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thrill of the chase

Thrill Of The Chase: Pulp Fiction BMF LE Pinball Machine

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Worth the Wait: Our Pulp Fiction Pinball Adventure!

Some things in life are totally worth the wait—like the perfect coffee, a great concert, or finally getting your hands on that dream pinball machine. In this case, we waited almost TWO YEARS (yes, you read that right!) for our Pulp Fiction Bad Mother Flipper Limited Edition pinball machine (Ed: Wow, that name is a mouthful!).

The Thrill of the Chase

Our quest began in March 2023, when a fateful social media post set our pinball-loving hearts racing. A new machine was coming, designed by Mark Ritchie (yes, THAT Mark Ritchie!) from Play Mechanix, under the umbrella of RAW Thrills, and manufactured by Chicago Gaming Company.

When I hit play on the official trailer, Ms. Ausretrogamer happened to walk past. Her reaction?
💥 “We HAVE to get this!”
💥 “We HAVE to get the Limited Edition with that amazing topper!”

Well, as a certified pinball tragic, I didn’t need much convincing. The only problem? Securing one.

A Little Pinball Luck

Call it fate, serendipity, or just good timing—Wayne from Mr. Pinball Australia sent out an email just an hour after the trailer dropped. He had all the details on how to lock in an order, and I wasn’t about to waste a second.

My reply? “Lock us in for a Bad Mother Flipper Limited Edition!”. Deposit paid. Order confirmed. Now all we had to do was… wait.

The Agonising Wait

At first, we were optimistic. Production was supposed to kick off in late 2023—perfect timing for an epic Christmas surprise! But as the weeks turned into months, doubts started creeping in. Pinball forums buzzed with news of delays, and it became clear that our patience was about to be seriously tested.

So shiny (and new)!

23 Months Later… Jackpot!

As the saying goes, “Good things come to those who wait”—and in this case, 23 months of waiting!

Then, the moment we’d been dreaming of finally arrived: an email confirming our machine was ready for pickup! 🎉 The excitement was REAL. Seeing that notification pop up put a massive grin on my face—and on Ms. Ausretrogamer’s too!

We had done it. We had secured one of our dream pinball machines, and now it was finally coming home to the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory.

Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got some flippin’ to do! 😎🎮

Thrill Of The Chase: FurySevenSix visits the Canberra Vintage & Collectible Centre

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Who doesn’t like a sneaky weekend trip to the nation’s capital?!

Well, that’s exactly what our good friend, Noel Wheatley, did this past weekend. Noel (aka: FurySevenSix) shared photos of the amazing retro gaming centre he found in Canberra on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. The Canberra Vintage & Collectible Centre is one of those places that will wow and indulge you in some very intoxicating nostalgia.

The below photos attest to the amazing collections found at the Canberra Vintage & Collectible Centre (Canberra VCC), from iconic gaming systems, classic video games, to mouth-watering collectibles that have been lost to time. Make sure you add the Canberra VCC to your must visit list now!

PS: Check out Noel’s Instagram for more pics and vids of this amazing place!

The important details:

  • Venue: Canberra Vintage & Collectible Centre
  • Address: 11/90 Barrier Street, Fyshwick, Australian Capital Territory

image source (used by permission): Noel’s Twitter and Instagram accounts



Visiting The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum

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We are reminiscing about the time we were invited by the Weird and Retro crew to join them in Sydney for the 2015 EB Expo – it was such an amazing experience!

Before the EB Expo shenanigans, we took time out to visit The Gamesmen in Penshurst (NSW), to check out their awesome (Retro) Game Museum.

The Gamesmen has been an Australian game store icon for almost 40 years and it is still going strong. Back in the day, we used to love receiving their catalogues which we would pore over each page, drooling at the latest gaming systems and games – we just wish we had kept those catalogues! Oh yeah, luckily for us (and all of you), The Gamesmen folks have made electronic copies of their old catalogues, so go here now and enjoy some intoxicating nostalgia.

Anyway……… This pilgrimage was a long time coming and fulfilled our wish to go and check out the museum in person. We definitely weren’t disappointed and we were glad to have ticked this off our bucket list. The sixty plus photos we took below from the game museum does not do it any justice – to see it in person was amazing. However, the next best thing to going there was to share what we saw, and as you will see below, your nostalgic senses will not be disappointed.

There was no one favourite section, but the glassed cabinets were like a time machine looking back at our childhood, daydreaming about owning and playing the systems and games on display. The video games system timeline mural was another highlight, reflecting how far gaming has come. The Gamesmen Retro Game Museum had truly encapsulated our past, leaving a delectable mark on our 8-bit brain.

Make sure you scroll through each image slowly, as you do not want to miss anything!

Approaching the Mecca of Australian Video Gaming!

images remain the copyright of ausretrogamer

PS: Special thank you to the Weird and Retro team for inviting us to be part of their WaRrior crew for the 2015 EB Expo and for a memorable road trip!

 

STAR WARS Comic Art Pinball: May The Force Be With You

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far too close to home, I was excited when Stern Pinball announced their Star Wars pinball machine. I was so excited by this news, I almost bought one without playing it!

But there was a disturbance in the (pinball) FORCE in mid 2017! Bear with me here, as this story delves into the depths of the dark side before I see the light.

Cooler heads prevailed and I took Ms. ausretrogamer’s advice to play the pinball machine before making a decision to buy it or not. Well, on that fateful day in mid 2017, my initial impression of Stern’s Star Wars pinball wasn’t at all positive. I played the Pro model of the game, and let’s just say that it didn’t inspire me to press the start button to play it again. The FORCE just wasn’t strong enough to engage me. I was gutted! I felt that the machine did not capture the theme and universe of my all-time favourite movie franchise. I buried my disappointment and forgot about the machine. As the great Jedi Master, Yoda once said, “Disappointment is the path to the dark side. Disappointment leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Welllll, he didn’t say that exactly, but you get my drift.

Luckily I did not give in to the disappointment, no matter how tempting the dark side of the force was. At the time, I found solace in another pinball machine, Chicago Gaming Company’s Attack From Mars Remake. My pinball mojo was back to peak level and the disappointment of the Star Wars pinball machine was all but a distant memory.

source: Stern Pinball Inc.

Then in mid 2019, there was a flicker in the FORCE. My brother-in-law, who got the silverball bug after playing our machines, went hunting for his first pinball game and settled for a Stern Star Wars Premium pinball machine. I remember thinking to myself, I hope he loves the game. Well, to my surprise, he did. What surprised me even more was my reaction to the game – once I pressed the start button and started flipping, I was immediately grabbed by the FORCE, just like Darth Vader’s force choke. Taking Yoda’s advice to heart, we had to unlearn what we learned about this game.

Wow, what a difference two years had made! The updated code and of course, this being the Premium model of the game, it felt like I was in the middle of the (original) Star Wars universe! I found that my excitement for the machine was at the same level as when Stern first announced that they were making a Star Wars pinball game. I knew then that I had to hunt down a machine to fulfil my wish of owning my pinball dream theme.

Just like all Star Wars stories, starting with a struggle and then ending on a positive note, so has this musing. I finally saw the light side of the FORCE and procured my pinball dream theme, a Stern Star Wars Comic Art Premium machine, beautifully presented by Star Wars comic artist, Randy Martinez – it’s so eye-poppingly beautiful. It was a long time coming to get to this point, but I am glad I went on this journey and reached my destination. The moral of my story is, never judge a book by its cover and always come back to a pinball game you haven’t played in a while, it may surprise you.

Thanks to the folks at Zax Amusements for fulfilling my wish – they made this Padawan very happy. May the FORCE be with you!

A lightsaber is required to bust open this beauty!

The Ausretrogamer Fun Factory is READY!

The machine is (almost) in its position – love the right side cabinet art!

Love the left side art cabinet too!

And we are upright!

We have the keys to the Millennium Falcon

Time to play and defeat the evil Empire!

Always Use The Force!

Love the LCD – it integrates the theme with visual Star Wars eye-candy

The comic art is eye-poppingly gorgeous on this machine

Taking in the comic art with the glass off!

Randy Martinez should be commended for his brilliant art work on this machine

Let’s blow up the Death Star

Making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs

The magnets on this machine whiz the balls around on the hyperspace loop at breakneck speeds!

And we are on, like Donkey K… Ah, never mind!

Who doesn’t like seeing their name on the high score table

Just enjoying the view

A handsome threesome in the Fun Factory

 

Ausretrogamer Fun Factory – Number 1 for Fun

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After one helluva gruelling week, we are glad to be in the Ausretrogamer Fun Factory!

We always feel at ease and relaxed when we are inside of our Fun Factory. We can sit here and pick an item to stare at (even a joystick!) and we immediately get flooded with nostalgic memories. Sometimes we may even turn something on to play.

For today, we are just enjoying the view and letting the nostalgia wash over us. Hang on, that didn’t last long, we have a hankering to play some Amiga games on the CDTV! And perhaps pinball to finish up…….

 

Thrill Of The Chase: Retro Games Hunting In Brisbane

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The Thrill Of The Chase feels great doesn’t it? That buzz you get never gets old!

A little while ago, we went retro games and vintage hunting in Queensland’s capital, Brisbane, aka: BrisVegas! So what did we find? Well, we found the Woolloongabba Antique Centre & Cafe before it moved and became the Camp Hill Antique Centre.

Luckily Ms Ausretrogamer was on the case (she found this place!), as she dug up and found a heap of gems I would have missed. Rather banging on about it all, we’ll let the photos do the talking. Enjoy!

If you intend on using any of the photos within this feature, please credit them back to this article – thank you.

 

Thrill Of The Chase: Attack From Mars Remake

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image source: Chicago Gaming Company

It’s not often that the stars align for us, but when they do, oh boy it’s exciting!

Speaking of celestial bodies, we have always had a fondness for space and the cosmos at large. We are fascinated with our planetary brethren in the family of the solar system, especially that red planet not too far away from us and its inhabitants.

So what the hell has space and Martians got to do with this thrill of the chase? Glad you asked! Put simply, when you mix pinball with Mars and its Martians invading our little blue marble, you get a very special and top rated pinball machine – Attack From Mars (AFM)!

This is no ordinary AFM though, it’s Chicago Gaming Company’s ‘Remake’, which comes in three different editions – Classic, Special and super duper Limited Edition. With the feature list as long as our arm (our arms are long!) on the Limited Edition, like the jaw-dropping 19¼” XL HD colour display that has to be seen to be believed, shaker motor, enhanced DCS sound system, cabinet side mirrors, RGB lighting to name just a few, this machine was always going to tickle our fancy.

Naturally, we gravitated to the fully blinged Attack From Mars Remake Limited Edition (AFMR LE) version! We have never been one for pinball toppers, but the custom Doug Watson one on our AFMR LE is absolutely damn awesome! Doug Skor and the gang at CGC should be immensely proud of producing yet again a beautiful and faithful classic pinball machine.

We sourced our brand new in box AFMR LE from the Australian distributor, Mr. Pinball. We were kept up to date on the freight by keeping track of the Maersk Line ship that was carrying our precious cargo. The container landed in Melbourne in late December, giving us the rare opportunity to have the machine up and ready for family and friends to enjoy for Christmas! Oh yeah, she was quite heavy, so thank you to Lucas Bardin from Bayside Pinball Club for delivering the machine and Stacey ‘Dr Curlytek’ Borg for helping us set it up – you guys rock!

As you may have already guessed, this is a very special machine which we love and are thrilled to have in our ausretrogamer fun factory. If you ever get the chance to play one of these Remakes, do yourself a favour, have a go, they will give you an enormous endorphin rush!

Off the shipping container and ready to go home!

There is a hole in the Fun Factory that needs to be filled!

AFMR LE has reached its destination

Unboxing the beauty – she is quite heavy!

The sublime topper is well packed too

Ready to be turned on for the first time…

What a turn on!

Attack From Mars Remake Limited Edition in full martian green glory!

Mesmerising playfield

A saucy saucer!

Returning to the battle!

Destroy that pesky saucer!

CGC and Bally present….

Attack From Mars!!!

There is finally a Limited Edition addition in the ausretrogamer fun factory

The detail of the theme is exquisite

The custom Doug Watson interactive topper is the best topper we’ve ever seen on a pinball machine!

The glorious playfield. Gotta save them cities!

What a view for the ruler of the universe!

The entire art package makes us smile

The RGB LED lighting needs to be seen to be believed

Even the little one approves of this classic machine!

 

Thrill Of The Chase: The Walking Dead Pinball

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thewalkingdeadIt’s true what they say: it really is better to give than to receive. And that’s what makes this ‘Thrill Of The Chase‘ extra special, because I was chasing something for a very important person (hint: her name rhymes with Ms Ausretrogamer).

Ms Ausretrogamer loves ‘The Walking Dead‘ and she loves to play pinball, so we’re always on the lookout for TWD tables to play. We’ve travelled far and wide in our quest to kill those zombies, and we’re yet to get tired of it. It’s such a fun table, whether your a newbie or a wizard. So, while watching Ms Ausretrogamer clearing the prison yard and unleashing the Well Walker multi-ball, I made a decision – I had to get her a TWD pinball table of her own! But with only six months until her birthday, I had to move fast.

Searching far and wide, the pinball machine was secured. The next part of the plan was to get it delivered and setup without Ms Ausretrogamer’s knowledge. To keep her off the scent, a decoy birthday gift was created.

With everything in its place, it was time to execute Project Happy Birthday. Ms ausretrogamer was presented with the diorama, where not even Rick Grimes playing a Twilight Zone pinball machine gave her any indication of what was to come! Under the ruse of checking out the birthday decorations in the games room, the surprise was revealed and the look on Ms Ausretrogamer’s face was priceless! That’s when I knew, this thrill of the chase was totally worth it.

The decoy gift
thewalkingdead_decoy

Rearranging the fun factory
thewalkingdead_gamesroom

Space cleared next to Pin*Bot
thewalkingdead_gamesroom_set

The careful delivery – thanks to Skooota and Tony!
thewalkingdead_delivery

The surprise is set!
The Walking Dead Pinball

Even the machine knows it’s an important day!
thewalkingdead_happybirthday

Surprise!
thewalkingdead_msausretrogamer

Thrill Of The Chase: Retro Buzz at Carrara

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RetroBuzz_Carrara_HDRThere is nothing better than going to a weekend market and finding a stall that sells retro gaming gear, and lots of it!

That was the case when we found the Retro Buzz stall at the Carrara Markets on the sunny Gold Coast. What we found there was a treasure-trove of old school systems from Nintendo, Sega, Atari, Commodore, Sony and Microsoft. To complement these retro systems, Retro Buzz also had a vast array of game cartridges, CDs and other games media from every era – you would have been hard pressed not to have found the game you were after!

Once we were done with the retro hunt, we enjoyed a few games of Alex Kidd In Miracle World on the Master System and then dropped a few coins on the arcade machines. If you do find yourself on the Gold Coast and need your retro hunt fix, then you can’t go wrong with hitting the Retro Buzz stall at Carrara!

Welcome to Carrara Markets! Woohoo!
RetroBuzz_Carrara1

Aha, found what we were looking for!
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Trade, Buy AND Sell! They have every system covered!
RetroBuzz_Carrara3

No retro stall is complete without a Mario and Luigi display!
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We spy some N64 and SNES consoles over Luigi’s shoulder!
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We could have a ComLynx party with these beauties!
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Mario crashes the Sega party!
RetroBuzz_Carrara7

Pro-tip: Grab some Atari Lynx games while they are cheap!
RetroBuzz_Carrara8

Stacks of Sega Mega Drive games to choose from!
RetroBuzz_Carrara9

Not to be outdone by its bigger 16-bit Sega brother – stacks of Master System games!
RetroBuzz_Carrara10

The SNES games demand your attention!
RetroBuzz_Carrara11

Whoa, more SNES games!
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Game Boy games galore!
RetroBuzz_Carrara13

*GULP* It was hard to resist this Pokemon N64 console!
RetroBuzz_Carrara14

Found the NES treasure! Don’t worry about Zela, look at that P.O.W cart!
RetroBuzz_Carrara15

NES games always demand premium prices
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Old school computer games! VIC-20 represent!
RetroBuzz_Carrara17

Oo’er, Game Gear games!
RetroBuzz_Carrara18

After a fruitful hunt like this, an arcade session is in order!
RetroBuzz_Carrara19

Thrill Of The Chase: The Dark Amiga

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CDTV_1Don’t you just love when things happen unexpectedly? Well, this past week’s events were mind blowingly unexpected!

I was called by my great friend and fellow Press Play On Tape co-host, Daz (also from Retro Domination fame) to let me know that he had taken a trip up north and during his travels had found a Commodore CDTV! Not only was the CDTV complete with transmitter/mouse, remote, keyboard and a fair bit of software, Daz asked if I would be interested in the bundled deal for myself. Firstly, I was humbled that a friend thought of me when they came across something quite rare and unique, and secondly, the offer for me to buy it and for them to transport it back was an offer too good to refuse. To say I was excited would be a gross understatement – I made the offer, the seller accepted and Daz transported the CDTV bundle safely back to Melbourne.

To Daz and Pete (Console Domination), thanks heaps for thinking of me and giving me the opportunity to grab another retro gaming holy grail – you guys rock! As for what do I think of the CDTV? Well, let’s just say that the Amiga 500 has made room for it *winks*

She is a beauty!
CDTV_5

Connections galore!
CDTV_6

Oo’er, early 90s multimedia software!
CDTV_12

Looking forward to do some Sherlocking!
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Remote control your CDTV life!
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The all-in-one control centre (transmitter)!
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Now we can turn the CDTV into a full blown Amiga 500!
CDTV_7

It’s alive!
CDTV_3

We asked Daz to show us what else he found on his ‘retro road trip’ and without fail, Daz provided us with some mouthwatering photos, saying that they speak for themselves. We agree *wiping drool*

The beautiful C128!
Daz_5

Great to see a TI-99 out in the wild!
Daz_4

Oh wow, more TI computers!
Daz_1

Atari ST represent!
Daz_3

WANT!
Daz_2

The loot is in the boot!Daz_0