The team behind the upcoming 2D side-scrolling platformer Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit realized it would be attending various conventions over the coming months and put together a mobile version of the iconic ‘nerd room’ from the upcoming game. It’s a cool nod to the retro vibe of AVGN 8-bit, but it also reminded me just how much I mis🌱s my old gaming wall.
Born in 1989, my gaming wall wasn’t nearly as retro as the one created by the teams at Mega Cat Studios and Retroware. For better or worse—let’s be real, better—the 70s-style wood paneling was already gone before I started my own wall, but other than that it was very similar. For me, it started as a shelf to hold my Sega Genesis games and VHS tapes before expanding to include the few Sega Saturn games I had, a ton of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, and a handful of Sega Dreamcast and Gamecube games. The different sizes of cases always presented a challenge that at the time was annoying, but now I would be thrilled to have to work out.
By the time the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 rolled around, things were starting to move in the digital direction. I remember thinking, “There is no way I’ll ever go digital! I love having my physical goodies!” Man, times have changed. I’m in a completely different house now, but there is no gaming wall. The few physical games I have sit on a simple stand near my consoles, though it’s hardly enough to make a wall out of even if I wanted to.
To build the Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit nerd room, Retroware took 60 high-resolution photos of the iconic wall of games and printed them out, measuring each one to make them accurate to the actual set. In the end, the centerpiece waꦿll is two 4-foot segments combined to cre༒ate the 8-foot wall with that 70s-style wood paneling.
I always wanted to recreate the iconic Nerd Room just for the hell of it, and this ended up being the perfect excuse. Plus, our team’s got a bunch of random skills—carpentry, painting, logistics, printing—you know, stuff we don’t really get to use when making indie games. So it was fun (and cathartic) to work those hard-skill muscles a bit. The fans at the expo were really into it, too. We had just announced the game right before MAGFest, so a lot of AVGN fans didn’t know🙈 that it existed yet. Then they’d walk into the expo and boom—there’s a full-on, free-standing Nerd Room right in front of them.
– Justin Silverman, Creative Director at Retroware
How about you? Do you still have an ep💜ic gaming wall? If so, feel free to brag about it and even post a picture below for the rest of us to enjoy!
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit is currently in development for NES(yes, that NEඣS), PC, and all m🃏odern consoles.
Published: Feb 17, 2025 04:48 pm