Game History Articles
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Trains Vs Zombies: A Surprising Arcade Showdown
It’s 1997 and we’re at the AOU show in Japan, feasting our eyes on all of the exciting up-and-coming arcade attractions on display. Over at Namco, the imminently-released Tekken 3 is an obvious headliner, but there are plenty of other goodies too — not least…
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Sonic on The Atari Jaguar!?
So the other day we learned that the lovely people behind Pokémon (Nintendo and Gamefreak) would finally be coming for Pocketpair, developers of the suspiciously-similar-looking Palworld. Though this didn’t exactly come as a shock to anyone, many were surprised that Nintendo choose to target Pocketpair…
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Blasted Off? The fate of Michael Jackson’s Scramble Training
So, the cat’s out of the bag. After sitting on the information for months while the wheels of stuff quietly turned in the background, we’ve finally made the full footage of Michael Jackson’s Scramble Training public! Everything that needs saying about the release has been…
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No tengo Amiga: Nintendo Vs Commodore in the UK
Recently, it’s come to my attention that several people aren’t particularly happy with my article about the NES and the Master System in the UK market, finding the evidence supporting the argument to be lacking. Placed in such a position, there’s only really one reasonable…
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A Hedgehog and a Mouse: Sega, Disney and a Surprising Attempt to become an Amusement Giant
On social media, old pictures from London’s Sega World are an easy way to harvest some quick engagement. Post the image, chuck in your ‘remember that time when Sega ran a theme park?’ caption then sit back and wait for the likes numbers to rise.…
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FatNicK Reviews Stuff: The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers – John Szczepaniak
Having spent five years (half a decade!) of my life on these books, I can honestly say they were a waste of time and a failure. They should have never been written, and whatever value a few academics and a tiny number of readers claim,…
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Complete Carnage: 32-bit Console hardware and the reshaping of the industry
Recently we looked at the Sega Saturn and whether it was killed too prematurely by Sega. Though these days the Saturn’s renewed popularity means we regularly ask what could have made the console a success, there’s one question that should probably ask first: Could the…
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“The Saturn is not our future” Sales, Costs and the Demise of the Sega Saturn
2023 Update: The recent (and highly dramatic) leak of documents and emails surrounding Sega of America’s 1997FY marketing plan adds some important context to the question of how much the Saturn cost Sega. One particularly juicy little nugget is this snapshot of Sega of America’s…
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The Second Sound Chip – The Sega Master System and the YM2413
What is a Master System? If you’re reading this in English and you owned a Sega Master System you probably didn’t own the most complete version of the Sega Master System. This isn’t idle snobbery: the Machine that was released outside Japan was notably different…
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180 Free games: Analysis of a Cover Tape Collection
It just so happened that a few weeks ago I had to move my original Zx Spectrum collection out of storage. Faced with a huge plastic crate filled to the brim with cassettes, it suddenly struck me how ridiculous it was that we had some…
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32-bit Audio Fight Club: The Saturn, the PlayStation and the End of the Chiptune Era
The first rule of 32-bit Audio Fight Club is that you don’t talk about 32-bit Audio Fight Club. Actually, that’s not quite true: the first rule of 32-bit Audio Fight Club is that…well…you probably wouldn’t even think to talk about 32-bit Audio Fight Club. Or…
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Strider: The Unfortunate Mr Hiryu
In gaming there are the origin stories we all know – like the origins of Mario and Sonic the hedgehog – but there are many more characters who remain relatively obscure – like the stars of most microcomputer budget games or Japanese cassette titles. More…
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Nothing New in the Villlage: The 35 Year Old Ancestors of Untitled Goose Game
Everyone loves the Untitled Goose Game. I love the Untitled Goose Game. If you haven’t played the untitled Goose Game, you should play the Untitled Goose Game: A stealth game that follows in the footsteps of Metal Gear Solid and Hitman, Goose Game’s masterstroke is…
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Joystick Wagglers: Were Left Handed Control Sticks an Industry Conspiracy?
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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“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.…
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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…