Retro Gamer

I was a goody two-shoes as a youngster, but Jack The Nipper let me do all the naughty things I could only dream of. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful girls and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! Currently playing: Dead Sp

I can still remember the first time I played Sonic 3. I’d visited my friend Brady’s house and he had it on his Mega Drive and eagerly showed it to me. I remember being impressed by its slick visuals and excellent music, but completely missed its Soni

One of the unexpected positive consequences of accidentally becoming a games journalist during the Nineties – arguably the most exciting time in gaming ever – was getting to play everything. It came with the territory that we’d either be given, or be

The world of retro gaming can be very lonely. Modern gaming is great. You can pop online and play a round of Walkabout Mini Golf or Call Of Duty with any number of friends. Sadly, my BBC or GameCube can’t do that. OK, I know you technically CAN get t

Remember in the early Eighties when developers invented fantastic names for the technical advances that set their games apart? We had Sandy White’s Softsolid 3D, Ultimate’s Filmation and Melbourne House even coined the term ‘4D graphics’ around 25 ye

This excellent follow-up tells of Shareth, Doomdark’s daughter, who lures Luxor to the land of Icemark to extract her revenge. Everything here is bigger – there are now 6,144 locations and 128 playable characters. It’s also cleverer, with updated AI

DEVELOPER: AMUSEMENT VISION YEAR: 2000 GENRE: ON-RAILS SHOOTER We’re all huge fans of Space Harrier here at Retro Gamer, which makes this series entry one of our most unfortunate The Unconverted titles. It might well be the ‘King Of The Unconverted’

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons allows players to team-up with a friend for some local co-op fun. But if you can’t get a pal round for a gaming session, fear not. Developer Secret Base is working on an online co-op mode. It’s just taking a

A major talking point around the release of the RoboCop 3 game was an anti-piracy dongle it came packaged with. Plugging into the joystick port of the Amiga, the device was necessary for the game to load, rendering it amply protected for the rampant

1991 (PC) A puzzle game with 101 levels requiring the player to guide balls of fur to specific spots. It’s also known as The Brainies and The Tinies. 1992 (MAC) This is another puzzle game, although this time, the player needs to recreate a requested

1995 (PC) A licensed racing game, which sold over a million units. It includes 15 tracks, Indy cars and multiplayer. 1997 (PC) A post-apocalyptic adventure game with pre-calculated set rendering and dialogue depending on the character’s mood. 1997

Nicolas has founded or cofounded nine startups in total. He discovered a strong appetite for entrepreneurship when he launched a children’s book publishing company in China. One of the latest, Space Cargo Unlimited, is dedicated to microgravity resea

Although far from an exact replica of The Big Apple, Midnight Club: Street Racing’s New York lets you tear past famous landmarks such as Times Square and Central Park. It also gives you a taste of New York culture with its range of colourful opponent

The nitro mechanics in Midnight Club II strike a nice balance. How many shots you have depends on your vehicle, and that’s decided by how advanced a model you’ve unlocked. This comes down to how far you’ve gotten in the game, which is fair considerin

A mainstay from Midnight Club II onwards, motorbikes add variety and replay value to the series. Racing around the games’ cities on them is such a different experience to racing in a car. They have blistering top speeds and tight cornering, but they

>> This month we battle through the latest Double Dragon, find out if Capcom’s remake of Ghost Trick is worth your time and play a VR update of Taito’s hit arcade game Operation Wolf Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons I’ve sunk over 20 hours i

This digital collection from ININ Games consists of three classic shmups, RayForce, RayStorm and RayCrisis, as well as HD versions of the latter two games. RayForce is arguably the star of the collection, being a fantastic shmup with superb music and

I go right back to the first Sonic. Saw a friend play it and it looked incredible. I got a Mega Drive not long after (which I still have) with Sonic packed in. Sonic Advance as this was my very first Nintendo Game Boy Advance game I owned since I was

Grabbing a copy of this gem of a game on the Mega Drive won’t leave you in a spin because you can generally expect to pay between £25 and £40. At those prices, you should perhaps ignore loose carts although they can be had for a tenner. If you want t

I loved Retro Tea Breaks Vol. 1 by Neil Thomas (RMC Retro) as it gives an insight into the early days of gaming development. Bitmap Books’ incredible Amiga Visual Compendium. It brings me back to my childhood just flicking through the images and seei

Dear Retro Gamer, Greetings from Malaysia. I travel a lot within Malaysia and one of my hobbies during travelling is finding old arcade games in various places. You would be surprised about the many hidden gems you can find here. A lot of old Japanes

What’s your favourite Gremlin Graphics game? Normality: I loved it back in the day. It was the first fully interactive first-person perspective game I ever played as a teenager and I loved the weird and wonderful characters. It’s one of a few games I

Editor Darran ‘Jack The Nipper’ Jones darran.jones@futurenet.com 0330 3906443 Art Editor Andy ‘HeroQuest’ Salter Production Editor Tim ‘Super Cars II’ Empey Features Editor Nick ‘N20’ Thorpe Photographer Phil ‘Switchblade’ Barker Group Art Director W

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last few years, it’s that you should always watch a Nintendo Direct. The shows have been a big success for Nintendo and they’re routinely used to reveal new games or give gamers an in-depth look at titles tha

Ever wondered about the roots of our beloved arcades? Dr Alan Meades, principal lecturer in game design at Canterbury Christ Church University, has written a comprehensive, entertaining and accessible book, investigating their long history, their pla