Tag Archives: retro gaming

The Super Mario World hacking community has produced everything from sprawling cinematic adventures to bite sized experimental projects. Smoked Fish and Cabbage, created by LetsTalkGames and the coder known as xMANGRAVYx, stands out as a compact yet polished introduction to the Kaizo style. Released in July 2023, the hack is short by design with seven carefully crafted levels, but within that small footprint it manages to deliver challenge, variety, and accessibility in… Read more

The Super Mario World hacking scene has always thrived on experimentation, but few projects push the envelope as boldly as Castlemania II, created by LetsTalkGames and coder xMANGRAVYx. Released in July 2025, this sequel builds upon last year’s Castlemania with even more ambition, blending Super Mario World’s platforming with Castlevania’s gothic spirit. The result is a hack that feels familiar in its controls but completely fresh in its tone and structure. From… Read more

When it comes to ambitious ROM hacks, few projects can match the scale and polish of Super Mario Bros. 3Mix, created by the talented developer Southbird. Released more than a decade ago (2014), 3Mix is not simply a reworking of Super Mario Bros. 3 but a complete overhaul that pays tribute to Mario’s past, present, and even future. The hack introduces new mechanics, new worlds, and a staggering amount of secrets while… Read more

The Day Emulation Changed Forever On January 28, 1999, the UltraHLE emulator launched and stunned gamers by running The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time only months after its release, sending shockwaves through the entire industry. Before this, most players assumed that emulation could only cover older consoles like the NES or SNES. Suddenly, the hottest game of the year was running on an everyday PC, and the world of emulation would… Read more

Atari Crosses the Line In the early 1980s the video game market was booming and the Atari 2600 sat in living rooms everywhere. In 1982 a small publisher called Mystique released Custer’s Revenge for the Atari 2600, pitching it as an adults only title. The premise was crude and simple, and it immediately drew attention for all the wrong reasons. Players guided a caricatured General Custer across a screen while dodging arrows… Read more

Pacnsac Games, the prolific ROM hacker known as pacnsacdave, has built a name for transforming beloved NES titles into something wholly new while staying true to the spirit of retro gaming. In March 2020 he released The Crow, a complete hack of Sunsoft’s Batman: The Video Game. Rather than a simple cosmetic swap, this project reimagines the 1994 cult film starring Brandon Lee as if it had received its own 8 bit… Read more

The ROM hacking community has produced countless creative projects, but few figures are as consistent and ambitious as pacnsacdave of Pacnsac Games. His library of NES hacks and homebrews stretches across genres, often transforming familiar titles into something entirely new. Dave has done A LOT! I first encountered his work through Mr. Gimmick 2, a fan-made sequel to Sunsoft’s cult platformer. You can read my full review of the game here, where… Read more

When you talk about hidden treasures on the Nintendo Entertainment System, few games are as respected and mysterious as Mr. Gimmick. Released in 1992 by Sunsoft, this platformer was known for its stunning physics, demanding level design, and a soundtrack that pushed the NES sound chip to its limits. While it never reached wide audiences outside Japan and Scandinavia, it has become a cult favorite among retro enthusiasts. Fans have been asking… Read more

Every so often it feels right to step back and let the community know what is happening here at Retro-Replay. This site has always been about more than just nostalgia, and now we are pushing into something much bigger. From giving away pieces of my personal video game collection, to sharing YouTube revenue, to opening the doors for new writers, there are some exciting opportunities worth sticking to the top of the… Read more

A Tribute to Mario’s Origins with a Twist Super Mario Bros. For Lost Players is a standout ROM hack of Super Mario World that reimagines the platforming roots of Nintendo’s mascot while injecting fresh ideas, unexpected mechanics, and nostalgic homages. Developed by Adam, Truxton, beasteye89, lolyoshi, and rextep, the project debuted in 2021 as part of the SMW Central Hackjam contest. What started as a so-called “terrible experiment,” according to its creator,… Read more

The ROM hacking community has a new standout release to celebrate with Celeste Mario’s Zap & Dash DELUXE!, an ambitious NES hack that fuses the familiar platforming of Super Mario Bros. with the style and challenge of Celeste. Created by the legendary developer w7n, this project is more than a simple modification. It expands the original Celeste Mario hack with eleven brand new mini games, a heartfelt farewell course, upgraded graphics, and… Read more

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 early… Read more

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 into obscurity… Read more

Project64 is more than just another emulator — it is a doorway back to the golden age of the Nintendo 64. By downloading it, you are not simply playing old games, you are experiencing the same excitement those titles gave us in the late 90s, now enhanced for modern computers. With today’s advances in emulation technology, Project64 faithfully recreates the hardware and software environment of the original console. That means you can… Read more

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. They sold… Read more

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 users could… Read more

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 coordinated,… Read more

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. Read more

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” and more… Read more

Retro gaming emulators have saved thousands of classic games from disappearing forever. From the early days of hobbyist coding to today’s advanced platforms, emulation has become the most important tool for preserving gaming history. Learn how emulators keep culture alive, enhance old titles, and why they still matter for every gamer. Read more

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 the nineties,… Read more

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 lengthy and… Read more

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 the earliest… Read more

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 in 1982,… Read more

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, he designed… Read more