THE RETROBATES

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORY OF THE MONKEY ISLAND SERIES?

THE MAKING OF GUITAR HERO

IF YOU PLAYED VIDEOGAMES IN THE NOUGHTIES, CHANCES ARE YOU OWNED A GUITAR HERO GAME. THE FIRST IN THE SERIES CELEBRATES ITS 15TH ANNIVERSARY THIS YEAR, BUT HOW DID HARMONIX CONVERT ICONIC ROCK SONGS INTO AN ACCESSIBLE GAMING EXPERIENCE?

Dan’s Desert Island Disks

The games that Dan simply couldn’t live without

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE ZX SPECTRUM?

Henrique Olifiers on Kickstarters past and present

NEWS WALL

DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONTLINE OF RETRO GAMING

I wanna hold your hand(held)

Who is Iain Lee? Iain Lee is a

It’s the simple things…

Who is Paul Rose? Paul is probably better

UV or not UV? That is the question

Laurence Bennion on jazzing up the Vectrex

THE LATEST NEWS FROM NOVEMBER 2003

NOVEMBER 2003 – The hardware manufacturers are sounding

Spy Hunter

A REALLY MEMORABLE ENCOUNTER

Darkwing Duck

DOES WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN

Silpheed

IS IT SIL-PHEED OR SILP-HEED?

Super Astlevania IV

Remasters are all the rage these days, but back in 1991 Konami released a sequel that had more than a whiff of familiarity to it. So join us as we embark on Simon’s Belmont’s greatest quest of all time

MUSHA Aleste

LEARNING THE CRAFT

TimeSplitters 2

IT’S GETTING OUT OF HAND

THE LEGACY OF MONKEY ISLAND

When LucasArts created The Secret of Monkey Island, it made a game that not only solidified it as one of the genre greats, but also proved games could be uproariously funny. As Guybrush and friends turn 30, we speak to to the team that made some real monkey magic

Setting Sail

The Secret of Monkey Island began with simple desire to do better: as Rob Gilbert's vision filtered through his team of legends in the making, the result was a masterpiece for the ages

Monkey Business

Asides from great design Monkey Island delivered a laugh minute in its distinctive way, bringing together satire, sacrasm, anachorism and tarce to side-spilitting effect 

Arrrt-Attack

As well as pioneering game design, The Secret Of Monkey Island raised the bar on what videogames could look like, with cutting-edge graphics, sensational style and technical brilliance 

Mapping It Out

The EGA Secrets Of The Islands

Monkey See, Monkey Doo

Inspired by what he saw as some serious problems in the adventure genre. Ron Gilbert put his design 'manifesto' into  practice with The Secret Of Monkey Island

The high Sea-quels

While the series currently lies dormant, the original Monkey Island was popular enough to spawn tour sequels. Although each of thee  games teatured here were often manned by a new crew, they are all (largely) worthy of the Monkey Island name

Monkey Magic

JOSH FAIRHURST REGALES A TALE OF LIMITED RUN GAMES’ INCOMING MONKEY ISLAND ANTHOLOGY

THE MAKING OF Karateka

Few calling cards were as impressive as Jordan Mechner’s first videogame. Here, the acclaimed developer reveals how a love of animation and the Apple II led him to a lifelong career

COLLECTOR’S CORNER

READERS TAKE US THROUGH THE RETRO KEYHOLE

MAILBAG

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

END GAME

FAMICOM GRAND PRIX II: 3D HOT RALLY »

COMMODORE 64 GAMES

Collecting every game ever made for everyone’s favourite breadbin isn’t a realistic possibility, so we’ve concentrated on some of the most beloved games on the system – as well as those with some interesting curiosity value, of course

Famicom Disk System

» PLATFORM: Famicom » RELEASED: 1986 » COST:

POOL OF REDIANCE

Much like the tabletop experience itself, the creation of the first ever D&D computer game was a truly epic quest against amazing odds. We chat with some of the former key members of the team at SSI to learn just how they achieved such an impressive feat

PC-FX

ESSENTIAL GAME Kishin Douji Zenki: Vajra Fight This

THE MAKING OF GAMES WORLD

Games World was the height of Nineties gaming television. This show and its four seasons proved that videogame-focused TV entertainment was viable. We reached out and challenged a trio of Videators to find out what working on the show was like

Jumping Flash!

» PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION RELEASED: 1995 DEVELOPER: EXACT, ULTRA

THE MAKING OF THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK ESCAPE FROM BUTCHER BAY

THERE’S USUALLY AN INVISIBLE BUT PRETTY STRICT LIMIT ON THE QUALITY OF A MOVIE TIE-IN GAME, BUT IN 2004 A LITTLE-KNOWN SWEDISH STUDIO BUCKED THE TREND, BUILDING A RIDDICK GAME IN A PIONEERING ENGINE THAT BEAT ID AND VALVE TO THE NEW GENERATION

BATTLETOADS

They’ve starred in infamously tough games, they’ve been cartoon heroes and they’ve even been the bane of Gamestop employees across  America. Now Zitz, Rash and Pimple are back, so we found out how the developers approached their return

Future Classic

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

Dan Kitchen

What cherished games would you take to the island?

RETRORATED

Battletoads TOADALLY RADICAL »[Xbox » One] You can