How the Super Nintendo Proved Specs Aren’t Everything I’ve been playing video games since the Atari 2600. I keep stacks of CRTs running on dusty shelves in my basement in Minneapolis. I have an accounting degree, so I think in systems. If someone tries to sell me on some wide sweeping philosophy without understanding the technical mechanics behind it, I get very irritated. That’s why when people try to tell me that the Genesis was…
Marcus here, and I’ve got something to admit. When Telltale announced a new Monkey Island game, the team had one of those heated Zoom arguments that Carl has to referee. Joe knows in his heart it’s rubbish since it’s not LucasArts, Tim is excited because episodic content is “the future of adventure games”, Sam is worried whether the puzzles will maintain the logical complexity of the earlier series. I stay quiet until I’ve played it,…
The other day I was rummaging through my spare room—well, calling it a spare room is generous since it's mostly a graveyard of old consoles and tangled cables—when I found my original Mega Drive six-button controller. Still had that satisfying click. You know the one. Made me plug the whole system back in, naturally.Three hours later, I'm hunched over Streets of Rage 2 like I'm sixteen again, except my back's making noises that would've terrified…
Why the Computer That Sold Millions in Europe Was Purposely Deleted From Gaming History I work as a librarian in Dublin. I know every freakin’ obscure European computer game there is that English language gaming sites will never cover. I’m biased towards the underdogs, systems that almost didn’t get book entries because companies went belly up. Atari ST is Exhibit A for why we need European game libraries. The Atari ST was wildly successful in…
Three controllers dangling from extension cords, the fourth player holding a mad-looking three-pronged contraption that looked like it escaped from a science lab—that's my clearest memory of the N64 launch window. My mate Dave had somehow convinced his parents that 64-bit was "educational technology," and suddenly his living room became mission control for what felt like the future of gaming.Looking back now, the Nintendo 64 wasn't just another console generation. It was the machine that…
I wanted to get something off my chest before I go into detail on Return to Monkey Island. Joe here, and while the rest of the crew are arguing about whether modern adventure games can recapture the essence of the classics, I have spent the last month playing through Ron Gilbert’s triumphant return to his own franchise. Released on September 19, 2022 (Wikipedia), this is not another modern adventure game revival cash-in. This is Gilbert…
The Model 2 hardware (Sega Retro) did more than just allow for better graphics – it allowed for fundamentally different gameplay mechanics. The original Virtua Fighter used Model 1 hardware which could render some very basic polygonal character models but couldn’t perform more complex animations and environmental details well enough to be useful. Model 2 did not only increase the number of polygons it could render – it also rendered those polygons with enough precision…
There I was, controller gripped like my life depended on it, watching Marc Summers navigate some kid through an obstacle course that looked like someone had thrown paint at a jungle gym and called it television. Double Dare wasn't just a game show—it was basically childhood wish fulfillment wrapped in green slime and broadcast directly into our living rooms every afternoon at half past four.You know that feeling when you're eight years old and absolutely…
I’m here to give you my take on why Mortal Kombat II (MKII) didn’t just build upon the original – it completely destroyed every preconceived notion of what a fighting game should be. The first Mortal Kombat was certainly a major controversy maker in terms of gore and fatalities, but it was far from polished. MKII, developed by Midway (MK Wiki) and released in arcades in November 1993 (Wikipedia), took every aspect of the original…
There's something almost mystical about the way certain objects feel in your hands. A well-worn hammer, maybe. Your gran's wooden spoon. Or, if you grew up glued to a telly in the early '90s, the Sega Genesis six-button controller.I can still feel the exact weight of it now—not too heavy, not plasticky-light like some of the knock-offs you'd find in dodgy electronics shops. The Genesis pad had this perfect heft, like someone actually thought about…