Retro - Timeline
Sunday26th Sep 2021
News Two Namco Classics Join Hamster's Arcade Archives This Week
A double serve of retro games
Hamster Corporation joined in on the Nintendo Direct celebrations earlier this week, with not one but two Namco game releases on the Switch eShop. First up we've got the original PAC-MAN title, released in arcades in 1980. The same rules apply here - players must clear stages by eating all the dots in each round...
Thursday23rd Sep 2021
News 'WATA Certified' Copy Of Sonic The Hedgehog Sells For Record Price
Update: "Our customers trust us" says auction company founder, responding to Yuji Naka
Update (Thu 23rd Sep, 2021 10:30 BST): PR firm Goldin Solutions—representatives of both Goldin Auctions (the seller of this Sonic game) and grading company WATA—has contacted us to highlight the replies of Goldin Auctions founder Ken Goldin to Yuji Naka in a...
Tuesday21st Sep 2021
Random This Tiny Game Boy Is Probably The World's Smallest Game Console
The Thumby is about as niche as it gets
New mods and takes on classic hardware are a fun part of the gaming scene, as those with nostalgia for the good old days mess around with old systems to make them better or - sometimes - just sillier. A little while ago we shared the creation of a wide Game Boy Advance by YouTube channel / website The Retro...
Monday20th Sep 2021
News Channel 4 Is Resurrecting GamesMaster, The UK's Most Popular Video Game TV Show
Update: It's official, coming to E4 later this year
Update #2: Channel 4 has finally confirmed reports that it is rebooting the classic UK video game-based TV show, GamesMaster (thanks, Eurogamer). The show will initially premiere on E4's YouTube later this year and will be followed by a televised run on E4, Channel 4's youth-focused channel. The...
Sunday19th Sep 2021
Random Luigi Has Been Found Inside The Dreamcast Prototype Of Sega GT
L is real!
Over the course of the '90s, Sega and Nintendo were obviously direct competitors - we've seen this documented in texts like the 'Console Wars' by Blake J. Harris. Despite this, it seems there was some rather incredibly weird stuff going on behind the scenes at one of these video game companies - so weird actually, that it was "borrowing"...
Friday17th Sep 2021
News Retro Shooter ExZeus Has Been Polished Up For A September Switch Re-Release
Go ahead, mech my day
Ziggurat are on a roll with resurrecting games from decades ago — yesterday, we had the news that cult vampire classic Bloodrayne was getting "ReVamped" for the Switch, and today, Ziggurat have announced a September 30th release date for ExZeus: The Complete Collection on consoles and PC. ExZeus (AKA Counter Force) was an...
Gallery Is The Panasonic Q The Most Goshdarn Beautiful Nintendo Console Of All Time?
Shine get
This week, the Nintendo GameCube turns 20. This eye-catching system may have struggled against the incredible might of the PlayStation 2, but few would argue that Sony's machine was more attractive on a purely physical level. The boxy GameCube, complete with its unusual travel handle, is a true design icon and its appealing aesthetics are...
Thursday16th Sep 2021
Random Check Out This Game Boy Color And Nintendo DS Mash-Up
Two-in-one
We've seen plenty of cool retro mods over the years, but this latest effort from Game Boy Custom really stands out – mainly because it's fusing together a Game Boy Color with a Game Boy Advance and the internals of a Nintendo DS. Still with us? Good. The Aussie modder has sent a proof-of-concept prototype to our friends at Retro Dodo,...
Wednesday15th Sep 2021
News Retailer Appears To Have Uncovered New And Sealed '90s SNES Games, And They're Up For Sale
What a find!
It's not often you stumble across brand new stock of games released in the '90s when browsing your favourite game store, but here we are with one of the most intriguing retail listings you're likely to see all year. German retailer Galeria Kaufhof has today added a brand new listing for Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, known simply as...
Random These Gaming Shoe Concepts Are So Good We Wish They Were Real
We'll take the Nintendo 64 pair, thanks
Companies like Puma may well be launching all sorts of official Nintendo shoes these days – have you seen their Animal Crossing and Mario designs? – but that won't stop us from dreaming of having an entire wardrobe of the things. You know, for different days of the week or something... Exacerbating our...
Tuesday14th Sep 2021
Random Xbox's Phil Spencer Reveals His Favourite GameCube Game
In an insane world, it was the sanest choice
As you may have noticed, today marks 20 years since the Nintendo GameCube launched in Japan and we (along with the rest of the internet) have been getting all nostalgic for Nintendo's purple box. As is customary on these significant anniversaries (or any anniversary when it comes to social media —...
Hardware Classics Nintendo GameCube
Indigo, Spice and all things nice
In many ways, the GameCube was a console out of time, arguably arriving too late (or perhaps too early) to realise its true potential. We can look back now and appreciate its quirks, admire its design and excellent software library, and lust after the variants that never made it to western shores, but in the early...
News Unavailability Of Classic Titles Is "Holding Game Culture Back", Says Platinum's Hideki Kamiya
Games should be available to "everyone who wants to play them"
The way we play and consume classic video games has become a hot topic of late, thanks largely to some rather shady practices being employed by collectors to boost the value of certain titles. While some people are keen to increase the value of their collection while it sits on the...
Anniversary Goodness Me, Is The GameCube Really 20 Years Old?
Time is the enemy
You know how it is. One minute you're a youthful, exuberant 20-something, looking forward to being unleashed into the world and making your way; forging new relationships, getting a job, perhaps renting your first home. Your whole life is ahead of you! Then – BOOM – you're suddenly past 40, the last two decades have been a blur...
Monday13th Sep 2021
News 'The Year After' Is The Latest Game Headed To Game Boy, Physical Pre-Orders Now Live
Or play free online
It may well be 2021, but we really are swimming in new Game Boy games just lately. Joining the likes of new Game Boy titles Infinity and Tales of Monsterland is The Year After, a short narrative experience developed by Hadrian Lin. The game, which can be played to completion in around half an hour, is
News The 'Thicc Boi SP' GBA Mod Offers Bluetooth Audio, Better Stamina And Wireless Charging
Update: Plans afoot to sell as a DIY kit
Update: Macho Nacho Productions – the outfit behind the amazing 'Thicc Boi SP' mod we covered in August – have revealed that it has not only improved the design to include a better battery (4,500 mAh lithium polymer), but it's also going to sell it as an upgrade kit so that people can install it...
Random This Amateur Coder Is Creating The 'GBA Remix' Nintendo Should Have Given Us
Minigame mash-up
Remember NES Remix and NES Remix 2? These two minigame-focused mash-ups took famous scenes or sections from popular NES titles and gave them a WarioWare-style spin, and both went down rather well in terms of critical response. Sadly, it seems they didn't go down well enough for Nintendo to give us more in the 'Remix' line, with the...
Random Nintendo Fan Collects Every Game Boy Game In Just Two Years
"I haven’t added up how much I spent..."
Several members of the Nintendo Life team would consider ourselves to be collectors, but none of us have ever managed to achieve anything quite like this. Twitter user Shouta, who lives in Japan, has managed to get his hands on every single Game Boy game ever released, completing the set in just two years...
News Polymega Units Are Finally Arriving In The Hands Of Customers
Support for another console also to be announced
Polymega – the all-in-one retro console capable of playing a wide range of cartridge and CD-based classic systems – has certainly taken its time coming to market. It was originally announced way back in 2017, and pre-orders opened in September 2018. However, a series of
Wednesday8th Sep 2021
News "Lost" Game Boy Color RPG Infinity Adds Switch Port Stretch Goal On Kickstarter
Update: Has passed $300,000 Canadian Dollars raised
Update #3: Infinity's continued success in its Kickstarter campaign has now led to a rather interesting new stretch goal, for an 'enhanced' Switch version (which would also come to Steam). If it reaches $350,000 Canadian Dollars (it's just over $300,000 at the time of writing) it'll make its way to...
Tuesday7th Sep 2021
Feature Game Boy Games We Probably Won’t See On Nintendo Switch Online
Custom cart complications
Rumours abound that Game Boy games are finally coming to Nintendo Switch Online and we’ve been busy daydreaming about all the classic games we might be able to play again — and all the ones we won’t too. The record-shattering dominance of
Hardware Polymega Review - The Ultimate All-In-One Retro Machine
Now updated with impressions of the final retail firmware
This review was originally published on August 11th 2020 and has been updated to factor in our impressions of the SNES, Mega Drive and TG-16 Element Modules, as well as their respective controllers. This review now also takes into account the final retail firmware for the Polymega system...
News Co-Founder Of Game Grading Service WATA Accused Of Selling Company's Games On eBay
Company policy doesn't allow this
A co-founder of retro game grading service WATA is now being accused of running a side business on eBay. Further investigations by Proof journalist, Seth Abramson, suggest WATA's Mark Haspel is selling graded games under an alias. Abramson was recently reviewing some of his previous purchases and
Video The History Of The 'Silhouette' Super Nintendo Emulator Might Be An "Elaborate Hoax"
MVG takes a closer look
The Switch generation has seen Nintendo call on emulation for games such as the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection, but long before this, there was apparently an official emulator that could run Super Nintendo titles. Starting out life as 'Mirage', project 'Silhouette' was a SNES emulator for MacOS and Power PC that...
Monday6th Sep 2021
News Tales Of Monsterland Is Yet Another New Game Boy Game, And It's Getting A Fancy Limited Edition
Unleash the monster
With rumblings that Game Boy and Game Boy Color titles are headed to Switch soon, now's the perfect time to report on the fact that we're getting another new Game Boy title. Bitmap Soft has teamed up with developer JJ Games to release Tales of Monsterland, a platform title that seems to take inspiration from Sega's Wonder Boy...
News Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter Taken Down Following "Legal Trouble"
Update #2: "We did not receive a cease and desist"
Cor, look at 'em Update #2: Phillip Summers has taken to Twitter to clarify some reporting around the cancellation of the Hand-Drawn Game Guide Kickstarter campaign. He states that "the party involved has been polite and I'm hopeful something can get worked out. They have every right to act as they...
Gallery These Framed Game Boys Are Truly Works Of Art
Where old consoles go to die
Handheld games consoles are more than just a means of playing things on the move – as objects we hold and stare at for hours on end, they need to be aesthetically pleasing as well as comfortable to use, and that can certainly be said of the Game Boy line. We've always felt that the Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color and...
Saturday4th Sep 2021
News A Game Boy Productivity Suite Has Been Fully Funded On Kickstarter
"The future's about to get more productive"
Have you ever wanted a comprehensive set of productive apps for the original Game Boy? Then this Kickstarter might be for you. Introducing the Game Boy Productivity Suite... an "all-in-one" cartridge with apps like a clock, a note pad, and a calculator. It apparently offers a level of "privacy and...
Friday3rd Sep 2021
"[Jeremy] insisted I make a cave level with waterfalls like Yoshi"
Last week a Kickstarter campaign went live for Goodboy Galaxy, the first brand new, commercial release for the Game Boy Advance for 13 years. A colourful 2D platformer with running, gunning and a space-faring good boy called Maxwell, it's a beautifully animated and incredibly...
Thursday2nd Sep 2021
News 'Beyond A Steel Sky' Is A Spiritual Successor To A Beloved 1994 2D Adventure Classic
Secure the Steel Sky Steelbook on Switch!
Every now and again, it pays off to be a fan of a cult classic, and today is that day for anyone who was hoping for a sequel to Beneath a Steel Sky, Revolution Software's dystopian point-and-click adventure game from 1994. You held out for almost 30 years, and finally, you're about to get your just deserts...
