Retro Gamer

DARRAN JONES I’m clearly going to go for Strider. That way I could take Capcom’s amazing game with me wherever I go. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful girls, one SNES-loving cousin and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! C

I’d love to see Fallout/Skyrim in an engine that isn’t riddled with bugs, any engine will do. I’d take Thomas The Tank Engine at this stage. A Doom/Wolfenstein crossover would be pretty badass. Demons and Nazis together, that’s something! Return To C

The Virtua Fighter series seems to be on the brink of a comeback, as Sega has teased a new project under the ‘Virtua Fighter x esports’ title. The original 3D fighting series has been essentially dormant since the 2012 console release of Virtua Fight

M2 has announced Aleste Collection for PS4 and Switch, which gathers Compile’s shoot-’em-ups for 8-bit Sega consoles. The package includes the Master System games Aleste, known here as Power Strike, and Power Strike II, as well as the Game Gear’s GG

DECEMBER 2003 – Could we be seeing the best Christmas of the generation? A packed release schedule would suggest so, with absolute belters being flung around left, right and centre. Nick Thorpe reinforces his time machine and steels himself for a bar

1 – Need For Speed: Underground (EA) 2 – Medal Of Honor: Rising Sun (EA) 3 – FIFA 2004 (EA) 4 – The Simpsons: Hit & Run (Vivendi) 5 – The Sims: Bustin’ Out (EA) 1 – Project Gotham Racing 2 (Microsoft) 2 – Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3 (Ubisoft) 3 – Need

“We must warn you that Square Enix’s follow-up to Final Fantasy VII will not be a game, but a movie,” a small news piece reads. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is apparently to be a straight-to-DVD movie set soon after the game, speculated to be “

■ Making use of a 2D perspective, the Game Boy Advance version of Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time feels like an entirely different game to the other console iterations, despite overlapping similarities. It welds the mechanics of the original game

How did Gribbly’s Day Out On The Arc come about? Coin-Age approached us, rather than the other way around. I thought there was nothing to lose, because we weren’t going to pay anything towards it, but if it managed to sell a few then it would be a fe

In your own words, how would you describe The PowerGen Game? It was all about going underground to collect coal, bring it back and then put it in the power station, which then lit up some lights. That was the brief for the game – to show the connecti

How much did Fire & Ice influence The Ottifants? It was derived from the Fire & Ice game engine, because originally we were asked to produce it in just six weeks. But Sega hardly got the contracts signed by the end of six weeks, and then it came up w

Following on from an iconic decade for horror movies, the Eighties was a turbulent time for fans of the genre. The tabloid newspapers had caught on to the phenomenon, and in the traditional mainstream media fashion, a scapegoat was needed for all of

Even though the scene takes place in sunlight, the first time the teens approach the cabin is a tension-laden moment as Scott nervously uses his key to open the door. Events have already superseded this moment in the game, but the player still has to

■ While a sword would have been hugely useful in combating the possessed menace of The Evil Dead, sadly Ash and co could never quite find one in the original movie, having to make do with axes, chainsaws, shovels and shotguns. Oh well. ■ While posses

■ Lead character Ash became famous for his trademark exclamation of ‘Groovy!’, but he doesn’t actually say it in the original movie. ■ Likewise the chainsaw, which makes a brief but unused cameo. ■ Joel Coen, half of the Coen Brothers directing partn

Like many of the Oliver twins’ collaborations with Codemasters, Grand Prix Simulator was a huge success. However, aspects of their top-down Amstrad racer bothered the brothers, as did the outsourced Spectrum conversion, and so they decided to make a

■ Although not quite as vibrant as its 16-colour predecessor, the CPC Grand Prix Simulator 2 exploits the higher resolution of the system’s four-colour mode to render far more detailed cars. The Amstrad sequel also introduces damage meters, racing ag

Technically this version is impossible to fault. The action is fast, the scrolling is silky smooth and the Martin Galway soundtrack is great. But it’s as hard as hell! It’s quite remarkable that reaching the second stage is a punch-the-air moment. An

“The war’s not over until the last man comes home.” That’s the tagline to the 1984 movie Missing In Action, in which professional beard Chuck Norris plays a US colonel who returns to Vietnam to rescue his captured comrades. The film was inspired by t

DEVELOPER: ATARI YEAR: 1980 ■ Perhaps the most simple yet effective game to reflect the Cold War anxieties of the era. Enemy missiles rain down on your cities and you have to intercept them with your own defensive ordinance. Failing to do so doesn’t

“Today you’ve a mystery to solve. Last night you arrived at St Bride’s School. The mistresses and girls really believe they are in an old style boarding school. You even wonder if you’re not a bit mad to think you’re from the Eighties. You want to fi

Jack The Ripper was, notoriously, the first computer game ever to be granted an 18 certificate by the BBFC. It seems incredible now that gruesome text and 8-bit stills could have caused controversy, but Jack The Ripper was the GTA of its day. CRL’s C

■The God Of The Underworld, and the Nile itself, Osiris is the giver of life. A wise player would pay their respects to him, to ensure predictable floods. Osiris’ Temple Complex also houses an Altar Of Sebek, which allows residents to get by on less

PRICE: £350+ Annoyingly, most of the best games in this series are exclusive to the US, although a few offerings including Street Fighter II, Space Invaders and Mortal Kombat, are available from stores like Smyths. The main difference with the Arcade

■ Earlier this year, Numskull announced a very special version of Pac-Man to tie-in with the 40th anniversary celebrations that would be taking place throughout 2020. The reveal was a special edition of Pac-Man, which featured brand-new artwork that

Allow us, if you would be so kind, a bold opening statement: in our belief, the internet could be mankind’s most costly mistake. After all, what has it given us? New ways to argue with our relatives, the self-destructive temptation to read our work e

fusoya.eludevisibility.org/lm ■ Probably the most famous ROM-hacking utility ever released, FuSoYa’s tool lets you edit all facets of Super Mario World – create your own levels, make your own worlds, go absolutely nuts. emulicious.net/kidded ■ This i

“This is often the most difficult step. Is the game too long? Too short? Too boring? On a console that’s difficult to hack? If the game’s technical characteristics mean none of the translators I know are going to be interested in it, I’m probably not

1999, PARADOX DEVELOPMENT ■ If you want to try the Thrill Kill engine with out trying to track down a prototype, you can do that here. Rather than determining eliminations with a Thrill Kill, this game uses a more conventional system with a health ba

■ Not quite the knight in shining armour. You’ll run into them throughout the game, mercilessly slaying the world’s creatures and leaving their corpses in your wake, while getting stronger over time. But just who is this so-called hero underneath tha

▪Dropping the subtitle and capitalisation, ‘moon’ finally made its way to western shores on Nintendo Switch published by Kimura’s own Onion Games. According to an interview with Vice, the port was a result of a few miracles that came at the right tim

Space is a truly terrifying place to be in Outer Wilds. Whenever you get out of your ship mid-flight to repair a broken system or get cast adrift, you’ll feel the loneliness and danger of space. Outer Wilds is built to let you explore its planets in

We have been trying to contact you for many years, Reg. When we finally did find you, thanks to help from Frank Gasking, you seemed very surprised. I was amazed, to be honest. I’ve never been famous or anything like that, and there must be quite a fe

■ Yes, it is incredibly tough. Yes, giving players a single life and minimal fuel is cruel. And yes, this is still one of the best games on the unexpanded VIC-20. It remains a great source of pride for Reg, and if you manage to complete it, you’ll fe

FREDGHOSTMASTER: Skramble! was one of my favourite games on the VIC-20 as a kid, but why did you make it so tough? [Laughs] It’s not too bad until you get to the buildings. You have to move so quickly up and down to get through them, and you’ve got t

Reg’s excellent Skramble! had no less than four separate releases. The first was through Rabbit Software, which is probably the version you played in the UK. Then there was a Terminal Software version with slightly reworked graphics, and collectors e

The Sega Ages titles were great, they had quality-of-life improvements across all games as well as brilliant presentation. Even some new features like the drop dash from Sonic Mania being added to original Sonic titles. Classic games but tweaked just

THE COVER STAR If you want to play the Prince’s classic reboot, the good news is you won’t need to pay much. PS2 copies can be had for 99p or less, and the Xbox version is slightly more expensive, running from £2 upwards. The GameCube version is a bi

Around 50. GoldenEye holds the most memories for me, like when there was four of us and only had three controllers so someone had to use the steering wheel! Over the last 20 years I have Collected about 24 N64 games (not counting digital or remakes).

What’s your favourite Prince Of Persia game? The Sands Of Time was SO MUCH FUN. Great mechanics, story, effects, combat, it had the lot. It was a game with a lot of heart as well. The Sands Of Time. Perfect blend of great storytelling, art and gamepl

Editor Darran ‘Jake Gyllenhaal’ Jones darran.jones@futurenet.com 0330 3906443 Art Editor Andy ‘Sand Warrior’ Salter Production Editor Drew ‘Sultan Of Azad ’ Sleep Features Editor Nick ‘Vizier’ Thorpe Photographer Phil ‘The Prince’ Barker Group Art Di