Retro - Timeline
Tuesday2nd Apr 2019
News Don't Expect A Saturn Mini Anytime Soon, Says Sega
"It may be possible in 10 years"
Sega may be playing catch-up with Nintendo when it comes to the whole micro-console business, but the news that the Mega Drive Mini would finally be hitting store shelves later this year has been met with a positive reaction – mostly because emulation expert M2 is involved. Given that Nintendo followed up the NES...
Wednesday27th Mar 2019
News Fans Are Remaking Zelda: Link's Awakening In The Style Of A Link To The Past
How long until Nintendo’s lawyers step in?
A fansite called ZeldaForce is currently hard at work on a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, swapping its visual style to suit that of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the SNES. The project is called 'A Link to the Dream' and is planned to be released on platforms like AmigaOS, Windows, and...
Tuesday26th Mar 2019
Random Someone Cloned Axelay On The NES, Because Why Not
Seriously impressive stuff
It never ceases to amaze us how far modern-day developers can push retro hardware. From elaborate tech demos to fully-fledged ports, programmers are willing to push vintage systems to the absolute limit, forcing them to produce visuals that, back in the day, would have been unthinkable. Take the work of French developer...
Monday25th Mar 2019
Random If You Remember This Super Mario Game Show, You Have A Better Memory Than Us
Is that... Mario?!
In the early days of the video game industry, there were quite a few abortive attempts to mix the medium of interactive entertainment with the more passive pastime of just sitting and watching telly. Shows like GamesMaster and Bad Influence in the UK would try and capitalise on the amazing popularity of video games, but in...
Hardware Review Analogue Mega Sg: Forget The Mega Drive Mini, This Is The Real Deal
The Genesis of another FPGA legend
For many, the Super Nintendo remains the absolute pinnacle of gaming hardware. The is 16-bit powerhouse was home to some amazing games, and via titles like Super Mario World, Zelda: Link to the Past and Street Fighter II, did much to expand the interactive entertainment market and turn an entire generation into...
Saturday23rd Mar 2019
Feature GoldenEye Dev David Doak On Shaking (And Stirring) The FPS Genre On Console
"All we could see were the bad things"
You couldn’t escape it. It was here, rife and potent. It ploughed a path through conventional gaming conversations from the casuals to the parents of gamers that had to put up with the noise, the screaming and the not going to bed because if you didn’t kill John with thirty-seven remote mines stuck to the...
Friday22nd Mar 2019
News This 3D Model Of Super Mario World Is Breathtakingly Beautiful
We'll take ten, thanks
If you love Super Mario World anywhere near as much as we do, you're going to love this 3D model based on the game's overworld, too. Shared on Twitter by Matt Brailsford, this gorgeous little creation features all of the key areas seen on the game's famous map. Everything from the little world numbers, the Yellow Switch...
News More Tantalising Polymega Details Emerge From GDC 2019
Along with some bad news
We've had our eyes on the modular Polymega console for quite some time now, and with good reason – if these guys can pull it off, it will be the ultimate one-stop retro system, covering consoles such as the NES, SNES, Mega Drive / Genesis, Mega CD and even Neo Geo CD.
News Nostalgia Alert! James Pond Codename: Robocod Slips Onto Switch eShop
Cod help us
With the huge lists of new titles on eShop every week, it's sometimes easy for smaller games to slip thought the net as the bigger releases grab our attention. Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted a 16-bit classic that dropped onto Switch yesterday. Yep, James Pond Codename: Robocod is available to download on eShop as we write. For...
Wednesday20th Mar 2019
News We Almost Got Virtua Racing On The Game Boy Advance
The 'Time Extension' that never happened
The news that Virtua Racing is coming to Switch – and that it promises to be the most complete version yet seen – has caused a wee bit o' celebration amongst Sega fans. Yu Suzuki's seminal 3D racing classic effectively laid the foundation f
Tuesday19th Mar 2019
News Sega Wants Your Feedback About Some Of Its Longest-Running Video Game Series
Let them know
In recent times, Sega has reached out to its fanbase on a number of occasions. At the 2018 Tokyo Game Show, it ran a poll to find out what games fans would like to see added to the AGES line and more recently asked the community what games should appear on the Mega Drive Mini. It's now conducting an extensive player survey in the US,...
Monday18th Mar 2019
Feature Uncovering The Story Behind Nintendo's Most Bizarre Tie-In
‘90s Mario mania, posthumous endorsements and White Knuckle Scorin'...
Uncanny, no? It’s Saturday morning and we’re relaxing on the sofa with a coffee, idly scrolling through Twitter while MTV Classics plays in the background. The 1992 video for Roy Orbison’s posthumously released track 'I Drove All Night' plays. Now, we’re partial to...
Friday15th Mar 2019
News Hands Up, Who Needs A Pair Of These Custom Zelda Game Boy Trainers?
"Fresh" as the kids might say
It's safe to say that we're pretty huge Legend of Zelda fans here at Nintendo Life, so much so that we'd happily go out and about wearing our favourite hoodies, backpacks, or t-shirts featuring our favourite Hyrule characters. Taking things up a notch, though, are these pair of custom trainers featuring a particularly...
Tuesday12th Mar 2019
Random Extremely Rare Nintendo World Championships Cartridge Found In An Attic
You'll need the Giant's Wallet for this one
While you can pick up many NES games for next to nothing, there are several cartridges that fetch eye-watering prices these days, especially in good condition. Just last month a mint, unopened copy of the original Super Mario Bros. sold for over $100,000. That's all well and good, but Super Mario Bros...
News Nintendo Adds New NES Games And SP Versions To Switch Online Earlier Than Planned
Kid Icarus, StarTropics and more
In a surprise turn of events, the NES Switch Online app has updated one day earlier than expected, meaning you can now play March's new offerings by updating the software. As promised, this month adds both Kid Icarus and StarTropics. You can find
Monday11th Mar 2019
Random Were Banjo And Kazooie Named After A Nintendo President's Grandchild And Son?
Rethinking history
If you're a fan of Nintendo trivia, you may or may not have heard this one before. Apparently, Banjo and Kazooie from Rare's 1998 Nintendo 64 game Banjo-Kazooie are (at least partly) named after the grandchild and son of former Nintendo president, Hiroshi Yamauchi. This is according to some "amazing trivia" game writer and...
Sunday10th Mar 2019
Random Disney Adds Lyrics To Iconic DuckTales Song From Original NES Game
Reviving a classic
In 1989, Capcom released the action platform title DuckTales on the NES. There's a famous tune in this classic game that is still considered to be one of the greatest 8-bit songs of all-time. Now, after all these years, Disney has paid its respects to the NES outing by featuring the iconic Moon theme in the latest episode of the...
Friday8th Mar 2019
Random Unreleased Wrestling Game On NES Discovered After 30 Years
An incredible find
It might be 2019, but somehow people are still discovering unreleased games on the NES. YouTuber Stephan Reese, also known as Archon 1981, recently acquired the NES game UWC from a former Nintendo employee. If you've never heard about this wrestling title before, that's because it was never actually released. The name is...
Thursday7th Mar 2019
Random Here's What The Game Boy Might Look Like If It Was Designed Today
Introducing the Game Boy Flex!
While we wait for Nintendo to sell us an official Game Boy Classic to complement the NES and SNES Mini, we cannot help our mind wandering. What might the classic 1989 Nintendo Game Boy look like if it were reimagined for our more – ahem – refined design sensibilities 30 years later? Industrial designer YJ Yoon...
Thursday28th Feb 2019
Now funding on Kickstarter
Chris Bateman, designer of 1999 adventure game Discworld Noir and puzzle strategy title Ghost Master, is back with another project, this time creating a tribute to '80s ZX Spectrum adventure classic, The Lords of Midnight. The new project is called Silk, a sandbox RPG adventure which isn't just serving as a tribute to The...
Tuesday26th Feb 2019
Hardware Review Retro-Bit's Sega Genesis And Saturn Pads (Mostly) Hit The Right Spot
Just like you remember?
Fans of retro gaming who will accept nothing but original hardware are in a difficult spot in 2019. Systems from the '80s and '90s aren't getting any younger, and as time goes on, failure rates are only heading in one direction: up. These classic systems are robust, but they weren't built to last forever, and it's par for the...
Monday25th Feb 2019
News Sega Wants To Know Which Games You'd Like On The Mega Drive Mini
But there are limited choices
The Sega Mega Drive Mini is set to bring Sega-focused retro delights to your living room later in 2019, all in a very similar fashion to Nintendo's NES and SNES mini consoles which saw releases in recent years. Before it arrives, though, Sega is hoping to find out which games you'd like to be playable on the system...
Sunday24th Feb 2019
News Shakedown Hawaii Dev Talks About Old-School Cart Release And Porting RCR To Game Boy Advance
“I love tinkering with old hardware”
Brian Provinciano from Vblank Entertainment recently appeared on Electric Playground Live to demo and talk about his upcoming multi-platform release, Shakedown Hawaii. One of the more interesting parts was when he was asked if it would be possible to run the "open-world comedy" on the Super Nintendo or Sega...
Friday22nd Feb 2019
News Analogue Mega Sg To Feature Unreleased Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Game
Source code for Hardcore recovered from a single ailing harddrive
When Analogue released its modern reimagining of the NES, the Analogue Nt, it was a thing of beauty. The premium $500 price, though, meant it was destined for the serious enthusiast market only. Its follow up, the Analogue Nt Mini, trimmed a couple of features but came in at a far...
Tuesday19th Feb 2019
News Turns Out Many Characters Shared One Body In Zelda: The Wind Waker
How did we not notice this before?
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker got off to a rocky start with fans. The 'Celda' backlash may seem like a dim and distant memory now, but at the time many fans were furious that their beloved series was being twisted and turned in a way they didn’t agree with. Fancy that, eh? Fortunately, Nintendo stuck to...
News Prototype Red & Blue Data Sheds More Light On Pokémon's Origins
We could have been catching Capsule Monsters instead
Similar to the previously unearthed prototype designs for Pokémon Gold & Silver, further discoveries seem to have been made about original Pokémon Red & Blue monsters. A fresh batch of prototype assets has been published by Helix Chamber
Monday18th Feb 2019
Feature Meet The First Kid To Beat Zelda: Link's Awakening
(In the west, at least)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is one of the most beloved entries in the entire Zelda series, so it's little surprise that the announcement that Nintendo is remaking it for the Switch caused such a stir. The 1993 original remains a masterclass in adventure game design, and we personally cannot wait to get our hands on...
News Japanese TV Spot For The Original Link’s Awakening Shows Nintendo's Playful Side
The company's always been experimental with art styles
The announcement of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remaster for Switch has had many gamers revisiting the original and rediscovering the quirkiness of Koholint Island and its inhabitants. The remaster’s new toy-town art style is a plastic-y evolution of the aesthetic we saw in A Link...
Friday15th Feb 2019
News Near Mint Condition Copy Of Super Mario Bros. Sells At Auction For More Than $100,000
The first six-figure video game sale
A certified near mint condition copy of the timeless NES classic Super Mario Bros. has sold for $100,150 USD at an auction. This makes it the first-ever video game to sell for six-figures. The reason it fetched such a high price is linked to the rarity. Between 1985 and 1986 in New York and L.A. at test market...
Wednesday13th Feb 2019
Reminder Super Mario Bros. 2, Kirby's Adventure Now On Switch, Plus Two New SP Edition NES Games
More retro goodness
Today sees the latest update arrive in Nintendo Switch Online's NES app, with four new games in total being added for your playing pleasure (or five if you're in Japan). The two main additions this month are Kirby's Adventure and Super Mario Bros. 2, which Nintendo pre
