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Retro Gamer|No. 227Memory almost fullI’ve been trying to think of a time before computer games entered my life. I’m 48 and a third, and it seems like they’ve always been there. There were key moments when they seemed to be more present, if that makes any sense – dad bringing home a Dragon 32 or us all traipsing to Rumbelows in Maidenhead to buy a BBC – but I think they must have been a part of me forever. Let me try and make sense of these foggy memories and try and put them in order. The first thing I can dimly recall is the Binatone TV Master Mk 8. It lived in a battered cardboard box, and we kept it either under the sofa or in the airing cupboard. (I’m aware that not…3 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THE LATEST NEWS FROM FEBRUARY 2005FEBRUARY 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… NEWS FEBRUARY 2005 Sailor Ellen MacArthur set the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe on 7 February, completing a voyage of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds. Her record time stood for just under three years before Frenchman Francis Joyon, whose February 2004 record was beaten by MacArthur, beat it by almost two weeks in January 2008. On 16 February, the first episode of the British version of The Apprentice aired on BBC Two. The reality game show featured…5 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Rainbow Islands» AMSTRAD CPC » 1989 » GRAFTGOLD I always remember being a little disappointed with Bubble Bobble on the Amstrad, because it was a poor shadow of the original arcade game. It played well enough, but it just felt rather lacking due to no in-game music and some weak sound effects. It certainly wasn’t the game I remembered from the arcades and that made me sad. Thank goodness then for Rainbow Islands, a rather brilliant port from Graftgold, which was published under the Ocean Software label. All right, so maybe brilliant is giving it a little too much praise, but it was a bloody impressive piece of work. Although, if I recall, Graftgold was able to work its magic across pretty much every system it released the game on. I’d…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227INNOVATING A CENTREWhat can you really say about the innovations of Halo: Combat Evolved? Where do you start to dilute down the minutiae of its smart game design into a single, unifying statement of the game’s historic impact on an entire genre? Even Bungie didn’t set out with that impact as a goal, as it initially planned a strategy game. In truth, its numerous innovations are just too vast to effectively present in detail, but on the other hand it feels – these days at least – a little like treading old ground. You see, the problem isn’t that Halo wasn’t innovative, but rather that it has gone on to have such a long-lasting and profound impact on the way we play first-person shooters – particularly on console – that we might…4 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227BECOME A HALO MASTERJUDGE THE DISTANCE ⏹ 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 else. YOUR PISTOL ISN’T A SIDEARM ⏹ It might not always be your weapon of choice in single-player, but in multiplayer a pistol in the hands of a nifty player is going to be a very serious threat. Its benefit is that it can suit almost any situation, so it’s best to learn how to use it properly. STRAFE TO SURVIVE ⏹ You’ve probably been raised on a diet of strafe-focused FPS games, but it should never go…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227DESIGNING HALOLooking over these screenshots it might strike you that there’s nothing particularly standout about Halo’s visual direction. In hindsight and with years of advancements in 3D design, we’ve become somewhat jaded to the storytelling of an environment. The environment of Installation 04 looks much like the pine-strewn environment of the Pacific Northwest from where Halo was developed, and perhaps that’s intentional. But it’s still an alien setting, and somehow while playing, it feels alien too. “Most of that comes from the Halo ring,” says Steve Abeyta, one of the many artists that worked on Halo: Combat Evolved whose work primarily covered animation and environment design. “When you’re outside in the game, wherever you are you can see the ringworld and that adds an alien feel to the game.” The whole…4 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227The Perfect Christmas Giftfor just £26.50plus FREE CHOICE OF CONTROLLER AND BOOK The 8bitdo SN30 Pro Controller includes rumble functionality via USB, and is compatible with Switch, PC and more This Bluetooth controller is officially licensed from Sega and offers 20 hours of gaming per charge Our cool book features 100 of the best games to play, from retro classics to modern masterpieces Your special Christmas offer • FREE choice of controller and book worth £42.99• Enjoy 6 months of Retro Gamer for just £26.50 – that’s just £4.42 an issue!• Receive every issue delivered direct to your door• Receive exclusive subscriber-only covers• A thoughtful gift that keeps delivering throughout the year Upgrade to include digital for only £5 • Instant access any time, anywhere• Never miss an issue of Retro Gamer• Available on iOS…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227STAGES OF EVOLUTION: COMPUTER CAPERSLODE RUNNER II 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 keeps you on your toes. HOZONBAN LODE RUNNER As well as the levels from the original and its Championship sequel, Hozonban Lode Runner has 100 new stages. It also has optional colour schemes, and alternate hero and enemy sprites. Its new levels are tough, and they involve a bit of backtracking, but they’re satisfying to beat. LODE RUNNER 1 Besides its beautiful visuals, Lode Runner 1 distinguishes itself further by adding to the gameplay established by its predecessors. Most obviously, it…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227ULTIMATE GUIDE: TAPPER“Ian had a reputation for being able to pull some tricks out of the machine that others simply couldn’t think of”DAVID J ANDERSON Designed by Marvin Glass Associates’ Scott Morrison and Steve Meyer, Tapper began life as a simple concept where the player assumes the role of a busy bartender, slinging drinks down a series of slippery bars to the waiting customers. Based around a character called Domino Man (who had previously starred in an eponymous puzzle game), the style and look of Tapper would be that of an authentic classic American bar. With Marvin Glass and Bally Midway bosses receptive to the idea, the latter company’s licensing division hit upon the scheme of linking the game to an official licence with a notable beer company. It was a great…6 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID J ANDSERSONRetro 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 get involved with Tapper? I had a retainer contract to write games for Ocean/US Gold and mostly they asked me to code the conversions of Atari and Commodore 64 games from the US and arcade games, most of which were published on the US Gold label. Had you played much of Tapper prior to your involvement? Yes, it was in our local arcade in my hometown in Scotland. Your Spectrum version of Kung Fu Master was based on the Commodore 64 game – was it…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227More MansellNEWMAN/HASS INDYCAR FEATURING NIGEL MANSELL Mansell left Formula One to conquer IndyCar in 1993 but the relationship he had built with Gremlin continued. As such, in 1994, the same engine that had been used for Nigel Mansell’s World Championship was dusted down and built upon for this subsequent release yet, sadly, rival driving games were racing ahead by this point. The SNES version in particular looked especially dated. The Mega Drive version had more detail but it ran at a slower pace. NIGEL MANSELL’S GRAND PRIX Claiming to be an accurate simulation of Formula One racing, Nigel Mansell’s Grand Prix was a split-screen affair released in 1988. The action took place at the top of the display but a large instrument panel lay beneath, giving you all manner of data…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227TatsujinMEGA DRIVE » 1989 » TOAPLAN A few issues ago I mentioned my love of shmups in our My Retro Life section. I listed some of the things I always look for in a good shoot-’em-up and one of the ones I mentioned was good power-ups. Today, I wanted to talk about another element of power-ups I enjoy – gigantic, screen-filling smart bombs that ideally destroy everything on-screen at once. Some of the earliest smart bombs I can remember appeared in Defender and Gradius. They were effective – destroying all enemies on-screen – but they weren’t very exciting to look at. One minute the enemies were there and the next minute they were gone. Hardly very exciting. As the genre evolved so too did the smart bomb and soon games…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THE HISTORY OF RezThe Dreamcast may have been Sega’s swan song in the console business, but in going down swinging it also led to some of the most original and innovative titles in its history. That go-for-broke mentality gave the opportunity to create new experiences and genres that might attract a new audience instead of just the hardcore gamer. It was for this reason that producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi, already an arcade legend due to the Sega Rally series, moved to the console side to do something different under his new Shibuya-based division (away from Sega’s then headquarters in Haneda), first simply known as AM9 but later it became its own subsidiary called United Game Artists (UGA). The studios focus was no longer on racing games or even another genre but rather an idea…13 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227The evolution ofRezRez’s synaesthesia hasn’t been limited to just the screen, and we don’t just mean Rez Infinite’s leap to VR. In fact, when the latter made its debut, some might recall it premiered alongside what was dubbed the Synaesthesia Suit, a collaboration with Japanese media artist collective Rhizomatics, taking the concept of immersive haptic feedback to another level with a suit with 26 actuators that lets the wearer feel the textures of the visuals and sound pulsing through different parts of their body. While Mizuguchi admits the suit was purely for promotional and marketing purposes, he decided to work with Rhizomatics again in a brand-new work that transforms Rez into a real spatial experience. Rezonance is an installation as part of a larger audio-visual exhibition called Virtual Realms, which has Mizuguchi…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227HEROES AND VILLAINSJERICHO CROSS A jaded Civil War veteran turned gunslinger, Jericho becomes the Darkwatch’s unwilling secret weapon and last hope after accidentally unleashing Lazarus during a botched train robbery. A man of few words, he prefers to let his guns do the talking for him instead. CASSIDY SHARP Orphaned by vampires as a child, Cassidy was taken into the Darkwatch at a young age and has since become one of its finest Regulators. The designers created Cassidy as a stand-in for Halo’s Cortana, tasked with guiding the player throughout Jericho’s journey. TALA Fearless and independent, Tala is just as dangerous as the creatures the Darkwatch hunts. Whilst she will happily expend human lives with a frightening coldness, her undeniable ability to achieve victory in the face of overwhelming odds makes her…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227PROTOTYPE ON MSX1■ Announced and released towards the end of 2018, Prisoner Of War for the original MSX1 is basically the proof of concept for UnMetal on modern systems. You won’t find a digital download of this prototype, since it was sold exclusively on physical cartridge. Developed by Francisco Téllez de Meneses, this was not his first project coding for original hardware – previously he’d programmed Ghost for MSX1 in assembler. “One day I posted a poll on Twitter,” recalls Fran, “asking people what they would like me to create next for the MSX – an 8-bit computer from the Eightes. A Metal Gear-like for MSX1 was by far the most voted option.” Here it’s important to differentiate the models of MSX, since the MSX1 to the MSX2 is like the PlayStation…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227MERETZKY MAGICPLANETFALL 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 to play. Planetfall’s popularity meant that a follow-up, Stationfall was released four years later. A remake appeared on the NEC PC-9801 in 1992. THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 1984, Various ■ Douglas Adams was quoted as saying he wasn’t sure which bits he had written, and which bits Steve wrote – a huge compliment for such a well-made adaptation. The boxed edition with its brilliant ‘feelies’ is worth tracking down for your collection, and it also had a…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Headhunter» DREAMCAST » 2001 » AMUZE One of the criticisms often directed at the Dreamcast was that its games could be a bit shallow. Many of the system’s prominent games were arcade conversions and while some of them added substantial extra content, plenty didn’t. Was Sega blind to market trends for more substantial experiences? I’d argue that it wasn’t – the company threw resources at meaty games, they just arrived too late to make a difference. Games like Phantasy Star Online and Metropolis Street Racer are evidence enough of that, and Headhunter was just as ambitious. This stealth action game is set in a near future dystopia, but one that’s strikingly different to the dystopia we’ve actually ended up with. Law enforcement has been privatised, criminals are having control chips…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227GB OperatorBroadly speaking, emulation is legal, but unauthorised distribution of copyright protected software isn’t. This neat little USB device ensures that you can stay well clear of dodgy ROM sites by using your own Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges. Better yet, it allows you to use your existing saved games, back them up and even write your progress back to the cartridge. Epilogue has provided custom software for the GB Operator with the aim of making the whole experience as user friendly as possible. When a cartridge is inserted, a brief game synopsis is displayed along with a handful of options. As well as playing games via the built-in mGBA emulation core, you can quickly and easily reconfigure your controls, and back-up your games and data…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227GynougThis is yet another release from Shinyuden, but it doesn’t quite impress as much as Gleylancer does. While it offers the same staggering number of options, its new modes are a lot less impressive. In fact you’re simply given a number of cheat options that allow you to do everything from retain your weapons when you die, to having infinite lives, magic and credits, or becoming invincible. They’re fun additions to have, particularly if you’ve never played this rock-hard shooter in its original Mega Drive incarnation, but it doesn’t feel like it has had as much thought put into it as Gleylancer has. Still, Gleylancer’s rewind function is also included here, so you can quickly loop back and enjoy Gynoug’s many gruesome bosses. Score 80%…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227EUROS AND EASELSBIO NAME: Peter Riezebos LOCATION: Netherlands FAVOURITE GAME: The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time FAVOURITE SYSTEM: Neo Geo COLLECTION WORTH: Before opening 1-2 million Euros (excluding Neo Geo collection). After opening a fraction. Before the end of the project I will give most away again. TWITCH: NextNextLevel Our latest collector is an unusual one because his games aren’t just to enjoy, they’re also been picked to entertain others and have inspired his latest art project. Peter Riezebos started playing games in 1990 when he was ten years old. He managed to build up two sizeable collections over the following twenty years, but managed to give most of the games away. He’s now decided to revisit his youth in the form of an art project and interactive stream that you…4 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227WHAT WERE YOUR FAVOURITE PS2 BUDGET GAMES?Martin 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. Peter Snoeren I loved The Red Star, a fantastic mix of beat-’em-up gameplay and bullet hell shooter. It’s an absolute gem. Another favourite of mine was Monster Attack, which was the very first Earth Defense Force game released in Europe. Ever since that game, I’ve been a huge EDF fan. Jason I really enjoyed Groove Rider. It was Scalextric without the licence. Think I got it for eight quid. It was worth about that much. Daniel Betts It has to be Fruit Machine Mania. There is something strangely compelling about these niche interest PS2 games that were…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227LOADING…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. Emily arrived and all was going well with my new life – until I spied a row of Xboxes in Southampton’s Virgin megastore. The sheer power of Microsoft’s console awakened something inside of me that had laid dormant for a couple of years and I knew I had to own one. I picked up several games but it was Halo: Combat Evolved that left the biggest impression on me – as I hadn’t experienced anything quite like it. It’s a real pleasure then to be able to…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227I am retro!“Haven’t we moved beyond the idea that games are just for kids?” I turned 50 not so long ago, which more or less coincided with the news that I’m going to become a grandfather early next year. Coupled to that, pretty much the day I slammed into that half-century mark, I developed arthritis in my hands. As signifiers that I’m no longer young go… it’s a perfect storm. I myself am now firmly, and forever more shall be, retro. It has been quite the ride. The proverbial rollercoaster. Highs and lows. Wisdom acquired and innocence lost. Nevertheless, I don’t feel my interests have changed enormously over the past 50 years. I still like Star Wars. I still like theme parks. I still play videogames, even if I somehow don’t seem…3 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THIS MONTH IN…Cube “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, opining that Mario, Zelda and Metroid don’t have the profile of Halo and GTA. Edge Now that Sega is a third-party developer, how does Yuji Naka feel about the influx of new hardware on the market? “Tired,” he says. “We have nine platforms to develop for, it’s too much!” He also mentioned that dealing with “hackers, bad users, illegal users” in Phantasy Star Online took up more time than developing additional game content. NGC Jeff Minter’s GameCube project Unity has been canned, and the dwindling lifespan of Nintendo’s console…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 22720 YEARS OF HALO: COMBAT EVOLVEDIt’s astonishing to think that it has been two long decades since we experienced Master Chief’s very first adventure. Released to critical acclaim on Microsoft’s Xbox, Halo: Combat Evolved set new standards for console shooters, introducing numerous new game mechanics and delivering an exciting world to explore, either on-foot or in one of the many vehicles that were available. For many who were unaware of developer Bungie, Halo must have felt like a bolt of brilliance, completely out of the blue, but the DNA of Master Chief’s debut adventure can be traced back to Marathon, a popular first-person shooter that Bungie released for the Mac in 1994. While Halo was rightly praised for its excellent combat mechanics, satisfying enemy AI, tactical combat and fantastic multiplayer options on release, Bungie had…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227A CHAT WITH CORTANAWhat direction were you given for Cortana while working on Halo: Combat Evolved? The things that they said to me was that, “You’re this man’s lifeline, you’re sort of the girl next door, there’s no flirting, it’s not that kind of relationship. You’re the entity really helping [Master Chief] get through the game. We don’t ever want you to sound like you’re annoyed with him, you’re working together, you’re a team.” Did you enjoy your time on Halo and when did you realise that it had become a huge success? I had a great time recording it because they were just such a fun group of people who were so excited about the game, but I didn’t know how well Halo had done until they called me back and said,…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227AUGMENTING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCEIt’s not the sexiest topic to bring up whenever lavishing praise on a game, but there’s something about being a retro-gaming fan that makes AI – and how its use in videogames has grown and evolved over the years – a truly compelling concept. And while Halo wasn’t populating entire worlds with its artificial intelligence or simulating an oak tree growing from an acorn throughout the course of the game, the practical uses that were implemented not only added believability to Halo‘s world, but a greater depth of strategy, too. This AI was enhanced by unique animations that let enemies fake dodges to make you miss them, roll away from your grenades or use specific abilities to evade a melee attack and follow up with a counter of their own.…3 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THE WEAPONS OF HALOM6D PISTOL ⏹ Chances are high you rarely used this sidearm beyond the initial moments aboard the Pillar Of Autumn. It’s not that the classic pistol is a bad weapon, it’s just not going to replace anything else that you’ll easily find lying around. M90 ASSAULT SHOTGUN ⏹ What’s an FPS without a handy shotgun? As you might expect, it’s a heavy-damage, close-range weapon that can down almost any foe if you’re close enough for the full spread to land. You’ll first find this when you also find the Flood. SRS99C-S2 AM SNIPER RIFLE ⏹ As the most powerful weapon in the game, at least in terms of damage, a skilled marksman will likely find that the sniper rifle will help in most gunfights, at least before they get flanked…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THE EVOLUTION OF: Lode RunnerIn 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’s initial instinct was to reject it, until some important alterations were made. “It was written on a VAX, so it was a very low-resolution game, and the Apple II version was just a straight translation,” Carlston reflects. “I think the characters in the game were just three pixels, so you couldn’t tell what was going on. So I told Doug Smith that he didn’t need the mazes to be that big; he could make mazes that were smaller and more interesting. He needed to change the scale to make it work, and he…13 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227STAGES OF EVOLUTION:CONSOLE CAPERSHYPER LODE RUNNER 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 LODE RUNNER Battle Lode Runner’s main draw are its multiplayer modes. Its three variations are: Escape – where you try to get gold from an enemy first, Survival – where you’re out if you fall in a hole and Tag – where two teams of two play Survival. LODE RUNNER TWIN: JUSTY TO LIBERTY NO DAIBOKEN Aside from a cute and colourful solo mode, Lode Runner Twin has co-op and head-to-head options. Across the modes, there are some pretty big scrolling…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227TOPPING TAPPERFIZZ BOMB ⏹ Occurring after two cowboy levels, three sports levels and four space/punk levels, this bonus screen gets progressively trickier as the cans move faster and faster. First, keep an eye on which can the villain doesn’t shake; then watch closely as they juggle around. Get it right and there’s a 3,000 point bonus. Get it wrong and it’s a face-full of Bud. RUNNING THE BAR ⏹ There are a couple of useful little tricks to manoeuvring this barman around his place of work. Both tips and returning glasses can be preemptively collected by dashing down the bar to seize them. Should you need to rapidly start serving again, a quick tap of the fire button will place the bartender at the end of the bar again, poised to…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Intellivision II» MANUFACTURER: Mattel Electronics » YEAR: 1983 » COST: $150 (launch), £125+ (today, boxed), £55+ (today, unboxed) The original Intellivision was a decidedly Seventies design, with its gold panels and wood-effect front, and it was quite bulky and complex to manufacture too. So Mattel Electronics decided, as companies often do, to refresh the Intellivision product line by introducing a new hardware model. The resulting white plastic model was smaller, cheaper to make and sported a look that was inescapably Eighties. It was also significantly uglier. At least the redesigned controllers, which now lacked the bubble effect on the numerical pad, were detachable and therefore easy to replace. The new external power supply was easier to replace but many have been lost today, resulting in plenty of untested consoles for sale.…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227CONVERSION CAPERSAMIGA 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, despite being a tad too easy to pose a great challenge. PC The menu system on this DOS version didn’t quite appear as pretty as on the 16/32-bit versions but otherwise this was a rather faithful port. That said, steering could feel unresponsive at times and despite moving at speed, it would veer a bit too much on the safe side, as if you had even less chance of messing things up as you motored along. NES For some reason, this bright and cheery looking game appears to be called…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 22750 THINGS THAT CHANGED GAMINGHumanity had accomplished many things by the start of 1971, plenty of them rather impressive – we’d erected great buildings like the pyramids, created beautiful works of art and literature, and invented machines that could take us to the moon. Yet somehow, despite having invented a box that could display moving pictures and play sounds – you know, a television – somehow, nobody had yet figured out a way to sell us games to play on that box. By the end of the year, that had all changed with the introduction of Nutting Associates’ Computer Space, the first arcade videogame to be sold commercially. Fifty years have passed since then, and the changes that have taken place since could scarcely have been imagined. There have been companies that have endured…35 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227KEY QUAKECONMOMENTSTHE FIRST QUAKECON • 1996 ■ 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, Texas, that they dubbed ‘QuakeCon’. CPL SETS UP THE FIRST QUAKECON PRO TOURNEY • 1998 ■ QuakeCon doubled in size as its word of mouth spread across the growing Internet. So did the cash prize pool for Quake tournaments thanks to the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) making it one of the first and most lucrative pro-esports tournaments in the industry. ID SOFTWARE MAKES QUAKECON OFFICIAL • 1999 ■ The fans could only carry so much of the planning for the…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227State Of ArtAs an artist, what were you responsible for in Rez? I animated the main character and I designed the characters for the first and second stage. I also worked on the prototype of the first boss back when it was like this octopus-jellyfish, which turned into a much more abstract geometric thing. I actually translated the text into English for Area 5, but Yokota-san was the mind behind all that. How did you manage to work in Japan without speaking any Japanese? When I was working on Space Channel 5, the art director took me under her wing and she’d love to practise her English, so we kind of built a rapport, so I just kind of picked it up. I’d sit in design meetings taking notes, listening for words…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Super Mario 64The mid-Nineties were an exciting time for gaming with many popular franchises making the leap to the third dimension. While you knew a Mario game would be appearing on Nintendo’s new 64-bit system, you had decided to go in cold and were doing your best to avoid the early screenshots and previews that started to appear in magazines. Excitement eventually got the better of you and a few articles had you convinced that Nintendo’s launch game was something to get very excited about. The N64 finally arrived and you booted Super Mario 64 up, to be greeted by the immortal words, “It’s-a me, Mario.” All of a sudden, a huge, fully 3D visage of the iconic plumber appeared on-screen and he looked amazing. What’s more, you quickly realised that the…3 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227NOT ON MY WATCHThe 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 ultimately these were put on hold as it negotiated its acquisition by Vivendi. The studio got the greenlight to start work on a Darkwatch sequel following the release of Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy in 2008. For Darkwatch 2, the developers switched to using Unreal rather than its predecessor’s proprietary engine, and shifted the game’s perspective from first to third-person. It once again put players in Jericho’s spurred boots, this time many centuries in the future. In this world, the vampires had conquered the globe and reshaped it in…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227STEVE MERETZKYComedy 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 name a few,” says Steve. He took quite a circuitous route to becoming a game designer, having gone to the Massachusetts Institute Of Technology (MIT) to study architecture (with a minor in creative writing, which would come in handy). After his years at Infocom, Steve became a consultant and worked freelance with other publishers before founding Boffo Games. A string of bad luck led him into casual gaming, but he can look back on many fondly remembered titles. How did you end up testing games for Infocom? I was involved…16 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227GLITTERING PRIZESThere have been many awards and high review scores in Steve’s career, and Stanford University holds a dedicated archive of material (manuals, design documents and boxes). He was honoured to receive the BAFTA for the 20th anniversary interactive edition of Hitchhiker’s. This was updated with graphics for each location made by fans and updated once =more for the 30th anniversary. It is still playable online at bbc.in/3nnr4dj. “That was a really nice surprise,” says Steve. “Even though a number of people were involved in porting the game to the web, situated in several countries, they only gave us one statuette. So, we decided we’d each keep it for a few months (and while we had it, take photos of it in various places). Then Jane, Douglas’ widow, would be the…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Evercade VSINFORMATION » RELEASED: 8 DECEMBER » PRICE: £89.99 (STARTER PACK) / £109.99 (PREMIUM PACK) » PUBLISHER: BLAZE ENTERTAINMENT » PLAYERS: 1-4 More than one company has promised a unique hardware platform dedicated to retro gaming, but none had truly proven the concept to be viable until the release of the Evercade handheld last year. While it certainly wasn’t perfect, the system represented an affordable way to buy retro games, and has established itself enough that we now have the Evercade VS. The home console version of the Evercade runs the same cartridges as the handheld (bar two), but offers a host of improvements – most prominently, the ability to connect four controllers for multiplayer games. It’s a fairly small piece of hardware, just a little wider than its control pads,…6 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227GleylancerThis 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 adjust everything from the resolution and controls to languages and screen curvature. A new Modern mode gives you all sorts of options, from being able to select different gunners on the fly to even using the right analogue stick to aim them. This mode does make the game quite a lot easier so keep that in mind (especially as you can rewind time). Gleylancer is a tough blaster so it’s great to see this new release caters to so many types of players. A superb classic shmup has just…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227FESTIVE FUNChristmas is fast approaching, and so is everything that comes with it. We’re looking forward to sitting down to dinner with our families, a traditionally depressing episode of EastEnders, and of course the fun of hunting down gifts and the excitement of receiving them in kind. Of course, gifts often mean games for us, so with that in mind we decided to chat about some of our favourite memories of Christmases gone by. DARRAN So we all know that Nick got a GameCube one year, but has anyone ever received another console or computer for Christmas? Mel got me a Mega Drive with The Lion King pack-in, which was lovely. Shame I never kept it, as it’s now very expensive. TIM I never got a console or computer for Christmas,…5 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227BARGAIN HUNTTHE COVER STAR HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED 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. LODE RUNNER If you fancy owning Lode Runner on Apple II expect to pay around £45 for a complete copy. The MSX, Atari 8-bit and Spectrum versions range from £7-£25, while the C64 version should be under £30. REZ Sega’s superb on-rails shooter is slowly rising in price. The PAL Dreamcast version ranges from £50-£90, while the Japanese edition is a little cheaper. The PS2 option is easier on the wallet as PAL copies usually sell between £4 and £20. DARKWATCH…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227MAILBAGWIN! Every month, one lucky writer-in will receive a spanking copy of either our NES/Master System or SNES/Mega Drive books ARCADE MEMORIES Hi Retro Gamer, I understand exactly where Iain Lee is coming from when he talks about the constant hunt for tokens in today’s arcades. When I trawled the arcades as a kid it was always about discovering new games and seeing how far I could get. I discovered games like Street Fighter II in holiday arcades, and the reason I have a Sega Saturn is because of a week of being in awe of Virtua Fighter 2. Although arcades aren’t the same today there has been an attempt to replace them with the various arcade bars that have started cropping up. What are your thoughts on these and…5 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Your sayWhat’s your favourite moment from Halo: Combat Evolved? Jonathan Keen The Flood encounter. Meeting these abominations for the first time really turned the game on its head. Rev Phil Richardson That moment when you played multiplayer for the first time and your mate is driving the Warthog and says, “Hop in the back and use the gun…” Jeremy Powers Getting that first Warthog and the freedom of exploring this world… and just… GOING. It may seem closed off by today’s standards, but it felt like a massive world had opened up for me back then, which I still love to return to from time to time! James Harvey The final mission when you’re in the Warthog and the music is getting more and more intense as you get towards your…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227END GAMEFOOTBALL FRENZY You know how it is, with those professional sports people and their professional sports. Often, their day jobs involve a lot of running, and you don’t get that good at running unless you have something to run away from. So it goes for Jimmy Tightend, a tight end whose behaviour on the field recently has been concerning his fellow players. Let’s skip to the end and find out why……1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THE RETURN OF PLAY EXPOIt’s been a tremendously challenging few months for the majority of the entertainment and events industry, and for the retro show organisers Replay Events it’s been no different. Forced to cancel most of its plans during the pandemic, the company finally returned last month to what it does best – putting on a professional gaming show for eager retro punters. Housed once more within the cavernous Norcalympia Conference Centre at the Norbreck Hotel, Blackpool, this was an event that added little new compared to its previous incarnations – but on this occasion, that didn’t matter. With the wealth of arcade cabinets, games consoles and pinball machines on show, there was plenty for the event-starved guests to play and enjoy. “Last year was pretty awful,” Replay’s Andy Brown tells us. “Thankfully…5 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Four QuartersIf you like coin-ops and craft beer as much as we do, you should definitely visit a Four Quarters arcade and bar. Owned by five equal partners – Joe Dowling, Marc Jones, Francois Kitching, Tom Humphrey and Simon Dennison – they opened their first venue in Peckham in 2014 and now run three locations across London, with more planned both in and outside the capital. What motivated you to start Four Quarters? Marc Jones: All five of us have slightly different reasons but we all share a love for retro and a connection from our childhoods with arcades. For me visiting an arcade was the best bit of any holiday growing up and I still have vivid memories of the various arcades in Westward Ho!. When I started to hear…6 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227CHARTSPLAYSTATION 2 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) XBOX 1 – Halo 2 (Microsoft) 2 – Need For Speed Underground 2 (EA) 3 – Call Of Duty: Finest Hour (Activision) 4 – Pro Evolution Soccer 4 (Konami) 5 – Prince Of Persia: Warrior Within (Ubisoft) GAMECUBE 1 – Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Nintendo) 2 – Need For Speed Underground 2 (EA) 3 – Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Nintendo) 4 – Donkey Konga (Nintendo) 5 – Tales Of Symphonia (Namco) MUSIC 1 – Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own (U2) 2 – Wooden Heart (Elvis…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227HALO'S LEGACYWhat 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 with skies and trees and rock formations that took Bungie’s home turf, the Pacific Northwest, and extrapolated it into something brilliantly alien. And how many shooters offer you vehicles that look like the opalescent shell of a beetle, and guns that fire glowing purple needles? And yes, unfortunately, the Flood too. But for a very specific generation of players, the Halo campaign was the equivalent of Star Wars’ cantina sequence – a set of gorgeous toys that would live in your head well into adulthood. Tell us about…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227MAXIMISING THE MULTIPLAYER EXPERIENCEThere’s no denying that at the time of Halo’s release, any new FPS worth its salt was essentially guaranteed a multiplayer mode. Online play was becoming an essential part of almost any new game, but shooters especially wouldn’t achieve very much without it. And Halo, with its cinematic approach and rich lore, felt like its emphasis lay in the single-player, with multiplayer coming in as a feature to keep players hooked long after the credits rolled. But that just wasn’t the case. “Halo was multiplayer from the very start,” says Stefan Sinclair, a programmer on Halo’s multiplayer team. “In fact, for a long while, it was only multiplayer. For example when I started at Bungie in the summer of 1999, the only way one ‘played Halo’ at that time was…4 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227ROGUE'S GALLERYUNGGOY ⏹ Named Grunts by humans, the Unggoy are your everyday cannon fodder: fairly ineffective combatants, not especially hardy but a good distraction in larger numbers. These are arguably the most iconic enemy in the Halo-verse thanks to their cowardly nature; they’ll try to flee when outnumbered, wailing and flailing as they do. SANGHEILI ⏹ The core foundation of the Covenant army, the Elites as they are known, come in a broad spectrum of combat styles. Some have energy shields, some can be invisible, and some – the most intimidating of all – can decimate you with their neon energy swords. Watch out for those ones. KIG-YAR ⏹ The Jackals are pretty one-note when it comes to their combat style, since each of these warriors come with a large, round…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227HALO'S LEGACYHALO 2 ⏹ Any sequel to a breakthrough hit (no less a brand-new console launch) is going to be tough, but Bungie was given the time and resources to make something special in 2004. The studio was able to learn about what worked with the original, and fine-tune that campaign into something more cinematic and blockbuster-like. However, it’s arguably the addition of online multiplayer that stole the show here, bringing online FPS gaming to consoles and proving the need for an Xbox Live subscription. HALO 3 ⏹ When it came time for Halo to make it over to a new generation, the hype was already beyond belief. Bungie was smart to retain everything that players loved about the Halo campaign, with the battle against two Scarabs being particularly memorable. But…4 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227STAGES OF EVOLUTION:COIN-OP CAPERSLODE RUNNER TRILOGY 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 their heads when they’re in holes. LODE RUNNER: TEIKOKU KARANO DASSHUTSU For its fourth Lode Runner coin-op, Irem added a Pair Game mode, which is similar to its trilogy but with two players clearing stages together. Interestingly, if one player dies in the co-op mode then both lose a life, and to reach some gold you have to stand on your co-player. LODE RUNNER: THE DIG FIGHT As with its predecessors, there’s a time limit to finish Dig Fight’s levels, but Psikyo’s coin-op adds power-ups that…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227CONVERSION CAPERSAMSTRAD CPC 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. Sponsored by Pepsi, it’s a shame the speed is sacrificed; still, it looks nice and has the original Bud Tapper version of the barman. APPLE II This version is beautifully detailed, especially during its outside sports level, with a crisp blue sky overlooking a verdant field and its old-fashioned beer carts. Like most of the home conversions, it utilises a one-touch beer delivery system, although this supposedly more efficient method has a habit of sticking, resulting in many a spilled mug of beer. Not a bad effort on the ancient…3 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THE MAKING OF: Nigel Mansell’s WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPNigel 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 having come second behind Ayrton Senna the year before. And with the Williams FW14B at his disposal, the racing world had high hopes of his ultimate success. By this point, Gremlin Graphics was also something of a big name, in videogames at least. The company had built a reputation for developing a series of hit racing games, among them Lotus, Super Cars and Toyota Celica GT Rally, and it was now looking to create another. Almost immediately, the company’s marketing director, former teacher David Martin, had a…13 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Mastering MansellQUALIFY FIRST ⏹ Although it is possible to zoom from twelfth place into first, trying to qualify for each of the races can put you in a much better position on the grid. You may find that your car is not accelerating as fast as your opponents’ so grab the advantage. LEARN THE COURSES ⏹ The more familiar you are with the courses, the better you’ll be at anticipating the twists and turns. But another way of keeping one step ahead is to glance at the course pictured at the top of the screen where you’ll also see your opponents’ positions. GO FOR AUTO ⏹ You can choose manual transmission for faster acceleration but if you opt for auto then it means you’re not having to think too much about…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Pro Controller» PLATFORM: Jaguar » RELEASED: 1995 » COST: $29.99 (launch), £80+ (today, boxed) £60+ (today, unboxed Given the reputation of the Atari Jaguar’s standard controller, it seems almost perverse that someone looked at it and decided that the best way to improve it was to add more buttons. Yet that’s exactly what the Pro Controller did, doubling the number of main face buttons to six and adding two shoulder buttons too. Although the general shape of the Pro Controller remained broadly similar to that of the original, there were some changes to the ergonomics that improved over the previous design. The round face buttons have more depth and spring to them than before, and the updated d-pad is more comfortable over long play sessions. Due to the late release of…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227EVENTFUL ALTERNATIVESEVOLUTION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES ■ Since 1996, this series has brought some of the world’s greatest virtual fighters to Japan for a high-stakes tournament that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The gathering features showdowns in games from series like Street Fighter, Tekken and Mortal Kombat as players fight for a prize pool of $125,000. DREAMHACK ■ Just about every videogame from almost every era on consoles, PCs and mobile devices are featured at this massive tournament gathering. It started in 1994 as a small, friendly gathering in Malung, Sweden. It has expanded to multiple events in five countries throughout the year. BLIZZCON ■ Blizzard Entertainment, the publisher behind storied hits like Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and Hearthstone, has hosted its own game gathering and tournament since 2005 in Irvine, California thanks to…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227MusicalMizuguchiSPACE CHANNEL 5 1999 • DREAMCAST Essentially a Simon Says-style rhythm game like Parappa The Rapper but without the freestyling, Ulala is a pink-haired space reporter who fights brainwashing aliens and rival reporters through the power of dance. Keep your ratings high, rescue more people and they follow you like a party parade, evolving the music. LUMINES: PUZZLE FUSION 2004 • PSP Mizuguchi’s first game at his own studio Q Entertainment would leverage the potential of Sony’s new handheld as an “interactive Walkman”, leading to a music-based puzzle game. The idea of clearing blocks using a sweeping ‘time line’ is ingenious in itself, but the audio and visuals takes it to another level. CHILD OF EDEN 2011 • PS3, XBOX 360 A spiritual successor to Rez, this is also a…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227THE MAKING OF DARKWATCHGive me a home, where the vampires roam, where the dead and damnable play. In the heyday of the sixth console generation, there was one game that brought players a world of ghouls, guts and gunslingers. That game was Darkwatch; a grimdark Gothic epic following the blood-soaked trail of outlaw Jericho Cross. After robbing the wrong train one fateful night, Jericho accidentally unleashes an ancient vampire lord named Lazarus Malkoth, getting turned into a bloodsucker in the bargain. His only hope lies in the titular Darkwatch, a secret order founded in the dying days of Ancient Rome and dedicated to fighting evil wherever it hides. Armed with an array of deadly weapons and supernatural abilities, Jericho must ally with the Darkwatch to stop Lazarus and his curse of undeath before…10 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227UNMETALConsider our introduction and ponder how many games are similar to the one gracing these pages. The original Metal Gear series, obviously: its MSX2 progenitor and NES conversion, the sequels Snake’s Revenge and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, and Ghost Babel on Game Boy Color. If you’re an MSX fan you might add: D-Dash, Jagur, Super Rambo Special and War Of The Dead 2. Outside of the MSX maybe Die Hard on NES or Alien 3 on Game Boy. A few others. Early Metal Gear games are basically early Zelda games but with guns; curiously while there have been countless Zelda copycats, with their Tolkienesque settings, the same cannot be said for Hideo Kojima’s futuristic masterpiece. So to have – finally – a game like UnMetal, it is a glorious…6 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227SELECTED TIMELINE■ 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] VARIOUS ■ STATIONFALL [1987] VARIOUS ■ ZORK ZERO [1988] AMIGA, APPLE-II, MS-DOS, MACINTOSH ■ LANE MASTODON VS THE BLUBBERMEN [1989] C64, APPLE-II, MS-DOS ■ SPELLCASTING 101: SORCERERS GET ALL THE GIRLS [1990] DOS ■ SPELLCASTING 201: THE SORCERER’S APPLIANCE [1991] DOS ■ LEATHER GODDESSES OF PHOBOS 2 [1991] DOS ■ SPELLCASTING 301: SPRING BREAK [1992] DOS ■ REX NEBULAR AND THE COSMIC GENDER BENDER [1992] DOS, MACINTOSH (ADVISORY CAPACITY) ■ SUPERHERO LEAGUE OF HOBOKEN [1994] DOS, MACINTOSH, WINDOWS ■ HODJ ‘N’ PODJ [1994] DOS ■ COLUMBO’S MYSTERY CAPERS [1994] NEWTON (CONSULTING ROLE)…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227YOU ASK THE QUESTIONSNorthWay: 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 coolest game you could make on a home computer. But by the late-Eighties, that was no longer true. The existence of the hobbyist IF market has demonstrated that there continues to be a niche for IF, but not a large enough niche to support you [if] doing it for profit rather than passion. IF had two main components: narrative and puzzles. Narrative ‘graduated’ from IF and has found its way into virtually every genre of electronic games, from console-based shooters to casual mobile puzzle games. Puzzles (‘brain teasers’, not…2 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227Resident Evil 4 VRFew 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 Nintendo’s console and has been released countless times since, appearing on everything from the PlayStation 2 and Wii to iPhone, PC and Xbox Series X. It’s now available exclusively on Oculus Quest 2, but has the move to VR been a beneficial one? Even if you’ve completed Resident Evil 4 countless times in the past, this impressive remaster by Armature Studio will still manage to amaze you. Where previous updates of Resi 4 have largely been done with the minimal amount of effort, Armature has…4 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227The Making Of Tomb RaiderTechRadar 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 Daryl puts them front and centre, allowing the key players to tell the story in their own words. There’s some really nice visual material such as early concept sketches and tradeshow photos, and the book actually goes further than its title suggests with a good chunk of it dedicated to recounting the development of Lara’s second acclaimed adventure, Tomb Raider II. Toby Gard is predictably absent from the roster of interviewees and a few linguistic errors have slipped by the editors, but this remains a good read for…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227READERS REACTBarrie Ellis 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. Stuart Howie Not going to say it’s my favourite but the very obscure Snowball Sunday on the C64 always got me in the Christmas spirit when I was younger. Stoppy It absolutely has to be Shenmue. Hearing the festive tunes and seeing Santa staggering around town. Lovely stuff. Andrew Neill Santa’s Xmas Caper. It was appalling, but I still played it every Christmas for years! Goldtingle I think living the actual Christmas in Animal Crossing is particularly emotional (of course the name of the holiday is changed, but the feeling is still the same). Not to mention that back in the GameCube days…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227PS2 FOR PENNIESDespite the fact that I was a happy PlayStation owner, the PlayStation 2 is not a console that won me over immediately. In fact, there was a time when you could have said that the PS2 represented everything that was wrong with gaming, and I probably would have agreed with you. Most of this was to do with simple bitterness. As a big fan of Sega’s swan song I still feel a bit of lingering resentment at the absurd level of hype that accompanied Sony’s new console on release. It probably doesn’t help that I moved on to the GameCube. In my teenage years, I was truly miffed that my cheap, capable console with fantastic games like Metroid Prime and The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker was struggling for…6 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227RIGHT IN THE FEELSDear 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. Thanks to My Retro Life I’ve a better understanding of why Darran loves shmups and import gaming and it’s also obvious that he’s a big fan of handheld gaming too (something I also enjoy). I’ve also enjoyed learning about how Nick fell in love with Sonic and his Twitch article was also interesting and it has allowed me to discover a whole new area of gaming I didn’t really know existed. It would be great if we could read about some of the…1 min
Retro Gamer|No. 227The Perfect Christmas Gift from just £6SUBSCRIBE NOW • Give the gift that keeps on delivering• Over 80 magazines to choose from• Free delivery straight to your door www.magazinesdirect.com/xm21 Terms and conditions: Offer closes 3l/l2/2021.Savings are based on the newsstand cover price. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue in the UK, and up to B weeks for overseas. All gift subscriptions will start post-Christmas with the next available issue. Payment is non-refundable after the l4 day cancellation period unless exceptional circ*mstances apply. For full terms and conditions, visit www.magazinesdirect.com/terms. For enquiries please email help@magazinesdirect.com.…1 min
