There was lots to classic and collectable products to admire (or buy) at the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo. But there’s more to find, for those willing to mine for it!
It’s very rare that I get to ply my video game handle at a show. When the days of Golden (and Silver Age) gaming meets modern arts at the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo, I’m in the zone. This event was held on June 22, 2019. It’s now in its eighth year. Tournaments, music performances, and panels make up most of this one-day show. and its present location includes a New Media Gallery.
To have this exhibition in the middle of a sprawling metropolis, the municipality of New Westminster is the right spot to locate this show. The Anvil Center is the center of a nice hub where the Fraser River cuts through. Food and the arts are nearby. On a beautiful sunny day, this neighbourhood is a nice place to explore. Those wanting a history lesson of the area will get more than one since the area includes three nearby museums.
Welcome to the endlessly delayed third and final part of my list of picks for the Top 25 SNES games of all time.
By Shawn Trommeshauser (Dreaming in Digital)
Welcome to the endlessly delayed third and final part of my list of picks for the Top 25 Super Nintendo games of all time. Only ten games left and several of the greatest games of all time are showing up in this one! To make things handy, here are the links to Part 1 and Part 2. As previously stated, I had to give myself a few guidelines to keep the list at a reasonable size.
Rule 1: The game must have been released in the North American Market in the 90’s. This eliminates several foreign region titles I enjoyed such as Rockman & Forte, and The Firemen.
Rule 2: It must be a game I originally played on an actual Super Nintendo when it was current, not something I discovered in later years through re-releases, or emulation of fan-translations on PC. A lot of Role Playing Games got bumped due to this. Seiken Densetsu 3, Final Fantasy V, and Front Mission to name a few.
Fans of classic computer role-playing games can get to read all about how Origin Systems’ Ultima series came to life. The many hurdles which occurred along the way in the software development cycle are exquisitely explored. It reads like a deeply researched paper. I looked at an early draft of a preview chapter (which is available on www.theira.it). Readers will get to learn more about the creator, Richard Garriott, and how this series developed from its eight-bit days to thirty-two. This book is finished, and just needs support from fans to facilitate translating it from its native language, Italian, to English.
The love for this game is strong despite not having any titles on the latest generation of machines to play. Does anyone want it? No definitive answer exists. This game has seen many sequels and the Avatar returns every time. In this interview, both author Andrea Contato and photographer/artist Enrico Ricciardi talk about their love for this product and how this crowdfunding campaign will go:
Could you please introduce yourselves?
Andrea: Here in Italy, I wrote a lot of articles for computer, technology and videogames magazines. In 2014, I created an online magazine (www.notiziedalfronte.it) whose goal is to document the history of the First World War, as though you were reading events as it unfolded on that day. There is exactly 100 years of delay. That is, on September 20, 2018, you’ll read the news as it would have appeared on September 20, 1918 and so on. This site is followed by more than 3.000 Italian readers. This makes me a historian communicator.
I am a collector of stories. That’s exactly why wrote this book. The Ultima series is special because Richard Garriott was able to change the formula of his games many times. He succeeded at renewing it without losing the loyalty of his fan-base. There are very few video game series that spans their life in decades as Ultima.
Enrico: I am a professional fashion and advertising photographer since 1985 and am based in Milan. Apart from my job, I love all the visual art forms, and I believe the video game medium is one of the new expressions of art. In the last 10 years, the technologies made available to graphic designers and developers has allowed recreating fantastic worlds with extraordinary realism. They are real works of art. One such game is From Software’s Bloodborne (inspired by H. P. Lovecraft). Their amazing use of lighting technique and choice of colours perfectly materialized the gothic atmosphere this great writer described.
This time I’ll look at some of the grandest epics and most jaw-dropping technological innovations of the era. These games are widely loved and played to this day, and still inspire and affect modern game designers.
By Shawn Trommeshauser (Dreaming in Digital)
It’s been a while, but here is the second part of my personal top 25 Super Nintendo games (You can read part 1 here). This time I’ll look at some of the grandest epics and most jaw-dropping technological innovations of the era. These games are widely loved and played to this day, and still inspire and affect modern game designers.
As I mentioned previously, I ended up with FAR too many games to choose from, so I had to give myself some limitations to narrow down the field.
Rule 1: The game must have been released in the North American Market at the time. This eliminates several Super Famicom titles I enjoyed such as Rockman & Forte and The Firemen.
Rule 2: It must be a game I originally played on actual hardware when it was current, not something I discovered in later years through later releases of the game, or fan-translation patches using emulation on PC. A lot of Role Playing Games got bumped due to this—Seiken Densetsu 3, Final Fantasy V, and Front Mission to name a few.
The SNES is tied with the original Sony PlayStation as my favourite systems of all time. I’ve played a good chunk of them. So here’s my thoughts on the best of the best, my personal favourite Super Nintendo games of all time!
By Shawn Trommeshauser (Dreaming in Digital)
As an 80s kid, I grew up right beside video games and have fond memories of every gaming system I’ve played from the Intellivision to the PlayStation 4. Whether you’re shooting ducks with a bright orange light gun to performing in a rock concert with a plastic drum set, video games have always tried to offer a safer and cheaper way to experience any thrills you could imagine. This is the thing I love most about gaming, the advancements and imagination put into using the technology to its fullest. There is always a new gimmick, a new way to play.
My favorite era for gaming was the 90s. The console wars were in full swing with Sega trying everything in their power to chip away at Nintendo’s market share in North America. Meanwhile, Sony was getting ready to take the gaming world by storm with a 3D revolution. It was a time of desperate innovation and cutthroat competition which made the 90s one of the most amazing times to be a gamer. Every new advance in technology was changing what could be done with game design more than ever before, and these advances were arriving faster with each year that passed.
From the mid-80’s to the mid-90’s Nintendo was king. Sega had their loyal fans, but their 8-bit console, the Master System, never took off in North America the way it did in Europe. Nintendo’s first venture into the video game Market revived an industry that had fallen apart under older companies such as Atari in the early 80’s and ended up giving them a virtual monopoly on console gaming in Canada and the US. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) hit the market like a tidal wave and it wasn’t long before everyone was using the name ‘Nintendo’ interchangeably with the term ‘video game’.
Ever since the movie TRON graced the big screen, it’s become a cult phenomenon and there are no signs of it dying.
Ever since TRON first lit up the big screen, it’s been a cult phenomenon with no sign of derezzing anytime soon. Over at Brickset.com, the LEGO TRON: Legacy Lightcycle set has been confirmed—and if it lights up, I’ll be on it faster than a pair of dueling lightcycles cutting across the Grid. News like this always gets me nostalgic, so this weekend, I’ll be revisiting both films and imagining the what if of a third installment. If you’re curious where the franchise stands now, see TRON at 40 — Legacy, Future Films & Fandom.
In some ways, the upcoming Reboot: The Guardian Code hinted at what could’ve been. The series launched on Netflix worldwide (March 30, 2018) with Canada getting it later via YTV. Rather than slam it for “ruining childhoods,” I decided to watch and see if it could hold its own—especially compared to Legacy’s ending, where Quorra escaped the Grid into the real world.
It’s very rare that I get to ply my video game handle at a show. When the days of Golden (and Silver Age) gaming meets modern arts at the Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo, I’m in the zone. This event was held on June 22, 2019. It’s now in its eighth year. Tournaments, music performances, and panels make up most of this one-day show. and its present location includes a New Media Gallery.
By Shawn Trommeshauser
Ever since TRON first lit up the big screen, it’s been a cult phenomenon with no sign of derezzing anytime soon. Over at 