Collector of New Zealand digital games, Michael Davidson, has been busy packing up his collection for the exhibition he is helping to mount at Digital Nationz this weekend in Auckland.
Alongside the chance to play the next generation consoles from Sony and Microsoft, punters will also be able to view (and perhaps even play?) some of New Zealand’s classic games. Davidson has posted some sneak peaks on twitter (@rad_dav). I hear that his Auckland-made “Malzak” arcade machine — which is a beautiful piece — also made it onto the truck. Can’t wait!
Edit 2/10/13: And here it is. On the Sunday, we had a visit from a man who worked assembling the “Malzak” machines at Kitronix. His son was an exhibitor in the Homegrown area, which goes to show that the games of today have all sorts of connections to the games of the 1980s.
Malzak
i too loved meeting and playing the awesome games of my childhood and interviewing the guys for Hashtag Radio.
As a retro collector this was my highlight of Digital nationz , but i didnt see the malzak machine! I picked up an empty Malzak machine a few months ago and are now running Atari Defender inside it, I had never heard of malzak until i picked this unit up and have been looking into who they were.
The Malzak machine was just on the RHS as you entered the museum space at Digital Nationz. It was playable in emulation. Davidson and I have written about the game, if you’re interested in reading some more about its history: http://www.academia.edu/738239/Game_History_and_the_Case_of_Malzak_Theorising_the_manufacture_of_local_product_in_1980s_New_Zealand
Is there a podcast of your interview available?