Retro Gamer

the retrobates

DARRAN JONES Working on the delicatessen counter at Tesco and listening to my 38-year-old boss excitedly talking about completing Super Mario Bros 3 while her husband helped her. It made me realise just how big a deal Mario actually was. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful girls and an award-winning magazine Currently playing: Banjo-Kazooie Favourite game of all time: Strider DREW SLEEP In first school, a friend and I used to sneak to the library and play Super Mario Land 2 on his Game Boy. It was our first act of rebellion, and it was so worth it! Expertise: Office Space-like hatred for the RG office printer Currently playing: Fire Emblem: Three Houses Favourite game of all time: Final Fantasy VIII NICK THORPE I’ve always loved World 4-1 in the original Super Mario Bros – there’s a real thrill in…

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Has there ever been a platform series that’s been as consistently solid as Super Mario? In all honesty, I don’t think there has been and I’ve played a lot of different franchises over the years. Granted, Sonic has appeared in some smashing examples and Rayman has given it a good go, but when you consider how few duffers there are in the Super Mario series, Nintendo’s mustachioed plumber clearly deserves the title of ‘Platform Superstar’. So we thought we’d kick off 2020 by speaking to a number of games developers to find out what makes Nintendo’s series so special. The likes of John Romero, Chris Sutherland, Ste Pickford and many others were only too happy to share their memories of Mario’s early 2D adventures and to break down why they’re so…

arcade club expands

Arcade Club has been a tremendous success since it first launched in Bury in 2015. The brainchild of Andy Palmer, it has quickly developed a reputation for its exceptional range of classic arcade cabinets, which are incredibly well maintained and encompass virtually every game you can think of. It’s become a beacon of the north of England and is currently the biggest arcade in Europe, but Andy isn’t one to rest on his laurels. Early in 2019, Andy opened up an additional venue in Leeds, called Arcade Club Leeds, but it would appear that this isn’t going to be the only new location where you can enjoy classic coin-op games from yesteryear, as Andy has recently revealed that a third location will be opening in Blackpool this year. While Blackpool still…

jason brookes 1967-2019

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Jason Brookes, the legendary British games journalist who made his name writing for the fondly remembered SNES magazine Super Play. Jason had enjoyed a stellar career, including a lengthy spell editing Edge, but he died in December, aged 52, following a three-year battle with prostate cancer. Tributes from across the gaming industry poured in following the news. Former Super Play editor Matt Bielby who hired Jason as a staff writer from issue one in November 1992 tells Retro Gamer: “He was a hugely knowledgeable, immensely enthusiastic, endlessly amiable and annoyingly good-looking presence in the Super Play office. His personality would settle into an engaging cross between overexcited geek and laid-back sage.” Steve Jarratt, Jason's editor when he joined Edge for its…

let’s get physical

My kids are amazed at my collection of vinyl, CDs, books and videogames. I have rooms full of the stuff. Not quite Mr Trebus levels, but I’m getting there. While they kind of get the books and sort of see the beauty in CDs, the one thing they cannot understand is why I buy and own new videogames on disc. They actually laughed at me last time one was delivered to my house. To them it’s an unnecessary hassle when you can just go online and download it. I have a few responses to them. Firstly, what the hell are you gonna do with it when you’ve completed it or get bored? The man doesn’t want you to trade it in or sell it on or even gift it to a friend…

back to basics

I think it was Jon Bon Jovi who said that the mark of a good song is that it can be stripped back to a singer and a guitar. Though I don’t give Bon Jovi a second thought in any other respect, this assertion has stuck with me ever since I read it in an interview 20-odd years ago. Similarly, a good movie or TV show should have a pitch that can be boiled down into a sentence or two. The more you overload an idea, the more it seems like you lack confidence in it. You want to get the essence across as economically as possible. It’s something I often think about in terms of videogames. Typically, today’s big games are sprawling, multi-genre affairs; what would be the single-sentence pitch for…