Neo Geo on Android is one of the easiest ways to carry a serious arcade library in your pocket—provided you choose the right approach. SNK’s AES home console and MVS arcade hardware shared a famously rich catalogue of fighters, run-and-guns, puzzlers, and shooters, from King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown to Metal Slug and Magical Drop. The hardware was premium in its day; emulation makes the experience far more practical, but it… Read more
Atari emulation is one of Android’s most rewarding retro rabbit holes. The 2600 library is immediate and wonderfully strange, the 5200 and 7800 preserve a particular arcade-at-home moment, the Lynx still feels technically ambitious, and the Jaguar remains fascinating precisely because it is uneven. A phone or tablet is more than powerful enough for most of this history; the real question is choosing a setup that fits the machine and its unusual… Read more
PlayStation 3 emulation remains one of the most demanding corners of the hobby. The console’s unusual Cell processor was built around several kinds of tightly coordinated processing cores, and games often relied on that design in ways an emulator must carefully reproduce. That is challenging on a desktop computer; on a phone or tablet, it is tougher still. The honest 2026 answer is that Android is not a dependable native PS3 platform… Read more
The PSP remains one of the easiest ways to turn an Android phone or tablet into a genuinely satisfying retro handheld. Its library sits in a sweet spot: big RPGs, inventive rhythm games, serious racing games, and compact action adventures designed around short sessions. More importantly, PSP emulation can add conveniences that the original hardware never had, including sharper rendering, flexible controls, and dependable save states. For most people, the answer is… Read more
PS2 emulation on Android is no longer a novelty, but it is still one of the most demanding corners of mobile retro gaming. A capable phone can make games such as Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, and many racing, fighting, and RPG favourites feel remarkably at home on a handheld. It can also expose the rough edges of a notoriously intricate console: one game may run beautifully while another needs careful settings,… Read more
The original PlayStation remains one of the easiest classic consoles to enjoy on Android. Its catalogue covers everything from long-form RPGs and inventive platformers to survival horror, arcade racers, fighters, and oddball Japanese imports. More importantly, PS1 emulation is mature enough that a reasonably current phone or tablet can usually provide a comfortable experience without turning setup into a technical project. That does not mean every emulator suits every player. Some favour… Read more
The Dreamcast remains unusually rewarding to play on a phone or tablet. Its games were built around quick arcade action, expressive 3D visuals, and a controller layout that translates well to a modern gamepad. A good Android setup can make Crazy Taxi, Soulcalibur, Jet Set Radio, Sonic Adventure, and Shenmue feel far more immediate than digging out ageing hardware, cables, and optical discs. There is no universally perfect Dreamcast emulator, however. The… Read more
The Sega Saturn remains one of the most rewarding consoles to revisit, but it asks more of both the emulator and the person setting it up than a typical 16-bit machine. Its library ranges from glorious 2D arcade conversions to striking early 3D experiments, lavish RPGs, shooters, and imports that never received broad releases. Games such as NiGHTS into Dreams, Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona USA, Shining Force III, and Panzer Dragoon Saga… Read more
The Moon theme from DuckTales already sounds as though it has somewhere wonderful to take you. David Ortiz heard a trumpet carrying that melody, violins chasing the runs, and guitars and bass filling out the rhythm underneath. In 2015, he called in some friends to read the arrangement. That first experiment became Mariachi Entertainment System. The San Antonio ensemble brings familiar game music to a full mariachi lineup: trumpets, violins, flute, guitars… Read more
Interview by David, Retro Replay. A little train following a track was enough to suggest a whole game. For Chris Sawyer, the pleasure of watching a system work came before the business figures surrounding it: the acceleration of a locomotive, the movement of a vehicle through an isometric landscape, or a park guest deciding which ride to try next. Those small interactions grew into worlds that players could build, manage, and happily… Read more
Interview by David, Retro Replay A boss theme can follow you long after the battle is over. For Console: The VGM Band, those melodies became a reason to pick up instruments, find other musicians, and discover what happens when music written for a game has an audience standing in front of it. A familiar tune is the starting point; the groove, the arrangement, and the energy of a live band are where… Read more
Interview by David, Retro Replay. A wheat field had to move inside a tiny tile. A Roman city had to feel alive without burying the player in detail. An aqueduct had to look convincing while being assembled from just a handful of graphics. For Chris Beatrice, the art of those early strategy games was inseparable from finding practical solutions that made a world readable, appealing, and enjoyable to inhabit. Beatrice joined Impressions… Read more
Interview by David, Retro-Replay. Before there was Tiberium, before Kane stepped in front of a camera, and before players began building bases on Arrakis, there were two friends in Las Vegas finding out what they could make together. Louis Castle was working at a computer store when he met Brett Sperry. An invitation to use a printer led to a conversation about computer art, then to a creative partnership. In 1985, that… Read more
Interview by David, Retro Replay Dizzy began with a problem small enough to fit inside a sprite: how do you give a game character a face that can actually express something? Philip Oliver's answer became one of the most recognisable figures of the British home-computer era. With his twin brother Andrew, he built a world of enchanted forests, peculiar objects, needy neighbours, and puzzles that could turn a humble bean into a… Read more
That stack of PS2 cases beside the television has a new reason to come off the shelf. Swordpdf’s PS5SX2, a homebrew port of PCSX2, now offers a way to insert a supported PS2 DVD into a jailbroken PlayStation 5, copy the game to storage and launch it through the emulator. The disc supplies the game data, while the PS5 runs the resulting copy. This is a community project for modified consoles, not… Read more
October 5–12, 2026. The week’s clearest emulator releases were a Dolphin hotfix, a substantial SameBoy update, and a new FCEUX version. Igir also expanded the way collections can be named and sorted. Across the four monitored categories, we found 166 notices; most of the console entries were successive development snapshots. The full dated log groups them below.Console and handheld releasesDolphin 2609a fixes the first 2609 releaseDolphin labels 2609a a hotfix for its… Read more
September 28–October 5, 2026. This week brought a substantial shadPS4 release, a fresh DOSBox-X build, and a coordinated set of Gear emulator updates. There are 162 notices, many of them successive development snapshots of the same project. The dated log below groups every notice; the analysis here covers changes confirmed by project releases or source repositories. The releases that matter shadPS4 0.19.0 moves PS4 compatibility forward shadPS4 0.19.0 is a tagged release,… Read more
Week of September 21–28, 2026. This is Retro Replay’s first weekly emulator briefing: one place to follow meaningful releases, nightly builds, arcade work, classic PC changes, and library tools. We reviewed this week’s release notices, then checked the highlighted changes against project release notes and source repositories. A dated build in the log below is a development snapshot, not necessarily a stable release. The week at a glance The four feeds carried… Read more
Eden 0.2.1 is now available as a stability-focused hotfix for the open-source Nintendo Switch emulator. Rather than introducing a huge new collection of features, this release focuses on problems discovered after Eden 0.2.0, including large-library crashes, issues affecting 12th-generation Intel CPUs, Windows updater problems, a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe controller-related freeze, and several smaller stability bugs. If you are looking for general information about Eden rather than this specific release, visit our… Read more
ES-DE 3.4.1 is a substantial update to the popular multi-platform emulation frontend, expanding Android system support, adding experimental Linux AArch64 support, improving multi-user compatibility and adding a long list of new emulator configurations across Android, Linux, macOS and Windows. Android users searching for the ES-DE 3.4.1 APK or EmulationStation APK 3.4.1 should note that ES-DE's Android release is distributed through the project's official Android channels rather than Google Play. If you are… Read more
Sonic is a little blue streak in a world of dead forests, burning streets and monsters that look delighted to see him. The momentum is familiar. The enormous scythe coming his way is considerably less familiar. Hellfire Saga takes the feel of Sonic 3 & Knuckles and throws it into a gothic action game. Castlevania and Ghosts ’n Goblins are obvious neighbours, but this is more than Green Hill with red grass.… Read more
Remember the days of yore, when Double Fine made great games instead of blowing budgets on their latest vanity projects? When Jack Black was more interested in entertaining us than lecturing us? These days, Black and Double Fine's Tim Schafer look like twin gray-bearded hobos arguing over which one smells worse. But the 2000s were simpler times. Back when somebody could pitch a video game that looked like an Iron Maiden album… Read more
When people remember the original PlayStation, they usually remember polygons. Tekken. Ridge Racer. Resident Evil. Tomb Raider. The entire industry was racing toward 3D, and suddenly traditional 2D games were starting to look like something from the past. And then there was Rayman. Released in 1995, the original Rayman completely ignored the rush toward polygons and instead delivered one of the most beautiful hand-drawn platformers of the entire generation. Bright colors. Huge… Read more
Some games take a while to explain. Crazy Taxi is not one of them. You drive a taxi. You pick up passengers. You drive as fast and as recklessly as humanly possible. And somehow, more than twenty-five years later, it's still ridiculously fun. Originally released in arcades before making its way to the Sega Dreamcast, Crazy Taxi is one of those games that perfectly represents Sega during that era. Fast. Loud. Colorful.… Read more
During the 16-bit era, Disney games gave Sega owners several memorable platformers. World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck belongs beside Castle of Illusion, QuackShot, and Aladdin as an example of a licensed game with care behind it. Developed and published by Sega, it builds an adventure around a magic show gone wrong: Mickey and Donald discover a mysterious box, climb inside, and find themselves trapped in a fantastical world.… Read more
The Sega CD is often remembered for full-motion video, but Shining Force CD shows how much stronger its traditional games could be. This tactical RPG rebuilds two Game Gear adventures and adds content made for the CD release. Sega’s official game overview identifies it as a remake of two handheld installments. The result is a generous, battle-focused Shining Force package. Its defining change is the removal of most traditional exploration—a choice that… Read more
Nintendo has announced the boldest, most innovative move in gaming history: charging you up to two hundred dollars for the privilege of replaying a pair of Wii games you already own. Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are officially coming to the Switch 2, and the bundle clocks in at a cool $150, edging toward $200 once you factor in collector’s editions, amiibo, and whatever random plastic accessory they force… Read more
An Innocent Gesture with a Dark Twist For more than two decades, fans of Super Mario World believed Mario was simply pointing forward when Yoshi stuck out his tongue. It looked playful and harmless. Mario gave the signal, Yoshi obeyed, and the duo worked together as partners. That illusion shattered in 2017, when Nintendo veteran Shigefumi Hino, the designer who created Yoshi, revealed that the original concept was very different. According to… Read more
Every Controller I Have Smashed In Rage, Ranked By The Quality Of The Meltdown There are difficult games, and then there are the ones that melt your brain until the only solution is to weaponize the nearest controller. We tell ourselves it’s just a game, but anyone who has stared down Alma in Ninja Gaiden Black, crawled across spikes in Celeste, or been betrayed by the blue shell in Mario Kart Wii… Read more
A Consistent Cutoff Leonardo DiCaprio has built a reputation for consistency in his personal life, and it appears that this rule now extends to his gaming habits. According to sources close to the Hollywood actor, he has officially stopped playing Final Fantasy IX after the game reached its 25th anniversary. Released in 2000 for the original PlayStation, Final Fantasy IX is widely regarded as one of the greatest entries in Square Enix’s… Read more
A Garage Sale Becomes a Legal Battlefield What began as a quiet Saturday morning in Saratoga, New York quickly escalated into what some neighbors now refer to as “the day Nintendo declared war on suburbia.” Local resident Robby Thompson held a simple garage sale in his driveway, offering old household items, clothing, and a box of retro video games. One of those games happened to be a sealed copy of Super Mario… Read more
A Feature Masquerading as a Flaw Since its release in 2017, the Nintendo Switch has been celebrated as one of the most successful consoles of all time. It blended handheld convenience with home-console performance, revitalized franchises like Zelda and Mario, and sold over 140 million units. But along with this success came something else: the infamous Joy-Con drift. What began as a flood of user complaints, characters walking off cliffs without input,… Read more
Remember the days of yore, when Double Fine made great games instead of blowing budgets on their latest vanity projects? When Jack Black was more interested in entertaining us than lecturing us? These days, Black and Double Fine's Tim Schafer look like twin gray-bearded hobos arguing over which one smells worse. But the 2000s were simpler times. Back when somebody could pitch a video game that looked like an Iron Maiden album… Read more
Interview by David, Retro Replay A boss theme can follow you long after the battle is over. For Console: The VGM Band, those melodies became a reason to pick up instruments, find other musicians, and discover what happens when music written for a game has an audience standing in front of it. A familiar tune is the starting point; the groove, the arrangement, and the energy of a live band are where… Read more
You hear Daytona USA before you see it. Someone is singing the name at full volume. Around the corner, a row of red racing seats is waiting, and your friend is already claiming the one beside you. For years, Sega made the arcade trip worthwhile. You could have a good console at home and still want a go on that enormous motorcycle, the moving flight simulator or the racer linked to seven… Read more
The houses are getting nicer. The treasury is running out. Somebody wants pottery, somebody else wants a temple, and the person carrying the food has taken the wrong turning again. If you played an Impressions city builder, you probably recognise the situation. You arrived with a sensible plan for a Roman settlement or an Egyptian town. A few hours later, you were rearranging roads so a woman with a basket would walk… Read more
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