Blow The Cartridge

Man, I’m getting really into KickStarter of late – not only am I a fan of any business model that removes middlemen between creators and their audience (and if you are too, why not help keep Blow The Cartridge running and get a cool comic from my shop?) but there’s a big resurgence of retrogaming-related projects on there, many of which are in the process of taking my future money in return for some awesomeness.

Last month the new Giana Sisters game arrived on my hard drive and I’m eagerly awaiting my boxed copy. I haven’t had much of a chance to play it yet…hopefully once the games room has finished being built I can get some more gaming time in.

Right now there’s some Kickstarter campaigns going on that I’m backing and I thought you might be interested in checking them out too. Knowing that you’re helping get a new project funded is a cool feeling.

War for the Overworld makes no attempt to hide what it is – a brand new version of the classic game Dungeon Keeper. EA have for reasons best known to themselves not moved ahead with Dungeon Keeper 3 so it’s up to The Internet to make their own new Dungeon Keeper. I worked with one of the Dungeon Keeper 2 team for a while and he told me there wasn’t much real work done on DK3, so this is going to be as close as we’re going to get. It even has the blessing of the producer of the original games, David Amor, a man I used to chat with on IRC a lot back in the day. Funny old small games industry, this is. Anyway! Dungeon Keeper was awesome, and really all they had to say was “oh yeah we’re making a new Dungeon Keeper” and they had my money.

Speaking of games Molyneux-related, I am of course backing Project Godus because a) I’m a victim of Molyneuxmonia and b) I can’t help but fall for a pitch line that basically went “We want to make a new Populous”. I mean, guys, it’s Populous. That game is still good.

Not a game, but definitely retrogaming related is The History Of Ocean book, which looks to be a real ripping yarn about one of the most important games publishers of the 8-bit era. It’s a shame they ended up a part of Atari, but I don’t even think Atari’s lawyers know about it any more, so maybe we can all pretend it didn’t happen. There’s some fantastic reward tiers in there, including giant-sized Bob Wakelin posters that are out of my price range but knock yourselves out.

Last but DEFINITELY not least…ELITE 4. ELITE 4. ELITE 4. The game I’ve been waiting for more than anything else. ELITE 4!!! I think I’ll end up upgrading my pledge to include the boxed version, because man…Elite 4. You have no idea how excited I am for this. This still feels like some kind of fever dream. I’m so excited for it, even though it’s not due out for 2014. I’ve been buying Frontier’s games for years in the hope that somehow I was helping Elite 4 get made…but this is incredible. ELITE 4 YOU GUYS.

ELITE 4!!!!

I’m pleased as punch to say that I and a brand new collection of retro gaming comics will indeed be at the Brisbane Supanova Pop Culture Expo again this November 9 to 11! You guys were kind enough to support the last book so well, I wanted to do something special with this one.

Blow The Cartridge #2 will be available exclusively at the show. I’m really excited about it! It’s over 30 full colour pages of comics about classic video games, and this issue has something special: a never before-seen 13 page comic about the first time I almost got killed buying Street Fighter 2 for the Super Nintendo. It’s really neat. I even somehow conned my poor wife into doing a bunch of the coloring. It’s new stuff that won’t be going on the website for a good long while yet, so get it while you can! Of course it will be available through this site after the show, but this is your chance to get it first!

Aw man! How cool does that look? YEAH!

There’s going to be TONS of cool stuff to check out at the show – so please stop by the Funnywebcomic.com table in the Artist’s Alley section and say hi! I’ll be doing sketches, selling comics and giving everyone super awesome hi-fives all day long. THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME, COME TALK TO ME ABOUT HOW AWESOME THE SUPER NINTENDO WAS:

Check out the funnywebcomic.com booth in the Artist's Alley section! The ONLY table guaranteed NOT to give you space poison.