STACK #188 June 2020

FEATURE GAMING

I like the idea that I’m

I

now here helping kids get their first consoles

STACK ROVING REPORTER

about games and sell people stuff that they need – it’s generally pretty fun.”

the Xbox One X is the most

BEST SELLERS at

powerful out of all of them right now, so I do like that. But the Switch – as a kid I had Nintendo 64 and that

Different systems vary in popularity in different places, and Grant is quick to reveal what rules Wollongong. “PlayStation is god here! Everybody wants PlayStation, mostly because everyone grew up with their PlayStation consoles as a kid and they have that connection to it.” Grant’s more of an Xbox guy though. Or maybe Nintendo? “I prefer Xbox just because I got it first, I guess. Technically

Date ending: 22/05/20

SHOP TALK

console blew my mind. Overall, my true allegiance is to Nintendo.” That tallies with what Grant’s playing currently. “I’m doing Animal Crossing nearly every day. Apart from that I’m in a bit of a dry period at the moment. Moving Out has been a lot of fun.” large amiibo collection – I’ve got all of them except some of the Animal Crossing ones, it’s a full glass cabinet – I need to get something bigger.” When asked which games he’s most looking forward to, Grant dispels any allegiance doubts… “The Paper Mario game He’s also an avid amiibo fan. “I have an embarrassingly that’s just been announced, definitely, the new Breath of the Wild … Just whatever Nintendo are going to come up with next, they’ve always been big with the surprises.” far from its original format, holds the Guinness Book of Records title for most ported game, and has graced at last count some 70 or so formats, arguably the most successful of which was the Game Boy version from Nintendo… Speaking of the Japanese arcade giant, June 1996 saw the release of their Nintendo 64 console in their homeland. Their first foray into polygon graphics, it wouldn’t come to Australia for another nine months… Meanwhile, June 1994 saw another arcade giant in Atari release their ill-fated 64-bit Jaguar console in PAL guise – back when different parts of the world had different television formats. While

F or JB Hi-Fi Wollongong almost a circle of life thing. Asked how he started gaming, he had a great answer. “Mum bought me a SEGA Master System as a kid, so that was the first one I owned myself – it’s funny, it was from the same shopping centre that I’m working in now. I like the idea that I’m now here helping kids get their first consoles.” Grant’s been at the store Central’s games coordinator Grant Oxtoby, his job is so long that the years have blurred – “About 13 or 14”. He got his start as games coordinator around 2009. “When they first brought the role in, the guy they hired first went to another store, so I got in and just decided to sit on it, because I enjoy it! I’ve never wanted to go any further because I get to talk to people

1 CALL OF DUTY MW STANDARD PS4/XB1 2 MANEATER PS4/XB1 3 FIFA 20 PS4/XB1/SWITCH 4 MARIO KART 8 DELUXE SWITCH 5 GRAND THEFT AUTO V PREMIUM ONLINE PS4/XB1 6 JUST DANCE 2020 PS4/XB1/SWITCH 7 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA BREATH OF THE WILD SWITCH 8 STAR WARS JEDI FALLEN ORDER PS4/XB1 9 MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN PS4 10 SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE SWITCH the machine had some impressive games, it had possibly the biggest dud of a controller in history, and died a swift death. We still wish that we had one though… Tetris (1984) Populous (1989) Super Mario 64 (1996) Diablo II (2000) Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006) Infamous 2 (2011) Resident Evil 5 (2016) GAMES RELEASED IN JUNE

Oh, hi Grant!

JUNE

A little slice of gaming history…

1984: Australia got a one dollar coin, Britain’s top popstars asked Do They Know It’s Christmas? for Ethiopian famine relief, and in the US the Ghostbusters were let loose, as was Apple’s mouse- driven Macintosh computer. Meanwhile in Russia, June saw the culmination of a Russian programmer’s dream to use computers to make people happy. His name was Alexey Pajitnov, and his creation that would go on to

Tetris . Its name a portmanteau of “tetrominoes” – the shapes, each constructed of four squares, used in the game – and “tennis”, which Pajitnov just happened to like, the original game, programmed on the Soviet-made Elektronika 60, soon spread about the Soviet Academy of Sciences where Pajitnov worked, leaving mass addiction in its wake. The game was too good to stay a secret, and headed west in a convoluted tangle of rights issues that took years to sort out, with Russia’s communist system

bring joy to more people worldwide than any other video game ever was a puzzle sensation that he called

of the time not exactly helping matters. Tetris , rarely straying

1.3 million copies of The Last of Us sold in the first week

24 years since Super Mario 64

1728 official games released for the ZX Spectrum

5 years that BioShock Infinite took to develop

728,000 copies of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial buried in New Mexico landfill

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