Retrogaming Times
From Pong to Playstation 3
Issue #240, June 2027

Osheas Sold Out!

After over 20 years of liquidating their Atari carts, Osheas has finally sold the last cart.  The final copy of Pole Position II for the Atari 7800 was sold last month.

News of this spread across the newsgroups as copies of Pole Position II have followed suit with other sold out games and jumped in price.  It went from the Oshea price of $5.00 (can you remember when they were only $.80 each) to over $15.00 on the eBay/Home Shopping Auction Network. 

"While we never thought that we would miss the carts, but we really do" says an employee.  Word is that they are working on purchasing a large quantity of Dreamcast games

Vectrex Returns!

In a surprise move, the Vectrex returns in a new and very updated version!  Instead of just being a screen, this version comes with a backpack, fully immersible helmet and state of the art joysticks.  "When you wear this helmet, you are not just playing the game, you are the game" said one of the programmers.  In a move sure to appeal to classic gamers, many of the old favorites will be redone to take advantage of the new technology and also have the original version!  Imagine playing Minestorm, where you are in the middle of the action and everywhere you look, you see asteroids and ships flying at you!   Sounds incredible!  Hopefully they will have them on the Red Planet!

Game Hunting Tales

This summer has been very barren.  While there were plenty of Playstation games at the flea markets for $5.00 each, the cartridge based games are as scare as accurate weathermen.  But I did get lucky and stumble on a box of Atari carts at a garage sale!  It was my first classic game find in three years!  Among the carts were the hard to find, Asteroids, Missile Command and Night Driver.  But the big find was a still working copy of  Pitfall, with minimal actiplaque.  Great find for only $5.00 a cart!  We all know that a working Pitfall can fetch as high as $50.00 on eBay/Home Shopping Auctions! 

Headed over to Funcoland and checked in to see that they still have plenty of copies of Super Mario/Duck Hunt.  Even at the ultra low price of only $5.00 each, they are still sitting there.  I was tempted to pick one up. 

On my trip to the thrift stores, I was able to snag a fully working Intel Pentium III computer with a 600 MHZ, 8 Gig of hard drive space (not even enough  to hold AOL 9.0) for $50.00 with a 17 inch monitor.  When I plugged it in and played some old MAME (haven't seen this since it was banned back in 2005) and enjoyed the memories.  But it was hard to get used to the small screen when I am so accustomed to 90 inch wraparound screen.  Things sure were primitive

Last Writer Leaves RT

After nearly twenty years of writing for Retrogaming Times, the first and last writer for the newsletter, Fred Wagaman has finally put down his keyboard. 

When asked the reason for the departure, he said "After 20 years, I have just ran out of stuff to say.  When we start having a  Shaq Fu, themed issue,  you know it is time to hang them up.  It has been a fun run, but I even I cannot think of anything for that.  Fred wants more time to devote to his 15,000 video game collection.

Video Game Reviews

For the last reviews, I decided to do a few oldies.  So sit back and enjoy!

Tomb Raider 7-The final installment of the series was one that shocked a lot of people and spelled an end to Eidos.  After six straight games with Lara Croft, we find out in the seventh one that she really is a man who had an operation.  While this was a shocking development, it killed the franchise and destroyed the credibility of Eidos.  While I found the game very engrossing, I couldn't get over seeing Lara with a five o'clock shadow.  I cannot recommend this game and I for one am glad to see an end to this series.
Pacman Generations-The 50th anniversary game of Pacman was a hoot!  It was great how they took all the old classic games and gave you a choice of playing them as they were at the arcade, an overhead perspective or a 3D version!  Also the roleplaying game and the Pacman fighting games were great!  I especially liked all the hidden characters in the RPG like Q*Bert and Frogger!

The End of the Road

All good things must come to an end and so has the newsletter.  While I have enjoyed the past twenty years, I have taken a job on Mars and we know that the internet is not accessible from Mars yet.  So I must say goodbye to all the loyal readers and wish you luck!  I would like to take this time to let everyone know that I am clearing out the last of my video games.  As I head off to the Red Planet, I have to pack light.  So I will be giving away all my video games to the first person who video mails me on August 15, 2047 and tells me why they would like the games.  Make up a sob story, lie through your teeth, but impress me.  The lucky winner will be getting some very rare items including a complete collection of all the Coleco, Intellivision, Atari 5200, Nintendo and Vectrex games and over 100 tabletops and handhelds.  At today's prices, that is over $400,000 dollars (or 3.2 million Martian Zentes). 

Lastly, I would like to thank all the people who contributed to this newsletter, whether you were human, alien or android.  You have helped to make it what it is today!  Thanks and see you on the Red Planet!

-Major Tom