Game Boy in the Palm of Your Hand

12 AA batteries not required

It's not an app, it's not platform dependent, it doesn't cost money so you should just go visit Ben Midi's GameBoy page right now cuz it's freakin' cool. Tap the link below on your touch-screen phone (tablets and PCs work too but don't scale well) and you'll be magically whisked away to a webpage that turns your incredibly expensive, state-of-the-art smartphone into a classic 8-bit monochrome Nintendo GameBoy! LTE data speeds and 8-core CPUs don't mean sh*t when you're playing Mario Bros on a 160x144 pixel black and white screen! The full list of playable games includes: Mario Land, Tetris, Dr. Mario, Bomberman, Kirby's Dream Land, Kirby XXL, Space Invaders, Motocross Maniacs, Bomb Jack, Boxxle 2, Castelian, Centipede and Stopwatch (haven't tried this one out yet, I think I know how it works, though). After recently watching Nintendo smash down anyone trying to steal from their holy vault of intellectual property, however, you can bet Ben's GameBoy page will be coming down fairly quickly so you may want to check it out sooner rather than later (Lawyers? Anyone else smell lawyers?)

CLICK HERE TO VISIT BEN MIDI'S GAMEBOY PAGE

Little Professor Calc for Android

…with a REAL computer inside!

Before the Speak 'n' Spell, which became an official 80s icon by its inclusion in the movie E.T., there was the Little Professor Calculator that was invented by one-time computing powerhouse, Texas Instruments, in order to finally bring a happier, friendly face to the blood-sucking horror that is modern mathematics. Oh I know that math has brought us countless innovations from toasters that enhance our breakfasts to the latest and greatest supercomputers that spend all day planning military strategies, but let's face it, most kids find it pretty boring. Luckily for rich Western children, TI introduced this educational calculator dressed up as a cartoon professor back in 1976, which was born from the (then) dream that through the use of technology, the human condition could be improved upon and utopia would finally be within mankind's reach. So people started cramming microchips into everything they could get their hands on and now here we are today.
Aside from the kiddy artwork that adorned the casing, the Little Professor was a fairly standard calculator except that it also functioned as a basic quiz game, randomly generating simple equations to which the operator would presumably input the correct answer, resulting in hours and hours of fun and learning. For example: 6 x 9 = ? And the answer is 42. "ERROR!" The Professor would then shame you with stark computer-speak displayed on its LED screen and then give you another chance to enter the correct answer. At the end of a round of questions you got to see your total score which let you know if you were going to be a Humanities student or not.
For those of you old enough to remember this little gem and who perhaps would enjoy sharing childhood memories with your own modern iPad/Netflix electro-children of the 21st century, you can now pick up an app-ified version for your Android device from the Google Play store and (as far as I can tell) it's free. Check out the video demo below and then click the link to visit Google Play and pick it up. Enjoy!

THE LITTLE PROFESSOR CALCULATOR APP FOR ANDROID

ColecoVision Reborn

Is shag carpet back in yet? Someone go find a hipster and let me know.

A new Kickstarter project concerning something very dear to my heart has just surfaced. The same group that released the excellent Vectrex Regeneration last year has taken on the task of bringing the retrospectacular ColecoVision console to the mobile gaming community and they need your help. For those of you who need a refresher, the ColecoVision was introduced in August of 1982 as the ultimate Atari and Intellivision-killer -- and it almost succeeded until the Great Video Game Crash of 1983 made short work of the entire industry. At the time of its release, the system was way ahead of its competitors offering near-arcade quality graphics, arcade-style super-controllers and, via a seperate expansion unit, cross-platform compatibility with its greatest nemesis, the Atari 2600. The party was short-lived, however, and the system was discontinued in 1985, just three years before Coleco would file for bankruptcy and right around the same time that a little Japanese company, called Nintendo, decided to reinvent the home gaming market for a new generation with something they called the NES. But thanks to the folks at RantMedia Games, who happen to be huge ColecoVision fans, it looks like you'll soon be able to relive those totally tubular memories right in the palm of your hand. For more info check out the video and the link. (Special thanks to Cheryl for tipping me off on this awesome project!)

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE COLECOVISION KICKSTARTER PAGE

Broderbund's "Karateka" comes to iOS and Android

Karateka! How many teenaged hours did my friends and I spend huddled around my Apple II trying to beat this addictive but maddening game? "Not enough!" I say. A few months ago, when the iOS AppStore introduced a contemporarily-styled remake of this classic early side-scroller I was, to say the least, not amused. I didn't even bother to play more than a few minutes of it since all of the charm of the original had been replaced with a slick new cell-shaded graphics, pristine hifi sound and a modern 3D game engine (shudder). Well whoever fixes these sorts of errors in the universe has just earned their place in heaven by making sure that a proper port of Broderbund's ground-breaking 1984 game would eventually make it to both the iOS and Android platforms. Karateka Classic is now available for both at their respective stores for only 99 cents:

YOU CAN GET KARATEKA CLASSIC HERE FOR iOS

OR GO HERE FOR THE ANDROID VERSION

For those of you who don't already know, Karateka was a revolutionary, for its time, side-scrolling punch-up game that arguably kick-started the entire genre of games that led to Kung Fu Master, Double Dragon, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat all the way up to modern games like the Tekken and Marvel  Vs. Capcom series. Jordan Mechner, the original designer of Karateka later went on to break even more boundaries in the genre by developing the first Prince of Persia game, which eventually went on to become a huge franchise, even spawning a recent feature film. Go get your copy now and relive a true 8-bit experience while sitting on the toilet.

BONUS VIDEO #1

ORIGINAL KARATEKA GAMEPLAY

BONUS VIDEO #2

ORIGINAL PRINCE OF PERSIA GAMEPLAY

ThinkGeek Blowout Sale

Happy Boxing Day everyone! Every so often, people stop and ask me where I get all of my gnarly retro and non-retro geek gear (total lie). While there are a number of places online where you can get your geek on quite successfully, no other single outlet seems to be able to match the sheer vastness of the ThinkGeek.com inventories. And with Christmas having just passed us, now's the time to take advantage of some fantastic deals at this legendary cyber-store with up to 75% off anything geeky, which is everything they sell. "Be more specific!" shout the masses. Well here's a (very) partial list of some of the goodies currently on sale at ThinkGeek:

• "My First Bacon" Talking Plush Doll - originally $19.99 now $14.99!
• Star Trek Starfleet iPhone Case - originally $14.99 now $3.99!
• iCade Jr. Mini Arcade Cabinet - originally $49.99 now $9.99!
• Android Fridge Magnet - originally $3.99 now $0.99!
• Scrolling LED Belt Buckle II - originally $29.99 now $19.99!
• HTTPanties - originally $7.99 now $6.99!

CLICK HERE TO BLOW YOUR WAD AT THINKGEEK.COM

"8-Bitty" Bluetooth Gamepad

ThinkGeek.com, in case you didn't already know, rules. Besides the fact that they have a gazillion different tech/geek/nerd items available to the savvy spaz for purchase, most of their products won't break the bank, wilt your wallet or chomp your change like some other gadgety stores (cough, cough - Brookstone and Sharper Image). Plus they looove retro stuff like this super-awesome Bluetooth-enabled Nintendo-styled gamepad for your iPhone, iPad, iPod or Android device.

Dig it:

• Classic retro-styled game controller fits in your pocket and works with iPhone & iPad
• 8 button control including 4 face buttons, select, start, and two shoulder buttons... plus the D-Pad for movement
• Wireless Bluetooth® connection with auto power save mode
• Mini version of larger size iCade cabinet invented and designed by ThinkGeek
• Fully compatible with all iCade games
• Completely open development platform. App developers can add support for iCade with no permission needed from Apple or ThinkGeek. (See links for code examples below).
• "Atari Greatest Hits" iPad App ready to go with the iCADE, including support for over 100 classic Atari games.
• Atari App comes with Missile Command for free, other games available for in-app purchase. 3-game packs are $1. All 100 games are $14.99
• Compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Android support for most tablets and smartphones.
• NOTE: Atari Greatest Hits only runs on iPad, not on iPhone or iPod touch.
• Requires 2 x AAA batteries (not included)

CLICK HERE TO THROW MONEY AT IT

Bonus Video: iCade 8-Bitty demo in FULL COLOR!

Blood Covered Wagon

Computers in the 21st century are ubiquitous. They're in absolutely everything. It's not even worth trying to list all the microchips floating around your home, work or vehicle at any given time because they are literally everywhere so let's not even go there, OK? However when that first round of 8-bit personal computers invaded elementary schools in the early 1980s, the vast majority of American households didn't even have a digital watch, let alone a personal computer, so getting to spend even a few minutes of quality time with a Commodore PET or an Apple II at your school was like taking a ride into the future. Hell, for me it was like being frickin' Captain Kirk! Of course, most kids of the time, including myself, were already quite familiar with the 8-bit video games that had long lined the walls of arcades, supermarkets and drug stores, so who could blame us when all we wanted to do with those thousand dollar educational computers is play Pac-Man on them, or maybe blow up some asteroids in outer space or dare to protect the Earth from rapidly advancing waves of bloodthirsty alien invaders?! That's what we hoped for. What we got instead was Oregon Trail (sad trombone). One of the first successful educational games for early personal computers, the Oregon Trail was originally developed in 1974 by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium to run on timeshared mainframes and was used to teach kids about 19th century pioneer life. In the game, the player was given a fixed amount of funds with which to buy food, supplies, bullets, oxen and the like, and was sent on his or her way in a crappety covered wagon to travel the treacherous trail that tied together Missouri and Oregon. Ho hum. Actually I say ho hum because in addition to the fair amount of luck required to traverse the dodgy path to the West, the other key component to ensuring a winning game was good forethought and strategy, which I suck at. Plus my character nearly always died from dysentery. So blessed be I when a local Retrogeeker reader suggested that I use this forum to introduce to you possibly one of the coolest retro 8-bit-style video games ever to grace your iThing or Android device (you can also play it on Facebook, but really, who wants to do that?) The game is called Organ Trail and comes to us from a small indy developer called The Men Who Wear Many Hats. I like that. Descriptive and a mouthful, just how I like my coffee. Organ Trail plays roughly similar to the game that it's based upon, except that instead of trying to lead a happy pioneer family across our great nation to a land of untold bounty, you're trying to get your party of ne'er do wells to the Pacific Northwest in a station wagon while fending off a full-on zombie apocalypse. Funny, great retro graphics and sound, and even a decent plot. Check out the trailer below and then you should totally go and buy it! I did!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ORGAN TRAIL WEBSITE

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE IPHONE APP

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ANDROID APP