My daughter found my old Genesis collection last weekend while we were clearing out the loft. She held up Sonic 2 like it was some ancient artifact, which I suppose it is now. "Dad, this looks weird," she said, examining the chunky black cartridge with its faded label. Weird. That little plastic rectangle contains more joy per square inch than most Netflix series.I couldn't help myself—had to fire up the old Mega Drive right there…
There's something about plunging into a castle you can actually walk around that hits differently than anything that came before. I mean, I'd spent years mashing buttons to make a sprite hop left-to-right across screens, but the first time I grabbed that analog stick and made Mario pivot on his heels? Felt like discovering fire.I remember getting my N64 on launch day—well, sort of launch day. My local Electronics Boutique (remember those?) got their shipment…
You know what drives me absolutely mental about modern gaming? The way marketing feels so calculated, so focus-grouped to death that you can practically smell the boardroom coffee in every trailer. Back in the 90s though—man, companies would just throw money at the weirdest ideas and somehow magic happened. Case in point: Cool Spot, a platformer starring 7 Up's red dot mascot that had absolutely no business being as good as it was.I stumbled across…
Funny how a three-minute indie track can absolutely demolish you, isn't it? I was minding my own business last Tuesday, scrolling through Spotify's weekly recommendations while my kid demolished a packet of Monster Munch nearby, when Alex G's "Nintendo 64" started playing. Three notes in and I'm transported back to 1997, sitting cross-legged on beige carpet with that distinctive three-pronged controller in my hands.You know that feeling when a song perfectly captures something you didn't…
Remember when your biggest life decision was whether to watch Transformers or risk it all for a chance at getting slimed? I was probably seven when I first saw Double Dare, and honestly, it rewired my entire understanding of what television could be. Saturday mornings weren't just cartoons anymore—they were interactive chaos where kids my age were living the dream.My mum never understood why I'd abandon perfectly good Weetabix to watch children get covered in…
Looking back at those chunky CRT monitors and wondering exactly what we were staring at for hours on end? The numbers might surprise you—or maybe they'll make you feel ancient. Either way, let's talk pixels.I was cleaning out my old tech drawer last weekend (you know, the one where cables go to die), and I found this ancient VGA cable that got me thinking about resolution. Back then, we didn't obsess over 4K or argue…
The other day, my seven-year-old discovered my old stack of Mega Drive cartridges and asked why they looked like "chunky Game Boy games." I nearly choked on my tea. After explaining that his beloved Switch cartridges are basically the great-great-grandchildren of these plastic bricks, I realized it was time to show him what real Sonic looked like—not the Hollywood version, but the original blue blur that made my Saturday mornings worth living.Setting up a Genesis…
The thing about speed is that you don't really understand it until it's taken away from you. I learned this the hard way when my mate Dave brought his SNES round for a sleepover, and we spent half the night arguing about whether Mario moved too slowly compared to Sonic. Dave was wrong, obviously, but watching Mario's careful, considered jumps after months of Sonic's breakneck sprinting felt like watching paint dry in slow motion.See, I'd…
The other day, my kid found one of my old Sega Genesis cartridge boxes in the loft—you know, those long cardboard affairs that could double as rulers if you were desperate enough. Streets of Rage 2, spine slightly bent from where I'd grabbed it too eagerly one too many Saturday mornings. She held it like it was some archaeological find, which… fair enough, really. "Dad, what's this?" she asked, and suddenly I'm explaining the entire…
The smell of orange squash and the sound of a CRT warming up—that's what Saturday afternoons meant to me in the 90s. But there was something else competing for my attention between cartoon blocks and trying to convince mum to let me stay up past eight. Nickelodeon had figured out something brilliant: they'd turned getting messy into appointment television.I'm talking about those game shows that made every kid secretly wish they could ditch their good…