THE RETROBATES

WHAT IS NINTENDO’S MOST IMPRESSIVE HARDWARE INNOVATION?

LOADING...

One decent side effect of being old is

A TRIBUTE TO F DAVID THORPE

Celebrating the creator of many iconic ZX Spectrum loading screens

MORE NIGHTMARES

A232-page book celebrating the weirdest, toughest and worst

MECHNER MEMOIRS

Famed game designer, Jordan Mechner, creator of Karateka

Wilt Disné

On the island of Zakynthos they have a

Made for TV?

Like many of you, as of writing this

Retro Computer Museum

Retro Gamer catches up with Andy Spencer, the man behind Leicester’s fantastic retro-gaming museum

THE LATEST NEWS FROM NOVEMBER 2007

NOVEMBER 2007 – Samus Aran brings joy to

Yie Ar Kung-Fu

THE DOWNFALL OF A KUNG-FU MASTER

NINTENDO'S ICONIC HARDWARE INNOVATIONS

FOR DECADES, NINTENDO HAS CONSTANTLY SOUGHT TO RESHAPE THE P OSSIBILITIES OF VIDEOGAMES AND EVEN THE WAYS IN WHICH WE INTERACT WITH THEM. JOIN US FOR A LOOK BACK AT NINTENDO’S TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES, AND THE HIGHS AND LOWS THAT CAME WITH THEM

Panorama Cotton

I’VE NO ISSUE WITH REISSUES

Daytona USA

“I WANNA FLY SKY HIGH, LET’S GO TOGETHER”

Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise

COMING FULL CIRCLE

Toaplan Shoot’em Up Collection Vol 4

HAS BITWAVE SAVED THE BEST TILL LAST?

MadWorld

BLACK AND WHITE, AND RED ALL OVER

THE MAKING OF TECHNICIAN TED

WELCOME TO A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MICROPROCESSOR TECHNICIAN TED, THE HARDEST WORKING EMPLOYEE AT MICRO-USER DEVICES’ CHIP FACTORY. TODAY, THERE ARE 21 TASKS, AND THE CLOCK’S TICKING. WE’D BETTER GET ON WITH THE MAKING OF TECHNICIAN TED

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

PICK OF THE MONTH

Family BASIC

PLATFORM: Famicom » YEAR: 1984 » COST: ¥14,800 (launch), £130+ (today, boxed), £80+ (today, unboxed)

THE STORY OF Little Big Adventure

When people talk about French games from the Nineties, words like wacky, weird, creative and hard as nails quickly come to mind – all terms that apply perfectly to Little Big Adventure

THE MAKING OF THE LOST FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES

SHERLOCK HOLMES’ UNIQUE CHARACTER IS HARD TO CAPTURE, BUT EA’S TWO GRAPHIC ADVENTURES BRING ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE’S DETECTIVE TO VIVID LIFE. DON YOUR DEERSTALKER, HAIL A HANSOM CAB, AND SHARPEN YOUR DEDUCTIVE SKILLS AS YOU SOLVE THESE LOST FILES FROM HOLMES’ ARCHIVE – THE GAME’S AFOOT…

EMULATION NATION

FIRST CONCEIVED TO MAKE MAINFRAME COMPUTERS BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE, EMULATORS LATER PROVIDED A WAY TO RUN OLD GAMES ON NEW SYSTEMS. DEVELOPERS METALLIC, CARSTEN WAECHTER AND HIKARI NO YUME DISCUSS EMULATION AND PRESERVING VIDEOGAME HISTORY

Game.com

» MANUFACTURER: Tiger Electronics » YEAR: 1997 » COST: £74.99 (launch), £45+ (today, boxed), £40+ (today, unboxed)

THIEF

THE DARK PROJECT AN ENDURING LEGACY

WARIOWARE INC: MINIGAME MANIA

IN 2002, A SMALL TEAM OF NINTENDO VETERANS WORKED IN SECRET TO CREATE WHAT WOULD BECOME ONE OF THE COMPANY’S WEIRDEST VIDEOGAMES. MORE THAN TWO DECADES LATER, WARIOWARE INC: MINIGAME MANIA REMAINS AN ENDEARING AND COMPELLING EXPERIMENT

PENN & TELLER’S SMOKE AND MIRRORS

GAMES THAT NEVER SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY

M2 ShotTriggers CHASING PERFECTION

IN BREATHING NEW LIFE INTO SOME OF THE SHOOTER GENRE’S MOST IMPORTANT WORKS, JAPANESE STUDIO M2 HAS EQUALLY SET A STUNNING NEW STANDARD FOR WHAT A MODERN PORT CAN BE. BUT WHAT GOES INTO AN M2 SHOTTRIGGERS RELEASE?

XBOX LIVE ARCADE GEMS

The Xbox 360 online store will close in July, so the clock is ticking if you want to grab games before they’re gone forever. To help you spend your pennies, we’ve compiled our favourite XBLA titles that are not available on disc or playable via Xbox backwards compatibility

RANDAL LINDEN

The industry in the Eighties and Nineties needed programmers with great technical knowledge and the ability to learn new hardware. One of the best was Randal Linden, who tackled impossible ports and specialised in emulation

THE HOMEBREWER'S KIT

EXPLORING EMULATION

A chat about the most important retro-gaming technology

COLLECTOR’S CORNER

READERS TAKE US THROUGH THE RETRO KEYHOLE

COMPILING COMPILATIONS

Darran expresses his love for the humble games compendium

COMPILATION MEMORIES

Readers share their favourite collections of classic games

MAILBAG

HAVE YOUR SAY… SEND US A LETTER OR

THE EVOLUTION OF GAUNTLEP

JOIN US AS WE HEAD DEEP UNDERGROUND AND REVISIT THE TRASH AND TREASURE OF THE LONG-RUNNING DUNGEON-CRAWLING SERIES

MARIO’S TIME MACHINE

» What do you do if you can’t get your kids to listen to their teachers? Why, that’s simple – you just enlist the help of a plumber. That’s right, Mario can teach the youngsters all about history in this SNES edutainment game. However, you might want to hold fire on that trip to eBay, because some of the lessons Mario teaches aren’t quite so wholesome…

METROID

A SIGNIFICANT SERIES

METROID

FAMICOM DISK SYSTEM/NES • 1986

METROID II: RETURNOF SAMUS

GAME BOY • 1991

MEMORABLE CAMEOS

MORE SIGHTINGS OF SAMUS AND THE METROID SERIES

SUPER METROID

SNES • 1994

A PRICEY EXPERIENCE

SO BIG IT NEEDED A GUIDE

THE MINI-MAKING OF SUPER METROID

YOSHIO SAKAMOTO REVISITS THE ICONIC SCI-FI SEQUEL

SUPER METROID: BOSS RUSH

MEET THE MAYORS OF SAMUS’ BEST 2D ADVENTURE

METROID FUSION

GAME BOY ADVANCE • 2002

METROID PRIME

GAMECUBE • 2002

A DIFFICULT GESTATION

MAKING METROID PRIME WASN’T EASY…

REVISITING METROID PRIME

PRODUCER KENSUKE TANABE ON THE AAA METROID

THE MINI-MAKING OF METROID PRIME

MARK PACINI DISCUSSES PRIME IN OUR LEGACY INTERVIEW

SAMUS ARAN: READY FOR ACTION

THE ICONIC BOUNTY HUNTER’S KEY POWERS

METROID ZERO MISSION

GAME BOY ADVANCE • 2004

ESSENTIAL REMAKES

MORE NINTENDO UPDATES TO OWN

METROID PRIME 2: ECHOES

GAMECUBE • 2004

METROID PRIME PINBALL

NINTENDO DS • 2005

METROID PRIME HUNTERS

NINTENDO DS • 2006

METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION

WII • 2007

METROID PRIME: TRILOGY

WII • 2009

A WII-EL ENHANCEMENT

WHAT MAKES METROID PRIME: TRILOGY SO GOOD?

METROID: OTHER M

WII • 2010

METROID PRIME: FEDERATION FORCE

3DS • 2016

GIVE IT A TRY

THREE REASONS NOT TO OVERLOOK FEDERATION FORCE

METROID: SAMUS RETURNS

3DS • 2017

METROID DREAD

SWITCH • 2021

METROID PRIME REMASTER

SWITCH • 2023

METROID PRIME

SWITCH • TBC

FURTHER ADVENTURES

IF YOU LIKE THE METROID SERIES YOU’LL LOVE THESE