Retro Gamer

I, Robot, Missile Command and Tempest, so anything touched by Dave Theurer. What a genius. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful daughters and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! Currently playing: Cathedral Favourite game of

Many would agree that gaming wouldn’t be what it is today without Atari. Founded in 1972 as Atari Inc by Nolan Bushnell and the late Ted Dabney, Atari was the beginning of an industry, an industry that has since grown to gargantuan proportions. Early

VISIT RETROGAMER.NET/FORUM TO HAVE YOUR SAY When Nick was putting together his review for the Mega Drive Mini 2 the last thing he was expecting to find was an obituary for Rieko Kodama. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what he discovered when he viewed t

Who is Iain Lee? Iain Lee is a freelance broadcaster who loves gaming, particularly retro gaming. Join him as he hosts a phone-in show and plays games at www.twitch.tv/iainlee and also check out www.patreon.com/iainandKatherine From about the age of

Who is Paul Rose? Paul is probably better known as Mr Biffo – the creator of legendary teletext games magazine Digitiser. These days, he mostly writes his videogame ramblings over at Digitiser2000.com. If you want more Biffo in your eyes, you can cat

You wouldn’t think that a combination of running a launderette and managing a growing arcade business would be a recipe for success, but Nosebleed Interactive’s Arcade Paradise proves otherwise. Nosebleed’s CEO and founder Andreas Firnigl explains ho

Midway has cancelled the PAL releases of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Spy Hunter, with at least MK being due to concerns over “poor unit sales”. Beyond Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, Midway’s Xbox schedule “looks fairly bleak”. Edge’s Amusement Trades Exh

Pro 2 features two Pro-level back buttons. These buttons give you more control so you don’t have to take your thumbs off the thumbsticks! A modern controller that was designed with respect for the classics. 8BitDo paid extra attention to the most cri

It may be monochrome, but the Spectrum RoboCop plays as well as Ocean’s more colourful 8-bit versions. Unlike the C64 iteration, its hero doesn’t jump and its snipers don’t often respawn. Playing the Spectrum 128 version is advised, as it has three-c

Why did Ocean largely base its RoboCop games around the film’s gunfights? There was a fair bit of shooting in the movie, and that was easy to translate. We partly made it a side-scrolling shooter because the arcade game from Data East did that. At th

Marcin has been an avid gamer since his school days when he played on an Amiga and a PC. He forged a friendship with fellow gamer and pupil Michał Kicinski which ultimately paved the way for the creation of GOG.com. Marcin’s vision has always been cl

The original God game, from Peter Molyneux and Bullfrog, originally inspired by Lego. A point-and-click text adventure set in a school for wizards, years before Harry Potter came along. An early example of a free movement 3D fantasy world, set in the

Games are often known by different names across international regions and Taito’s confusingly named shmup is a good example. Originally known as Layer Section during development, the 1994 game eventually debuted in Japanese arcades as RayForce, befor

• The Luggage is crafted from Sapient Pearwood, (a rare material sourced from trees exposed to high levels of magic). • The Luggage is most often described as part suitcase, part loyal companion and part homicidal maniac. • It is impervious to magic

Discworld is renowned for its sharp wit and humour; how closely did you work with Terry Pratchett on the story? The deal with Terry was for the rights to set games in the Discworld universe. His people would have preferred to license out individual b

The second instalment in the series sees Death go AWOL and Rincewind once again called upon to (very cautiously) investigate. Perfect Entertainment (Angela Sutherland and Gregg Barnett’s respective companies had now officially merged) were able to fi

Owing more than a debt to the Shanghai Noon movies starring Jackie Chan, Samurai Western transplants the Eastern ethic of Acquire’s previous games to a Wild West setting. As in Way Of The Samurai, there are plenty of swords to discover, each with dif

When Fromsoftware took over the Tenchu franchise from Activision in 2004, Acquire secured the development of this Wii spinoff. Troubles continue to plague Lord Gohda’s land together with the inevitable betrayals and political intrigue, and Shadow Ass

The Wizardry series has had a chequered history since it first appeared on the Apple II in 1981, and this ninth episode in the famous RPG series was developed by Acquire’s in-house team and published by Xseed Games outside of Japan. As befits the gam

Sega has returned for another crack at the mini-console market, and after some interesting detours into its handheld and arcade history, it’s going back to its most popular piece of hardware. But can it possibly top a machine that, three years later,

Editor Darran ‘I, Robot’ Jones darran.jones@futurenet.com 0330 3906443 Art Editor Andy ‘Battlezone’ Salter Production Editor Tim ‘Super Sprint’ Empey Features Editor Nick ‘Warlords’ Thorpe Photographer Phil ‘Gauntlet II’ Barker Group Art Director Woz