Ninja Gaiden Black

THE RETROBATES

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE R-TYPE MEMORY?

MASTERS IN HISTORY

Dominik Diamond discusses GamesMaster: The Oral History

SONY STORE SHENANIGANS

Sony caused a mini meltdown across the internet

RESIDENT VIRTUAL

We’ve known for a while that a remake

Hello, goodbye

Who is Iain Lee? Iain Lee is a

Hints of greatness

Who is Paul Rose? Paul is probably better

Evercade levels up

Get the latest details on Blaze’s brand-new console

THE LATEST NEWS FROM JULY 2004

JULY 2004 – It’s all kicking off! This

Lock ’N’ Chase

I’LL DEFINITELY DO MORE CRIMES

THE HISTORY OF R-TYPE

WHEN R-TYPE ARRIVED IN ARCADES IN 1987, HORIZONTAL SHOOT-’EM-UPS WERE NEVER THE SAME AGAIN, AND THE SERIES HAS CONTINUED TO REPRESENT THE BEST THE GENRE HAS TO OFFER EVER SINCE. WE SPEAK TO KAZUMA KUJO TO FIND OUT HOW THE SERIES HAS EVOLVED, AND WHAT’S COMING NEXT

Star Fox

SUPER PRICEY POLYGONS

THE MAKING OF BALANCE OF POWER

THIS INTRIGUING SIMULATION OF COLD WAR POLITICS BANKROLLED THE EARLY SUCCESS OF MINDSCAPE AND BOOSTED THE REPUTATION OF ATARI ALUMNI CHRIS CRAWFORD TO NEW HEIGHTS. BUT A DISASTROUS PUBLISHING DEAL ALMOST MEANT IT NEVER SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY 

NFL 2K

» RETROREVIVAL

TH E EVOLUTION OF IMPOSSIBLE MISSION

A new benchmark was set for C64 gaming with the release of Impossible Mission, but Dennis Casw ell let others followup his secret agent platform er. Dennis and the designers of Impossible Mission’s sequels explain how the series evolved

DONKEY KONG JR

AS   DONKEY  KONG  CELEBRATES  ITS   40TH  ANNIVERSARY,  WE   GO   APE  OVER  THE  CHARMING  ARCADE  SEQUEL  THAT  PITDK’S  CUTE  LITTLE  OFFSPRING   JUNIOR  AGAINST  SOME  LOSER  CALLED  MARIO.  WONDER  WHATEVER  HAPPENED  TO THAT  GUY?

THE MAKING OF RECKLESS RUFUS

BY 1992, IT WAS ALMOST OVER FOR 8-BIT COMPUTERS. WHILE PUBLISHERS WERE RELEASING GAMES, MAINLY ON BUDGET, THEY WERE OFTEN UNINSPIRING LICENSED PRODUCTS AIMED AT A YOUNGER GENERATION. HOWEVER, ONE MAN BELIEVED AN ORIGINAL AND WELL-DESIGNED GAME COULD STILL BE A SUCCESS

THE HISTORY OF ROLAND

Amstrad’s mascot introduced himself via games bundled for  free with the Amstrad CPC. So why would players who went  on to check out all eight of his commercially-released  titles still struggle to pick him out of a police lineup?

Atari 7800

» MANUFACTURER: Atari » YEAR: 1984 » COST:

THE UNCONVERTED

Arcade games that never made it home

MW IV

AT THE TIME THOUGHT TO BE THE FINAL INSTALMENT IN THE WONDER BOY/MONSTER WORLD FRANCHISE, IT TOOK ROUGHLY 18 YEARS TO SEE AN OFFICIAL LOCALISATION. NOW, WITH THE EXCITEMENT AROUND ITS REMAKE, WE THOUGHT IT THE PERFECT TIME TO EXAMINE BOTH ASHA’S ORIGINAL AND UPDATED ADVENTURE

FAMILY MATTERS

THE INSANE COMPLEXITY OF THE WONDER BOY/ADVENTURE ISLAND FAMILY TREE IS WELL-KNOWN – BUT WHAT OTHER DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES ARE THERE IN GAMING?

Amiga CD32 Controller

» PLATFORM: Amiga CD32 » RELEASED: 1993 »

EIDOS

In the mid-Nineties, it would have been difficult to avoid the name ‘Eidos’. You would see the logo on Manchester City football kits and when a game would boot on a PlayStation console. However, you can’t talk about Eidos without mentioning Domark…

POWER STONE

BREAKING OUT OF THE RING OF THE TRADITIONAL FIGHTING GAME, CAPCOM’S FULLY 3D BRAWLER WAS COLOURFUL CHAOS, TRANSFORMING A HARDCORE ARCADE GENRE INTO AN ACCESSIBLE PARTY SMASH. JOIN US BACK IN AN AGE OF ADVENTURE TO TRACK DOWN THIS FORGOTTEN GEM

THE MAKING OF X-MEN LEGENDS

BEFORE AN ULTIMATE ALLIANCE WAS FORMED AND PRIOR TO THE MCU’S INCEPTION, RAVEN SOFTWARE FORGED AHEAD WITH ITS OWN AMBITIOUS TAKE ON SUPERHEROES IN THE FORM OF X-MEN LEGENDS. MERGING MARVEL CHARACTERS WITH RPG MECHANICS? THE CREATORS TELL US HOW IT WAS DONE

FUTURE CLASSIC

Modern games you’ll still be playing in years to come

DAVID THIEL

From Q*bert’s cussing to the roar of the crowd in Winter Games, David Thiel’s long career in the videogame and pinball business has seldom been off key

Twisted Metal: World Tour

» PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION RELEASED: 1996 DEVELOPER: SINGLETRAC »

Evercade Multi Game Cartridges

SHOULD YOU SEEK OUT THE FIRST NEW EVERCADE COLLECTIONS OF 2021?

PICK OF THE MONTH

WE LOOK AT THE LATEST RETRO-RELATED RELEASES

SONY’S DIGITAL STORE CLOSURES

RETROBATES MULL OVER THE SCENE’S MOST INTRIGUING ISSUES

READERS REACT

Which games are you grabbing before they disappear?

THE ZOMBIE ZEALOT

READERS TAKE US THROUGH THE RETRO KEYHOLE

SWITCHED ON

PERSONAL STORIES ABOUT OUR SHARED PASSION

ONE OF US, ONE OF US

Readers reveal why they enjoy Nintendo’s console

MAIL BAG

HAVE YOUR SAY… SEND US A LETTER OR MAKE YOURSELF HEARD ON THE ONLINE FORUM – WWW.RETROGAMER.NET

DEAD GOOD DIGITAL DEALS

» [Xbox 360] You too can own Radiant

Your say

Every month, Retro Gamer asks a question on social media and prints the best replies. This month we wanted to know…

END GAME

OSHIDASHI ZINTRICK: PUKIE’S ENDING » There was a