Have you ever wondered why arcade control sticks were always placed to the the left of the buttons? To be honest I’d never given it much thought until I saw this tweet the other day: Have you ever noticed that no matter what arcade game Read More …
Category: Games
Game related stuff
The Surprisingly Modern Cult of Horace
All good things come to an end. In my case this turned out to be the relatively cushy storage solution i had for all of my old Spectrum gear. Still, silver linings and all that: One of the big advantages of having to get your Read More …
Carjacking down Memory Lane: Returning to The Getaway’s Digital London in 2019
This article was originally posted over at https://www.gametripper.co.uk. Why not head over there and see what lovely articles they have ready for you to read right now? (well, after you’ve read this one obviously) When is a game not a game? The usual response to Read More …
8-Bit Showdown: How popular were the Master System and the NES in the UK?
When it isn’t doing is it’s upmost to sabotage Western democracy, one thing that can be said for Facebook is that it does have some of the friendliest retro communities on the internet. A few weeks ago one particular discussion caught my eye: how popular Read More …
FatNicK Reviews Stuff: Antstream Retrogaming Streaming Service
Whether its the sheer mortal terror of a thousand red bodies angrily devouring flesh and bone or the more mundane worry of having endless ravenous insectoids trample your picnic; the thought of streaming ants has – historically – not been a pleasant one. That’s all Read More …
Dreamcast SD Adaptors: Are They any Good?
The cold embrace of death, eh? It comes for us all eventually, but for some – in this case CD-based games consoles – it comes quicker than most. While older cartridge-based machines will keep going until either their capacitors go pop or the universe falls Read More …
The Xbox 360 Will Never be Retro (a tedious classification post)
Ok, I’ll have to admit it – as someone who fits in the relatively uncommon venn diagram between history and retrogaming, I probably let myself ponder the question of what exactly retrogaming IS a little too much. Why does it matter? after all, it’s just Read More …
Apex Legends Feels Incredibly Cynical
It was the 90s! Spice Girls! Nude darts! Playstations! Obviously only the latter interested me, and amongst all the gaming triumphs on Sony’s behemoth the port of Mechwarrior 2 really caught my attention. One particular mission really stood out. Tasked with infiltrating an enemy base, I was disappointed when Read More …
Fatnick reviews Stuff: Retro Quiz Cards & Paladone Sega Bluetooth pad!
With January merrily barreling along, perhaps now is a good time to review a couple of interesting retro-themed bits that fell into my grubby mits at the end of last year. Professor Puzzle Retro Quiz Cards Recieved over Christmas as a charming stocking filler from Read More …
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 …
Playstation Classic:Where on Earth is Wipeout?
Egad! I pop off on holiday for a couple of weeks and Sony go and release a full list of the titles they’re baking into the Playstation classic. Needless to say, the list has proved to be a little bit divisive. In fact, given that 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 …
Vector Highway
A good while ago now I started a series of blog posts about my adventures with Unity. I quietly retired that series when it became obvious that writing about game development with clarity and precision was probably as hard as the development itself, but I Read More …
The 32x Wasn’t that bad, really.
For those willing to dabble in the murky world of emulation sites, the internet offers the most bizarre game prototype as a trophy. Produced for Sega’s 32x Megadrive expansion and dubbed Virtua Hamster, the game puts the player in control of a loveable 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 …
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 …