear.com You know it has to be good, it has my favorite Micronauts name in the web address!

Then we have Chad Mealey a.k.a Lego Tron with his skillful Tron recreations with those wonderful Lego bricks. Of course with a name like Lego Tron you would expect this., right?

Saturday Supercade!

2010-09-18T05:57:00.000-07:00

I apologize about the scanned image of the newest Game Informer magazine, the scanner here at the Victory Vault is having some problems at the moment, but hopefully it is clear enough after clicking to Embiggen to see why I was so excited. A Saturday Evening post inspired "steamtech" man with a bowler hat? Awesome!

Apparently Game Informer released two other covers in collaboration with Irrational Games to celebrate the upcoming release of Bioshock Infinite. Expect more posts about this title, friends, as we leave the decayed underwater city of Rapture circa 1959 behind to take to the skies for the 1915 styled floating city/fortress of Columbia! I've included the announcement trailer below...and while I have no fear of water I do have a very real fear of flying and heights...so this game will probably do a number on me.

Friday Flyers.

2010-09-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to make 1985 sized!

Hm. Green Beret certainly looks like it might be what we in America called Rush'N Attack. The major difference being of course that the Green Beret flyer is missing the kind of psychotically frightening woman on the Rush'N Attack flyer. Wow. That guy beside her is looking a little tense to me, check out that clutched fist...I think he wants to play that game so bad he is willing to hit that kid in the back of the head. LOOK OUT KID!

The third offering this morning is Samurai Nihon-ichi and I was unable to find any real information about its release or popularity. I did however find a video of its gameplay thanks to the mighty YouTube...looks like it was a fun title! As always you should probably double click on the video window to go straight to the YouTube page.

As always a very large thanks to the Arcade Flyer Archive for the above scanned images!

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-09-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

Who hasn't been playing any of the various Mega Man games and thought to themselves that wouldn't he be pretty dang tasty sugary treat on a stick? Well thanks to a vendor at the Tokyo Game Show you can now find out how great Mega Man would taste!

Thanks to Kotaku for the above pic!

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-09-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to make Embiggen!

I'm not sure but I believe that someday I might have to hunt down a copy of Mangia' and give it a shot because a game where the point is to eat as much of your mother's spaghetti sounds like a blast. I assume that you'll try to feed the animals when your mother is looking the other way, unfortunately I was unable to find an instruction manual for this game so if you happen to have it in your collection please do not hesitate to give us a yell.

In my youth you couldn't get any more awesome than being the man known as Pele and even though I am not a sports fan I wanted to pick up the Pele's Soccer cartridge. I mean this is the guy that not only hung out with Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine but kept getting me to drink some Tang every morning...or sometimes I'd just the eat it out of the carton...but I was a strange child.

The only thing I could really find about Avalon Hill's 2600 title Out of Control is that it is rare. A cartridge will fetch you up to $559.00, so says various websites, though if this can be trusted I cannot say.

Tape Invaders?

2010-09-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

I loathe days that it is so busy at the Victory Pellet Vault that I can't sneak away and do a proper post. Thanks to Kotaku for picking up my slack with the heads up about Space Invaders packing tape. They are going for $4.50 for a 3-pack roll over at A Brand Called Ed though they are in Australia and there is no word if they'll ship it all over the world. I hope they do though because I can think of a few things in the vault that need to be repaired with some of this tape!

A Salute To Mario.

2010-09-13T18:46:00.001-07:00

Well, that closes out the day here at the Victory Pellet Vault and I hope you all had a chance to play some Super Mario Bros. at least once today to celebrate the anniversary.

The above video was produced by Nintendo of Japan for the 25th Anniversary of our most favorite video game plumber...actually is there another video game plumber? Everyone have a great evening and I'll see you tomorrow!

Be Strong - Danny Elfman (The Wolfman Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Something We All Need!

2010-09-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

Are you wearing the world's most famous scalp covering article of clothing for Mario's 25th anniversary? Well, neither am I, but I'm glad to see that if I wanted to I could purchase one easily enough online! Hm, my own anniversary is coming up rather quickly...nah, I doubt my wife would wear the Luigi version.

Lego Meet Mario.

2010-09-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

We've been lucky enough to find some really cool gaming related Lego projects these last few weeks. This was made possible by using a NextEngine 3D scanner, which provided the blueprint I assume of how to build the much larger Mario with Legos.

Happy 25th To Mario!

2010-09-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

A mighty thanks as always to Kotaku for the above pic and for reminding me that today is the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. release back on Sept. 13th, 1985! As far better writers have pointed out, we gamers all owe the mustachioed plumber a great deal of thanks and respect. So today I'll continue to post various photos and videos relating to Mario for this celebration...so break take your NES from the closet and grab a bottle of Jolt cola...it's going to be a long day!

Saturday Supercade...Better Late Than Never!

2010-09-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Wow. Were did the time go today? Things got a little crazy here at the Victory Pellet Vault this morning and while the Radium Chimps were finally corralled and placed back in chains at their terminals this unfortunately meant I couldn't post until this minute.

This small emergency also means that I've been unable to get dinner...and cake sounds so very good right now. Ice cream cake. Yep, I'm headed to the bakery.

Thanks to Geekologie for these delicious photos of sugary retro goodness! I'm pretty sure that I'll have to ask the wife for a Starcraft cake like in that lost photo for my next B-Day.

Eat It - Weird Al Yankovic

Friday Flyers...Movie Pinball Edition!

2010-09-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to Embiggen!

As you can tell from the title, this posting for Friday Flyers deals with a few of the motion pictures that have lent their names to pinball tables.

Robocop was released in 1990 by Data East Pinball. I've played this once or twice and both times if I remember correctly it was during an art class school trip. I recall it having digitized speech from the film as well as Robocop on the main playfield with his visor glowing red. Not sure what that was about, I can't recall if it meant some feature was in play during the game.

Maverick was released in 1994 and is of course based on the Richard Donner motion picture adaptation, though I say it is a sequel to the classic television series. I've not had the pleasure of playing this table but I have to say I'm very impressed by the Lauren Belle's River Boat. I'm not much of a fan of country music but I do admit I enjoyed Clint Black's song "A Good Run of Bad Luck" from the movie so I can imagine how fun it must have been to hear that while playing the table.

Back to the Future also debuted in 1990 and if you look at the backglass, zoom in if you can, you'll see that Marty doesn't look anything like Michael J. Fox. He apparently refused to have his likeness anywhere on the pinball machine so Paul Faris, the artist on the table, used his son as a stand-in for Fox. The table allowed you to travel through all three movies with the music changing for each every time you got a ball lock, if I remember correctly.

As always a very big thank you to Arcade Flyer Archive for the pics posted above!

Doubleback - ZZ Top

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-09-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful day. The wife and I have just returned from eating at our favorite pizza place, stopped by on the way home and picked up some delicious donuts, and Netflix delivered the first disc of the Planet of the Apes television series. It just can't get any better than-OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT?!

We have Kotaku to thank for the above nightmarish image, dear readers. Just try to close your eyes and not see this Okami cosplay slowly stalking you...just try...

Big Girls Don't Cry - Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-09-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Just something a bit different this Box Art Wednesday. Thanks to Boardgame Geek for the pics above of the box art for very popular video games back in my youth...and still popular to this day of course.

Of all of the boxes shown above I have to say that the Pitfall one is my favorite, with maybe Berzerk coming in a close second.

Freedom of Choice - Devo

8-Bit Lego.

2010-09-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

Check out this awesome art by the folks over at Level Select, made entirely out of Legos. I've stated before how much I enjoy Legos and how gobsmacked I get by those who can craft such artwork out of those tiny bricks like you see above.

Head over to the Level Select site and make sure to look at the Metroid 'diorama' because as Jay Garrick says, you need only look at that creation to realize we need a Metroid line of Lego sets. Hm, I wonder if Jay knows he has the same name as the Golden Age Flash from DC Comics?

http://levelselect.co.uk/lego-gaming-part-iii/

Readers...I'm thinking about doing something with the site, going to take a couple of days to think on it...but there might be a big change coming up on its way.

Chain Of Fools - The Commitments (The Commitments Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Top 5 Nintendo Intros.

2010-09-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

A slow day here at the Victory Pellet Vault but I've been thinking of this particular post for a few weeks now. Some of the intro titles selected have to do with the graphics for the time though most have some stellar music that I still hum to this day. So without further ado is my personal top 5 favorite Nintendo intros in no particular order:

1. Ninja Gaiden (1989)

2.Blaster Master (1988)

3.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

4.Mega Man II (1989)

5.Maniac Mansion (1990)

I cannot wait to hear what you loyal readers consider your favorite intros!

Escape From N.I.M.H./In Disguise - Jerry Goldsmith (The Secret of Nimh Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Still Saturday Supercade!

2010-09-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

I feel your pain, King Hippo, it's been one of those days for me too. Calling this Saturday Supercade on account of being punched too hard in the belly but let us all give a big thanks to Dan Santat for this wonderful piece of art from the I am 8-Bit exhibit!

Everyone have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

Scan Her Again - James Newton Howard (I am Legend Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Some More Saturday Supercade!

2010-09-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

How awesome would a John Carter: Warlord of Mars 8-Bit game have been back in the day? Thanks to the talent of Jason Green we can now imagine what it would have been like to sit in the floor and tap furiously at the NES controller as you try to best Tars Tarkas at the end of Level 1-1. Yeah, yeah, I know they didn't really fight but this was the NES era after all where you originally were going to have to fight the Dianoga in one level of the Super Star Wars game!

A big thanks to Super Punch for the heads up on this artwork!

Saturday Supercade Break For Tron: Evolution!

2010-09-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

A quick warning to loyal reader Du8, you might want to skip the vid around the 1:17-1:19 mark, there is a small bit of awesome information contained within this video for the upcoming prequel game to Tron: Legacy.

For the full picture make sure to double click on the video to be taken to the YouTube site.

I cannot wait to hit the Game Grid!

Saturday Supercade!

2010-09-04T05:33:00.000-07:00

So let's just start with some awesome Tron: Legacy inspired clothing shall we? I'm not sure if these are actual products that Adidas are going to be offering or if this is something that a very talented fan came up with, either way, the shirt and shoes are very impressive. Just remember to not wear these if you end up attending the Tron: Legacy premiere, that would be like cell phone light annoyance to the Nth degree.

Friday Flyers.

2010-09-03T06:56:00.001-07:00

Click to Embiggen 1987 size!

Aaargh! was released to the arcades back in 1987 by the Melbourne House for Mastertronic's Arcadia System, an arcade machine that ran on custom hardware for the Commodore Amiga! The goal of the game was to control one of three monsters and use them to destroy everything in their path in different lands and varied periods of history. The creatures the player could choose from were a Cyclops, Dragon, and an Ogre.

Released by Sega, Alien Syndrome, had players take on the role of either Ricky or Mary as they fight their way through eight-way scrolling levels. Besides blasting the aliens they must rescue hostages on their way, rescuing enough of them will open the exit doors and allow the player to face off against an end level boss.

Arkanoid II: Revenge of DOH was released by Taito and is of course the sequel to the very popular Arkanoid, which had been released a year earlier. This release offered a new feature to the gameplay in the form of Warp Gates, basically allowing the player the choice of what level they wanted to visit next. Two new bricks were introduced in the title as well. Notched silver bricks, like the normal silver bricks, took a few hits to destroy but if left unbroken they would repair themselves to full strength. There were also moving bricks in the game, they moved from side to side so long as they weren't obstructed.

Thanks as always to the Arcade Flyer Archive for the scanned images above.

Klendathu Drop - Basil Poledouris (Starship Troopers Motion Picture Soundtrack)

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-09-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

The scariest thing I have ever posted on this site? Not sure. Perhaps. I will leave that decision to you my loyal readers.

These Hello Kitty designs you see posted above are from Joseph Senior. Thanks to Robotsumi for the heads up!

Up With End Credits - Michael Giacchino (Up Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-09-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to Embiggen Intellivision style!

Doing a little research shows the Pole Position port to the Intellivision was originally going to be done by Atari programmers but little work was completed on it and eventually INTV Corp released their own programmed version.

The Congo Bongo port for the Intellivision was the only home title that included all 4 levels from the arcade version, the 2600 was limited by its hardware and possessed only the first and fourth levels of the arcade title.

Boxing was released in 1981 and allowed players to choose from six different boxers, each with their own strengths and weaknesses with the sixth's skills being chosen by the system itself. The player or players were then put in the ring for 15 rounds until a Knockout was delivered or in the case both boxers are still standing it would go to the judges and points would decided the victor. The title sounds a little ahead of its time to me, you can see for yourself if you have an X-Box Live account because it is now available in the Game Room for purchase.

By the way, nothing to do with video games but all to do with being awesome, the Evil Dead debuted on BluRay yesterday. I picked up a copy at my local store this afternoon and plan to spend the early hours of the morning trapped with Ash in that cabin in the woods again.

To The Sky - Owl City (Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole soundtrack)

Need A Light Cycle?

2010-08-31T13:43:00.001-07:00

Well, courtesy of Sideshow Collectibles you will be able to have your very own Light Cycle in it's own display case if you lay down the $129.00 for the Collector's Edition of Tron: Evolution. I'd report some more but it's kind of difficult to type and reserve my Collector's Edition at the same time.

A big thanks to Kotaku for the heads up on this!
Main Titles - Don Davis (House on Haunted Hill Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Metroid: Other M Intro Video.

2010-08-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty impressed by the opening for this upcoming Wii title, in fact, I believe hits the shelves tomorrow! I was brought low by the Metroid Prime release on the Nintendo GameCube, for some reason I just couldn't get the hang of it, I would keep picking it up and then putting it down. I believe I am not the only one but research shows that it did very well in sells, so maybe the game was just too tough for an old gamer like me?

Panoramic - Atticus Ross (The Book of Eli Motion Picture Soundtrack)

God Of...Wear?

2010-08-30T06:07:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up on these rather awesome custom made tennis shoes! Jacob Patterson is the man...solely...responsible for unleashing these God of War shoes. Check out the awesome chains that are used instead of shoestrings, of course what else would be more appropriate for the Blades of Olympus you see dangling beside the illustration of Kratos?

Hop on over to Jacob's site at http://www.jacobpattersonart.com/ there isn't much there just now, a couple of links to various sites including YouTube where you can watch him showing off his creation to the Stig, the creative director of God of War 3.

Still Some Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-28T10:35:00.001-07:00

Ah, dang it all! Now I have to go and buy an iPad for this iCade. This charming little item comes to us from those great mad scientists over at ThinkGeek. It goes for $149.00 and I'm really, really trying to stop myself from heading over to Best Buy after work.

Everyone have a great and safe weekend. I plan on playing a bit of WoW, take care of our newest staff member, and playing either some Scott Pilgrim or perhaps Monday Night Combat on X-Box Live! Come join me online, my gamertag is Unicron2005!

Another Winter - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - The Game (Anamanguchi)

Still Some Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-28T08:54:00.001-07:00

We have two very nice pieces of art for this Saturday Supercade. The first photo of the Ms. Pac-Man necklace comes to us from Dalia Dalili from the Suite Sole art show back on August 1st of 2009.

The second pic with the Ms. Pac-Man and Ghost rings are by Angi Glenn of Tiny Armour Jewelry in L.A.

Some More Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-28T06:46:00.001-07:00

Ms. Pac-Man cake anyone?

Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Do you know what is really awesome? Legos. Want to make those Legos, um, more awesome? Then take them and build the Lego representations of the gang from Robotron 2040!

Brickplayer.com is responsible for this wonderful piece of art you see above, check out the site and the other retro Lego creations, as well as his non-gaming works when you get the chance today.

Meet The New Guy!

2010-08-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Dear readers, let me introduce you to the newest member of the Victory Pellet Vault, Airell. My wife and I were informed by one of our guests that there was a very small kitten outside of the Victory Vault crying.

So after a few hours of showing it some loving affection my wife was able to take it inside the Vault with her, we ended up getting the essentials it needed and after a quick visit to the vet we now have a new member of our family.

I'm not sure how good Airell will be at games but he did prance around my X-Box 360 controller on the floor...so I'm thinking the odds are he'll also be a gamer. :)

Missile Command - Retroist Podcast Episode 66

Friday Flyers.

2010-08-27T11:54:00.001-07:00

Click the pics to Embiggen 1985 size!

Sorry for the late post today but the reason why will be made clear in another post later this evening. All is good, no tragedy or anything like that to be worried about. We have a new employee here at the Victory Vault and my hands were full trying teach him all the security codes, etc.

Look at what we have today! Bogey Manor...who wants potential buyers to know that it has a theme similar to Ghost Busters! Yes, you can tell that this game hit the arcade in 1985. I found a Youtube video of its gameplay...looks interesting to me.

That flyer for Gauntlet is something I have never seen before, I assume it was it meant to be an handout to the players in the arcade to get them interested in the game...back in my youth I didn't need the flyer to make me pump hundreds of quarters into the Gauntlet machine but the coupon would have been nice to have.

I've never seen the Peter Pack Rat arcade game out in the wild but I did see it in an episode of iCarly! My small amount of research says that Atari only 500 units were ever produced either as a 'standalone' cabinet or as an upgrade to existing cabinets. I really like the cartoon style of the game, I was also able to find some YouTube goodness for this title.

See you all a bit later in the day and I'll introduce you to the newest member of the Victory Pellet staff!

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-08-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

Do not stare long into the eyes of this Tanooki Suit Mario for I assure you that you shall hear the wailing cries of the Dark Void calling to you...or possibly that is just the tea kettle whistling. This plush Mario was created by the talented Michele Legendre over at her spot on Deviant Art...hop on over and check out the awesome Creature From the Black Lagoon she created!

http://misscoffee.deviantart.com/gallery/

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up!

War Of Thrones - Piano Version (Blind Guardian's At The Edge Of Time)

Box Art Wednesday Break...For The Walking Dead!

2010-08-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

Come this Halloween night AMC will debut the Frank Darabont directed 90 minute series premiere of The Walking Dead. I am a huge fan of the source material the television show is based on, Robert Kirman's tale of a group of survivors who must band together to survive a zombie apocalypse. I am eagerly looking forward to this!

Feel free to check out the earlier post for the normal Box Art Wednesday and if you have the time, make sure to jump over to http://games.retroist.com/ to take a look at all of the great game reviews held over there...including one or two that I handled myself...shameless plug...make sure to visit the forums and home page while you are there for all of your retro needs.

A big thanks to VivoEstSomino and the World of Meh for the heads up on the above video!

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-08-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to Embiggen!

Loyal reader, Richard, called me out a few weeks back by saying I had never posted the promised cover to the excellent Herzog Zwei Sega Genesis game. So today's post is for you, sir. Sorry that I forgot to post something...I made mention of almost a year ago. Ha, ha.

I'm not sure about the rest of you gamers who read my ramblings but I can honestly say that I've spent far too many hours of my young life in playing Jungle Strike. That game was video crack to me for some reason...I kind of remember the rest of my friends playing it a little too much as well. That could be my faulty memory banks though acting up again.

I never had the chance to play the Faery Tale Adventure for the Genesis but after doing some research it sounds like I would have enjoyed it. In the game you take on the quest of three brothers who must find a magical talisman and bring it back to their village of Tambry. You would start off playing as the oldest brother, Julian, if you failed in your quest it fell to Phillip to shoulder the burden and if he also failed it all came down to the youngest brother, Kevin. Each of the three brothers had their own strength and weaknesses in the game. Julian was a great fighter, Phillip had luck, and Kevin possessed kindness. The NPC's of the title would also treat you differently depending on your moral choices throughout the game. Sounds like a pretty nifty RPG game back in the day.

If I Didn't Care - The Inkspots (Get Low Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Run Lagomorph Run!

2010-08-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

How do you make Sinistar even better? Paint a picture where Sinistar's face is replaced by the world's most famous Lagomorph from Sam and Max.

Hey, the new Blind Guardian album came out today! New Iron Maiden last week and now this awesome album...I wonder what audio treat will debut next week.
Tanelorn - At The Edge Of Time (Blind Guardian)

I Am Iron Man...Play Me!

2010-08-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

Dear readers, what you see posted above is the work of Zachirah Perry Cruse, a 19 year old student, who worked this miracle before you. Apparently the 120GB hard drive has the Stark Industries logo upon it.

This beauty is up for sale on E*Bay...and I'm tempted to ask for an increase in my credit card limit!

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up!

Adam-12 Podcast - Retroist

Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

Click on the pics to Embiggen!

Just have time for the one post today, my dear readers, but at least it is a good one! What you see up above are pictures submitted by goodrob13 from his Flickr site showing how incredibly awesome the Digital Press Videogames Store is in New Jersey. Look at some of that stuff...a Demon Attack poster from Imagic? It's painted! It's not the spray painted silver toy dinosaurs! They have an E.T. Atari 2600 wall advertisement...gaze in awe at that Tempest mobile or the Vectrex system...it would seem that I need to make a trip to New Jersey next year to visit these folks!

You can check out even more photos on the Digital Press site: http://www.digitpress.com/store/

Friday Flyers.

2010-08-20T05:50:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to make 1991 sized!

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-08-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

How many times have you looked at your G.I. Joe collection and thought, what I really need is scaled detailed replicas of classic arcade games that they can play when they aren't fighting.

Well now you can! Check out: http://emdkay.net/catalog/index.php to see some of the awesome work they've done and possibly pick up a few for yourself.

Warriors - Brian Tyler (The Expendables Soundtrack)

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-08-18T13:43:00.000-07:00

For today's Box Art Wednesday we are focusing on three games that I've been enjoying on X-Box Live's Arcade. Two of these titles have been reviewed by myself last year...but I'm on low output today so I'll beg you to indulge my laziness for this post.

I've held no secret of my admiration for Dan Kitchen and Steve Cartwright and their amazing work with Activision back in the glory days of the Atari 2600, you can play any of these three titles presented today and find yourself challenged as much as any recent release on the store shelf.

Steve Cartwright (MegaMania, Seaquest, Plaque Attack) programmed both Frostbite and Barnstorming for Activision in 1983. Frostbite has you donning the fur lined shoes of Frostbite Bailey as he attempts to cross ice flows, avoiding various animals that are bent on pushing him into the frigid waters, each successful jump adds one block to his Igloo and he needs to move fast as the temperature is quickly falling.

Barnstorming puts you in the pilot seat of a Biplane as you navigate obstacles in a bid to reach the finish line with the lowest time possible. You must contend with geese, windmills, and flying through a set number of open barn doors.

Crackpots was programmed by Dan Kitchen in 1983 (Ghostbusters) and has you aiding Potsy the rooftop gardener as defends his building from an invading swarm of insects that are dead set on eating the entire building. By dropping potted petunias on the creepy crawlies he is spared watching the insects eating his home one level at a time.

If you find yourself on X-Box Live, look me up in the Arcade, my gamertag is Unicron2005! Thanks as always to Atari Age for the great signed box art pics posted above.

The Girl At The Videogame Store - Parry Gripp

Lara Croft: The Arcade Game?

2010-08-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Sort of but not really. This is an X-Box 360 custom made arcade cabinet to celebrate the arrive of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light on X-Box Live and it seems that Major Nelson himself is tweeting that they are giving it away. I would not mind winning that for myself!

Oh yeah...the new Iron Maiden came out today...I need to pick that bad boy up on the way home I reckon.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.

The Man Who Would Be King - Iron Maiden

Jail Break.

2010-08-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a little too busy here at the Victory Pellet Vault the last couple of weeks but yesterday I was able to put in a couple of hours playing X-Box Live. I decided to check out Game Room on Live and was very happy to see that they had updated the arcade with quite a few new title choices as well as a ton of Activision Atari 2600 titles.

The game that I spent the most time playing yesterday was a little gem released by Konami in 1985 called Jail Break. The premise of the game is that a mass riot has broken out in a Federal prison, the inmates have captured the Warden and are holding him hostage, while they also roam the streets terrorizing its citizens and killing any law official they happen to see.

Jail Break is a side-scrolling game where you are in control of a lone police officer called in to deal with the riot, starting off with merely your service revolver you can obtain two more weapons (a bazooka and tear gas launcher) by saving the civilians you come across, I was stuck with the revolver most of the time as my run and gun method unfortunately didn't lend itself to civilian safety.

This is a pretty tough game as the inmates do not just merely walk towards you, they swarm you while at the same time throwing Molotov cocktails at you and using their own firearms to try to kill you. I wasn't able to get very far in the game during my limited play time but I definitely had a blast playing it. You have to be pretty careful on how fast you advance on the screen as more often than not you'll end up walking into an oncoming bullet.

At one point I shot a barrel with my bazooka and a shirtless Batman appeared...smiled at me and then disappeared. I'm not sure what that was all about but at least it gave me a pretty hardy chuckle.

A little research shows that this game was inspired by John Carpenter's Escape From New York and that there is an Easter egg of sorts...a type that I've not heard of before...if you use your tear gas gun on the first sniper in the window it will reveal a brief glimpse of a pixelated topless female. I am going out on a limb here and saying that Microsoft made sure that was removed before it was released on X-Box live.

Thanks to the Twin Galaxies scoreboard, the high-score holder for Jail Break is Martin Deem with 265,450 points, recorded by referee on February 21st, 1985.

Universal Theme - Nigel Godrich (Scott Pilgrim Original Score)

Some More Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Finishing off this Saturday Supercade with some impressive artwork from the 2008 I am 8-Bit artshow in LA, a big thanks to Collider for these awesome photos!

Everyone have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

Still Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

There is a man, though I am hesitant to call him that...so mighty is his knowledge of the Caped Crusader/Dark Knight that he must surely have transcended into the realm of Lesser Deity by now. This Man-Deity goes by the name of Chris Sims and he has taken it upon himself to gift us lesser morals with fictional images of comic book characters, seen through the loving prism of the 8-Bit era of the NES.

I really love all of these pics, but my favorites are Archie/Burgertime and Hellboy/Castlevania.

Make sure to check out Chris's personal blog, http://www.the-isb.com/ which always has some great and amusing sequential art related information.

Or take a look at the site he happens to write for, Comics Alliance, if you like what you see posted above, they too have all manner of comic book related stories. http://www.comicsalliance.com/

Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-14T06:27:00.001-07:00

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Well, I'm not in a bad mood this morning but I couldn't help but post this rather depressing image from Twitter...the once mighty Midway logo is left on the rubbish bin as its employees prepare to move to Warner Interactive.

On a brighter note did anyone get to see Scott Pilgrim vs the World yesterday? I was able to catch the last afternoon showing and I cannot really give Edgar Wright enough praise as well as the cast because if you have any love for video games and just plain enjoy seeing a smart film, you owe it to yourself to catch this at the theatre.

Black Sheep - Metric (Scott Pilgrim vs the World Soundtrack)

Friday Flyers Break For X-Wing GPS!

2010-08-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

X-wing Targeting Computer Clock from Christopher Caleb on Vimeo.

Loyal reader, Denethor the 2nd, was kind enough to send me this video link yesterday. Using Adobe AIR for his Droid phone this guy created a GPS that many of us wouldn't mind having attached to their dashboards...at least I wish I had one. Right now.

Friday Flyers.

2010-08-13T04:49:00.000-07:00

Click the pics above to Embiggen 1989 size!

I'm going on record here and stating that the top most flyer, Prehistoric Isle, might possibly be the greatest flyer ever created or at the very least shown on this site. I've never had the pleasure to play any of the three games presented today but I'd be willing to give up a lot of my milk money to do so now.

Thanks to the Classic Gaming site I was able to dig up a bit of info on Prehistoric Isle. It's full title is Prehistoric Isle in 1930, it is a side-scrolling shooter from and has you tasked by your country to investigate an island that has appeared in the Bermuda Triangle, an island full of Pterodactyl that are causing all sorts of destruction and mayhem...but once you arrive on the island you find it 'infested' with all sort of dinosaurs. Your pilot's idea of investigation is to go about flying your Bi-plane all over the island and eliminating every single dinosaur you happen to see...plus some cavemen along the way.

Apache3 is also a side-scrolling shooter released by Data East. That is about all I've been able to find in way of info...I'm going to assume this was a bit like Super Cobra in gameplay.

Beast Busters was released into the arcade by SNK and later ported to Commodore Amiga and Atari ST home computers. A city has been invaded by the undead and it is up to Johnny Justice, Paul Patriot, and Sammy Stately (Wow...no better names came to mind?) to make sure that everything undead goes back to being plain dead. A bit of trivia from Wikipedia:

"According to Paul Theroux, Michael Jackson owned a Beast Buster arcade machine and frequently took it with him on tour via cargo plane."

I Heard Ramona Sing - Frank Black (Scott Pilgrim Soundtrack)

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-08-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

Wow. I like that at the bottom of her Lancer rifle it says Deadly Cute. In the upcoming Gears of War 3 game we are introduced to the female Cog soldier. To celebrate the occasion the lead producer of Microsoft Game Studios, Chris Wynn, obtained this special Lancer model...boy does it look heavy...for his daughter.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up!

The Hero's Hallway - Brian Tyler (Bubba Ho-Tep Soundtrack)

Box Art Wednesday.

2010-08-11T11:47:00.001-07:00

Click the pics above to Embiggen!

Boy howdy, is it just me or does Exoset Missile look like Jim Steranko decided one morning to make the greatest cover for a Trapper Keeper ever?

I've not had the pleasure of playing either of these three games, though I have heard of Communist Mutants From Space, the other two titles strike me as being available in the $4.99 bin at your local grocery store back in the Atari 2600's glory days.

Communist Mutants From Space debuted in 1982 by Starpath (Arcadia) and deals with aliens from the planet Rooskee invading peaceful, democratic planets, and bending them to the will of their Mother Creature...an evil alien that has gone mad due to irradiated vodka. Ah...the 80's.

CMFS also contained an Easter Egg by its programmer, Steven H. Landrum, that when you held in the fire button and turned the power switch on at the same time you would see the hi in high score would be replaced with SHL.

Thanks as always to Atari Age for the box scans posted above!

Because We Can - Fatboy Slim

Billy Mitchell Holds Donkey Kong Record Again!

2010-08-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

Billy Mitchell on Aug. 7th cracked the top score on both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., the very day he was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame. Scoring 1,062, 800 on Donkey Kong and 1,270,900 nabbed Mitchell the ultimate in bragging rights.

Mitchell held the top score over Steve Wiebe which was documented in the King of Kong but lost his place on the throne when Hanks Chien netted 1, 061, 700 in March. Billy apparently stopped playing the game as soon as he bested Chien's high score. Mitchell is quoted as saying about his actions, "Some say I'm being cocky. Some say I'm being lazy. I say, I'm being Billy Mitchell."

I'm not quite sure how I missed this news but a big thanks to Twin Galaxies for the info and photo above, as well as to Kotaku.

I'll try to post some more info from the celebration last week at Ottumwa, it certainly sounds like a very big deal for those of us that love video gaming and its history.

This Looks Familar - Paul Williams

Gorillas. Nintendo.

2010-08-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

There is a general rule that I like to live by and that is if I drop any electronic equipment into an enclosure for Gorillas they can keep it. Especially if they seem to enjoy playing the Nintendo DS.

The story for the photos posted above comes to us from Christina Spicuzza's Flickr page, she was at the San Francisco zoo when a little boy dropped his DS into the habitat, the gorillas confiscated the device and did their best to examine it but decided to trade it for an apple from the keeper. The DS suffered no harm, just a little slobber and some minor scratches...however it has been reported that the youngest gorilla pictured has taken to calling himself Caesar...

Retroist Podcast #49 -Happy Days

Saturday Supercade!

2010-08-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

Just the one post this Saturday Supercade...enjoying the very last minutes of my vacation...but the above picture, which you need to click to really Embiggen, is pardon the pun Mega Awesome!

Marvel Characters transformed into 8-bit Mega Man versions of themselves. There is just so much to enjoy about the artwork above but I believe my two favorite characters that I would have given a Power Pellet to actually play are Doctor Strange and Machine Man. Now that would be an epic Marvel Two-In-One comic, eh? I do wish the Sentry hadn't been included though.

A big thanks to Suzuran from DeviantArt for the above picture as well as to Kotaku for giving me the heads up!

Update-For a better look at it go to and click the pic: www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2010/08/marvelmegasbysuzuran.png

Bring The Hammer Down - Hammerfall

Friday Flyers.

2010-08-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Click the pics to make 1994 sized!

I've only seen one of these arcade games pictured above, Eagle Shot Golf (The golf game where you can hit a ball so hard that an eagle shoots out of it!), but I cannot decide which game I would have wanted to play more...Fighter's History Dynamite/Karnov's Revenge or the China exclusive arcade title Deadly Sport.

What to know about Fighter's History? Well, Data East had itself a chart topper in Japan when it was released and became so popular that another company known as Capcom realized the fighting system was a little too familiar to their own Street Fighter series. A lawsuit gauntlet was thrown down but the Judge determined that the 'copied' elements were scenes a faire and Capcom lost, Data East also cited that their classic Karate Champ was responsible for the fighting game genre to begin with.

Now doing a little more research tells me that Fighter's History Dynamite/Karnov's Revenge was the second offering for the franchise and for some reason Karnov is the bad guy of the game...how could my beloved Karnov from the NES have gone to the dark side? I just do not know the answers to that, my friends.

Deadly Sport was released only in China and by the looks of it was a digitized fighting game in the vein of Mortal Kombat. But it sure looks awesome! Just how could you pick one person as favorite from that flyer...you have a viking...a guy in a shirt and tie with a shoulder holster that appears to be a robot...a vampire as the main bad guy possibly...and is that woman really a woman? I can find nothing on this title beyond a mention on a message board for a MAME request.

Eagle Shot Golf was a staple in at least three gas stations in my neck of the woods. I just included it in today's post because I loved that picture of a very, very angry Eagle. We here at the Victory Pellet Vault are easily amused.

Exploration - Bruno Coulais (Coraline Motion Picture Soundtrack)

It Must Be Thursday.

2010-08-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

Darn you, Dragon Age: Origins. I was so wrapped up in this title that I almost forgot to post the above World of Warcraft wedding cakes! These are awesome, I'm not complaining though, I had a Nightmare Before Christmas wedding cake.

Handle With Care - The Traveling Wilburys