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ZORK – by Jon – GenX Grownup
I can still remember my Atari 800. The screen went that deep shade of blue, and the cursor appeared, waiting for me to type something… No joystick… No sprites… Just text. Then these words appeared: “You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a...
A review of BIG2SMALL
The NES metroidvania game Annalog has already been confirmed for a physical release via The Retro Room thanks to generous Kickstarter backing. With ten days left to go in its funding drive, Annalog will almost certainly hit the $20,000 goal, guaranteeing a...
Adventure – by Eugenio Angueira
A more adventured had forgone the“first”Atari in 2600 video is honored game history.to have It is the first adventure-type game on a console, and it is also considered the first action-adventure game (inspired by the text-only adventure game Colossal Cave Adventure)....
Arkamiga – Mainake Project revives classic Arcade action with this latest Arkanoid clone
Retro enthusiasts and Amiga fans have a new reason to dust off their hardware. The Mainake Project has officially released Arkamiga, a brand-new Arkanoid-style action game developed specifically for the classic Commodore Amiga system. In fact rather than a WHDLOAD,...
HEIANKYO ALIEN – by Jeremy Parish
Gaming historians often write about popular media in the pre-internet age as if it all existed in vacuum-sealed silos by country, but that’s not true at all. Intercontinental communication may have been a lot more complicated back then, but consider Heiankyo Alien, a...
Wee Ninja – A great Mario style platformer for the Atari XL/XE and 5200 by Playsoft
Playsoft have released a number of games over the years, from Blowsub on the Atari 5200, to the Atari 8bit hack of Donkey Kong by Darryl1970. Well it's time for the Atari 5200 to get a new game announcement, as Playsoft has released the eagerly awaited high quality...
Mystery House – by Mat Bradley-Tschirgi
In 1979, Ken Williams was busy starting up his new business software company, On-Line Systems; years later, this company would be better known as Sierra Online. His wife, Roberta, had her own ambitions, often playing text adventure computer games like Colossal Cave or...
Learning to Code in 1980: A Book, BASIC, and Pure Persistence
At 13, with an Apple II and a book of BASIC game listings, I learned to code the hard way – typing line by line, fixing errors, and discovering how programs really worked.
Adventure Land – by Ryan Burger
Before home computers ever had an “adventure game,” there was Colossal Cave Adventure (1976- 1977) by Will Crowther and Don Woods. Often referred to simply as Adventure or ADVENT, it ran on a PDP-10 mainframe, a machine that cost about $150,000 in the 1970s, roughly...
How To Look At PONG
My most recent book, King PONG: How Atari Bounced Across Markets to Make Millions, shows how Atari established not one but two massive consumer technology categories by adopting innovative product positioning and market development strategies. I conclude the short...
Axis – Escape the Aliens in this new C64 port from AnyStone Games
The Commodore 64’s library has grown even bigger today with the official release of Axis, a high-stakes "escape" title developed by AnyStone Games. Born from the legacy of Zsolt Bertók’s (Bery) original Videoton TV Computer game of the same name, this modern C64...
Five Classic Video Game Easter Eggs
The first use of the term "Easter Egg" is widely attributed to Steve Wright, then director of software development at Atari, circa 1980. He was, of course, referring to the now classic hidden credit room in Warren Robinett's Adventure for the Atari 2600. Since then,...
Space Invaders – by Brett Weiss
I discovered Space Invaders in 1978,Space was visiting my aunt and cousins in McGregor, Texas (outside of Waco), a town of barely over 2,000 people. It was in a dingy, seedy arcade and was very imposing. I’d already played my share of pinball and electromechanical...
A review of The History of the Pokémon Games
It's the thirty-year anniversary of the very first Pokémon games which were released back in 1996. Nintendo is pulling out all the stops reminding us. But unofficial historians are getting in on the act too, with The History of the Pokémon Games by James...
Breakout – by By Bill Donohue
Beating our educations had taken upon moving from New York (Catholic schooling, Nuns who also acted as Wardens, Mandatory Mass every Friday Morning) to California (“Deliverance” music, lots of “twins”, English? “Wash” pronounced as “Warsh”). The first thing he brought...
PONG – by Eugenio Angueira
Pong! was my very first experience with Atari Home Pong released in 1975. Not only was I hooked on the game, but so was my dad, my uncle, and just about everyone in my family. It was easy to play, but the game really shined when we were playing against each other. Of...
Five PS2 Games That No One Played But Should Have
The PlayStation 2 has so many games. The PlayStation 2 has so many good games. So how do you choose? Old School Gamer’s Patrick Hickey Jr. shares some fun ones you might have missed. Fire Pro Wrestling Returns: This game already has a niche audience, but without a pro...
Basketball Classics Review: Stellar
The 2K Basketball Empire has manifested itself on every console to the point where they even took over the NBA Playgrounds series once that showed some potential. The end result was a monopoly on the roundball gaming experience that cost gamers looking for something...
Boss Fight Books confirms Age of Empires as 41st title
On March 31st, Boss Fight Books confirmed that it had acquired enough funds via its Kickstarter campaign to go forward with its latest project, a book about the 1997 strategy game Age of Empires, written by Richard Moss, an Australian gaming historian whose...
Table Tennis – by Leonard Herman
As the “father of videogame history,” I’m often asked about what I consider the most influential of all videogames. Without any hesitation, I’ll always respond with the simplest game imaginable. Although it consisted of only three spots, no sound, and no scoring,...
A Scorpion Behind the Rock – Then and Now
A simple phrase from a decades-old Apple II game still shapes how I approach modern work. What started as a deadly surprise in The Wizard & the Princess became a lasting lesson: always look for hidden risks before moving forward.
Retro Review – Choplifter for the Sega Master System
Set the wayback machine to the early '80s. While we had recently gotten our first home computer, the Commodore VIC-20, my cousins had been enjoying the Apple II system that my uncle used for writing sermons and the like. One of the first home computer games that I...
SpaceWar! The First Computer Game – by Eugene Jarvis
My favorite old school game has got to be 1962’s Spacewar! Spacewar! may well be the first true video game ever made. Developed by Steve Russel and collaborators at MIT. This 2-player space combat video game was played on a circular monochrome vector graphics display...
Calebe Adventure – A new 2D platformer released for the MSX by Paulo Pereira Gonçalves & Calebe Rodrigues Gonçalves
Recovering the Past: "Caleb Adventure" Brings Retro Heroism to the MSX! Retro gaming fans have a new mission: infiltrate the castle of Baron Buuu-hahaha and reclaim a stolen legacy. In the newly released title Caleb Adventure, players step into the shoes of a hero on...
This Day In Video Game History
