With Halloween only three days away, it’s getting quite late in the game to figure out what you’re going to dress up as this year. Here to the rescue, as always, is VC&G with the second of two parts on last-minute Halloween costume ideas. The first part dealt with vintage computer-related costumes. This second part deals exclusively with video game-related costumes. So if you’re desperate for some ideas, feel free to take a look what we’ve cooked up for you below. And by all means, share any of your own ideas with us as well.

Special thanks to Matt of Video Game Obsession for providing the Urban Champion and 3-D World Runner scans used below.

[ Continue reading VC&G’s Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas: Video Game Edition » ]

About a month ago, RedWolf posted a column about the first computer he ever used, and it started me thinking about my specialty: computer games. What was the first computer game, of any sort, that I played? I’ve spent some time thinking about it and sorting through the memories, and while I haven’t quite arrived at a definite answer, the list can be narrowed down to a handful of titles. They may not be the absolute earliest games I ever touched, but these are the ones that drew me into the whole sordid world of being a computer geek.

I could take the easy way out, and claim that The Oregon Trail was it and end the discussion there. The Trail was introduced to my whole generation during the early years of elementary school, while we sat in a library full of Apple ][‘s and had a teacher drone on about how to insert a floppy into the drive and close the door. Every school I attended seemed to love having students play it during the “pioneer” section of Social Studies class, but it honestly didn’t make a great impression on me. It seemed boring, repetitious, and almost impossible to win. And while I, like all normal kids, enjoyed leaving my path westward littered with dead animals and broken limbs, it wasn’t a title I sought out on my own for entertainment. It was too much a part of school work to ever be much of a game.

[ Continue reading What Was the First Computer Game You Ever Played? » ]

If you’ve ever wondered what really went on inside the game Super Breakout, then wonder no further. The explanation that Atari contrived is so dramatic and exciting that I’m not even going to make anything up this time. I’ll just read directly from the instruction manual for the Atari 2600 version of the game…

[ Continue reading Retro Scan of the Week: Super Breakout’s Rainbow-Smashing Astronaut » ]

I hereby declare: let this monstrosity be spread about the world as the scariest, strangest, and most disturbing Halloween costume ever conceived by mankind:

And “luckily” for me, it has to do with video games. I’m not quite sure what Atari’s marketing department was thinking when they approved (or commissioned?) this costume. Oh wait; I know: money…

“Say, Charlie…we’ve got this great idea…kids can dress up as the game Asteroids for Halloween. Their face will look like a disfigured conglomeration of hollow rocks! We’ll sell ten million units in three months — each family buying two or three costumes a piece because, quite frankly, we shit gold.”

We can only hope that this costume didn’t encourage anyone to shoot little kids in the face. Hmm…perhaps next Halloween I’ll go as one of those big straw archery targets. But hey; the 1980s was a more innocent time.

These images are from the brilliantly entertaining site known as RetroCrush. They have a gallery of some other vintage video game-related costumes that’s definitely worth checking out. Also, some years ago, the curator of RetroCrush compiled a list of the worst Halloween costumes of all time, and sensibly, this costume has a place on the list.

Coming Soon: Halloween costumes based on the racing asphalt in Pole Position, the inky blackness of Pong, and a realistic plastic mask of Donkey Kong’s hairy ass.

After all, he is a donkey.

[Editor’s Note: Please welcome Ulaf Silchov, an expert in video games and computers, for his first contribution to VC&G. –RW]

SOMETIMES I LIKE TO PLAY THE VIDEO GAMES. I LIKE TO PLAY THE VIDEO GAMES BUT THE VIDEO GAMES ARE HARD FOR ULAF TO UNDERSTAND. SO ULAF READS BOOK ON THE VIDEO GAMES TO WIN THEM GOOD. AND ME, BEING ULAF, WOULD LIKE TO SHARE SECRET BOOKS DISCOVERED ON THE VIDEO GAMES WITH MY PERSONS.

THE FAVORITE VIDEO GAME

BEFORE THE BOOKS ON THE VIDEO GAMES, I SHARE WITH MY PERSONS NOW THE FAVORITE VIDEO GAME OF MY MIND:

IT ABOVE IS THE VIDEO GAME THAT MANY SMALLER THE VIDEO GAMES PLAY INSIDE IT IF YOUR MIND HAVE THE RIGHT DEVICES. BUT ULAF ONLY HAVE ONE DEVICE AND SO SMALL IT IS FOR THE HANDS OF ULAF, THAT ULAF CRUSHED IT. AND THEN MY MIND STOPS.

[ Continue reading HOW TO BEAT THE VIDEO GAMES » ]