Walking into my local indie game shop last weekend, I spotted something that made my heart skip a beat—a pristine copy of Moonwalker for the Mega Drive, complete with that distinctive silver spine and Michael Jackson's unmistakable silhouette. The asking price was steep enough to make my wallet whimper, but seeing that game again transported me straight back to 1990, when everything about it seemed impossibly cool and slightly mad in equal measure.You have to…
I was halfway through Streets of Rage 4 last month when the news hit my Twitter feed like a perfectly timed Grand Upper. Sega was pulling another batch of games from digital storefronts. Again. My first reaction wasn't anger—it was that familiar sinking feeling you get when you realize your childhood is being sold off piece by piece, and someone keeps forgetting to tell you about the auction.This isn't new territory for Sega, mind you.…
Last night I stumbled across Alex G's "Nintendo 64" while scrolling through Spotify's rabbit hole of indie recommendations, and honestly? It hit me like a perfectly timed power-up when you're down to your last life. The song's barely three minutes long, but it managed to capture something I've been trying to articulate for years about what retro gaming actually means to those of us who lived it the first time around.You know that feeling when…
Last night I found myself elbow-deep in a cardboard box that's been following me through three house moves, excavating Mega Drive carts like archaeological treasures. My wife rolled her eyes as I held up Shinobi III and made that satisfied "ahhhh" sound you make when you find a twenty in last winter's coat pocket. "You know you've got that on about four different compilations now," she said. True. But there's something about the weight of…
There's something magical about stumbling across a game that shouldn't work but absolutely does. Picture this: 1995, and Disney's about to unleash their first fully computer-animated film on the world. Pixar's still this scrappy little studio that most people couldn't even pronounce properly, and here comes Toy Story—this revolutionary thing that looked like nothing we'd seen before. Naturally, the suits decided it needed a video game tie-in. What they gave us on the Mega Drive…
Saturday afternoons in 1991 had a particular rhythm. Mum would disappear into the kitchen with Radio 4 burbling about something appropriately serious, Dad would commandeer the garage for mysterious DIY projects that usually involved swearing at screws, and I'd have the living room to myself. The Mega Drive sat there like a black plastic altar, and more often than not, I'd find myself sliding that familiar blue cartridge into the slot. Michael Jackson's Moonwalker wasn't…
I was digging through my game collection the other night—you know, that annual ritual where you convince yourself you're "organizing" but really you're just reliving the good times—when my fingers found that familiar purple spine. Beyond Oasis. Even after all these years, that cartridge still makes me smile like an idiot.See, here's the thing about Sega's approach to RPGs in the mid-90s. While Square and Enix were crafting these massive, turn-based epics that demanded forty-hour…
My mate Dave rang me last Tuesday, absolutely chuffing over some N64 console he'd found in his nan's attic. "Still got the box," he says, like he'd uncovered the Ark of the Covenant. Thing is, he wasn't wrong to get excited—that grey brick from 1996 can be worth proper money these days, depending on what you've got and how well you've treated it.I've been tracking N64 prices for years now, partly because I'm nosy and…
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…
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…