Don't stop believing that they did actually make a rock band Journey video arcade game in 1983. Not only that, there was even a home video gaming version of it. Both were failures (the home version bombed big time, and the arcade version less so), but hey, that's now why they are being blogged about on Weird Retro. 

The game was produced by Bally Midway,  following the success of the bands albums Escape (1981) and Frontiers (1983). The release of the arcade game was originally intended to run alongside the band's nationwide tour after the release of the Frontiers album. A big deal was made of the fact the game featured characters made of digitized photographs of the members of the band at the time of release: Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Steve Smith, Jonathan Cain and Ross Valory.

The object of the game was to reunite the band with their instruments, all the while listening the band's song  "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)". Which was played on a loop, via a cassette player hidden inside the arcade cabinet. Each instrument is located on a different planet, and the musician must first reach the instrument, then make it back to the band's ship without running into an obstacle. Many of these mini games were weak rip-off versions of popular arcade games of the period. Once all of the instruments have been collected, the band performs a concert (see right) while the player controls, a bouncer whose job is to prevent fans from rushing the stage. Eventually a fan gets past and the crowd steals the band's instruments. Play starts again on a harder level. The game continues until the player has lost all of his or her lives.

An utterly bemusing and confusing review of the Journey arcade game from its TV début in 1983.

The Mighty Tint Record Player was produced by Ohio Art in 1970. Ohio Art are famous for the creation of Etch-A-Sketch. the Mighty Tiny Record Player, described under the tag-line "World's Smallest Record Player", ans came packaged with 3 "tiny" 2" records to play on it, each only lasting a matter of a few seconds each. The records themselves were so small, and as it was only lasting a tiny amount of time, they came without labels. Due to them all looking the same, each had a small number etched onto it, so that you could match it up with its sleeve, if you mixed them up. 

The Mighty Tiny Record Player itself was little more than a motorised turntable, and a steel needle that played the record. The needle itself vibrated against a domed piece of plastic, that acted as the player's speaker. The player was turned on by closing the lid, and had no way volume control or ear-phone jack to enhance the sound or listen to the tiny tinny sounds it produced privately. Though the turntable did have an adjustable speed, as the motor was prone to speed fluctuations, that would distort the sound of the record. Another model of the Mighty Tiny was produced called the Stereoper, which resembled a home cabinet stereo system of the period. 

The melody of The Beach Boys classic Surfin’ USA is almost identical to the melody of Chuck’s 1958 classic Sweet Little Sixteen. They sounded so alike in fact that The Beach Boys had to give Berry co-writing credit in order to avoid a lawsuit. When the single was released in 1963, the record listed Brian Wilson as the sole composer although the song was published by Arc Music, Chuck Berry's publisher. Later releases, beginning with Best of The Beach Boys in 1966, listed Chuck Berry as the songwriter. Later releases list both writers although the copyright has always been owned, since 1963, by Arc Music. Under pressure from Berry's publisher, Wilson's father and manager, Murry Wilson, had given the copyright, including Brian Wilson's lyrics, to Arc Music. Hear for yourself, how the two songs are almost exactly the same. A cheeky move on Wilson's part.

According to this one-shot, give-away comic book, learning the accordion will make you the most popular kid in class. You'll get around, and attract the attention of all the cool kids. There's no fun, like playing the accordion. Interested in learning this wonderful instrument? Want to join a 6 piece accordion band? Well at the back of the comic book there's a "No cost" ... "No strings" ... "No obligation"... Voucher. Entitling you to a free trail accordion lesson. How could you not resist? Sign me up now! In Tune With Fun, is a wonderful piece of 50s marketing through a one-shot comic book. Evocative of that "more innocent age", that the media and marketing 'mad men' of the time wanted to project.

Way back in September 2014, there was the Mix-Tape Monday post about the odd little genre of Splatter Platters (or death discs), the quirky and morbid teen tragedy genre of music from the 1950s and 60s. Songs that told stories of lost love, usually through a motor vehicle accident. The genre was at its height during the 50s and early 60s, and faded in popularity soon after. Songs like Jan & Dean's Dead Man's Curve in 1964, and the Shangri-Las Leader Of The Pack also from 1964, were the peak of the genre, that all but disappeared, until artists of the 70s and 80s rediscovered the genre, and began to be inspired by them.

From The Damned's New Rose (1977), with its opening line that is directly lifted from Leader Of The Pack, and Good Riddance's 2003 punk cover of it, to The Bonzo Doo-Dah Band's comedy song Death Cab For Cutie (1967), to the deeply dark and depressing Emma (1983) by The Sisters Of Mercy (itself a cover of the Hot Chocolate song from 1974). There's the wonderful Pearl Jam cover of Last Kiss (2000), originally recorded by Wayne Cochran in 1961. As well as lead singer of The Damned, David Vanian with his band The Phantom Chords covering the British splatter platter Johnny Remember Me, first recorded by Johnny Leyton also in 1961. So download and enjoy.

How better to listen to the Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers (1962), than with this awesome "monster" speaker, based on Universal's Frankenstein's Monster. A 8" high plastic disembodied cranium of the monster, with a speaker built into the top of his flat head. A perfect piece of ghoulish fun to get any party kicking, originally priced at $5.98, these highly collectible kitsch items of horror memorabilia are selling for high prices on eBay.

Prefect for listening to some campy horror rock, like Screamin Jay Hawkins or Screaming Lord Sutch, however hearing The Beatles singing She Loves You or Please Please Me might have been an odd experience.

In 1995 the avant-garde multimedia and music giant eyeball wearing art collective, The Residents brought out a computer game. Bad Day On The Midway is a surreal, dark carnival of a game and multimedia experience. The game was published by inScape, who also published the darkly surreal Edgar Allan Poe game The Dark Eye, also in 1995.

The puzzle based serial killer murder mystery looks like it was spewed from the mind of David Lynch. Lynch was actually on-board at one point to develop the game into a TV series, after Ron Howard bought the rights. You start the game as Timmy, who has skipped violin lessons to go to the Midway. But you soon are able to switch characters, seeing through their eyes, becoming them.

You start the game as Timmy, and young lad who has skipped his violin lesson to go to the Midway. As you play the game, you can switch characters, literally able to see through their eyes, become them. The dated CGI is still creepy, and the characters more so. As embedded in the CGI are real live-action eyes and mouths, just to up the nightmarish quality of the gaming experience. Things twist, turn and randomly happen, and death is almost inevitable, all played out to The Residents soundtrack.