Snake is to mobile phone gaming what Pac Man is to upright cabinets or Tetris is to consoles.  If you’ve never heard of it, please leave now.  If you’ve never played it, you’ve probably never had a phone.  If you do have a phone and you’ve never played it – or any of its innumerable varients – you should hand it in to the authorities, because you simply don’t deserve it.

For something which seems to have been on old skool phones since the early sixteenth century, it’s surprising that it was only included as a standard installation in 1997, on the  Nokia 6110.  Players could even while away the last days of Britpop and the first days of Changing Rooms by playing against someone else via infra red connection, provided they stood so close together as to be effectively standing on each other, and didn’t move until the crippling pains from muscular cramp rendered them unconscious.

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Be it Cliff Richard, a manufactured X-Factor cover song or Rage Against the Machine, it just isn’t Christmas until the coveted number one chart position is announced and we have a new Christmas hit to add to the list for all eternity.

This year, our money is on the GamerDads collaborative charity effort, ‘Leave the noobs’. Combining the vocal talents of members of the gaming community and delivering a message of peace for our time and goodwill to all noobs, this showstopper of a track is bound to catapult up the charts to the top slot in time for Christmas day.

Well, ok we’ll admit that this is probably a long shot, but still we were proud to be a part of it and do our bit for the gaming charity Special Effect. Go and check out the great work these guys do to help people with disabilities enjoy video games and maybe chuck them a bit of cash this Christmas.

http://www.gamerdads.co.uk
http://www.specialeffect.org.uk

The awesome Replay Expo is nearly upon us and we’re giving away 5 sets of weekend tickets.

Anyone who made it to last year’s Replay Expo will know it was probably the greatest retro gaming event of all time. Countless systems from the last 30 years of gaming and home computing, talks from some of the biggest names of the golden age of videogames, tournaments and so much more… This year the expo’s getting even bigger!

If you’ve not got your tickets yet, we’re giving away a set of weekend tickets (1 x Saturday & 1 x Sunday) to five of our lucky Twitter followers. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning, is follow @RetroGT and @ReplayExpo and RT one of our competition tweets. Keep an eye on the @RetroGT feed for competition tweets. Winners announced over Twitter.

For more information about the awesome Replay Expo, check out their website at ReplayExpo.com, or read their lovingly crafted description detailed here:

Replay Expo is the unique video gaming event that prides itself in celebrating both the classics as well as the very latest titles. Following the success of last year’s debut show, Replay Expo will return to the Norbreck Castle Exhibition Centre in Blackpool on the 5/6 November 2011; the final weekend of the famous Illuminations.

This year’s event will expand into additional halls, meaning 5000+ gamers will have access to even more arcade machines, pinball tables, consoles and home computers.

In keeping with the inaugural event there will be an emphasis on families as well as hardcore gamers; an increase in the number of junior tournaments throughout the weekend will ensure there is something for everyone, young and old.

Attendance from Nintendo, Sony, Sega and other household names from the gaming world helped draw in the crowds last year and visitors can once again expect good support from the games industry.

For those of you who haven’t heard, we’re hitting Brighton tomorrow with a stand at the new Hand Baked Arcade monthly retro gaming event!
Don’t worry if you can’t make it down this time, there’ll be another on November 13th and again on December 11th.

Details of the event are as follows:
Hand Baked Arcade are at it again, this time taking their arsenal of retro gaming equipment to Brighton’s recently renamed venue the Blind Tiger (previously known as Hector’s House). The Hand Baked Arcade will be open to the public on 3 different dates; The first being October 9th from 4pm – 11pm.

Expect to see many classic games and consoles including:

Mega Drive
SNES
Master System
2-Player Arcade machine
NES
Sega Saturn (10 player!) Bomberman
computer running Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem 3D
+ much more!

The Hand Baked Arcade are well known for their FREE to play arcade events across the UK. Installations have been featured at many of the best music festivals including Glastonbury, Glade and Bloc Weekend. They have also featured in countless night clubs, art galleries and even on The Gadget Show, Channel 5.

Music will be supplied by Hand Baked DJs: lo-fi, underground, wonky, eclectic and electronic music will be served up to create the perfect soundtrack to your gaming.

So whether you are a keen gamer or simply wanting a unique night out then get down to the venue early, get the drinks in and let nostalgia run through your veins, The Hand Baked Arcade is coming to Brighton!

To see a video of hand Baked’s recent event in London click here: http://vimeo.com/28210448

Thanks to political correctness gone mad, the days of watching a midget fight a booze crazed Russian called Vodka Drunkenski in a south east London pub are sadly gone. The magic of those far off nights – and the fine athletes they produced – are, however, celebrated in Nintendo’s Super
Punch Out series, written by Genyo Takeda.

Takeda showed a love of delicate things at an early age,
when he would build tiny trains and automobiles at the family home in
Osaka. Quite what inspired him to come up with this charmingly brutal series is therefore unclear, but he went on to effectively trademark cartoony violence in ice hockey, wrestling and American football games, all successfully aimed at the US market. He would probably do one for bear baiting,
given half a chance.  But enough speculation – it’s time utter those immortal words Seconds away! No punching below the belt and the first one to blub is a
lady! as we stick our gumshields in and prepare for Round One.

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