Taylor tells us that the store specialises in rare, old-school collectible video games like Earthbound, Mario RPG and Bubble Bobble 2. The store stocks games for the Genesis, N64, SNES, PS1, Dreamcast, NES, Saturn, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox, PS3, Wii, 360, Gameboy, Gameboy colour, Gameboy Advanced, DS, Game Gear and Atari.

When Taylor’s single mum passed away about a year ago he dropped out of school, got his GED and landed a job at a local video game store. Last week he and a friend decided to launch the store together.

He told 9 News that he and his mother used to game together and that many of the titles he is now selling came from their collection.

“I could look through here and be like, ‘Oh, I remember playing that with my mum when I was just kid,’” Taylor said. “I hope, you know, she’d be proud of me. I hope that, you know, if she were here now, she would be proud of all this. This is a store that she would like, you know, she would shop here.”

This weekend the GAME ON! This Spring We’re All Fun and Games event kicked off at Chicago’s Navy Pier.

The idea was to pack the pier’s Crystal Gardens with Xbox 360s and let people play games on the system to their heart’s content. They also decided to run a Guitar Hero World Tour tournament. Well, that was the idea at least.

Tristan and I decided to swing by the event to see what it looked like. First disappointment: The organisers decided to charge $5 a head for play time. I was told at the gate that for $5 Tristan could play as much as he wanted all day long. Sure, charging for Xbox 360 playtime seems a little absurd, especially when it doesn’t include entry in the tournament, but I bit.

Once we started to wander around though, I was unhappy to discover that the Game On event had a grand total of 11 Xbox 360s. That’s 11 consoles for the entirety of Chicago to play on as long as they wanted. Fortunately, very few people were there, so Tristan was able to snag a machine.

The first game he wanted to play was unavailable because someone had parked on it and looked like they would be there for the day. Since the machines all had one game on them, and were organised by rating, he was forced to play some Tennis title. He would have tried a different game, but the Xbox 360 was displaying a read disc error, so they were down to ten machines.

Oh and three of those working ten machines were put aside for the Guitar Hero Tournament.

I’m fairly certain Microsoft had nothing to do with this event, but if I were them I’d make sure that any events using their console isn’t so poorly organised, it can’t help but leave a bad taste in gamers’ mouths.

“Sony Online Entertainment’s game, The Agency™, is still in development for release on both the PLAYSTATION®3 and PC platforms. The game sku has been reinstated to GameFly’s website. Feel free to add The Agency to your GameQ!”

There we go! Nothing at all to worry about. Just remember kids, retailers and rental establishments, while lovely places to visit and procure video games from, are no substitute for news directly from the game developers and publishers themselves. That’s one to grow on.

While the servers are indeed live, there’s still no sign of DLC for LBP, despite the in-game news page urging me to log into the PlayStation Store and download me some. I’m sure that will all be worked out by week’s end. For now, get to creating and sharing! Can’t wait to see what horrors you guys come up with.

That’s not all. Including its adventures in Chicago, London, Hong Kong and other cities, Game On is damn close to breaking the world record for expo attendence. From the release:

The overwhelming successful season puts the four month run at ACMI ahead of the London Barbican Gallery’s attendance record of 99.500, and second only to the exhibition’s seven month run at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, which attracted 127,000 during a seven month run in a city with triple the population of Melbourne.

“Furthermore, if our attendance this week remains consistent, we’ll go achingly close to setting a new world record for the exhibition’s visitation by the time Game On is game over on Sunday night,” [ACMI Director Tony Sweeney] said.

Come on folks, we can do it! If you’re in Melbourne (or interstate this weekend), make the effort and attend this fantastic expo. Opportunities to break world records don’t appear every day… unless of course you do nothing but eat nickels* and play Pac-Man.

Press release after the jump.

* It’s a Family Guy reference – apologies in advance for the use of US currency.

Melbourne heads for world record high score for Game On

Melbourne’s Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) will close the doors this weekend on its winter blockbuster exhibition, Game On, with the added bonus of potentially setting a new international record for audience attendance.

The largest ever exhibition dedicated to the past, present and future of videogames, Game On was has toured the world, being presented at major international cities across the globe including Helsinki, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong and London.

Since opening the doors here in Melbourne at ACMI in March, it has drawn record crowds who’ve relished the chance to do battle against each other while playing their way through the history of videogames.

‘Having already smashed attendance targets by more than 50% and breaking through 100,000 visitor mark, Game On has attracted an audience of 117,000 as of Tuesday this week’ ACMI Director Tony Sweeney said. ‘Melbourne loves a blockbuster and clearly can’t get enough of Game On’ and these terrific audience numbers don’t include the thousands of people who’ve attended our public and education programs’.

The overwhelming successful season puts the four month run at ACMI ahead of the London Barbican Gallery’s attendance record of 99.500, and second only to the exhibition’s seven month run at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, which attracted 127,000 during a seven month run in a city with triple the population of Melbourne. ‘Furthermore, if our attendance this week remains consistent, we’ll go achingly close to setting a new world record for the exhibition’s visitation by the time Game On is game over on Sunday night’. Tony said.

If you haven’t already done so, the time to play your way through the history of video games is almost up as Game On closes this Sunday, 13 July.

www.acmi.net.au

I don’t think so.

Anyway, hit the jump for the second, and final, lot of Game On ticket winners. We’ll be in contact soon to get your mailing addresses.

Much love to the ACMI for helping with the comp!Danny Flynn gets his mum to finish games for him:

I remember playing Space Invaders on the Atari 2600. I can’t have been more than four or five years old at the time, and I could never manage to kill the last few invaders, (like Fry,) so my mum would do it for me. (Like Fry, Sort of.) I always thought it was great seeing my mum beating Space Invaders.
She doesn’t play games much anymore though, she thinks they’re far too complicated… though I did get her to play Guitar Hero the other day.

Andrew Blake spends his days dividing by zero:

Back in the late 80s, I’d been given an Atari 2600 and loved River Raid, but my most memorable (and crushing) moment was reaching a score of 999999 on Asteroid, only to blast one more rock and have it roll over to 0 before I could show anyone!

Last but not least, Chris Rose remembers a time when 20c could buy you an afternoon of gaming bliss:

My most memorable retro video game experience was, back in 1999, going to the Melbourne Uni Student Union building and watching a guy put a 0.20c piece into the old four-player Gauntlet machine. I watched him play for a while, and then had to go to a three-hour lecture/workshop. When I left the lecture and went back to the Student Union, he was still going on the same 0.20c (friends had been watching the whole time), and was now up in the 90+ levels!

Hope you guys enjoyed the comp, I know I had a blast reading your retro gaming moments. I wish we had more tickets to give away, because six just wasn’t enough!

Don’t freak out if you submitted a story and it didn’t win. It’s automatically eligible for the second batch of three tickets.

If you haven’t sent in your tale of retro gaming woe/comedy/wrist-slashing depression, you have until this time next week to get something in. For all the relevant details, the original competition post is the place to go.

Winners after the jump!First up is Kristina, who included a picture of herself with Sir Beanie McCreepy. Sorry Kristina, the Laws of the Internet demand I post it. But first, her retro moment:

Last year at GDC I went to the Second Life party and met the creator of King’s Quest! I gushed cause he is a celebrity :D I also met a guy who tried to pick me up by pretending to be Peter Molyneux but that a story for another day…

And here’s the lady in question:

Kirk Smith is currently serving time for killing his brother:

Me and my bro had been playing Double Dragon, we were playing co-op, fighting our way, level after level, to rescue my characters girl, after reaching the final level that jerk turned on me, beat the crap out of me and took the girl for himself :’(

The last one is from Thomas Gribben, who had the unfortunate pleasure of playing Shaq-Fu:

I was playing Shaq-fu and my whole family was trying it defeat the end boss everybody tried and failed. So i had a go, I was about 4 years old so i bashed the controller and magically i beat him. Now my family calls me NES Masher or Nasher

Congratulations folks, I’ll be in touch shortly to collect your mailing details.

We’ll return next week with the second, and last, selection of winners. Until then, watch out for the reminders.

Week 1: Win Tickets To Melbourne’s Game On Exhibit [Kotaku AU]

For specific info on how to enter, hit up the original post.

The exhibit opened mid-last week and has a few months of excitement left to go. The official site has everything you need to read to convince you of its awesomeness.

Thanks again to the ACMI for supplying the tickets for the comp.

Week 1: Win Tickets To Melbourne’s Game On Exhibit [Kotaku AU]

Ah, who am I kidding? There’s nothing wrong with March 6, and I have no problem with July 13 either. That’s that day the exhibit ends, if you were wondering. In fact, it gives you quite a few months to check out the event’s selection of antique consoles, famous artwork and retro games.

Sounds delicious, no? Good thing we have six tickets to give away over two weeks then! To be in the running, just describe your most memorable retro gaming experience in fewer than 50 words and email it to tips@kotaku.com.au with the subject “Game On comp”.

A few things to keep in mind:

The winners for the first batch of tickets will be announced on March 12. Winners for the second batch will be announced on 19 March.
[Terms and Conditions]

Thanks to the ACMI for making the competition possible. Youse are awesome.

Game On [ACMI]

]]> http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/03/week_1_win_tickets_to_melbournes_game_on_exhibit/feed/ 0 http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/02/game_on_exhibit_will_hit_melbourne_in_march/ http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/02/game_on_exhibit_will_hit_melbourne_in_march/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:30:00 +0000 Logan Booker http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2008/02/game_on_exhibit_will_hit_melbourne_in_march.html Ever wanted to check out the most ancient consoles the electronic entertainment industry has to offer? Or perhaps peruse some original artwork by Mario man Shigeru Miyamoto?

Looks like the Australian Centre for Moving Images read your mind. Or, more likely, it’s a coincidence.

The dates you’ll want to ink in your unicorn journal are March 6 to July 13. That’s about 18 weeks of retro gaming paradise. Tickets will set you back $15, or $10 for concession. Families of two adults and two children can cheat the system by purchasing a special $44 ticket. Alternatively, you could keep an eye out for a very special ticket giveaway, coming to a gaming blog* near you.

(*SPOILER: IT’S THIS ONE!)

The only downer? It’s in Melbourne. For all you Mexicans out there, I know you’re wondering why you should care, but as a Sydneysider I have the right to cry like a big sissy.

Just try and stop me.

Game On [ACMI]

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