Retro Blog 🕰️

Discover the untold story of Otaku no Zoku, the underground pioneer who sparked Xbox emulation with MAME before the console’s release. A legend of homebrew history. The world of video game emulation has always been shaped by shadowy figures and passionate hobbyists. Behind every emulator release there is usually a name that becomes legendary in forums and IRC channels, a handle that carries more weight than a real identity. In …

The Game That Broke the Mold and the Law When Wolfenstein 3D dropped in 1992, it ignited a revolution. It was not just a technically slick first person shooter, it was a raw, unapologetic romp through Nazi bunkers that ended in a face off with a cyber fueled Mecha Hitler. Gamers worldwide embraced it as a milestone. But in Germany, the response was silence, because the game was outright banned. …

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 …

The Sega Genesis, or Mega Drive as it was called outside North America, is remembered as one of the most important consoles of the 16-bit era. Most fans think of Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, or Golden Axe when they reflect on the system, but the library was far deeper than those headliners. Hundreds of titles came out during its lifespan, and while some sold millions, others slipped quietly …

So you are coming here looking to revisit your youth with a “Super Mario 64 Emulator”? Funny. That is what my kid calls it too, a Super Mario 64 emulator. Ha! Let’s clear this up right away. The correct term is not actually “Super Mario 64 Emulator.” What you are looking for is a Nintendo 64 emulator. That is the software that makes it possible to run Super Mario 64 …

Legends never die When most people think about video game history, they picture the giants. The Nintendo Entertainment System that revived the industry in the eighties. The Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo that waged the fiercest console war of the nineties. The Sony PlayStation that turned gaming into a cultural juggernaut. The Microsoft Xbox that reshaped online play in the 2000s. These names are immortal, and for good reason. …

When Nintendo Took Blockbuster to Court The Battle Over Rentals In the late 1980s Nintendo ruled the living room. The NES was in millions of homes, and kids flocked to local rental shops like Blockbuster to grab the latest cartridges for a weekend of gaming. But while game rentals exploded in popularity, Nintendo was far less enthusiastic. They worried that renting would cut into cartridge sales, since players could beat …

A Bold but Bizarre Idea In 1995 Nintendo of America faced a challenge. They were preparing to launch EarthBound on the Super Nintendo, a quirky role playing game full of humor, offbeat enemies, and suburban satire. But how could they sell such an unusual RPG to an American audience that was not yet fully invested in the genre? Their answer was one of the strangest campaigns in gaming history. Nintendo …

For those of us who grew up in the late 1990s, video games were more than just a pastime. They were entire worlds that we could lose ourselves in after long school days or weekend sleepovers. The soundtracks of these games did more than fill silence. They became the background music of our youth. Every time we booted up a game, the music etched itself into our memories, attaching itself …

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 …

The Mother series has always held a special place in the hearts of retro role-playing game fans. In Japan it was known simply as Mother, while in the United States most people only experienced the second game in the series, which was released on the Super Nintendo under the title EarthBound. That game gained a reputation for its quirky humor, heartfelt storytelling, and unusual modern-day setting. Over time it became …

A Marvel in Coin Op Form There are certain machines that instantly capture the imagination of anyone who grew up in the neon glow of the arcade era. The six player X-Men arcade cabinet is one of them. Released by Konami in 1992, this massive, hulking creation became a legend for its sheer size, the chaotic fun of six simultaneous players, and the novelty of its dual screen setup. Unlike …

A Platform Built on Freedom For more than a decade, Google’s Android operating system has been the backbone of the handheld emulation scene. Devices like the Retroid Pocket, AYN Odin, and countless other retro handhelds have leaned on Android because of its flexibility. What made the operating system so attractive to both developers and users was not just its adaptability but also its openness. Android allowed sideloading, which meant that …

A Colorful Beginning Long before the blue suited hero cemented his place in gaming history, Capcom’s designers toyed with a name that could have changed everything, Rainbow Man. It was not some throwaway title scribbled in a notebook. The choice reflected what made the character unique. Each time he defeated a Robot Master he absorbed their power and his armor blazed with a new color. According to the character’s development …

For decades, the cult following of Nintendo’s quirky RPG series has kept alive the dream of seeing the original Mother (localized as EarthBound Beginnings) fully reimagined for modern audiences. That dream has not only survived but evolved into one of the most ambitious ROM hack projects ever attempted: a complete rebuild of Mother inside the EarthBound engine. What started as a scattered dream among individual fans has now matured into …

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 …

Mario’s Mustache Was a Hardware Trick Mario’s iconic mustache wasn’t added for style — it was added because the technology of the time demanded it. When Shigeru Miyamoto designed Mario for Donkey Kong in 1981, he was limited to a tiny 16×16 sprite on arcade hardware. There simply weren’t enough pixels to draw a clear mouth and nose. The solution? A bold mustache that visually separated the nose from the …

Boss battles are the moments that define retro gaming. They are the ultimate tests of skill, patience, and determination, pushing players to their limits and rewarding them with some of the most unforgettable victories in video game history. In the days of the NES, SNES, Genesis, and even into the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 era, bosses were designed not only to challenge players but to leave a lasting impression that …

Decades ago, when DVD players were still out of reach, Dreamcast fans found a workaround. Thanks to GypPlay by TheGypsy, Sega’s console doubled as a movie player for burned Video CDs, creating a moment of magic that the DCEmulation community — run today by darc — continues to preserve.

Part 1: 1990 to 1993 —The Dinosaurs Wake Part 2: 1994 to 1996 — The Spark Catches Fire Part 3: 1997 to 1999 — The Wild West (These are the opening three sections in a six-part history of emulation series, and they are still very much a work in progress. Tracking down reliable sources for material that has long since disappeared is not always easy, so the record here will …

Part 1: 1990 to 1993 —The Dinosaurs Wake Part 2: 1994 to 1996 — The Spark Catches Fire Part 3: 1997 to 1999 — The Wild West (These are the opening three sections in a six-part history of emulation series, and they are still very much a work in progress. Tracking down reliable sources for material that has long since disappeared is not always easy, so the record here will …

Part 1: 1990 to 1993 —The Dinosaurs Wake Part 2: 1994 to 1996 — The Spark Catches Fire Part 3: 1997 to 1999 — The Wild West (These are the opening three sections in a six-part history of emulation series, and they are still very much a work in progress. Tracking down reliable sources for material that has long since disappeared is not always easy, so the record here will …

Top 10 Retro RPGs Everyone Should Play The world of role playing games is vast and ever evolving, but there is something timeless about the golden age of retro RPGs. Before modern consoles brought cinematic visuals and sprawling open worlds, developers on the NES, SNES, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn were crafting unforgettable adventures that still hold up today. These classics offered players sweeping stories, iconic soundtracks, and innovative mechanics that …

Years of work ended not with a release but with silence because of harassment, licensing wars, and community entitlement. Update 1: The First and Last Update of This Post! So apparently I got Rick Rollbacked, emulation-style. A buddy tells me, “Hey, DuckStation has a secret rollback netplay build, go ask for it in the dev’s Discord.” Like a gullible idiot, I did. What I walked into was less “beta download” …

Streaming fatigue is real. Price hikes, ads, and the crackdown on sharing have pushed many away from Netflix, Disney Plus, and other platforms. DVDs are back as a rebellion against digital control, and piracy could be the next inevitable wave.