Retro Scan: c1995 Dick Smith PC Advert

Following on from that Harvey Norman scan I posted a little while ago, here's a scan from it's major competitor (at the time anyway), Dick Smith!

Sadly, Dick Smith isn't doing so well these days having gone into receivership and all - but putting aside the negative aspect of this business in its current state I think it's important to remember just what a fantastic company it used to be. I always loved going to my local Dick Smith as a young boy; so much so, in fact, that it eventually led to me working there for four years! Those days are behind me now and sadly so are the glory days of DSE, but it left a legacy which I think is important to remember.

Taking a look at this particular advert, we're shown the 'Computer Easy Customer Care Plan'. This offers such incentives to get into computing such as free installation, free training and a whole heap of other cool stuff (like 12 months of free bulletin board access).

A lot of the popular brands at the time are mentioned too, such as IBM, Compaq, HP, Microsoft and DSX. I googled around and wasn't able to find much about DSX, but I'm assuming it's a part of Dick Smith's home brand considering the use of DS. Who knows, though, that just could be a coincidence.

Video: Time Crisis & GunCon Light Gun for PSone Review

Today we're checking out Time Crisis for the PSone, as well as the GunCon (or G-Con 45) light gun. This is a first for the channel and myself personally, so check it out if you want to see me suckily playing a light gun game! Having said that, though, I had a whale of a time.

Reviving a 1970's Texas Instruments TI-30 Scientific Calculator

I've mentioned many times before on this blog how much I love the Lazy Game Reviews YouTube channel. It's honestly one of the major inspirations for my own channel - mixing in a fantastic and balanced mix of humour, good information and production values. It was because of Clint's channel (the creator of Lazy Game Reviews or 'LGR' abbreviated) that I started creating PC gaming content for instance.

Well, Clint, you've done it again.
Inspired by one of his most recent videos called The Calculator Wars, (which is a part of his excellent Tech Tales series) Clint explores how the portable calculator market exploded in the 1970's and highlighted the rivalries between the major manufacturers at the time.
I knew there was an old Texas Instruments calculator in a bottom drawer of my kitchen that belonged to my Mum in her high school years - so motivated by the video I pulled it out.
As it turns out, sitting inside a cupboard for many years with a battery inside does not bode well for electronics. Just ask my N64's Rumble Pak. The 9-volt battery (yes, this requires a 9-volt battery!) was completely corroded and thus attached to the battery connector inside. There was no way to forcefully pull them apart without breaking anything, so the cavalry was called in.

And yes, by cavalry I'm talking about vinegar.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the battery stuck to the connector - but throughout the process, the negative contact came clean off the battery but was perfectly content to live out its existence still stuck firmly to the battery connector.

Hopefully, this photo properly shows the extent of the batteries corrosion. Its replacement looms in the background...

After a bit of messing around involving dipping the connector into a cup of vinegar and the dexterity of a small flat-headed screwdriver, the contact was finally free. 

As you can see in the second photo, I did have a pack of 9-volt battery holders at the ready if something went amiss but they weren't needed. I successfully cleaned a good portion of corrosion off, and after inserting a replacement battery it was confirmed working!

You wouldn't believe how hard it is to focus two calculator displays at the same time (even more so when one is illuminated).

A quick test of 1 x cosine against my HP 50g confirmed that the brain of the TI-30 was working correctly. I was chuffed.

The TI-30 I found comes with a groovy leather (I think) carry case, and the original instruction manual. At the back of this manual, the serial number and date of purchase have been hand written by (I assume) the original vendor my Mother bought it from.
The date of purchase was the 9th of November, 1976 - the same year this calculator was released.

The TI-30 was considered a fairly major deal in its time - at least big enough to have its own Wiki page, anyway. It was considered to be quite cheap compared to the competition, costing only US$24.95 and went on to sell 15,000,000 units by 1983.
It was plagued by battery problems, however - provoking a rechargeable battery kit to be released later to combat the issue. I couldn't help but notice that in the manual it stated "You can always take weeks of computing power with you wherever you go by simply carrying a few extra batteries."
These were 9-volts too. Good grief.

Regardless, I find the TI-30 a cool piece of hardware. It's actually inspired me to rerelease my short-lived Retro Unrelated series; the only post of which was about the Olympus Trip 35 camera.
Instead of in blog form, though, I'd like to turn this into a video series for my YouTube channel. I have plenty of old unrelated to gaming devices hanging around for a sustainable series. Stay tuned.

Video: RGO's Top Games of 2015

2015 was a great year and I played many (retro) games. In this video, I talk about my top 5!

I Guess I Better Start Being a Final Fantasy Fan Now Then?

I only went into one op-shop today - it just happened to be next to an errand I had to run so I thought I mind as well pop in. I'm very, very, very, very glad I did.
I walked in and headed to where the games are usually held. This is one of those six or seven-foot tall shelves that you'd probably buy from Ikea. That fact is pretty unimportant, but the shelf has more than just games. My attention was initially drawn to the bottom shelf because of a calculator. I'll talk about this calculator in due course but there were a few other cool things to look at; one of which was a small selection of 8-track tapes. These were the recordable type so weren't actually for any particular musician, but I found those fascinating since I've never actually seen one in the flesh. Next to those were some huge Sony branded storage tape things. I'm still not sure what they are, which is actually intriguing me enough to go back and have another look. In fact, I was pretty tempted to buy them all for the heck of it anyway. I still might actually, but I'm getting a bit off track here. This post in not about obsolete storage mediums, but stay tuned - that's a post that might still eventuate.

I move my head in an upwards direction and take a peek at some PS2 games on a higher shelf. I end up buying a few even though I've basically imposed an embargo on myself - but again I'll talk about that below.
They were sitting right there, in front of everything else including the very PS2 games I was looking at. At first, I simply didn't notice them. I've never been into turn-based combat games, especially Final Fantasy because of their usual prohibitive cost. I do own Final Fantasy XII, but I bought that in a package deal of sorts and have never played it. But then, as I was standing there in that op-shop, it was like Don Corleone himself starting motioning to me beyond the grave. He mumbled a whole lot of stuff I didn't quite get - something about the Sega Saturn - and then suddenly startled me with this revelation:

"What man does not play Final Fantasy Games? Hm? Does he not spend time with his family? Does he not eat well? No? I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. Okay? I want you to leave it all to me. Go on, go back to the party."

Suddenly, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX appeared in front of me - stacked in a neat little pile. Every single one was complete with all discs pristine and including manuals. Every single one was $3.
All three go from between $40-50 on eBay, so it was absolutely an offer I could not refuse. Not wanting to anger the family, I purchased them and took them home. I guess I better play them sooner or later - surely the Don can hold a mean grudge from even beyond the grave.

And now for the other stuff!
First off, a calculator! Excitement overload after all above, am I right? There is a specific reason I bought it, though. I may have mentioned a few times here that I'm currently studying surveying, and the HP 39gs Graphing Calculator is very similar to the HP 50g I use for my studies.

The 39gs on the left, with my 50g on the right

So then, what's the difference besides from the colour? For one, the 50g cost near $200 brand new when I bought it early last year. Today the 39gs cost $10. Woah.
I'm actually struggling to find many definitive differences, actually. Both were originally released in 2006 (although the 50g was only discontinued last year while the 39gs was preceded god knows when) and both have the same processor. On the other hand, the 50g includes an SD card slot and 2MB of built-in memory while the 39gs does not. There could be other differences too, but ultimately I'll try and program the 39gs to be the same as my 50g and see if there are any limitations. I can't complain when it cost only $10 though, regardless.

Lastly, let's talk about those PS2 games.

I have a problem with my PS2 collection. Just watch my latest games room tour video to see why. I simply have too many, and I'm afraid I'll never play them all. I guess I'm hoping that I'll be patting myself on the back in years to come when PS2 are the retro games to play, and I'll have many to play and review and not have to pay an exorbitant price for. Eh well. Time will tell.
Either way, I now own SSX and Dead or Alive 2 on PS2; two games that are considered classics.
They're both in original black non-platinum cases too, and they were only $3 each as well. I don't minding losing my will to not buy temporarily for these games, but now I literally don't have any more space for PS2 games. The shelf is already bursting at its seams.

Video: My Retro Gaming PC Setup

Following on from a video where I guide a tour of my retro games room (scroll down to the bottom of that post to see the video) I've created a tour of my retro PC gaming setup. While the games room tour was filmed on my smartphone, I decided not to be a lazy piece of shit this time and actually introduce a few production values. This video is actually filmed on a camera, using a tripod. Wowee.

I have a dedicated PC for retro gaming, and this video talks about the specifications it reps as well as how I integrate the machine into my modern PC setup.

Video: Red Faction for PC Review

Today with my second ever retro PC review, we're jet-setting off to Mars. I hear it's lovely this time of year! What isn't so lovely, though is the evil Ultor Corporation. They suck! Time to liberate Mars with the Red Faction!

Retro Scan: c1995 Harvey Norman PC Advert

I found one of those family PC magazines under my bed a few weeks ago, dating to somewhere within 1995. It's one of those "finally a computer magazine you can understand" type deals. While the writing and articles are not entertaining in the slightest, since it was a free edition it's full of so many adverts. This is quite okay with me since I have a Retro Scan section to uphold. I didn't add a quick access button under the RGO logo for nothing, you know. 

For those not in Australia or (so I found out on holiday) Singapore (or according to Wikipedia also New Zealand, Slovenia, Ireland, North Ireland, Malaysia AND Croatia) Harvey Norman is one of those places you go to buy furniture, white goods and computers/electronics if you don't like holding onto your money.

Okay, I'll try my best to keep my bias aside about the company for the sake of looking at mid-1990's computers, but hot damn. Every time I'm buying something I price check across all the local stores, and Harvey Norman comes dead last every single time. But that's enough ridicule - let's look at these computers.

Clickey to look closer...

Not much under two grand and that's how Gerry likes it (I'll stop now, I swear). 

While there is the range of computers you'd expect from brands such as Apple, IBM and Compaq before HP guttered them, there are a few brands I'd honestly never heard of. AST were acquired by Samsung in 1996, Olivetti stopped manufacturing computers in 1997 and supposedly Bondwell also stopped in 1993 - so I guess that Notebook is a few years out of date if Wikipedia is to be trusted. Probably explains why it's $800 off, though.

It's a nice glimpse into what the Australian dollar could buy in 1995 none the less. $3895 would pay for a Compaq Presario 833 with a 486, a 270MB hard drive, 8MB of RAM along with the monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse as well as a ton of software. Whether this was a good deal or not at the time I have no idea, since my life with likely revolving around Lego at that point.

I really want that five grand colour media Texas Instruments notebook, though. It's nice.

Video Catch-Up: Sonic R / Buck Bumble / Heart of Darkness / Vortex / Game Room Tour

Holy Hell. I haven't posted any of my videos here since Micro Machines on the Mega Drive/Genesis. I released that back in July! What's going on? Isn't YouTube half of the Retro Game On's conglomerate machine?
Whoops, well anyway; let's have a catch-up post, ordered from oldest to newest.

Sonic R for PC Review

I'm especially surprised I forgot this - since it was the first of my PC reviews that I said I was going to do probably over a year ago now. I have no idea why I choose Sonic R of all games, but here it is none the less.



Buck Bumble for N64 Review

In Buck Bumble, I play as a cyborg bumble bee who's saving the world from a group of evil and radiated insects. Hot damn, I love retro games.



Heart of Darkness for PSone Review

After swooning over it and the cheap price I paid for it - I then went and reviewed it. Reminded me of Limbo in many ways. I thought it was brilliant.



Vortex for SNES Review

An interesting 3D mech shooter that utilised the Super FX chip. This was bought from the Retro Levels store in Perth.



Game Room Tour 2015

After a request from a viewer, I made this updated tour of my retro games room. It's been two years since I last did this, so a reasonable amount has changed.

The Games I Bought While Being Dead to the World

As alluded to at the end of my most recent review, Vortex for the SNES, I mentioned Retro Game On had died a little during the exam period:

An ACTUAL Snapchat from the period

All that is behind me now, as study is finished for few a months with nothing to do in the meantime except make videos and write about video games on the internet. I'm basically going to try and treat it like a full-time job, except without the stress, responsibility and well... money. I would love to do this as my job if it was ever feasible, but for now I'll just keep creating and treating it like the involved hobby it is.
Because of the exams, assessments and just general study though, I wasn't able to buy much during that period. I did buy a few things though, and I actually went op-shopping the other day which felt great. This is what I bought.

First off, I cleared out the Salvation Army store in the Perth CBD actually during exams. I had a two or three-hour gap between exams, so I trained into the city and wasted some time.
Should I have been studying during that period? Probably. But it's yet to be seen since I don't have all my results yet. Anyway, the Salvo's in the city is a bit of a golden egg. It probably gets quite a few interesting bits of stock flowing through its doors thanks to its location, but on top of that also plenty of customers all likely wanting to nab up 15-year-old games at a bargain price before I do.
That visit was my lucky day though, as I exited with all this:

PC gaming galore right there. Probably my favourite purchase out of the bunch is the big-boxed copy of Red Faction. I've always loved the Red Faction series, and even though I already own it on PS2 I had to grab that box, especially when it's only $8.25.
I was quite happy to find The Movies too, since I remember wanting that game when I was younger. That was only $3.25, along with Sim City 3000, Sim City 2000 and Half-Life Opposing Force.
Do not ask me why I bought Sim City 2000 when I already own it in a big ole' box, but for whatever reason I now own it twice. Sim City 3000 is nice to have though, and will likely withdraw hours of my life like 2000 did.
Sadly it seems I cannot play Opposing Force since I don't own the original Half-Life on PC, but I'm sure I'll come across it sooner or later.

A few days ago I actually went proper op-shopping, and god did it just feel so right. I only visited two stores, so the haul was smaller than what I've come home with in the past but it was nice none the less.

First stop was a Salvos where I bought those three PSone games for $3.25 each. What is it with Salvo's ending every price in 25? It's eerie.
Anyway, Everybody's Golf is a true PlayStation classic so that was welcomed into my collection with wide-open arms (even though I suck at golf games). Austin Powers is groovy as all heck, and seemed surprisingly fun for what it is. Who knows though, it might just be charming me too much with all the catchphrases thrown in as you play. You're a tiiiiiger! 
I was surprised by the Xevious compilation (at least, that's what I think it is) since it's labelled as a NTSC-J region disc. What surprised me even more though when I got home was when I discovered it was a pirated copy (the horror!). I don't know what my Japanese PlayStation was trying to tell me when I played the disc, but it was likely saying it wasn't compatible. I really should have noticed it was pirated since the printing job of the disc inserts are a bit shoddy. Oh well.
Lastly, I went into a Good Sammy's and came out with a big-boxed copy of Ghost Recon. That was $5.
I played this game quite a bit when I was younger, since my Dad bought a stupidly cheap Big Bytes version (remember those!?) from EB Games back in the day. It's going to be great to play it again.