Every session is saved to the player’s history with its statistics, screenshots and replays. Players can keep these on their own device or share them in a community feed, and can chase achievements, climb casual and ranked leaderboards, compete in tournaments, and open multiplayer rooms for up to 4 players in the Doom-engine games and up to 256 in the Quake series.

https://wadcmd.com/

The optional WADCMD+ membership, at $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, adds private multiplayer rooms, custom private events and tournaments, private cloud sync and cloud saves. WAD Commander started in 2019 as a browser-based launcher and file manager for WAD files, the data format behind some of the most-modded games of the 1990s.

Version 2.0 grows that idea into a platform for more than 300 games on over 30 dedicated engines, and thousands more through emulators, with a local-first design in which game files stay on the player’s device. WAD Commander is developed by Level 0x40 Labs, founded by Viktor Lázár, an independent developer based in Budapest.

Real engines, right in the browser

Wherever possible WAD Commander avoids generic emulation: games run on their own engines, source ports and faithful reimplementations, made for the web.

WAD Commander and its custom game engines are developed by Level 0x40 Labs, founded by Viktor Lázár, an independent developer in Budapest. The platform builds on many open-source projects, credited with their licenses in the app’s About dialog.

The post WAD Commander: a new retro gaming platform launching November 2 appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Fortunately, ingenious modern homebrew developers have taken up the mantle of the venerable retro console and have given us new versions of these classic ports, with some truly surprising results. Here are five homebrew upgrades to Atari 2600 arcade ports.

Pac Man Arcade Enhanced (Atari 2600)

Pac-Man Arcade Enhanced

Pac-Man Arcade Enhanced is an ambitious Atari 2600 reworking of Pac-Man that uses the much more capable Ms. Pac-Man conversion as its technical foundation rather than trying to repair Atari’s notorious 1982 Pac-Man. Building on earlier work by Rob Kudla and extensively enhanced by Nukey Shay, it provides a maze, character graphics, colors, sounds, ghost behavior, bonus items, and presentation that more closely resemble Namco’s arcade original. Later refinements even reproduce arcade-style intermissions. The result shows how much better Pac-Man could look and play on the 2600 with the stronger engine and larger ROM available to Ms. Pac-Man.

Space Rocks (Atari 2600)

Space Rocks

Space Rocks, developed by Darrell Spice Jr., is essentially a deluxe modern interpretation of Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe for the Atari 2600. Rather than modifying Atari’s original cartridge, Spice created a new game with rotating asteroids, vector-like graphics, Magna-Mines inspired by Asteroids Deluxe, multiple difficulty levels, configurable special abilities, and extensive one- and two-player options. It uses 32 KB and DPC+ enhanced cartridge technology, so it benefits from hardware far more sophisticated than cartridges available when Atari released Asteroids. Consequently, Space Rocks is less an example of what Atari could realistically have produced in 1981 and more a demonstration of how spectacular an Asteroids-style game can become when modern cartridge technology meets genuine Atari 2600 hardware.

Donkey Kong VCS (Atari 2600)

Donkey Kong VCS

Donkey Kong VCS, developed by Andreas Dietrich, attempts to create a much more complete Atari 2600 interpretation of Nintendo’s arcade Donkey Kong than Coleco’s heavily abbreviated 1982 cartridge. While the commercial 2600 game included only the barrel and rivet stages, Dietrich’s 32 KB, SARA RAM-assisted version recreates all four arcade stages, including the missing conveyor and elevator screens, plus cutscenes, animations, music, and numerous details omitted from the original conversion. The stages use vertical scrolling to accommodate their more elaborate designs within the 2600’s display limitations. Donkey Kong VCS is particularly interesting because it shows the console could represent substantially more of the arcade game than the famous two-screen Coleco release suggested.

INV+ (Atari 2600)

INV+

INV+, created by Erik Mooney and Piero Cavina, is a modern reinterpretation of Space Invaders that is remarkable for accomplishing its improvements within a 4 KB ROM. Among its most impressive achievements is displaying the arcade game’s full formation of 55 invaders arranged in five rows of eleven, something Atari’s official 2600 conversion did not reproduce in the same manner. INV+ also incorporates more arcade-like scoring, improved animation, additional gameplay modes, an Easter egg, PAL support, and simultaneous two-player play. Because it does this without a modern coprocessor or enormous ROM, INV+ offers a particularly revealing demonstration of how decades of accumulated Atari 2600 programming knowledge let homebrew developers extract capabilities from the hardware that weren’t fully exploited during its early commercial years.

Defender Arcade (Atari 2600)

Defender Arcade

Defender Arcade, created by Bob “PacManPlus” DeCrescenzo, takes an ingenious approach to improving Atari’s compromised 2600 conversion of Williams’ Defender: instead of rewriting the original cartridge, it uses Atari’s technically superior Stargate (Defender II) as its foundation and transforms it back into the original Defender. This eliminates or reduces some of the earlier game’s notorious compromises, including its crude graphics and the player’s ship disappearing whenever it fires, while improving enemies, animation, sound, and overall presentation. Although it still cannot perfectly reproduce the arcade machine’s complex controls, graphics, and enemy behavior, Defender Arcade demonstrates that techniques developed later in the 2600’s life could have produced a considerably more convincing version of Defender than Atari’s original release.

The post Atari 2600 Homebrew Upgrades appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Inspired by Contra, Metal Gear and Predator, Legionnaires combines run-and-gun action with environmental puzzles and two protagonists whose actions affect each other’s journey.

The project features exclusive box art by comic artist Romano Molenaar, known for his work with Marvel and DC, and is being developed for original NES hardware. The team also won the NESmaker Emissary Award at the 2026 Midwest Gaming Classic.

DEMO

KICKSTARTER

Two soldiers jump.

The mission quickly turns into something far darker.

The deeper you explore…

the more reality begins to fracture.

The island is alive.

Something is watching.

It has been waiting and it doesn’t want you to leave.

From Christmas Lights to Fractured Nightmares. We are a father-and-son team from Germany making games for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. When we released our first game, Christmas Crisis, my son was only 14. Now, at 16, he has grown as a developer and wanted to create something darker, more ambitious and more mature. Legionnaires is the result of that desire — our first step into a grittier, more personal direction. Together we combine:

• Military-inspired storytelling and atmosphere (inspired by films like Predator)
• Classic 80s run-and-gun action and military action  (Contra, Metal Gear)
• Modern puzzle design on real NES hardware

 FEATURES

• Authentic NES-style experience
• Brutal difficulty – no hand-holding
• Dark, oppressive atmosphere
• Puzzle mechanics integrated into gameplay

The post LEGIONNAIRES – A Brutal 8-Bit NES Game appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

As well Konami has slashed prices on several Castlevania games on the PlayStation and Steam stores. Those sales run through October 1 and October 7.

The next edition of the series Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, is set for a PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC release on October 15.

Will you download the OG Castlevania for free on your mobile device? Whatabout Belmont’s Curse? Are you getting that? Sound off in the comment section below!

The post Castlevania Free on Mobile Until October 24 appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Captain Barrel is available now! A must get for anyone looking to recapture the good ol’ days of the NEO GEO and classic arcade gaming!

CLICK HERE

Captain Barrel combines classic arcade platforming with an unique treasure hunting twist! Slash your way through enemies, trap them in barrels then kick them across the stage! Utilize precise movement in order to navigate the colorful levels that is packed with both hazards and secrets.

With hidden treasures to uncover, challenging stages to conquer, and a gameplay loop that’s easy to pick up but rewarding to master, Captain Barrel has something to offer both newcomers and longtime retro gaming fans.

Ready for some old school arcade action? Pick up your physical copy of Captain Barrel today!

FEATURES:

• Fast Paced Platformer
• 32 levels across four worlds
• 8 difficulty levels
• 2-player alternating competitive modes

TO ORDER

Captain Barrel is just one of the many games included in our recent wave of Dreamcast reprints and new physical releases. We’re proud to help preserve the legacy of the Dreamcast by continuing to produce physical games for the system more than 20 years after its original release.

The post INTRODUCING CAPTAIN BARREL, AN ACTION PACKED, NEO GEO INSPIRED PLATFORMER GAME FOR THE DREAMCAST! appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Earlier today Bitmap Books confirmed via their website that their new title The Arcade 1971–1999: The Stories Behind Classic Coin-Ops, Told by Their Creators by Paul Drury will be available for purchase on October 1st. A source close to the publication has also informed Old School Gamer Magazine that a pre-order window will open a couple of days before the official launch for those interested readers who want to be sure they’re at the front of the queue. As Paul Drury, and Bitmap Books, are both located in the United Kingdom, readers in other parts of the world will likely have to wait a moment in any case to receive their copy.

Now confirmed for a length of over 400 pages, The Arcade 1971–1999 profiles 120 classic coin-op titles. Among the many stories discussed, Drury identifies via interviews with original developers the answers to questions such as who actually created Donkey Kong, how Q*bert learned to swear, what really happened on the night when the very first Pong machine was placed in Andy Capp’s Tavern, and why Ms. Pac-Man was originally a man called Otto. Personal photos, design sketches, coding notes and all manner of ‘behind the scenes’ material are also included in the book which has been developed in a high-quality lithographic print.

Among the industry luminaries giving firsthand information are Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell and Eugene Jarvis of Defender and Robotron, who wrote the foreword and afterward respectively. The Arcade 1971–1999: The Stories Behind Classic Coin-Ops, Told by Their Creators is being sold on the Bitmap Books website for $48. Purchasers will also receive a free full PDF copy as they wait for their physical book to arrive in the mail.

The post The Arcade 1971-1999 by Paul Drury to release next week from Bitmap Books appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Space Paranoids from TRON

In 1982, Disney released a movie that would help to revolutionize the film industry. TRON was a sci-fi/adventure flick that imagined life inside the computers of the time. While the movie wasn’t the runaway box-office success Disney hoped for, it was a groundbreaking film in its own right. It was the first movie to make extensive use of computer-generated graphics, at a time when computer graphics required machines the size of basements and a single frame of animation took hours to render. The 96-minute movie contained around 20 minutes of actual animation, representing thousands of manhours of work.

One key plot point was a fictional arcade game, Space Paranoids. It was presented as a 3D maze game where the player controlled a tank trying to survive waves of enemy ships, known in the movie as Recognizers. Of course, little did programmer Kevin Flynn know that this was exactly what was happening in the digital world inside the computers and arcade games.

Early-80s video game technology couldn’t create the graphics seen in the movie in real time. The “gameplay” in the Flynn’s Arcade scene was pre-rendered, like the rest of the movie’s CGI, and projected onto a prop arcade cabinet screen. 27 years later, however, gaming technology had surpassed what the movie showed, and a real version of Space Paranoids was released to coincide with the long-awaited sequel, TRON: Legacy. Unfortunately, this version of the game, which lived on a promotional website, no longer exists.

Space Paranoids Title

Retro enthusiast and developer Landon Smith has released a new version of Space Paranoids, fully playable on the web and now on mobile devices. Interestingly, instead of recreating the game’s graphics as seen in the film, Landon chose to present it as it would have appeared in the early 80s.

Arcade games such as Star Wars, Battlezone, and Tempest are emblematic of early-80s 3D arcade games, using vector graphics and simple polygons to represent characters, vehicles, and environments. This version of Space Paranoids foregoes the film’s filled polygons and gives us a classic green vector display. And it looks awesome.

You control a tank as you move through a maze. Your goal is not to make it out of the maze, but to hunt down the Recognizers flying around the labyrinth and destroy them all before they destroy you. If you manage to locate and destroy the entire wave within the allotted time, you are transported to another maze to face off against another wave of Recognizers.

Space Paranoids Recognizer

You start out with three lives, with the possibility of gaining an extra life at 10,000 points. Fortunately, your tank does have a shield to help absorb some enemy fire. You will also come across energy pools around the maze that will replenish a small amount of shield energy. Survive as long as you can and go for the high score!

The game plays super smoothly, really evoking the feel of those early vector graphics games. The vectors will even ghost as the screen updates, which is a nice touch and helps to sell the idea that you are playing a classic arcade game from the 80s.

While the game uses keyboard input on a computer browser, it switches to touch controls in a mobile browser, making it highly playable on your favorite phone. What’s more, once the game has fully loaded in the mobile browser, you can play it without access to cellular or Wi-Fi data.

If you’re looking to relive the glory days of classic arcade games or step into the world of TRON, give Space Paranoids a try.

End of line.

Space Paranoids – https://landonjsmith.com/projects/spaceparanoids/

The post Greetings Programs: Space Paranoids appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Retro gaming has now been around for so long that at times it can get recursive. Nostalgia for nostalgia. So it is that in 2026, I recently picked up New Super Mario Land to play with a friend. Now, you might be thinking, wait, there’s a new Super Mario Land? And the answer to that question is, not exactly. Super Mario Land, as in, the original Game Boy title from 1989, doesn’t figure high as a Nintendo retrospective. At only twelve levels, the game is comically short. Aside from Mario himself, the game doesn’t use iconic characters from the franchise at all, instead using the strange aesthetic blend of ancient Egypt coupled with alien invaders. It only figures as a trivia question in that this game marked the first appearance of Princess Daisy, who doesn’t really do anything except not be Princess Peach.

But that’s only half the origin story behind New Super Mario Land, as the homebrew Super Nintendo game takes its cues from the New Super Mario Bros. series, a series which, in the Wii era, spotlighted classic Mario gameplay in the form of a chaotic four-player platformer, where surviving players can free their fallen comrades from slowly floating bubbles. You can, of course, play the New Super Mario Bros. games in a single player mode, and this is certainly the most coherent way to do so. But the couch co-op was the real innovative draw. As couch co-op itself has been sidelined in recent years, so too, has the New Super Mario Bros. series, last seen in a Switch port in 2019.

That very same year, an anonymous programmer created, as a sort of love letter to friends and the thirty-year anniversary of Super Mario Land at large, New Super Mario Land. To put it simply, New Super Mario Land slams the two concepts together. The simple, generally weird worldbuilding of Super Mario Land is upgraded to sixteen-bit graphics built from scratch. But more notably, right from the game’s opening screen, we are promised four player gameplay. And by some manner of wizardry, New Super Mario Land is able to pull off four player Mario on original hardware.

Whether in single player or multiplayer, New Super Mario Land is a fairly easy game. Extra lives are plentiful, and it’s only really with the final boss, Tatanga, that an enemy emerges who’s tough enough to really soak up all those lives the player has been gathering. In New Super Mario Land, Tatanga doesn’t just more closely resemble his official art, the alien also has a far more fiendish attack pattern, with enough spin on his projectiles and movement to keep him from becoming as predictable as he was in the original. Multiplayers can take advantage of the safe zone behind Tatanga, freeing their allies from their bubbles as they inevitably succumb to Tatanga’s firepower.

New Super Mario Land is a very rewarding game in this sense, as up until that point, allies mostly just get in the way. This was also the case in all the official New Super Mario Bros. games, is why the Mario franchise’s main foray into co-op play has largely fallen by the wayside. Extra players just aren’t that helpful, in terms of actually trying to beat the game. But then, you don’t play Mario on the couch with a friend because you’re trying to win. You’re doing it to have fun. And as long as you can take the misfortune of accidentally being killed by your teammate in stride, it’s a lot of fun watching New Super Mario Land’s wonky physics engine struggle with unexpected interactions.

Ironically, Super Mario Land is a better venue for this kind of gameplay than more mainline titles for precisely the reason the game has a low estimation in the official history of Nintendo. The game’s very short. It is, bizarrely enough, perfectly short for the kind of gameplay the New Super Mario Bros. series pioneered. Getting a friend to come back, session after session, to finish the seventy-odd levels of New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a bit of a challenge. But the twelve levels of New Super Mario Land is the perfect length to remain engaging all the way through to the end, with a final boss just difficult enough you’re relieved that he was the final challenge.

Indeed, the Gradius style levels of the original game, including the finale, were odd in the original context of a Mario game. But in this shorter format, they feel quite fresh. So it is that despite being a labor of love by a hobbyist, New Super Mario Land is remarkably accessible to casual players, identifiably Mario, with all the great ideas of the franchise, but with a focus on accessibility that makes New Super Mario Land feel like a real game, rather than just an expression of a brand.

The post Remembering New Super Mario Land appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Super Mario Bros SMS Title Screen

Last month, Mario Bros. added another tally mark to its growing list of modern ports to classic systems. Developer LackofTrack released a near-perfect conversion of the classic platformer to the Sega Master System. The Master System was the contemporary competitor to the NES in the 8-bit console space. No one would have imagined that Nintendo’s cash cow would ever appear on a direct competitor’s system, yet here we are, 41 years later.

The game was created as an entry in SMSPower’s 2026 coding contest, with the v1.0 release happening at the end of August. To be clear, this isn’t a reskinning of an existing platformer like Sonic the Hedgehog or Psycho Fox. SMB for the Master System is a true port of the original, using the same code disassembly used for the Commodore 64 version.

While having a superb port of the original game would have been amazing, LackofTrack went even further with this version. It also includes an enhanced version of the game. This version uses graphics based on the Super NES port for Super Mario All-Stars, taking advantage of the Master System’s expanded color palette.

Super Mario Bros SMS Enhanced Version

Along with the graphics, the soundtrack also evolved from the original. Using the Yamaha YM2413 synthesizer found in the Japanese Master System, and often added as a modification to consoles in other regions, the background music has been redone with arrangements of the music from the All-Stars version of the game.

It’s pretty amazing to not only be playing this classic game on the Master System, but also to be playing a game that, while being on hardware on par with Nintendo’s system, looks like a next-generation version. The enhanced version’s graphics are bright and colorful, with character sprites that are considerably more detailed than the NES originals. The additional background enhancements, including animated elements that didn’t exist in the original, really help flesh out the experience. And while the iconic sound effects are the same for both versions, the enhanced FM soundtrack really completes the package, making it feel like a true 16-bit experience.

From a gameplay standpoint, this is Super Mario Bros. in every sense of the title. All of the required elements are here: jumping on enemy heads, question mark blocks, pipes that can lead to other levels, and castles where you eventually find out your princess is in another castle. It is about as accurate as you can get, given that it was developed using a version of the original source code.

Super Mario Bros SMS Original Version

While it is a great port, it isn’t without its flaws, however minor they may be. Both the NES and SMS were often plagued with sprite flicker when too many characters appeared on the same horizontal plane of the screen at once. While both versions suffer from this malady, the Master System port can occasionally experience additional slowdown with too many characters on screen. The framerate drop is usually brief and generally doesn’t disrupt the game flow.

Quite often, sound on the Master System can seem more shrill than the NES, and this game is no exception. While the sound effects and original soundtrack are near-perfect recreations of the originals, you can tell the timbre is on the high side. It never got to the point of grating on my nerves, but I could tell. Turning on the FM soundtrack really helps to balance this out.

If you are a fan of Super Mario Bros., you owe it to yourself to check this out. Even if you don’t own a Master System, or were ever even a fan of the console, fire up an emulator and give it a go. The fact that this was sourced from homebrew developers is a testament to the dedication fans of these systems have, even decades after they were originally released.

Source: https://www.smspower.org/Homebrew/SuperMarioBrosSmsPort-SMS

The post Mario Comes to the Sega Master System appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

The four-pack of Atari-themed beer is available now.

September 5, 2026 – Atari and Vice Beer are celebrating a new licensing collaboration during PAX West in Seattle. Vancouver, Washington-based Vice Beer has released a four-pack of Atari-themed 16 oz. beers, including One-Button Joystick WC IPA, Gemstone Sour, Sunken Treasure and Original Bug Battle Hazy IPA. The four-packs can be purchased online via atari.com or at shop.tavour.com.

https://shop.tavour.com/

“I remember the thrill of walking into an arcade with a pocket full of quarters, and that is how I feel sharing these hand-crafted, Atari-themed beers with fans,” said Michael Perozzo, co-founder of Vice Beer. “There is something for everyone in this collection, and the artwork is satisfyingly retro.”

The four-beer collection includes:

• One-Button Joystick – 1x 16oz can – WCIPA – 6.9% ABV
  Featuring the absolutely iconic controller of the Atari 2600, Vice and Atari opted for a suitable craft classic for One-Button Joystick — a West Coast IPA. The crushable Westie starts with a Pilsner malt base for a crisp sip that’ll keep you quenched as you blast asteroid after asteroid. It is hopped with Columbus Cryo, Strata, Idaho 7, Citra, Mosaic Cryo, and Quantum Mosaic, culminating in a sip as mind blowing as being able to play Asteroids … in your house! Which in the ‘80s was pretty exciting!

  Expect bright mango and grapefruit to lead each dynamic swig with hints of tropical fruit and mixed berry flowing underneath. Nuances of orange peel and piney resin should bring a refreshing balance that’ll have you diving back in for another sip like you’re trying to set a high score!

https://shop.tavour.com/

• Original Bug Battle – 1x 16oz can – NEIPA – 6.4% ABV
  Look for luscious mandarin and peach to weave like a Centipede through notes of pineapple and strawberry on every pillowy swig. Zesty lime and white grape tones ought to crawl underneath with just enough peppery bitterness on the finish to balance all that nectar.

  To craft this IPA, the team brewed a soft base with Pilsner malt, flaked oat, and torrified wheat. Then they blasted it with Nelson, Motueka, Strata, Citra Cryo, Mosaic Cryo, and Quantum Galaxy for surges of straight nectar. It all makes for Haze so satisfying, you’ll be after every last drop like they’re segments of a centipede that need destroying!

• Gemstone Sour – 1x 16oz can – Fruited Sour – 5% ABV
  Like Bentley Bear working his way through colorful fortresses in search of gems in the arcade classic Crystal Castles, you’ll find yourself happily lost in a maze of jammy bramble fruit and succulent citrus with every swig of this Sour. Imagine an extra tangy take on a berry lemonade and you have a decent idea what’s in store!

  This gem is brewed with castle-sized quantities of actual raspberries and lemons. Paired with a tart Sour Ale base, it makes for an invigorating swig that’ll keep you going game after game!

• Sunken Treasure – 1x 16oz can – Imperial Stout – 8% ABV
  For this stunner, Vice teamed up with Nightdive Studios — a game studio and part of the Atari family with an emphasis on retro video game preservation and restoration. That’s fitting, since once you get a taste of this Stout, you’ll probably be looking to preserve every last bit all for yourself!

  Especially with all the sumptuous s’mores flavors brimming out of each quaff courtesy of toasted marshmallows, graham crackers, and cacao nibs. Your average campfire treat doesn’t come with delectable espresso tones and hints of caramel from a bold malty base. Oh, and an 8% ABV!

“Nightdive has always been about celebrating the games and experiences that made us fall in love with this medium, and there’s something special about seeing that passion extend beyond the screen,” said Stephen Kick, studio head at Nightdive. “Collaborating with Vice Beer and Atari on Sunken Treasure was a fun way to bring a little piece of that history into the real world. Games are meant to be shared, remembered and enjoyed — and in this case, so is the beer.”

https://shop.tavour.com/

The post Atari and Vice Beer Introduce New Beer Collection appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.