Retro Review: Chase HQ (Zx Spectrum)

On reflection, it’s probably a minor miracle that the world ever persuaded us that £40 to £50 cartridge games were the way to go. Back in the early 90s, you could probably count yourself lucky if Father Christmas slyly dropped one or two video games in your stocking. For the Christmas of 1989, however, the FatNicK house ended up with a grand total of five new titles to play. Blimey. Read More …

In Pursuit of Power Drift

Does any game own its genre as effectively as Mario Kart? Sure, the more po-faced among the racing brigade might draw influence from other (more realistic) avenues, but if you’re looking towards making a light-hearted kart racer, it’s impossible to avoid the touch of Nintendo’s Read More …

“IRQ: 7” – The Complicated World of early MS-DOS Sound Options

Modern games consoles, eh? With their bundled hard drives and insatiable hunger for game patches, they’re effectively just user-friendly PCs aren’t they? Yes, even you over there in the corner, Mr Switch. Hang on though! When you think about it, the inverse is also true. Read More …

Retro Review: Stellar Assault/Shadow Squadron

  One of the little-known facts about the 32x (although, thanks to it’s colossal commercial failure, most facts about the 32x are little-known) is that its a pretty good console for space combat games. Seriously –  they make up about 10% of the entire library. Read More …

I Didn’t Realise There was a 128k Ghostbusters

  (The 128k Ghostbusters theme)     This is a topic we’ve covered before – and i suspect it’s one we’ll cover again – but it’s worth pointing out that the sunset era of the Spectrum’s life were significantly different to the micro computer’s formative Read More …

Music Review: Wiwi Jumbo

    This was originally written for the lovely peeps over at gametripper.co.uk. So why not give them a visit as well?         I feel a bit of a fraud writing this. I wish I could say that Wiwi Jumbo was a track Read More …

The Sega Master System Hidden FM Collection 2: Incomplete soundtracks

    Did you know that, unlike its Western Counterpart, the Japanese Sega Master System had its own FM soundchip? oh, you did? Well of course to you would – you’re a smart, witty and generally amazing Sega Master System fan. What you may not Read More …

Introducing the Sega Master System Hidden FM Collection

Oh I see! Don’t want my yacking, eh? Just go straight to the download then. Click: Here Did you know that, unlike its Western Counterpart, the Japanese Sega Master System had its own FM soundchip? oh, you did? Well of course to you would – Read More …

Gilbert: Escape From Drill

    Average things can be difficult to review. When presented with a positive specimin there are praises that can be sung, with a negative specimin there are sins that can be punished . . . but what can we say about something average? There Read More …

Gig Review: Yuzo Koshiro & Motohiro Kawashima (Fabric 30/11/17)

    When it was announced that London nightclub Fabric had lost its license back in 2016, It definitely felt like the end of an era. I can’t say i’d exactly been a regular, but i’d had enough fun nights at the club to briefly Read More …

In Defence of GEMS

  On the whole, sound engines aren’t something people tend to discuss. That’s perfectly understandable really: a sound engine is just a bit of code that allows composers to talk to the sound hardware contained in a console. Even in the relatively niche world of Read More …

OOky Spooky Halloween Fun: Devilish

    There are so many predictable choices for games to play over Halloween, aren’t there? Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, Clock Tower. . . hang on, I appear to just be listing random “survival horror” titles here, but you get my point. Let’s Read More …

Fire & Forget II

Players: 1 If there was one thing the fledgling GX4000 needed, it was an unquestionably epic (and preferably exclusive) action title. In Fire & Forget II it almost had one. Though the original Fire and Forget appeared on everything from the Amiga down to the Read More …