Brian Lesyk, Author at Old School Gamer Magazine https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/author/blesykhotmail-com/ Dedicated to you...the old school/retro gamer from the arcades to your home! Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:17:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.10 https://i0.wp.com/www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/cropped-PacMan-Navicon.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Brian Lesyk, Author at Old School Gamer Magazine https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/author/blesykhotmail-com/ 32 32 133814826 Modern Fighting Game Collections – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/modern-fighting-game-collections-by-brian-lesyk/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:15:05 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=113079 Most of us would generally agree that the 1990s represented the golden age of fighting games. The quality and quantity of fighting game titles that emerged during that decade was unprecedented, to say the very least. Of course, there were some notable duds, but in a time when every developer was striving to solidify themselves […]

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]]> Most of us would generally agree that the 1990s represented the golden age of fighting games. The quality and quantity of fighting game titles that emerged during that decade was unprecedented, to say the very least. Of course, there were some notable duds, but in a time when every developer was striving to solidify themselves as a viable fighting game maker, there were bound to be missteps. Still, it was the decade that brought us such legendary franchises like Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Virtua Fighter, and Tekken. And, of course  the catalyst for this uprising of the fighting game genre was due in no small part to the stratospheric critical and financial success of Street Fighter II (Capcom, 1991). It’s probably safe to assume that for most of us old…

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]]> 113079 NEO-GEO Fighting Game Franchises – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/neo-geo-fighting-game-franchises-by-brian-lesyk/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:05:00 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=113073 When it comes to the fighting genre of video games, no other platform’s total library is more dense in said category than that of the Neo Geo AES home console. Of the 118 officially-licensed games released for the AES, a whopping 51 fall under the category of fighting games. Essentially, that means that just over […]

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]]> When it comes to the fighting genre of video games, no other platform’s total library is more dense in said category than that of the Neo Geo AES home console. Of the 118 officially-licensed games released for the AES, a whopping 51 fall under the category of fighting games. Essentially, that means that just over 43% of the total AES catalog is composed of fighting games, many of which were directly developed first- hand by SNK.

Over the course of its impressive 14-year lifespan, SNK’s Neo Geo arcade MVS and home AES machines would become inseparable from the fighting game genre as a whole, successfully spawning multiple venerable franchises that would be ported across other consoles of the time and even go on to expand into future-gen….

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]]> 113073 A Study of: Miracle Warriors – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/a-study-of-miracle-warriors-by-brian-lesyk/ Sun, 21 Jun 2026 12:17:00 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=110627 If you were yearning for a solid role-playing game in the late 80s and resided in North America and happened to own a Sega Master System console, you were certainly in the right place at the right time. As luck would have it, you were unknowingly on the cusp of being hit with the proverbial […]

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]]> If you were yearning for a solid role-playing game in the late 80s and resided in North America and happened to own a Sega Master System console, you were certainly in the right place at the right time. As luck would have it, you were unknowingly on the cusp of being hit with the proverbial one-two punch combo of Miracle Warriors (the jab!) and Phantasy Star (the cross!) within mere weeks of each other! Gambling big, Sega put forth its full confidence that North Americans were ready for deeper and more complex adventure-style games. Pushing the Master System’s technical limitations to their peak, these two titles looked, felt, and played unlike anything most of us had experienced prior. The die was cast…

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]]> 110627 Super Metroid – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/super-metroid-by-brian-lesyk/ Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:07:13 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=102144 As one-half of the aforementioned moniker, the Metroid and Castlevania franchises served as the bedrock upon which all other non-linear, multi-scrolling 2D platformer video games were built. When you play other Metroidvania titles like Guacamelee! (DrinkBox Studios, 2013) or Axiom Verge (Thomas Happ Games, 2016), you’ll notice the obvious nods to Super Metroid. Super Metroid […]

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]]> As one-half of the aforementioned moniker, the Metroid and Castlevania franchises served as the bedrock upon which all other non-linear, multi-scrolling 2D platformer video games were built. When you play other Metroidvania titles like Guacamelee! (DrinkBox Studios, 2013) or Axiom Verge (Thomas Happ Games, 2016), you’ll notice the obvious nods to Super Metroid.

Super Metroid finds our hero bounty hunter, Samus Aran, once again on the hunt to recover a potentially threatening biological sample that was safely quarantined until just recently when space pirates abducted it from a space…

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]]> 102144 Street Fighter II – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/street-fighter-ii-by-brian-lesyk/ Sun, 17 May 2026 12:10:46 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=102129 A proper sequel to their first 1v1 arcade fighting game. Video game designer Yoshiki Okamoto once revealed, “The basic idea at Capcom was to revive Street Fighter (Capcom, 1987), a good game concept, to make it a better-playing arcade game.” And, WOW, did they ever strike gold! Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Capcom, 1991) […]

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]]> A proper sequel to their first 1v1 arcade fighting game. Video game designer Yoshiki Okamoto once revealed, “The basic idea at Capcom was to revive Street Fighter (Capcom, 1987), a good game concept, to make it a better-playing arcade game.” And, WOW, did they ever strike gold! Street Fighter II:

The World Warrior (Capcom, 1991) exploded onto the arcade scene with a nearly unmatched ferocity. Capcom took the formula from the first game and dialed the volume up to eleven! Everything was metic…..

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]]> 102129 Tetris – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/tetris-by-brian-lesyk/ Mon, 11 May 2026 11:36:05 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=101915 This could have safely guessed that Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov, 1988) would appear in our list of The 50 Most Influential Video Games Ever. There’s a simple reason for this… Tetris is the single greatest video game ever created… No caveats. No clarifications. No exceptions. No qualifiers. Tetris is objectively the  finest video game ever made…. […]

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]]> This could have safely guessed that Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov, 1988) would appear in our list of The 50 Most Influential Video Games Ever. There’s a simple reason for this… Tetris is the single greatest video game ever created… No caveats. No clarifications. No exceptions. No qualifiers. Tetris is objectively the  finest video game ever made….

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]]> 101915 The Angry Video Game Nerd – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/the-angry-video-game-nerd-by-brian-lesyk/ Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:08:10 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=96146 In the interest of complete transparency, it must be expressly understood that my adoration for The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) knows no bounds. THE @!#?@! MAKING OF THE ANGRY VIDEO GAME NERD 8-BIT How i learned to @!#?@! love the nerd Created by YouTuber and video game aficionado James Rolfe, the AVGN name is […]

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]]> In the interest of complete transparency, it must be expressly understood that my adoration for The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) knows no bounds. THE @!#?@! MAKING OF THE ANGRY VIDEO GAME NERD 8-BIT How i learned to @!#?@! love the nerd Created by YouTuber and video game aficionado James Rolfe, the AVGN name is most commonly associated with a long-running series of videos wherein the titular character (“the Nerd”) lambastes subpar retro video games in expletive filled diatribes and aneurysm-inducing rants. Fueled by his palpable disdain for games that “suck ass” and a steady river of Rolling Rock beer, the Nerd pulls no punches in his ongoing quest to eviscerate the games of yesteryear that stole money from our pockets and gifted us nothing but agony in return…

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]]> 96146 Commodore – Retcoming a brand – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/commodore-retcoming-a-brand-by-brian-lesyk/ Fri, 19 Sep 2025 20:16:06 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=96091 Right now, you’re wondering what retcoming is. Being as the term was first coined only moments ago by yours truly, I’ll be happy to explain. It’s a made up word, of course, because as Thor so deftly proclaimed in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, Peri Fractic (Christian Simpson) by Brian Lesyk Yes, good readers, Commodore\ is […]

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]]> Right now, you’re wondering what retcoming is. Being as the term was first coined only moments ago by yours truly, I’ll be happy to explain. It’s a made up word, of course, because as Thor so deftly proclaimed in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, Peri Fractic (Christian Simpson) by Brian Lesyk

Yes, good readers, Commodore\ is coming back! In a buyout effort spearheaded by YouTube sensation and new Commodore CEO, Peri Fractic (Christian Simpson), the legacy brand has found its way into a fresh set of hands along with an ambitious vision for the future. “All words are made up.” Retcoming is the present tense verb form of retcom, which in turn is derived from the more familiar term, retcon. Short for “retroactive continuity”, retcon is a term used to describe the act of consciously altering an\ established story or historical account after said story to alter things for a preferred…

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]]> 96091 Putting the “You” in Utopia – by By Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/putting-the-you-in-utopia-by-by-brian-lesyk/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 11:01:35 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=93932 In the late ‘70s, Mattel Electronics’ Intellivision machine was carving out a respectable space among the dense pack of lesser-powered gaming consoles and the deluge of Pong clones that were rapidly flooding the marketplace. Distinguishing itself from the horde, the Intellivision represented a multitude of “firsts” for the industry: It was the first console to […]

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]]> In the late ‘70s, Mattel Electronics’ Intellivision machine was carving out a respectable space among the dense pack of lesser-powered gaming consoles and the deluge of Pong clones that were rapidly flooding the marketplace. Distinguishing itself from the horde, the Intellivision represented a multitude of “firsts” for the industry: It was the first console to feature a 16-bit processor. It was the first console to feature digitized voice audio. It was the first video game console to introduce an online service. Its controllers were the first to incorporate a multi-directional thumb pad interface. It was also the first gaming console to have a game pausing option. The list goes on!

The Intellivision is also credited for having two games in its library that represented the originators of their respective genres.

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]]> 93932 Hacking the PSP – by Brian Lesyk https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/hacking-the-psp-by-brian-lesyk/ https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/hacking-the-psp-by-brian-lesyk/#respond Tue, 28 Jan 2025 12:52:29 +0000 https://www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com/?p=89641 Psst! Hey, you! Yeah, you. Over here. I see you like PSPs. Wanna learn a secret? That thing can do so much more than you probably know, but, like, don’t tell Sony I told you this, okay? Let’s keep this between us, alright? This info ain’t exactly street legal, ya know. But first, a little […]

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]]> Psst! Hey, you! Yeah, you. Over here. I see you like PSPs. Wanna learn a secret? That thing can do so much more than you probably know, but, like, don’t tell Sony I told you this, okay? Let’s keep this between us, alright? This info ain’t exactly street legal, ya know. But first, a little backstory… How a Lunch Break Led to a Jailbreak I bought my first Sony PlayStation Portable handheld back when it originally debuted in 2005. While I enjoyed it quite a bit in the years that followed, I eventually stowed it away in the depths of my gaming collection. After all, games and memory cards were relatively expensive at the time, so my PSP game library remained somewhat small. Fast-forward a few years. I was walking the assembly line at a truck manufacturing….

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