Retro - Timeline
Sunday5th Apr 2020
News SNK Gals Fighters Gets Rated For The Nintendo Switch In South Korea
A Neo Geo Pocket Color revival
The Neo Geo Pocket Color exclusive 'SNK Gals' Fighters' has been rated for the Nintendo Switch in South Korea and officially confirmed by the Korean Game Rating and Administration Committee. The game was first released in the year 2000 and is a one-on-one fighting game with a 2D chibi art style. The all-female SNK...
Saturday4th Apr 2020
Random Modder Guts A Nintendo GameCube And Turns It Into A Modern Gaming PC
The power button and controllers still work
We're used to seeing console and PC mods but this design is a little different. The YouTube channel Tech by Matt decided to gut a Nintendo GameCube and turn it into a fully-functioning gaming PC. While not everyone will agree with this decision, the system – to be fair – is described as a broken one...
Thursday2nd Apr 2020
News Taito's 1983 Western Shooter The Tin Star Is This Week's Arcade Archives Release
Take out a gang of thugs as the town sheriff
Hamster's retro release this week is The Tin Star. It's an old western-themed shooting originally released by Taito in arcades in 1983. You take control of the town sheriff who must take out a gang of thugs. Here is a description from the PR: Skillfully utilize features in the main stages, such as...
Tuesday31st Mar 2020
News Modder Shrinks The N64 Down To The Size Of A Game Boy Advance SP
And it plays original carts, too
Portable N64 mods – where the console's internals are placed in a handheld shell complete with an LCD screen and battery so you can play Super Mario 64 on the road – have been around for years, but this latest effort has to rank as one of the most impressive yet. GmanModz has taken the guts of the N64 and placed...
Sunday29th Mar 2020
Poll Box Art Brawl #36 - Streets Of Rage 3
A Bare Knuckle sandwich
Bienvenido a Box Art Brawl, our weekly look back at the same game's retro box art from around the world with a cheeky vote attached. To coincide with the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons we took a look at the first game in the series last week. Despite the North American and European variants being very similar, the...
Wednesday25th Mar 2020
Hardware Review PC Engine Mini - Still An Acquired Taste, Even After 30 Years
And we wouldn't have it any other way
Konami – which is now the custodian of the PC Engine brand following its purchase of Hudson Soft in 2011 – is perhaps a little late to the party with its take on the ‘micro-console’ concept that kicked off with the Nintendo Classic Edition a few years back. Since then, we’ve seen SNK, Sony and Sega a
News Falcon Punch Is A New Nintendo-Focused Print Magazine, And It Sounds Amazing
Packs a punch
Former Super Play illustrator and current Rare staffer Wil Overton has announced on Twitter than he's part of a team which is creating that most uncommon of beasts: a Nintendo-centric print magazine. The excellently-named 'Falcon Punch' will boast Overton's trademark anime-style artwork and will aim to cover features and reviews...
Sunday22nd Mar 2020
News Final Fight’s Iconic Arcade Artwork Was Inspired By Dragon Quest
Which in turn was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons
Legendary Capcom artist Akira “Akiman” Yasuda – famous for illustrating games such as Street Fighter II, Captain Commando, Power Stone and many, many more – has revealed the unlikely inspiration for one of his most iconic pieces of artwork. The arcade poster for Capcom’s Final Fight –...
Poll Box Art Brawl #35 - Animal Crossing
Population: indoors
Welcome to Box Art Brawl, the weekly perusal of regional retro box art variants that ends with a vote on the best of the bunch. Last week Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64 battled itself in round #34 and, quite frankly, we thought Japan's moody red and black cover would absolutely destroy the competition, as lovely as they are...
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 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...
