Retro Blog 🕰️

Most fans can’t picture Mario without Yoshi, the cheerful green dino who first carried him across Dinosaur Land. But earlier in development, the “rideable friend” Nintendo wanted for Mario wasn’t a dinosaur at all. According to an interview packaged with the SNES Classic, the team originally imagined a horse that Mario could mount and use to sprint through stages—an idea later echoed in reporting by IGN. You read that right: …

The PlayStation 2 Also Worked as a PC When most people think about the PlayStation 2, they remember the massive library of games, the excitement of slipping in a DVD for the first time, and the fact that it went on to become the best-selling console of all time. What fewer people realize is that Sony had an even bigger vision for their machine. In 2002, they released the Linux …

Introduction: A Console That Became a Legend The Panasonic 3DO M2 is one of the strangest legends in retro gaming history. Unlike consoles that failed after release, the M2 never even made it to the shelves. It existed in trade shows, development kits, leaked demo discs, and the memories of industry insiders who claimed it could outclass both the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. For many gamers who grew up in …

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 …

Premium Pricing, Zero Additions Nintendo has confirmed that Super Mario Odyssey will debut on the Switch 2 with a retail price of $99.99, positioning the beloved platformer not just as a game but as a lifestyle purchase. The new edition boasts no added levels, no enhanced graphics, and no special content beyond a slightly glossier box. According to Nintendo, this was intentional. “We want players to feel that Mario himself …

When Wings of Death hit the Atari ST back in 1990, it quickly carved out a reputation as one of the system’s most intense and stylish vertical shooters. Developed by Eclipse Software and published by Thalion, the game threw players into the boots of Sagyr, a sorcerer cursed to transform into a series of winged creatures in order to battle his way through wave after wave of enemies. Across six …

The Amiga turns 40 this year, and while the original home computer line remains a celebrated success with nearly five million units sold worldwide, its spin-off projects were far less fortunate. Both the CDTV and the CD32 failed to capture mainstream audiences, with the CD32 in particular remembered as Commodore’s final attempt to compete with the likes of Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis and Nintendo’s SNES. Launched in 1993 as one of …

When Super Mario Bros. 2 launched in North America in 1988, it introduced players to a whole new roster of characters. Among them was a pink dinosaur-like enemy named Birdo, who quickly stood out as one of the strangest and most memorable figures in the Mario universe. But Birdo’s legacy goes far beyond just being a quirky boss. In the original instruction manual, Nintendo described Birdo as a male who …

Most gamers have pulled an all-nighter to finish a campaign or grind out a boss, but one player took it to an entirely new level. In July 2015, Carrie Swidecki from Bakersfield, California set the official Guinness World Record for the longest video game marathon by playing Just Dance 2015 for a staggering 138 hours and 34 seconds straight. That is almost six full days of nonstop gaming. Swidecki was …

When gamers think of iconic video game soundtracks, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on the Sega Genesis often comes to mind. What many players do not know is that pop superstar Michael Jackson was secretly involved in composing parts of the soundtrack, a fact that remained unconfirmed for decades. In the early 1990s, Sega partnered with Michael Jackson to bring his musical talents to their blue mascot’s third adventure. Jackson, who …

How the NES Zapper Really Worked When gamers think back to the NES, the gray and orange Zapper light gun instantly comes to mind. It was the accessory that let kids blast away at ducks, clay pigeons, and even mobsters on their living room TVs. But here is the surprise most people never realized: the NES Zapper did not actually “shoot” anything at the screen. Instead, the TV was doing …

The First Console Game with Voice Acting When we think of voice acting in video games, our minds often jump to cinematic RPGs, immersive shooters, or modern story-driven adventures. But believe it or not, one of the first consoles to ever feature spoken dialogue was the Mattel Intellivision all the way back in the early 1980s. The secret weapon? A quirky little add-on called the Intellivoice Voice Synthesis Module. Released …

Zelda’s Real Inspiration Before Link ever picked up a sword or ventured into Hyrule, The Legend of Zelda began with the childhood of its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. Growing up in the countryside of Sonobe, Japan, Miyamoto often spent his days wandering through the fields, forests, and caves near his home. To a curious child with an adventurous spirit, every hill became a dungeon, every grove a hidden temple, and every …

Few games are as universally recognizable as Tetris. With its falling blocks, catchy music, and addictive gameplay loop, it has become one of the most iconic puzzle games ever created. But its origins are just as fascinating as the game itself. Tetris was created in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov, a computer scientist working at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Inspired by his love of puzzles and simple shapes, …

When gamers think of the PlayStation era, one title stands above the rest. Final Fantasy VII was a landmark release that defined a generation, blending cinematic storytelling, massive environments, and unforgettable characters. But what many people forget is that this legendary RPG was almost a Nintendo 64 game. In the mid 1990s, Square had been a long time Nintendo partner, releasing every mainline Final Fantasy title on Nintendo hardware. Naturally, …

How a Bug Created Grand Theft Auto Today, Grand Theft Auto is one of the most recognizable franchises in gaming history. Known for its open worlds, crime filled stories, and freedom to cause absolute chaos, it has defined generations of players. But what if I told you the entire series only exists because of a programming mistake? Back in the mid 1990s, developer DMA Design (later renamed Rockstar North) was …

When Mortal Kombat hit arcades in 1992, it shocked the world with its brutal fighting, over the top violence, and those unforgettable Fatalities. It was the game every kid wanted to play and the game every parent wanted to ban. So when the time came to bring it home to consoles, Nintendo and Sega faced a tough decision on how much of the blood would make it into living rooms. …

Before Resident Evil, There Was Sweet Home When you think of survival horror, chances are your mind jumps straight to Resident Evil. Released in 1996 on the PlayStation, it defined the genre with its tense atmosphere, limited resources, and unforgettable scares. But what many fans do not know is that Resident Evil owes its existence to a little-known NES game from Japan called Sweet Home. Released in 1989, Sweet Home …

Lara Croft’s Iconic Look Was No Accident When Tomb Raider launched in 1996, Lara Croft quickly became one of the most recognizable characters in gaming. But while a popular myth claims her famous proportions came from a “programming mistake,” the truth is a little different. Lara’s design was carefully planned by Core Design artist Toby Gard. He originally envisioned her as a tough, adventurous woman inspired by comic book heroines …

The Accidental Horror of Silent Hill’s Fog When players think of Silent Hill, the first image that often comes to mind is its thick, suffocating fog. It is one of the most haunting visuals in all of gaming, setting the tone for fear, dread, and the unknown. But here is the twist: that fog was never meant to be scary at all. The original Silent Hill was released on the …

When Street Fighter II first hit arcades in the early 1990s, it changed fighting games forever. The roster of colorful warriors, each with their own style and special moves, became instant legends. But one character almost missed out on a now-iconic attack. Chun-Li, the first female fighter in the Street Fighter series, was introduced without a projectile move. While she had incredible speed and powerful kicks, her lack of a …

When people talk about Nintendo’s Game Boy, the usual memories are of Tetris marathons, trading Pokémon with a link cable, or sneaking in one more round under the covers with a flashlight. But there is one Game Boy out there with a history so wild that it belongs in a museum, and it actually does. During the Gulf War in the early 1990s, a soldier’s Game Boy was caught in …

Developer Jnmartin84 has pulled off another jaw-dropping feat: Star Fox 64 is now running on Sega’s Dreamcast. Best known in Europe as Lylat Wars, the 1997 Nintendo 64 classic is one of the defining rail shooters of its era, remembered for its cinematic action, tight controls, and unforgettable voice lines. Seeing it running on Sega’s final console is something few fans could have ever imagined, but thanks to the Dreamcast’s …

Hideo Kojima is known for pushing the boundaries of video games, but during the development of Snatcher he almost took things into a whole new dimension — smell. Kojima wanted the game’s floppy disks coated in a special chemical that, when heated by the computer, would release the scent of blood. His vision? To fill the room with the “stench of a murder scene” during key moments in the game. …

Vintage gamers know that sometimes the most interesting titles are the ones that almost never made it into their hands. These games haunted store shelves for a few fleeting days or sometimes even just hours before being yanked. Behind the recalls were controversies ranging from legal missteps to violent content oversights and public backlash. Collectors these days pay top dollar for the rarest survivors of these wipeouts. Here are ten …