My mate Dave used to have this theory about the Sega Genesis – sorry, Mega Drive to those of us who lived through the proper naming convention – that it was basically a sports car disguised as a games console. "Listen to that sound," he'd say, cranking up OutRun 2019 until his mum shouted from downstairs. That Yamaha FM synthesis chip didn't just make music; it made automotive poetry. Every rev, every screech of tyres,…
There I was, scrolling through Spotify at half-past midnight again—you know how it is when you should be asleep but your brain's still buzzing—and Alex G's "Nintendo 64" came shuffling through my discover weekly. Honestly, I'd never heard of the guy before that moment. But when those opening chords hit, something clicked. Not just the music itself, but the title. Nintendo 64. Just seeing those words together made my chest do this weird thing.The song…
There's something about sitting in front of a telly on a quiet Sunday afternoon, N64 controller in hand, watching a little hang glider drift over Birdman Island that just…gets you, you know? I've been thinking about this lately because I dug out Pilotwings 64 last week—proper cartridge, none of this emulation business—and within minutes I was back in that headspace where time moves like honey and your biggest concern is landing on the correct pad…
Whenever someone brings up prequel-era Star Wars games, I immediately think about that weird period when everyone was trying to figure out what to do with Episode I. The film had landed with all the grace of a pod racer hitting sand, but the gaming world? We were still optimistic. Maybe interactive entertainment could salvage something from Jar Jar's wreckage.I'd been living with my N64 for a couple years by then, completely smitten with that…
You know that feeling when you're digging through a charity shop's random box of N64 games and you spot something that makes you double-take? That's exactly what happened when I found Glover tucked between about fifteen copies of FIFA 98. The cover looked like a fever dream – this white glove character with cartoon eyes, holding what appeared to be a rubber ball. I'd heard whispers about this one on old gaming forums, usually accompanied…
Saturday afternoon, 1997. I'm sprawled across the carpet of my mate Dave's living room, the kind with those swirly brown patterns that could hide Cheerios and shame in equal measure. The N64's been out for a year, and we've already worn grooves in Mario 64's castle floors, but today's different. Dave's sliding a new cartridge into that front-loading slot with the reverence of a priest handling communion wine."My brother got it from Blockbuster," he says,…
There's something deeply surreal about a game where the King of Pop transforms into a spaceship to fight aliens, and somehow it all makes perfect sense. I was twelve when Moonwalker landed on my Mega Drive, and honestly? It might've been the first time a video game made me feel like I was inside someone else's fever dream—in the best possible way.My mate Danny had gotten it for his birthday, and I remember the exact…
There's something beautifully ridiculous about a plug-and-play console that promises to deliver forty-two games in one tiny plastic brick. When I spotted the Sega Genesis Flashback on a shelf last month, sandwiched between knock-off fitness trackers and bluetooth speakers that probably fell off a lorry, I felt that familiar tingle. You know the one. Same feeling I had when I first clocked the original Mega Drive in Dixons, all black plastic and attitude.The box screams…
You know what's weird? I can still remember the exact moment I realized Dash Rendar wasn't just some random smuggler they threw into the Star Wars universe. It was probably the third or fourth time through Shadows of the Empire on my N64, and I'd just nailed that speeder bike chase on Ord Mantell without hitting a single tree. Something about the way his ship, the Outrider, felt different from the Millennium Falcon in other…
The other day I was rummaging through a cardboard box that's been following me through three house moves, and there it was—my original Earthworm Jim manual for the Mega Drive. Crisp pages, still smelling faintly of that new-manual scent mixed with thirty years of storage. You know that smell. It's like opening a time capsule, except instead of finding historical artifacts, you're rediscovering why we used to read these things cover to cover on the…