Retro - Timeline
Friday20th Mar 2020
Video Magician's Quest - The Animal Crossing Clone You've Probably Never Heard Of
Harry Potter meets Animal Crossing?
If you’ve played an Animal Crossing game, we bet you’d probably agree that there’s nothing else out there truly like it. From the way you can interact with the animal villagers to the way the game syncs up to the internal clock in your system to make the wild world that much more immersive, it’s truly a...
Wednesday18th Mar 2020
Winning the living room is no easy feat
We've been following the progress of the Intellivision Amico for some time now, and it's certainly shaping up to be an interesting venture; with names like Dave Perry and Tommy Tallarico involved – as well as the allure of that classic Intellivision branding – we can't help but wish the project the best of...
Sunday15th Mar 2020
Poll Box Art Brawl #34 - Perfect Dark
Yeah, we know it's Japan
Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, the weekly vote where you decide which retro regional box art variant wins in the beauty stakes according to sophisticated modern tastes. Oh yes. Last week Castlevania for the N64 entered the ring in a third appearance for the series and one of the closest fought brawls to date. In the end...
Tuesday10th Mar 2020
News This Portable Nintendo 64 Is The Stuff Of Dreams
Use your real cartridges and memory cards
Ever wondered what it'd be like to take your Nintendo 64 games on the go? Well, with this new custom console, you can do exactly that. YouTube user smackedsam has shared a video showing off his latest design, a portable N64 console that can play all of your original cartridges. The body was 3D printed and...
Sunday8th Mar 2020
Poll Box Art Brawl #33 - Castlevania (Nintendo 64)
Got its Reinhardt in the right place
Welcome back to Box Art Brawl, the weekly contest where retro video game box art variants duke it out for your approval. Last week we broke the 'rules' and featured a non-Nintendo platform example in the spiky blue form of Sonic the Hedgehog for the SEGA Mega Drive / Genesis. The hedgehog's first game cover is...
News The Winner Of The Nintendo PlayStation Isn't Oculus VR Founder Palmer Luckey After All
"I'm looking to not have this machine just buried in a closet somewhere"
As you might have heard, earlier this week the elusive Nintendo PlayStation was sold for $360,000 USD. A tad underwhelming after the owner previously knocked back a $1.2 million offer. Who ended up buying it, though? While it was believed to be Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey,...
Saturday7th Mar 2020
News Square Enix's Yoshinori Kitase Would Like To Remake Final Fantasy V
Reviving the medieval-fantasy RPG
Next month is a busy period for Square Enix, with not one but two remakes coming out. This has got many fans of the company wondering what else could be remade in the future. While Square Enix hasn't said anything official itself, during a recent interview with Game Reactor, veteran producer Yoshinori Kitase –...
Friday6th Mar 2020
News Nintendo PlayStation Sells For Significantly Less Than Was Previously Offered
Update: Auction ends well below $1.2 million
Update: The console has sold for $360,000, including the buyer's premium. That means the $1.2 million previously offered by a private buyer would have made much more sense. You live and learn, clearly. Only one bid was made, wh
News New Documentary Uncovers The Amazing Story Of EarthBound Beginnings
A story 25 years in the making
The Mother series – better known as EarthBound in the west – is one of those franchises that benefits from a massive amount of attention from the Nintendo fanbase, despite the fact that the company has done relatively little to encourage such devotion over the years. Sure, Mother 2 was localised as EarthBound on...
Thursday5th Mar 2020
News P.O.W. Prisoners Of War Is This Week's Arcade Archives Release On Switch
"Experience an intense jailbreak"
Hamster's Arcade Archives release on the Nintendo Switch eShop this week is P.O.W. Prisoners of War. It's a side-scrolling action beat 'em up by SNK that was originally released in arcades in 1988. It followed with a home console release on the NES a year later. This standalone Switch version will be available on...
Tuesday3rd Mar 2020
Feature NES Creator Masayuki Uemura On Building The Console That Made Nintendo A Household Name
"Back then, we didn’t know if it was going to be popular or not"
There's no denying that the NES – or Famicom as it was known in its native Japan – is one of the most important pieces of video game hardware ever made. Not only did it turn Nintendo from an outsider player to industry leader, it laid down the foundations of an industry which...
News "Why Make It Mini?" NES Creator Says People Would Still Buy A Regular System Today
Would you?
For those who weren't alive during the era of Nintendo's iconic NES (or Famicom as it was known in Japan), the relatively recent release of the NES Classic Edition has provided perhaps the most authentic way to experience the console ever since. The miniature system looks and feels just like the real thing - although the console itself...
Sunday1st Mar 2020
Poll Box Art Brawl #32 - Sonic The Hedgehog
What Nintendon't
Welcome to Box Art Brawl, the weekly battle between box art variants to find out which lucky region got the best artwork with their retro games. Ready for a change of pace this week? That's right, we're getting an attitude, sticking it to the man and throwing out the rule book that's governed the previous thirty-one brawls. Yes,...
Friday28th Feb 2020
News Analogue Is Retiring Its Amazing Nt Mini After One Final Production Run
Once it's gone, it's gone
Analogue has announced that it is retiring its Nt Mini system after one final production run. The Nt mini v2 features "a new and perfected NES cartridge slot, updated UI, branding, packaging, and includes a new 8BitDo 2.4g controller for NES in the box," but is, according to its maker, "the same Nt mini you know and love."...
News NES Creator Reveals The "Shocking" Story Behind That Infamous Flap
Why the Famicom lost a microphone and gained a hinge when it went west
It’s well known that when the Famicom was redesigned as the NES for the American market, Nintendo wanted to make it resemble a video recorder rather than a games console – but the man behind the NES has revealed there is another reason why the American version of the console...
News Evercade Lineup Grows Thanks To "Modern Retro" Titles Xeno Crisis And Tanglewood
The 12th cart announced so far
We've been following the progress of the Evercade with interest over the past year, and today the news has broken that the 12th confirmed cart for the system will be a double pack which includes Xeno Crisis and Tanglewood, two modern titles designed with Sega's classic Mega Drive hardware in mind. Xeno Crisis, as you...
Wednesday26th Feb 2020
News The Creator Of The World's Most Famous Cheat Code Has Died
The hack that became part of video game legend
Cheat codes aren't much of a 'thing' these days, but back in the '80s and '90s, they were a big deal. These little hidden hacks were used by developers to test portions of the game but often made their way into the final code by accident or design. In the case of the famous 'Konami code' – Up, Up,...
Tuesday25th Feb 2020
News Nintendo Customer Support Goes Above And Beyond For 95-Year-Old Grandma's Busted Game Boy
A heartwarming tale
A story has surfaced online over the past few days telling the story of a 95-year-old grandmother in Japan who received a pretty heartwarming response from Nintendo's customer support team. The grandmother's daughter, seventy-year-old Kuniko Tsusaka, has shared the story in a recent print edition of Japanese newspaper, Asahi...
News Go Behind The Scenes Of GoldenEye 007 With This Upcoming Documentary
"I remember saying to the team, it's all downhill from here"
GoldenEye 007 is without a doubt one of the most influential video games of all time. While it certainly wasn't the first FPS title to find mainstream success – we'd already seen DOOM by the time it arrived – it popularised the genre on consoles and added layers of depth, such as...
Sunday23rd Feb 2020
Poll Box Art Brawl #31 - Ghosts 'n Goblins
Malarkey about goblins, spooks, and demons
Welcome one and all to Box Art Brawl, the ongoing series where we dig up old game box art, compare regional variants and vote for the best before flinging them back where they came from. Last week Quest 64 took on its counterparts across the globe in a bout which saw the European variant triumph over its...
Thursday20th Feb 2020
News Arcade Archives VS. Mahjong Is Your Next Retro Switch Fix From Hamster
Launching tomorrow!
Hamster's latest retro release on Switch has been revealed, and this time we're being treated to 1984 arcade title, VS. MAH-JONG. The game will join the Switch's 'Arcade Archives' series, where players can enjoy classic arcade titles with modernised features like adjustable game settings and leaderboards. Here's the official...
Wednesday19th Feb 2020
News Rare Developer Elaborates On Conker's 'Tonal Shift' From Twelve Tales To Bad Fur Day
From the mouth of The Great Mighty Poo himself
As many Nintendo fans from the N64 era already know, the foul-mouthed and filthy Conker's Bad Fur Day began life as a cutesy platformer before changing lanes and becoming an over-18-only affair full of innuendo, naughty words and wee. Plenty of titbits related the game have come to light over the years...
Review Pop'n TwinBee - Konami's Colourful 16-Bit Shmup Shines With Couple Mode Co-op
Colour me glad
The TwinBee series enjoyed relative success in Japan throughout the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Pop’n Twinbee was the sixth game in the series, and the last proper shoot ‘em up entry before Konami took it in a different direction with things like spin-off platformer Rainbow Bell Adventures. Because it was never released in...
Tuesday18th Feb 2020
News Battle Axe, A Retro-Inspired Arcade Adventure, Passes Its Switch Kickstarter Goal
Update: Over £45,600 raised so far with 9 days remaining
Update: Battle Axe is officially Switch-bound as the Kickstarter campaign has reached that particular stretch goal. It has raised over £45,600 at the time of writing. 9 days of funding time remain. Original Story [Wed 29th Jan, 2020 13:00 GMT]: Yesterday we saw a rather tasty looking...
Monday17th Feb 2020
News Get Game Boy Classic Zelda: Link's Awakening DX For Less Than £3 With My Nintendo (Europe)
Just £2.69 / 2.99€
If you enjoyed the recent The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake on Switch and wanted to get a taste of the original material, the European My Nintendo rewards scheme currently has the perfect deal for you. Right now, you can go ahead and download The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX on 3DS for just £2.69 / 2.99€...
News The Man Behind The NES And SNES Is Holding A UK Talk Next Week
Masayuki Uemura will discuss his career with Nintendo R&D2
Masayuki Uemura – the legend behind such iconic Nintendo hardware as the NES / Famicom, SNES / Super Famicom and Zapper and one of the most important people in the history of the Kyoto company – will be in the UK next week to hold an exclusive talk about his career. Taking place on...
Sunday16th Feb 2020
Poll Box Art Brawl #30 - Quest 64 / Holy Magic Century
Holy magic century, Batman!
Bienvenido, benvenuta, أهلا بك, bienvenue, willkommen, 欢迎, bem-vinda, ようこそ, and welcome to Box Art Brawl, the series where you vote on the best box art from regional variants of the same game. Last week we watched ISS 64 as it engaged in a rare three-way football match. After a tense 90 minutes Europe...
Thursday13th Feb 2020
Book Review Sega Arcade: Pop-Up History - A Gloriously Decadent Tribute To A Golden Age
Taikan your breath away
To anyone who didn't experience them firsthand, it's hard to accurately convey the mesmerising power of amusement arcades in the '80s and '90s. A furious storm of light, sound and smell (the latter not always pleasant, we should add), your typical arcade was dominated by flashing screens and packed, jostling bodies. This was...
News The Nintendo PlayStation Is Now Up For Auction, Current Bid Stands At $31,000
Expect that number to soar
The famous Nintendo PlayStation prototype has now been put up for auction, as promised towards the end of last year. At the time of writing, the current bid stands at $31,000. You can view the listing for yourself here if you're interested; the bidding is set to end in 22 days' time and any reserve price set by the owner...
Wednesday12th Feb 2020
Mario Memories Playing Super Mario Bros. 3 In The Garden
Darren recalls a stolen moment in his back garden with Mario
Today is the 30th anniversary of the US release of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES! That's right, boomers - you're getting old. In honour of the occasion we're republishing this article originally posted as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations for the iconic Mario franchise as a...
