Rambo on C64

Now this brings back memories! Can you imagine children today having the patience to wait for games to load? For me it was all part of the 'ritual', and I actually enjoyed the loading times and uncertainty of it failing to load first go. I liked the blip blip music and graphic slowly building up on screen while you gripped the joystick in anticipation. All part of gaming back in the day.


Rambo

History Of Videogames

Retro Game Collector App

Why Retro?

To answer this straight I would have to say because of the memories it brings. Like a lot of people, some of my happiest times were during childhood and whenever I see toys or games from this chapter of my life, it flicks the endorphine switch in my head and much like an orgasm I get thrills and ripples of warm glows lapping up my spine. Take the first time I saw a picture of Doomlord (from Eagle comics) for example. Id not seen his skeletal mug in something like twenty plus years and to suddenly be confronted by him eyeballing me back from a picture on the internet sent a rush through my soul, like seeing a long dead friend appear as a ghost before me. For a few brief moments I was a teenager again, back in an area of my mind that id not visited in quite some time. Images long buried under the recent mash of memories and current affairs, were instantly resurrected and it was such a blast.
And that is the biggest reason im such a fan of retro things. I simply enjoy getting 'drunk' on vapours I had imagined to be dead, only to discover them just as potent as they were back in the day. Its exciting. But this isn't the only reason. I believe (and this is only MY opinion of course) that toys, adverts, cartoons, etc were much better in the 1970s and 80s than the junk on offer now. One only has to lLook for 'UK adverts 1980' on Youtube to see exactly what I mean. From those memorable Smash robots and Scotch skeleton (re rewind not fade away) to the amazingly catchy tunes like Shake n' Vac and Um Bongo, there is just so much more creativity there. Hell even the public information ads were better than todays offerings of 'healthy frying oils' and 'new and improved this or that'. The Charlie Says cat and Spirtit Of Dark and Lonely Water of the seventies, have all the 2012 ads beat.
And can Spongebob Squarepants really compete with the likes of Captain Caveman and Hong Kong Phooey? I say NO. And im a big fan of the yellow sponge thank you very much. He just isn't patched to my nostalgia satchel the way the Hair Bear Bunch are if you get my drift.
The less said about toys and games the better because even if lightsabres today had real beams or videogames actually transported the player to sun drenched adventures, they still couldn't make a dent on vintage Star Wars loot and Ghosts n' Goblins. Just no way.
I'll be the first one to admit that these rose tinted specs can occasionaly disappoint, and disappoint in a big way too. Like the time I booted up Donkey Kong for the time in decades and found that the game I obssessed over as a boy was a mere 'meh,' these days. So yes these specs can be a let down at times but more often than not they rekindle my fifteen year old self and this is why i'll always be a Retro DJ.

Noseybonk

Not metal or a game but definately retro. Creepy retro.
This guy used to be on childrens television when I was a lad. Its no wonder I grew up with a healthy fear of clowns because im certain this weird chap had something to do with it. Fear him!

Surf Nicaragua

Surfs up!

1985 saw Sacred Reich emerge from the dust of Arizona to add their riffage to the thrash storm that was whipping itself into a ferocious shape during those metalastic years.
Two releases in particular stood out for me: their Ignorance album and the EP Surf Nicaragua (remember the coffin surfing dude on the latters cover? See above pic). Both these records I bought on *vinyl and believe me, they both made the *vinyl feel like slabs of concrete when you chucked them under the *needle. From opening pounder 'Death Squad' through to the brillaint 'Violent Solutions', the Reich's Ignorance album easily stood alongside offerings by fellow thrashers Nuclear Assault, Exodus, Testament etc.
As for Surf Nicaragua, well it was short but oh so sweet, and after I had got it onto my Walkman (think iPod but more prehistoric) a few years later, my skateboarding soundtrack was complete.
Sadly apart from a few recent stabs at reuniting, Sacred Reich have not come back on the scene as strong as other old acts have but there is a fantastic cd/dvd boxset available featuring both albums mentioned here with extra tracks, plus a dvd that includes the band appearing on the Dynamo Open Air 1989 festival. It really is a must buy for anyone who loves 80's thrash metal.

**NB ~ to any youngters reading this: before we had the gubbins we have now to play music, we used things like vinyl which had to have needles to make them play. Google it!

Ten Times As Big As A Man

The King in a cartoon

I thought I had imagined it, stirred up the soundtrack and photos from some wild childhood fever hallucination, but no! The King Kong cartoon series did actually exist and heres a picture from one of the adverts to prove it. A lot of folk that ive asked about this have given me blank stares but a trawl through the interwebz has brought forth fruit! The show was made in 1966 and followed the adventures of King Kong as he befriends the Bond family, and helps save the world from other giant creatures and robots.
What I remembered most about this show was the soundtrack which had a thundering chorus with the words "King Kong! Ten times as big as a man!", and was quite heavy for an animated childrens series. (You can probably find it easily on Youtube).
It was on when I was a child in the late 70's and early 80's, along with the Godzilla/Godzookie cartoon but most only recall the lizards show. Im glad I did a little cyber digging if only to prove to myself I hadn't made the whole thing up.