Retro Gamer

Long before lockdown was a thing, members of the team would visit my house and we’d have gaming sessions in my shed. The focus would always be on multiplayer games and Micro Machines, specifically Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament 96, would get played

The long-awaited Analogue Pocket has finally got a shipping date, with the first units due to go out on 13 December 2021. The unit is an FPGA-based handheld that plays Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games, as well as a variety of other

In recent times, the retro gaming community has lost some phenomenally talented people. Game designer Bernie Drummond, Imagine Software cofounder David Lawson, PR veteran Jonathan Fargher and prominent ZX Spectrum enthusiast Darren Pearcy have all sa

We know you love reading about retro games, but if you love listening to fans chat about them, you really should check out the Retro Asylum podcast. It’s the UK’s longest running podcast about retro gaming and recently celebrated its tenth anniversar

On 24 March, Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev fled Kyrgyzstan following mass protests. In the previous month’s disputed election, pro-government candidates won 65 of the 75 seats available, prompting claims of electoral fraud. Akayev was allowed to exil

“Nintendo 21 will speak to you like HAL 9000, but in the cheery tones of Charles Martinet as Mario.” What? EA games including “Burnout 4” are coming to GameCube in 2005 too. Eh? According to NGC, the huge Resident Evil 4 review meant there was no roo

1 – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar) 2 – Need For Speed Underground 2 (EA) 3 – FIFA Football 2005 (EA) 4 – Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft) 5 – Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Konami) 1 – Halo 2 (Microsoft) 2 – Need For Speed Underground 2

Colin Nicholls was a codesigner of the levels for the 2016 Micro Machines. The levels for the iOS/Android Micro Machines were codesigned by Joel Beardshaw. The background artwork for Micro Machines 2 was created by artist Mark Neesam. Artist Paul Per

Although 3D, Micro Machines V3 shifts to a top-down perspective when practical. But more importantly, it successfully adapts the frantic chases that made its 2D predecessors so popular. Where V3 innovates is with its over-the-top power-ups, which ran

Heavily influenced by Codemasters’ previous title Toybox Turbos, the iOS/Android Micro Machines has more courses and exploits its Hasbro-owned licence by including a Hungry Hungry Hippos level! Unlike other titles in the series, you don’t have an acc

Music wasn’t uncommon in videogames at the time of Out Run’s release, but what was unusual was the ability to choose what music you wanted to listen to while you played. Out Run gives you a choice of three songs: Splash Wave, Magical Sound Shower and

The tactical choice at the beginning of Beach-Head was unprecedented in the arcade action genre in 1983. Taking the hidden passage route can be perilous (especially on the harder settings) – do you risk losing ships in order to surprise the enemy? It

DEVELOPER: ATRATIVA YEAR: 2006 GENRE: FIGHTING ■ Every so often you can come across a weird little slice of arcade history, and Jingi Storm is definitely one of them. Originally announced as Force Five and developed by Anchor Inc, the game was set to

How did you come to work on Beach-Head? Beach-Head was the launch title for the US Gold joint venture. We (Platinum Productions) had approached Ocean to demo our Spectrum homage to the arcade game Robotron: 2084 and the development team at Ocean were

■ The scrolling is not as silky smooth as Castle Quest, but it’s certainly not “abominable” as described by CVG. Thanks to the ROM chip, the game is admirably large and it’s very easy to get lost in the sprawling mining complex. The original release

SYSTEM: BBC Micro YEAR: 1983 Notable for being the first official Doctor Who game, and little else. It’s basically a collection of single-screen arcade games – one minute you’re escaping a maze, the next you’re shooting pterodactyls (pictured). There

■ Richard, Byron, Chris and Paul resign from Elite and create Arc Developments in Walsall. ■ Conversions of the Forgotten Worlds coin-op for US Gold are produced from Paul Walker’s house. ■ A small office in Walsall is found and becomes Arc Developme

■ After leaving Arc Developments, Byron set up Slippery Snake Studio and worked on the completion of Rosco McQueen for Sony Entertainment. Byron then went freelance, programming for Gravity-i and Dave Palmer and he also released an iPhone game, Hairy

» PLATFORM: Jaguar » RELEASED: 1995 » COST: £149.99 (launch), £730+ (today, boxed) £410+ (today, unboxed) While most console manufacturers embraced CD-ROM technology during the mid-Nineties, Atari chose to use cartridges as the Jaguar’s primary game

WHICH DIGITAL VERSIONS OF ARRAKIS ARE WORTH REVISITING? There was a big push internally from Cryo Entertainment’s side to move exclusively to a CD format for Dune, which meant higher quality visuals, audio and everything in between. Due to this, ther

By repeatedly tapping the jump button, Sparky can actually fly short distances by flapping his ears. Each push of the button drains the stamina gauge, and it won’t recover until Sparky lands on the ground. When the R button is pressed, Sparky will sh

Turn around at the start of the race and charge into the big barrier, at a speed of at least 60mph. You’ll pass right through it and enter a mirrored version of the track, with all corners taking the opposite direction and even backwards textures on

Unfortunately for most players, Ridge Racer Revolution’s multiplayer mode was incredibly expensive to experience – the necessary kit came in at over £700 back in the day, and that’s without factoring in the cost of the TV sets. This is a real shame b

The map in Ori And The Will Of The Wisps is roughly three times larger than the one featured in Blind Forest. From the game’s beginning, Ori can only equip a total of three Spirit Shards at any one time. This prevents you from being overpowered. New

Raz can use Telekinesis to raise objects and hurl them around using his mind. The power takes the form of a psychic hand which plucks whatever, or whoever, Raz wishes to rag doll, and throws them around with glee. Raz can use Clairvoyance to see thro

This month we check out the latest Game & Watch release from Nintendo, see how the new Pokémon remasters fare and play the latest Medal Of Honor game on Oculus Quest 2 Nintendo’s surprise revival of the Game & Watch brand was a lovely way to celebrat

I abandoned Project Zero on the original Xbox part way through. That’s because one of the puzzles glitched and no matter how many times you did it right, it wouldn’t progress the game. I still don’t know how the game ends. The Last of Us. I’ve tried

There are numerous versions of Codemaster’s top-down racer and they range in price. The NES edition can reach prices of £40 complete, while the Amiga version rarely rises beyond £15. The Mega Drive edition shouldn’t cost more than £10, but the Master

Fist Of The North Star is a totally broken, hilarious PS2 game that is filled with gravity breaking infinite combos that don’t stop until time out. Fun fact, it’s dubbed ‘kusoge’ (or shitty game) which is a lighthearted handle for busted games that a

Dear Darran, I love your magazine and you do a fantastic job of revisiting classic games across a variety of systems and genres. You do some truly sterling work and your mag is the first place I turn to when I’m looking for a classic game to play. So

It’s Micro Machines: Turbo Tournament 96 for me. I’m still laughing to myself over my last sponge duel with the team. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful daughters and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! Currently playing: J

What’s your favourite game in the Micro Machines series? It’s got to be V3. Fond memories of laughing ourselves into absolute hysterics falling off the sandcastle over and over again Micro Maniacs all the way. A great game concept that tragically has

Editor Darran ‘Spider’ Jones Art Editor Andy ‘Emile’ Salter Production Editor Tim ‘Bruno’ Empey Features Editor Nick ‘Davey’ Thorpe Photographer Phil ‘Dwayne’ Barker Group Art Director Woz ‘Violet’ Brown Editorial Director Tony ‘Walter’ Mott Writing

Last year we reviewed the Polymega, a CD-based retro console that uses a variety of Element Module add-ons to add support for various cartridge systems. The console shipped earlier this year after major delays, and the first new Element Module has be