What is a Master System? If you’re reading this in English and you owned a Sega Master System you probably didn’t own the most complete version of the Sega Master System. This isn’t idle snobbery: the Machine that was released outside Japan was notably different Read More …
Tag: sharable
A Tale of Three Brawlers
With everything that’s happened last year, it’s been easy to miss some of the more interesting tid-bits – like the universe gifting us updates to three classic 8/16-bit brawlers in the space of 18 months: River City Girls, Streets of Rage 4 and Battle Toads. Read More …
180 Free games: Analysis of a Cover Tape Collection
It just so happened that a few weeks ago I had to move my original Zx Spectrum collection out of storage. Faced with a huge plastic crate filled to the brim with cassettes, it suddenly struck me how ridiculous it was that we had some Read More …
I made An album of Music for the Megadrive, But this is not a Chiptune Album.
I should probably get a bit better at announcing stuff long before I release it, but I’ve just released a brand new album: This is Not a Chiptune Album. Written exclusively for the sound hardware found in a Sega Megadrive, this is not a typical Read More …
“Lol, Get a Raspberry PI”
Whenever one of those fancy retro mini consoles is announced there’s always an inevitable comment someone posts in response: Why Don’t You Just get a Raspberry Pi and emulate on that? Some dude on the internet But what happens when you listen to this advice? Read More …
Streets of Rage 4: a Less Enthusiastic Review
It’s no secret that I wasn’t particularly fond of Sonic Mania. Having replayed it more recently, I still stand by my view. Sonic Mania was a game which had a complete mastery of the character at the mechanical level, but didn’t seem to understand why Read More …
32-bit Audio Fight Club: The Saturn, the PlayStation and the End of the Chiptune Era
The first rule of 32-bit Audio Fight Club is that you don’t talk about 32-bit Audio Fight Club. Actually, that’s not quite true: the first rule of 32-bit Audio Fight Club is that…well…you probably wouldn’t even think to talk about 32-bit Audio Fight Club. Or Read More …
Strider: The Unfortunate Mr Hiryu
In gaming there are the origin stories we all know – like the origins of Mario and Sonic the hedgehog – but there are many more characters who remain relatively obscure – like the stars of most microcomputer budget games or Japanese cassette titles. More Read More …
Retrospective: Headhunter
Uh oh, Christmas is inevitably a time for misty-eyed nostalgia isn’t it? Oh well – at least its the perfect time to look back 18 years to the festivities of 2001, back to the first time I played Headhunter on the Sega Dreamcast. The back-half Read More …
I wasn’t enamored with the Sega Dreamcast
Originally, I wasn’t enamored with the Sega Dreamcast. In fact, it’s a bit strange I even remember my first encounter, really: While my first encounters with new hardware generations were generally outlook-changing, my first look at the Dreamcast was a bit of a damp squib. Read More …
Nothing New in the Villlage: The 35 Year Old Ancestors of Untitled Goose Game
Everyone loves the Untitled Goose Game. I love the Untitled Goose Game. If you haven’t played the untitled Goose Game, you should play the Untitled Goose Game: A stealth game that follows in the footsteps of Metal Gear Solid and Hitman, Goose Game’s masterstroke is Read More …
Joystick Wagglers: Were Left Handed Control Sticks an Industry Conspiracy?
Have you ever wondered why arcade control sticks were always placed to the the left of the buttons? To be honest I’d never given it much thought until I saw this tweet the other day: Have you ever noticed that no matter what arcade game Read More …
The Surprisingly Modern Cult of Horace
All good things come to an end. In my case this turned out to be the relatively cushy storage solution i had for all of my old Spectrum gear. Still, silver linings and all that: One of the big advantages of having to get your Read More …
Carjacking down Memory Lane: Returning to The Getaway’s Digital London in 2019
This article was originally posted over at https://www.gametripper.co.uk. Why not head over there and see what lovely articles they have ready for you to read right now? (well, after you’ve read this one obviously) When is a game not a game? The usual response to Read More …
8-Bit Showdown: How popular were the Master System and the NES in the UK?
When it isn’t doing is it’s upmost to sabotage Western democracy, one thing that can be said for Facebook is that it does have some of the friendliest retro communities on the internet. A few weeks ago one particular discussion caught my eye: how popular Read More …
FatNicK Reviews Stuff: Bits and Pieces A History of Chiptunes
I’m pretty surprised that its taken me so long to get round to reading this book myself, to be honest, but here it is: A quick review at Kenneth McAlpine’s scholarly examination of the history of chiptunes. I suppose the first thing that needs to Read More …
Dreamcast SD Adaptors: Are They any Good?
The cold embrace of death, eh? It comes for us all eventually, but for some – in this case CD-based games consoles – it comes quicker than most. While older cartridge-based machines will keep going until either their capacitors go pop or the universe falls Read More …
The Xbox 360 Will Never be Retro (a tedious classification post)
Ok, I’ll have to admit it – as someone who fits in the relatively uncommon venn diagram between history and retrogaming, I probably let myself ponder the question of what exactly retrogaming IS a little too much. Why does it matter? after all, it’s just Read More …
Playstation Classic:Where on Earth is Wipeout?
Egad! I pop off on holiday for a couple of weeks and Sony go and release a full list of the titles they’re baking into the Playstation classic. Needless to say, the list has proved to be a little bit divisive. In fact, given that Read More …
In Pursuit of Power Drift
Does any game own its genre as effectively as Mario Kart? Sure, the more po-faced among the racing brigade might draw influence from other (more realistic) avenues, but if you’re looking towards making a light-hearted kart racer, it’s impossible to avoid the touch Read More …