Retro Gamer

Getting all my friends together for 16-player matches in my front room. It wasn’t Mel’s favourite moment, mind. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful daughters and an award-winning magazine Currently playing: Magic: The Gathering Arena F

This magazine would most likely be a very different one without the 2001 debut of Master Chief. Before Halo: Combat Evolved arrived, Melanie and I were expecting our first child, so I sold off nearly all my games and began to embrace fatherhood. Emil

FEBRUARY 2005 – The PSP has landed and the press are very excited indeed, Donkey Kong is back as a vehicle for some unusual ideas, and the post-Christmas slump is in full effect elsewhere. Nick Thorpe revs up the DeLorean to see what’s going on… Sail

“However much money it has in the bank, and no matter how many GBAs and DSes it’s selling, Nintendo cannot afford for the Revolution to flop,” says Miles Guttery’s editorial. “What’s the answer? Aggressively sign up western exclusives,” he continues,

1 – Need For Speed Underground 2 (EA) 2 – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar) 3 – Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft) 4 – FIFA Football 2005 (EA) 5 – Call Of Duty: Finest Hour (Activision) 1 – Halo 2 (Microsoft) 2 – Need For Speed Undergr

What made you realise that Halo was special? What I can bang on about endlessly is the visual language of Halo, which was instantly iconic. There’s a layer of the dusty-grey aesthetics of military hardware, sure, but it’s set against these locations

⏹ Every weapon has the perfect distance at which it is used and in most cases that should be pretty obvious, but learn to adapt to the situation and the map. Blasting your assault rifle at too far a distance is just going to give you away and nothing

In the early Eighties, when Broderbund Software cofounder Doug Carlston first set eyes on the game that would ultimately become Lode Runner, Doug Smith’s project had gone through several iterations and lost its co-developer James Bratsanos. Carlston’

Irem’s Lode Runner, The Bungeling Strikes Back and The Golden Labyrinth share the same codebase, but each has unique level designs. The trilogy has you tackling its stages against the clock, and rewards you for falling on enemies and walking over the

Compile’s exclusive MSX follow-up retains the original’s mechanics, but its 50 new levels each have a unique feel. You’ll get a stage that’s practically all ladders, for example, or one that has very few surfaces that can be dug into, and as a result

The Game Boy’s tiny screen likely made scrolling levels the only option for Hyper Lode Runner, but it means you don’t know where the gold is until you look for it. One nice feature is that some stages have keys and locked doors to subsections. Battle

Retro Gamer perches on a barstool and chats to the man behind Tapper with David J Anderson, today the CEO of the David J Anderson School Of Management, back then the man responsible for bringing drinks serving mayhem to the ZX Spectrum. How did you g

Tapper’s vibrant colours are present and correct in this Amstrad conversion, published by Sega/US Gold and Amsoft. The bar-related mayhem is well presented on the computer; alas the lack of control responsiveness makes it a little too frustrating. Sp

Nigel Mansell was once a household name – a British racing driver who had competed in Formula One championships with Lotus, Williams and Ferrari during a long and skilful career. In January 1992, he was getting ready to embark on yet another season h

Of the two versions – standard and AGA – the A1200 was obviously the better-looking game, whipping along nicely at a decent framerate and with more detailed graphics. Even without such enhancements, however, the game generated Grand Prix excitement,

The first QuakeCon held in 1996 looks nothing like the last in-person QuakeCon held in 2019. The first gathering happened in the conference room of a 1,250 square foot La Quinta Inn in Garland, Texas, with around 40 attendees. The most recent, in-per

■ Computers didn’t have the capability to stage multiplayer battles in games like Quake when it was released in 1996. So a group of 40 iD Software fans from across America organised a LAN (Local Area Network) party at a La Quinta Inn in Garland, Texa

The developers had always intended Darkwatch to be the first instalment of a much larger IP, with ambitions to span multiple games and forms of media. During development, High Moon had entered into talks with studios about a film adaptation, although

Comedy played a key role in Steve’s games, so what shaped his sense of humour? “Many things. Certainly, Warner Brothers cartoons, which were a Saturday morning staple in our household. Monty Python. Early Woody Allen. Saturday Night Live. Just to nam

■ PLANETFALL [1983] VARIOUS ■ ZORK: A WHAT-DO-I-DO-NOW? GAME BOOKS [1983-4] PAPERBACK ■ SORCERER [1984] VARIOUS ■ THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY [1984] VARIOUS ■ A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING [1985] VARIOUS ■ LEATHER GODDESSES OF PHOBOS [1986] VARIOU

1983, Various ■ You start out mopping the deck of a spaceship and end up saving a planet – with a robot named Floyd at your side. Steve’s first game has 41 different ways to die, so the later Solid Gold edition with its built-in hints is the best way

NorthWay: Was the commercial death of Interactive Fiction (IF) inevitable? Could it have survived, and what do you see as its successor? Yes, I think it was inevitable. In the first half of the Eighties, parser-driven text adventures were simply the

Few gaming cash cows have been milked as heavily as Resident Evil 4. But then, few titles are as good as Capcom’s acclaimed survival horror game. Originally released in 2005 as a GameCube exclusive, it was clearly too good a title to be confined to N

This rare Mega Drive shooter continues to rocket in price, so we’re delighted an enhanced, far cheaper alternative is now available. Coded by Shinyuden, the first thing that impresses about Gleylancer is the large number of options it boasts. You can

TechRadar writer and past Retro Gamer contributor Daryl Baxter has gone deep on the origins of Tomb Raider here, covering the creation and early days of both the game and its star Lara Croft. Over 20 interviewees have contributed their stories and Da

Absolutely loved Merry Christmas from Melbourne House for the C64, in my 1984 Christmas stocking. What a joyous little game. I would love a follow-up. Not going to say it’s my favourite but the very obscure Snowball Sunday on the C64 always got me in

With over five million sales, Master Chief’s first adventure is super cheap on Xbox. You can get it for under a fiver, with the Xbox 360 remaster being similarly priced. The Mac version is a little more expensive and typically sells for £20. If you f

Ford Racing 3 was very impressive. 60 fps attractive visuals. Varied content. Good handling and a 60Hz mode! Only the audio really let it down. I think it retailed for about £20. I loved The Red Star, a fantastic mix of beat-’em-up gameplay and bulle

Dear Retro Gamer, I’d just like to say how much I enjoy the new My Retro Life section. I loved how much personal information was in the mags of the Eighties and Nineties because it made me feel like I genuinely knew the writers behind the magazine. T

Every month, one lucky writer-in will receive a spanking copy of either our NES/Master System or SNES/Mega Drive books Hi Retro Gamer, I understand exactly where Iain Lee is coming from when he talks about the constant hunt for tokens in today’s arca

What’s your favourite moment from Halo: Combat Evolved? The Flood encounter. Meeting these abominations for the first time really turned the game on its head. That moment when you played multiplayer for the first time and your mate is driving the War

Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, Somerset, BA1 1UA Editor Darran ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’ Jones Art Editor Andy ‘STALKER’ Salter Production Editor Tim ‘Red Faction’ Empey Features Editor Nick ‘Disruptor’ Thorpe Photographer Phil ‘Doom’ Barker G