Retro Gaming Australia

My personal favourite part of the Australian Gaming Database (which we launched yesterday) is the magazine section, where we focus on detailing the history of video game magazines in Australia.

Over the last couple of months, you may recall that we put out a call for anyone with collections of Australian magazines to provide cover scans for us to help us get as many covers together as we could. We’re over halfway towards having a full set (with a hundred or so sitting on my hard drive waiting to be uploaded), so I thought it’d be a good time to show off what we have so far, and publicly thank those who have contributed.

A special thanks goes out to Anthony Tran, Jason New, KiwiArcader and John K, who all took time out to provide scans.

Atomic MPC
Australian 360
Australian Commodore and Amiga Review
Australian GamePro
Australian Station
Cube Australia
Cut Throat Cheatz
Edge (Australian edition)
Games TM (Australian edition)
GameStar
Hyper
Megazone
N64 Gamer
Nintendo Gamer
Nintendo Magazine System
Nintendo: The Official Magazine
Official Australian PlayStation Magazine
Official Australian Xbox Magazine
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Australia (ACP Edition)
Official PlayStation 2 Magazine Australia (Derwent Howard Edition)
Official PlayStation Magazine – Australia
Official Xbox 360 Magazine Australia
PC Games
PC Games Addict
PC Powerplay
PlayStation World
Ultimate Nintendo Magazine

There are still many covers out there which we do not have. If you wish to contribute to the cause, please do not hesistate to contact me.

One of the most exciting features we’ve been working on at Retro Gaming Australia launches today. After two years of work, we are proud to announce that our wiki, the Australian Gaming Database, is now accessible to the public.

The Australian Gaming Database is our attempt to catalogue the history of video gaming in Australia. You will find pages for
– Every console, computer and handheld released in Australia
– Every video and computer game magazine produced in Australia, with cover galleries
– Every video and computer game television programme produced in Australia
– Every video game developer based in Australia
– Every video game developed in Australia, including ones that were never released
– Publishers, distributors and other major companies involved in gaming in Australia
– Key people responsible for the development of the industry in Australia
– Major issues such as censorship
– Court cases involving video game companies

Here are a few pages we recommend looking at to start
– Beam Software
– Megazone
– The Zone
– Star Wars
– Nintendo Entertainment System

Please be aware that the AGDB is still in a beta state. We’ve been working on this project behind the scenes for a long time, and were itching to show it off and get some feedback. Originally we wanted to launch 18 months ago, but the release date kept slipping as our plans got more grandiose. Much of the categorisation needs to be formalised, and a good chunk of the pages are not yet complete.

Many pages are still incomplete, but if you feel like you have something to contribute, you can request an account. Open account registration is not available at this stage since we don’t want to deal with wiki spammers and vandals.