Innehållsförteckning för No. 277 från Retro Gamer

DARRAN JONES I’m going to go for Kokotoni Wilf, I loved the level with dinosaurs in it and found the name hilariously surreal.  Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful girls and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! Currently playing: Gradius Origins Favourite game of all time: OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast ANDY SALTER After playing Striker on the SNES at a friend’s house I had to wait until the followingyear to get Ultimate Soccer for my Mega Drive. Expertise: Modding games, no ‘vanilla’ versions for me, thanks! Currently modding: RTR: Imperium Surrectum Favourite game of all time: Rome: Total War although I guess it’s the Remastered edition now MARTYN CARROLL Most of Elite’s early coin-op conversions were punching, but Space Harrier on the Spectrum was in a completely different league. Expertise: Sinclair…

I grew up with the usual suburban trappings of the Eighties: rusty dirt bikes, questionably engineered tree forts and summer adventures that ended in the ER so often everyone knew our names. And then we had him. He was the kind of kid who, when handed a water gun, thought, “This would be better filled with urine.” Dodgeball? He never went for the torso. He went straight for the groin, every… damn… time. It didn’t take long to realise there was no bottom to the well of his demented imagination. We absolutely hated him. And yet, sometimes, he surprised us. Like the afternoon he hauled his older brother’s painstakingly assembled World War II models onto the lawn, crammed them with firecrackers of dubious legality, and blew them to smithereens. It…

I ’ll tell you what you don’t get anymore: truly bad games. I’m mostly talking about major releases here, not indie experiments. Obviously, not every game today is a hit – plenty launch riddled with glitches, unfinished features, or broken promises. Lest we forget, the whole Cyberpunk 2077 debacle. And yet… I actually played Cyberpunk at launch, and honestly? It was fine. Nowhere near as catastrophic as the internet outrage would have you believe. A long, long way from the unmitigated disaster of ET on the Atari VCS – and at least you could see the ambition behind it. Maybe it’s an age thing, but it feels like most of today’s so-called ‘bad’ games are still better than many of the ‘good’ games I grew up with. Back then, plenty…

HOW DID SCOOBY-DOO COME ABOUT? God, I loved the Scooby cartoons. I still do; they’re probably my favourite of all time. Not quite sure who had the idea of licensing Scooby. It’s highly likely that I would have suggested it, but Steve would have done the deal. He was very good at tracking down who owned the rights and getting the licences, even though the TV and film companies weren’t attuned to merchandising and rights exploitation like they are today. TELL US ABOUT THE ORIGINAL IDEA FOR THE GAME. When it came to what the Scooby game would be the design really fell to me. I was never a great programmer and only a very mediocre designer of graphics, but I wasn’t a bad games designer. I was methodical and structured even…

It’s interesting how an original game design comes together, especially one that’s devised for a sequel. More of the same is often the route taken when making a follow-up, but The Bitmap Brothers was notable for taking a different approach. Its Amiga shooter The Chaos Engine 2 is a good example of the studio’s preference for innovation over repetition. The original was co-op and based on endto-end levels, but rather than two characters co-operating, The Chaos Engine 2 had them compete in sequential challenges. These protagonists shared a play area, like in the original, but the sequel introduced a split-screen display, as The Bitmap Brothers founder Mike Montgomery explains. “Simon Knight was the main designer on The Chaos Engine 2, and he must have played Spy Vs Spy a lot,”…

THE SUBWAY ■ Stand clear, a train is arriving! The finisher sees you uppercut your opponent onto the tracks in the background – at which point a train speeds into the station and wipes them out. THE BELL TOWER ■ In Shao Kahn’s tower, your dazed opponent will fall five floors before a lethal bed of spikes breaks their fall. And we thought acupuncture was supposed to promote healing. THE PIT III ■ In the third incarnation of The Pit, you can launch the loser from the platform and watch as they tumble helplessly into rotating blades. Cue an explosion of limbs, bones and blood.…

SINDEL ■ After 10,000 years of being dead, the bride of Kahn is understandably furious. Her scream will stun opponents when used at close range, and she can spit fast-moving fireballs. Oh, and she can fly around the screen too, which is perfect for evading most attacks. STRYKER ■ Series whipping boy Kurtis Stryker enters the fray with a riot baton and a pocket full of grenades to help him restore order. The baton is actually great for clonking enemies up close, while high grenades should be used against opponents who favour air attacks. SEKTOR ■ One of three cybernetic ninjas (the others being Cyrax and Smoke). Sektor’s offence involves missiles of both the straight and homing variety – the latter are very handy against invisible opponents. He can also…

“THE MEMORIES OF IT ARE LOVE-HATE. IT WAS A FUN, WEIRD, HELLISH, CHAOTIC, AWESOME TIME. I REFLECT BACK FONDLY ON THE PEOPLE AND THE TIMES AND THE CRAZY THINGS WE DID AFTER HOURS, BUT THEN I THINK ABOUT THE STRESS!”ANDREW WOODT Throughout Rockstar Games’ rise to prominence, it played by its own rules, for better or worse. Unapologetically brash and ambitious, its cavalier attitude towards established conventions helped to reinvent the possibilities of gaming and turn it into a major cultural force. But Rockstar’s pursuit of greatness often involved a gruelling workload that caused upset too. The creation of Bully was no exception. “The memories of it are love-hate. It was a fun, weird, hellish, chaotic, awesome time,” says Andrew Wood, one of just two environment artists at Rockstar Vancouver who…

» System: PC (version tested), PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Switch » Buy it for: £32.98+ » Buy it from: Online, retail M2’s Gradius Origins looks at the early years of the iconic franchise and while it’s far from complete, it remains an impressively detailed look at the franchise’s early arcade games. There’s a staggering amount to sink your teeth into here with a huge number of interesting variants for the six included arcade games (Gradius I-III, Salamander 1-2 and Life Force), from the ‘Bubble System’ edition of the original Gradius to the rare tradeshow ‘AM’ edition of Gradius III. It adds up to 17 variations across the available arcade games and they all feature the ridiculously high emulation quality we now expect from M2’s ShotTriggers series. There’s a lot here…

<3DO: Retro Love Letter converted the classic Tempest 2000. Get blasting at bit.ly/tempest-3do /> <Amiga: Out Run: Amiga Edition by Reassembler68K is a superb, optimised port of the arcade game, requiring at least a 68030 processor and the arcade ROM files. Race on over to bit.ly/outrun-amiga030 /> <Amstrad: Galastrad, the Galaga-style shmup, is now available in cartridge format for the GX4000/Plus machines. Find it at bit.ly/galastrad-gx4000 /> <BBC Micro: Omnitris is Alec Barker’s Model B version of the often-overlooked Tetris sequel, Welltris. Get puzzling by visiting bit.ly/omnitris-bbc /> <C64: Psytronik has published Musketeer (above), inspired by games including Bruce Lee and Zorro. Go to bit.ly/musketeer-c64 for the download and psytronik.bigcartel.com/ for physical versions (tape, disk, cartridge). /> <ColecoVision: ArugulaZ has created a sequel to Solar Fox, Solar Fox 2: Space Evaders. A digital…

<BODY> The inspiration for Libra Bits new game comes from various classics. “The main inspiration I drew from was the Ancient Cave Of Lufia 2: Rise Of The Sinistrals (SNES) – a mode where the player tries to beat a randomly generated dungeon of 100 floors. The controls are in the classic style of an action RPG, coming from The Legend Of Zelda (NES). More influences include Terranigma, the Mana series and Final Fantasy.” Libra Bits tells us that programming was done using Pubby’s NESFab. “It has become a very stable programming language for making NES games, including a great community with ongoing work/updates. For graphics, I use Paint.net. Music and sound have been created with FamiTracker. I wrote my own tools in C# for creating room layouts and data…

Kara Jane Adams I picked up the PAL version with the PlayStation at launch (I think just before Future Zone switched to Electronics Boutique), because despite the negative press to an old-school 2D run-and-gun on Sony’s new 3D powerhouse, it looked like the kind of thing I enjoyed. I was happy with my decision. Andreas Jervström I had a copy that I bought from Book-Off in Kyoto back in 2012. Paid around ¥3,500 back then and I bought the game because it looked awesome. Zocksofa Bought my copy years ago for under ¥1,000. At this time the PAL version was around €150. Good for me, that I always prefer Japanese versions. Most used copies of Gunners Heaven are missing the Obi. Audi Sorlie I bought it at launch for PAL…

The Total War series first thundered onto PCs with the release of Shogun: Total War and it remains one of the biggest franchises on the system. Developed by Creative Assembly, the strategic hit has been wowing gamers for 25years and has allowed them to recreate some of the most iconic battles of all time. It’s an honour then to chat to long-standing members of the studio and cover the many great games that make up the series, from the original Shogun to the latest release Pharaoh. Other highlights in this issue include a behind-the-scenes examination of Rockstar’s Bully, the evolution of Raven Software’s Heretic and Hexen games, the difficulties of creating a sequel to The Chaos Engine and an in-depth look at the gore-filled Mortal Kombat 3. We also look…

EVERCADE EXCESS EXCITING NEW CARTS SET TO ARRIVE FOR THE HOLIDAYS The latest Evercade cartridges have been announced for release in November, and they’re rather exciting additions to the library. Activision Collection 1 is said to be the first of three from the world’s first third-party games publisher, and includes 15 early games such as Enduro, Pitfall! and River Raid. The Llamasoft Collection includes 27 games from Jeff Minter’s early years, including Gridrunner, Revenge Of The Mutant Camels and Llamatron: 2112, and Rare Collection 1 contains 12 games including Jetpac, Knight Lore and Battletoads. They’ll be available for the usual £19.99/€24.99/$29.99. Unfortunately for American customers, Evercade retailer Funstock has paused orders to the USA “due to the suspension of the De Minimis exemption and courier service updates”, and noted that, “A…

Kevin Toms dusted down his original 1982 Football Manager game and released it on iOS and Android in 2016. Now he’s back with another faithful remake called Kevin Toms Football Star Manager, this time on Steam. Here Kevin tells us about the game which launched the football management genre and reflects on why it remains so well supported. What originally inspired you to develop Football Manager in the early Eighties, Kevin? It was originally conceived as a board game but when I became a professional computer programmer I realised I could put the two things together. The first home computer that caught my eye was the TRS-80 – I couldn’t afford one so I bought a clone called the Video Genie. I thought I could make a football manager game…

Official PlayStation Magazine “By Sony’s own admission 2008 was a slow year for the PSP, but the comeback starts here,” says the magazine. The proof? New games including MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, LittleBigPlanet, and an exclusive Assassin’s Creed. X360 Street Fighter IV is great online, but, “The constant stream of cheap Ken players you’ll come up against is so frustrating they threaten to destroy the fun entirely. Do they know there’s more than one move?” NGamer Capcom is bringing Monster Hunter 3 to Europe. “They’re hoping to make the series as popular in the West as it is in Japan, which might be easy now that there’s a Wii in every home.” Well, maybe not that easy……

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND BATTY, JASON? The history is that I independently made an Arkanoid clone for the Commodore 64. Living in a small seaside town – Redcar – I had access to all the latest games in the arcades, and I could get right through to the end of Arkanoid with maybe a couple of continues. I wanted to make a game that could do everything Arkanoid could do and more, hence the enemies firing shots that stun you, the extra power-ups, the bricks you can only destroy from the top, metal walls and so on. From what I remember, Batty took around three or four months to create while working at home. HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT GETTING THE GAME PUBLISHED? I originally submitted the game to Superior…

THE GENTLEMAN ■ As well as being stylish to a tee, the Gentleman is fleet of foot. His pistol comes with just one round of ammo, and when he runs out you have to find more. His health is poorer than his competitors’. THE NAVVIE ■ He may be the slowest of the four characters, but the Navvie is in rude health. He packs a bazooka that has one ammo clip to begin with and the capacity to carry a second, so it seldom needs reloading. THE BRIGAND ■ The very definition of an all-rounder, the Brigand is fast and fairly healthy. His rifle isn’t as effective as the Navvie’s bazooka, but it can carry two clips, which means less time looking for ammo. THE MERCENARY ■ Like the Brigand,…

■ Since the end of 2020, M2 has proven that the Aleste licence is in very good hands. While the excellent Aleste Collection for PS4 and Switch still hasn’t reached the West yet, it contains some superb games, including the Game Gear and Master System releases and GG Aleste 3, a brand-new game in the series. SenXin Aleste is an excellent arcade game that you’ve just read about, but there’s still more to come from M2. Zaleste, a crossover of Zanac and Aleste is supposed to come out in 2025 for Switch, PS4 and PS5, while the stunning Aleste Branch is said to be almost ready for release, but held up due to other projects the developers are currently working on. We can’t wait!…

REPLICATING AN ARCADE MONSTER LIKE MK3 ON THE GAME GEAR WAS HUGELY AMBITIOUS… We did have concerns. Right from the start we were well aware that we were given a momentous task for such a beloved franchise. Plus, it was just a two-man team working on the Game Gear version – me, doing the graphics, and the programmer, Mike Ager. Not only was it a difficult task, but we were also given very little time to convert it. I recall it was around three months. We did a lot of long days and nights, but I honestly loved my time at Software Creations, irrelevant of its pressures. GIVEN THE LIMITATIONS OF THE HANDHELD SYSTEM, HOW DID YOU APPROACH THE CONVERSION? The client was very protective over MK3, so we weren’t given an…

■ If you’re itching to revisit Mortal Kombat 3 then the game release gods are smiling down on you right now. The new Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection from Digital Eclipse is a wonderful celebration of the series’ arcade era and includes the coin-op version of Mortal Kombat 3 plus the SNES and Mega Drive conversions. The game’s revisions – Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy – are also included, plus an interactive documentary that chronicles the franchise’s early history. For PC owners, an alternative is the Mortal Kombat 1+2+3 value pack from GOG. Note however that these are the original DOS conversions rather than the arcade originals, although the DOS version of Mortal Kombat 3 is pretty faithful. There’s also Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection, which was released in…

“I’ve always been a big fan of Raven’s games, so getting to work on Heretic and Hexen has been an unexpected but great experience. Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, which included Raven, is what opened the door – we were able to work out a deal to resolve the rights switch, with Doom + Doom II’s release last year providing a good base,” says Mike. “I did a vast majority of the UI, having worked embedded within the Nightdive team for several years. My personal favourite change is the weapon and enemy balance changes we made to Heretic, which mostly came from someone in the community named Not Jabba. The modern Doom community has largely taken Heretic and Hexen under their wings, with some great modern episodes from Doom mappers. Being…

The end of the Nineties was a difficult time for LucasArts: the company, which had created some of the most-beloved point-and-click adventures of all time, almost completely turned its back on the genre. The reason for this was the May 1999 release of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, the first new Star Wars film since 1983’s Return Of The Jedi. For LucasArts, this meant that the prestigious but not particularly successful adventure games would be a thing of the past – the company was transformed from a tailor shop for cult adventures to an assembly line for Star Wars games. Ironically, the official game for the prequel was not developed in-house, but by Big Ape Productions, a small development studio founded in 1995 by LucasArts veterans Dean…

<INFO FROM: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO. WEBSITE: NANOCHESS.ORG FORMAT: COLECOVISION, INTELLIVISION, MSX, SEGA MASTER SYSTEM, ATARI 2600 PREVIOUS GAMES: AKALABETH, THE LOST KINGDOM, THUNDER SOLDIER, PUMPKIN BAKERY WORKINGON: PUMPKINTAXI(INTELLIVISION) /> WHAT INSPIRED YOUR NEW PROGRAMMING BOOKS, OSCAR? I had lots of experience with the Z80, and Zombie Near got second in the 2010 MSXDev contest. I followed with Princess Quest (2012), Mecha-8 (2013) and Mecha-9 (2015). I started studying more platforms, based on the Z80 and TMS9928 video processors. CollectorVision was looking for ColecoVision games to publish, so I started doing ports of my games. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? I started working on Intellivision around 2012. After converting Princess Quest, I was sure a better way of developing games could be devised. I secretly started coding a BASIC compiler (bit.ly/intybasic). I announced…

Our talented designer Andy joins us this month, because his knowledge of Creative Assembly’s series is almost as impressive as his ability to design great pages of the mag. Lead on, Andy. ANDY So what’s everyone’s first experience with Total War? TIM I have never played a Total War game. I’ve read lots of articles about Total War for PC Gamer, but even then my knowledge is severely lacking. “That was always the most impressive aspect for me as an outsider, the sheer scale of the battles”NICK THORPE NICK Erm… I think it would have been the spin-off, Spartan: Total Warrior. I quite liked that, but it’s obviously nothing like the main series. DARRAN I’ve not played too many, but it’s a series I’ve always been fascinated by due to…

THE COVER STAR ROME: TOTAL WAR (PC) Rome wasn’t built in a day, but your collection of this strategy classic can be. There are lots of versions available for under £5 especially the budget releases, and even the original print will cost under £10. SCOOBY-DOO (ZX SPECTRUM) We may ask where he is, but Scooby’s first Spectrum outing is easy to find. The original version sells for £10, while the budget release is about £5. THE CHAOS ENGINE 2 (AMIGA) Finding a complete copy of this classic by The Bitmap Brothers is no easy task, as Mike Montgomery pointed out to us in our Making Of article on page 46. There aren’t many copies to buy, and one recently sold for almost £150. MORTAL KOMBAT 3 (MEGA DRIVE) There are…

About a year ago, I needed to print a shipping label for work. No big deal, right? Wrong. Ever since our last day in the office back in 2020, I simply hadn’t needed to print anything, so I didn’t own a printer. Fortunately, my sister had a printer she’d been keeping in storage since she left university, so I only had to pay for some new ink cartridges – and better yet, the integrated scanner allowed me to finally get on with scanning our family photos, which I’d wanted to do for a very long time. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ve probably seen one particular photo of me receiving a Master System II for my birthday (the first of many), but I found enough other gaming-related photos…

When it comes to technical wizardry, Randal Linden is something of an expert. From Dragon’s Lair on the Amiga to Doom on the SNES, Randal has become synonymous with ‘impossible ports’. The SNES version of Doom is arguably one of his most impressive achievements and it all started off when Sculptured Software was invited to Nintendo’s Redmond office where he witnessed an early prototype of Star Fox. “It got a standing ovation from the crowd,” recalls Randal, “it was all high-end developers there.” Sculptured Software was keen to create a 3D dirt bike game using the new Super FX chip but didn’t have a suitable development system. After speaking to John Morgan, Randal was roped in as John knew he had a suitable development system. “I got pulled into the…

I am a very simple man with very simple tastes. I like strong coffee in the morning, shed loads of cats and lots of naps. Back in the day that would have sounded pretty dull (apart from the cats. Cats have never been dull to me). But at the ancient age of 52, that is a pretty brilliant lifestyle I’ve just described. I also have basic requirements when it comes to gaming. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II sat in my PlayStation ready to go. But it is too complicated. Firstly, titles with punctuation in. Stop. I actually had to Google how to write it correctly. Secondly – I got into a training bit where I was sent off to get a bow and arrow then return to some dude who was…

Scottish singer Susan Boyle became an overnight sensation after appearing on the 11 April episode of Britain’s Got Talent. The live audience was stunned by her performance of I Dreamed A Dream from Lés Miserables, and a YouTube video of it gained 15 million views in under a week. She made it through to the series semi-final and the final, but lost out to the dance troupe Diversity. The H1N1 swine flu virus officially spread to the UK on 27 April, with two confirmed cases in Scotland. Confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission were recorded in the country just days later, and by 2 July, the UK had experienced 28,456 lab-confirmed infections, leading to 474 deaths. The pandemic wouldn’t begin to subside until November 2009, and was declared over in August 2010. On…

XBOX 360 1 – Call Of Duty: World At War (Activision) 2 – Skate 2 (EA) 3 – FIFA 09 (EA) 4 – Left 4 Dead (Valve) 5 – Fable II (Microsoft) PLAYSTATION 3 1 – FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros) 2 – Call Of Duty: World At War (Activision) 3 – LittleBigPlanet (Sony) 4 – FIFA 09 (EA) 5 – Resistance 2 (Sony) PC 1 – Football Manager 2009 (Sega) 2 – FEAR 2: Project Origin (Warner Bros) 3 – World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King (Activision) 4 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (EA) 5 – Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar) MUSIC 1 – I’m Not Alone (Calvin Harris) 2 – Poker Face (Lady Gaga) 3 – Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) (AR Rahman…

» MANUFACTURER: Nintendo » YEAR: 1996 » COST: £49.99 (launch), £60+ (today, boxed), £30+ (today, unboxed) Though it had outlasted its competitors and secured Nintendo’s place as the leader in the handheld console business, there was no doubt that the Game Boy was looking just a little tired by 1996. It was hardly the flashiest piece of technology around when it launched, and seven years had passed since then. With no major competition on the horizon, Nintendo decided to play it safe and launch a fairly conservative redesign of the system, rather than introducing a brand-new piece of hardware. The Game Boy Pocket looks similar to its predecessor and is compatible with all Game Boy software, but is smaller and lighter. The biggest difference is found in its LCD screen,…

When Raven met id, the differences between the two companies were stark, and none more so than in the plainness of Raven’s offices. “They were in a smallish office and there was nothing in there,” recalls John Romero. “I don’t think they even had a desk for a secretary or office manager.” While hanging out at Raven late one night, the id designer inquired about where the fridge was. “And they’re like, no, we don’t have anything like that. So I asked what they had to drink, and they said there was a water fountain outside the front door. I said, ‘No way!’” The following day, John went to Sears, bought his new dev friends a “big old refrigerator” and escorted it back to Raven’s offices. “I said, ‘Now go…

OBI-WAN KENOBEI ■ You spend the majority of the adventure with Obi-Wan Kenobi – five of the game’s eleven levels feature him exclusively. He is the classic all rounder, as a typical Jedi he always has his lightsaber with him, can double-jump and shove enemies away using the Force Push. QUI-GON JINN ■ Obi-Wan’s master is used in three levels, but you only really notice this because of the different 3D model – the Jedi don’t differ from each other in terms of play. Qui-Gon is very skillful with his lightsaber and Force Push, and is supposedly the better diplomat. QUEEN AMIDALA ■ Padmé Amidala is at the centre of two levels and is particularly good at knocking out enemy droids with her Droid Stunner as well as zapping around…

JIMMY HOPKINS ■ The product of a dysfunctional family, Jimmy is strong-willed and defiant. Disdainful of unearned authority and abuses of power, he routinely fights against them. A risk taker who’s willing to get his hands dirty to achieve the right result.. GARY SMITH ■ A narcissistic sociopath who befriends Jimmy before betraying him. Gary is cunning, sharp-tongued and relentlessly self-interested. After turning the school and town against Jimmy, he must be defeated in the final mission to liberate Bullworth. PETEY KOWALSKI ■ Gary’s whipping boy and reluctant accomplice, described as ‘too cool to be a dork; too dorky to be anything else’. Petey is honourable yet timid. He becomes Jimmy’s closest ally in his fight to bring order to the school. DR CRABBLESNITCH ■ The principal is an arrogant…

SONIC MANIA SonicFreak <“Sonic Mania converts and processes the Steam assets into DC-friendly formats while the game is loading.”/> WIPEOUT jnmartin <“You can unlock all the content, it runs at a fantastically high framerate, and jnmartin added a giant Sonic Adventure 2 billboard!”/> GTA VICE CITY GTA Dreamcast Team <“Enhanced features over PS2, such as widescreen and antialiasing, dynamic weather such as rain and fog, and enhanced dynamic lighting.”/> DOOM 64 jnmartin & contributors <“Every map from the original, additional scenarios added to Steam/Switch, fancy new lighting and bump mapping at 60 frames per second.”/> SUPER MARIO 64 MrNeo <“Esppiral has set off on a quest to enhance Mario 64 with higher polygon models and Mario Galaxy’s lighting effects.”/>…

O <INFO FORMAT: ZX NEXT CREDITS: FUSION RETRO GAMES (PUBLISHER), DAVE CLARKE (DESIGN, CODE), SIMON BUTLER (GRAPHICS), PAUL HESSO (MUSIC) PRICE: STANDARD EDITION (DVD CASE) £25, DELUXE EDITION WITH COLLECTABLES (SIGNED POSTCARD, MANUAL, SOUNDTRACK CD) £45 WEB: BIT.LY/O-NEXT /> <BODY> The Fusion Retro Vault has been compromised, and the battery-powered Retrobot must retrieve the missing relics. After the great introductory sequence, we are firmly in classic Spectrum platform action with modern twists (including a mode with unlimited lives). On each screen are patrolling enemies, as well as spikes and crushers that kill Retrobot. He can pick up batteries for extra lives and grab coloured keys to open gates. Retrobot can also collect Relics that include CRASH and ZZAP logos, and cute little Olibugs (in memory of Oli Frey). What’s clever…

GamesInTheAttic Shogun: Total War. I think I never won… maybe ditching diplomacy and going all in on the battles had something to do with it. And I loved the option to just roll the dice and see the outcome of the battles. It meant more time to invade other places. Ash It’s probably Empire. It came out when I was in either year 11 or lower sixth form. My favourite lesson in school was always history, particularly war history. Building a massive army as Great Britain and IMMEDIATELY attacking France was too tempting to ignore. John Churchill FTW. XenoROM The original Rome: Total War. It has great depth and an excellent campaign. The game screams nostalgia and it’s always installed and ready to dive into anytime. Vance the Happenstance When…

Chris Hodges The one E3 that I went to was E3 2005. And I was lucky enough to get a picture with none other than Shigeru Miyamoto! Imagine my heartbreak when I looked at the camera afterwards to see that, for whatever reason, the picture didn’t turn out and there was just a black screen instead. At least I still had the moment… RJ Frazer Me and school friends playing Atomic Bomberman on a PC. Four kids using a single keyboard together for simultaneous multiplayer mayhem, the room was as chaotic as the game! Mathew Kumar I wish I had photos of gaming culture in Malaysia/Singapore in the Nineties. Arcades like Sega Satellite and WyWy Wonderspace. Bootleg Famicoms at Jaya Jusco. Poly bagged copied PC games at Sim Lim Tower.…