A more polished version of the original games, Pokemon Yellow is a less-glitchy and better-looking experience and one that features characters from the hit TV show, mainly Pikachu. Away from that, it’s virtually the same experience as its predecessors. 

The largest difference in Pokemon Yellow is the fact that Pikachu is your starter Pokemon and not Charmander, Bulbasaur or Squirtle. The fact that he follows you around Kanto and you can talk to him to see how he’s feeling adds another emotional to the game that wasn’t available in Red & Blue. However, the coolest part of Pokemon Yellow is that you’ll have the opportunity to pick up all of the original starter Pokemon along the way and build a powerful and diverse team of Pocket Monsters. Perfect for more of a loner-gamer, Pokemon Yellow allows you to get the team of your dreams, simply by playing, while Pokemon Red and Blue basically forced you to trade with friends to “catch em all.”

For that reason alone, Pokemon Yellow is the best version of the three recently-released Pokemon games and one that younger games will find a beefy, yet old-school version of their favorite series. At the same time, it’s a far different game than its far sexier two-screened children on the 3DS. Just like Pokemon Red & Blue, there’s no experience share, meaning there’s far more strategy than today’s version of the beloved RPG. Simply put, it takes a ton of time to get your team to Level 100 and battles are longer and far more stress-inducing, Even a wimpy Pokemon like Metapod can be a huge annoyance if battled incorrectly, especially early in the game.

However, by the end of this adventure, although not nearly as deep as today’s Pokemon games, the same feeling of success and accomplishment remains. You’ve traveled the world, originally by yourself, then joined by friends, who you’ve grown to love and nurture along the way and in the process, became something you’ve never dreamed possible. An experience like that doesn’t necessarily need widescreen support, 3D graphics or sexy gameplay. What it does have, in spades, is an emotional story and tried and true gaming mechanics that have been copied a hundred times over. That’s why the world and everything in it is still magical. In the end, even after all this time, Pokemon Yellow is the most refined version of quite possibly the best RPG series in gaming history.

Pros:

Fun: While Red and Blue were marvelous games, Yellow added just a few more refinements and a connection to the hit TV show that dedicated gamers at the time loved. Almost 20 years, later, it’s still a solid game that’s just a tad bit better than Red/Blue.

All About Pikachu: Unlike Red/Blue, having Pikachu walk around with you makes you form the type of relationship the future Pokemon games thrived on. While he’s not the strongest Pokemon, he’s a fan favorite for a reason. This is kind of where his legend started.

Still Challenging: Just like Red/Blue, if you’re not a master of strategy, you can and will be defeated. After all these years, balance is still key to defeating any team you face.

Cons:

Slow: The sheer amount of random encounters and lack of an experience share slow down the development of your team incredibly, making you wish a few updates could have been made to speed up gameplay.

Final Thoughts:

Of the first three Pokemon games, Yellow has the least amount of glitches and has the best visuals. More polished and refined, it’s probably the best option among the three for those that have never played them before.

The post Retro Review: Pokemon Yellow: All About Pikachu appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Powered by a myriad of classic games and aided by frenetic button-mashing and beat the clock gameplay, “NES Remix” is an old-school blast.

For decades, there’s been no real way to measure how good someone is in “Super Mario Bros.” or Excitebike.” Aside from the fun gameplay, the objective-based nature of “NES Remix” will put your skills to the test in a way those classic games never could. Often times, you’ll have to replay games to get a better score and enough stars to unlock the next challenge. For this reason alone, “NES Remix” is able to revitalize those classic games you grew up on and make them fun all over again.

From the second that you fire up the Wii U, “NES Remix,” drenches you in old-school nostalgia. From the sound effects to control, everything that you loved about your favorite Nintendo Entertainment games is fully-intact. While many of those classic levels remain the same, the objective-fueled gameplay, although rather simple at first, becomes much more difficult than you think.

Once you progress far enough to see your favorite games remixed, well, that’s when the game truly begins.

Don’t think seeing Link traverse through a level of “Donkey Kong” isn’t cool? Think again. Like Nintendo usually does, they manage to take a successful and simple formula and put enough of a twist on it to make the new experience just new enough to warrant our full attention.

The gameplay in “NES Remix” also sets the table for youngsters who never experienced them the first time around. By the time you’re fist deep into the game, they’ll have the same type of appreciation for these classics as gamers twice their age.

At the same time, getting to experience the remixed stages with those same tikes is also the type of fun that can’t be explained and is a redeeming quality that can’t be taken for granted. A big dose of something old, with a nice slab of something new, witty and equally as charming goes a long way here.

Again, while it’s never a revolution, it’s the type of experience you’ll remember and enjoy.

Pros:

Old is New Again Gameplay: The objective-based gameplay mechanics make your favorite childhood games fun again.

So Many Games to Choose From: From “The Legend Of Zelda” to “Balloon Fight,” there’s something here for everyone.

Remix Modes Rock: Imaginative, yet logical, the remixed levels are a great alternative to the standard game but also manage to add a level of wonder to what would have otherwise been a fun, yet simple rehash of classic games.

Bottom Line: With so many things to do and experience, “NES Remix” is a blast from the past that works wonderfully on the WIi U. Although it doesn’t challenge the system hardware in any way, it’s a title that accomplishes Nintendo’s main objective of getting families and friends to play together.

The post Retro Review: NES REMIX (Wii U) 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.

So why does the Chromatic still use AA batteries? It’s not a technological issue. The FPGA’s main successor for Game Boy Color cartridge play, the Analogue Pocket, uses a built-in rechargeable battery just like nearly any other modern portable electronic device. Rather, I suspect the issue is a philosophical one. The Chromatic hearkens back to a late 1990s aesthetic, back when we owned games, instead of purchasing a license to play them.

But we also owned the devices we used to play them on. A rechargeable battery, while nice, had hidden hazards. Locked away in a device behind casing the consumer isn’t supposed to access, such batteries can go bad and even explode. This is a trivial problem for older model Game Boys, with forgotten AA batteries that might leak at worst and are easily removed. Other devices, however, be they SPs or PSPs or Wii U controllers are safety hazards. I would recommend checking for bulging batteries in such devices if you haven’t looked at them lately, incidentally.

The Chromatic power core, by contrast, is a choice. The Chromatic itself is still perfectly usable without it, and indeed, gets such great battery life off of AAs that had batteries thirty years ago been this efficient, a rechargeable battery might not have seemed like such a necessity for our portable gaming devices. It certainly doesn’t help that in addition to a rechargeable battery, the SP had a backlight, an innovation that much more unambiguously improved the gaming experience without needing to consider long-term philosophical questions like whether we as consumers should have the right to modify our own batteries. Or perhaps, more relevantly, whether a cheaper product is worth having to take on that right which sounds in practice more like a responsibility.

I won’t pretend to be able to resolve that question for us today. But I do think it’s worth noting that even buying the power core separately, the Chromatic is still cheaper than the Analogue Pocket, and comes with an exceptional version of Tetris to boot. It’s also still in stock, and comes in a much funner variety of colors. Still can’t play Game Boy Advance games though, or play rom files, which I should note, is not sanctioned by Analogue itself. All of which is to say, these are philosophical differences, and which ones you think are more important, are just as motivates by your own gaming philosophy as it is the ambiguous technical trade-offs.

The post Power Cores and the Chromatic 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.

The Strong National Museum of Play holds Atari’s Coin-Op Division corporate records, a collection that documents the design, production, and marketing of nearly every Atari coin-operated game from Pong in 1972 through San Francisco Rush 2049 in 1999. Somewhere between those bins of quarters and a modern digital game storefront, the mechanics of paying to play stopped being background noise. They became part of the product itself.

That transition did not happen in one clean step. One documented milestone came in fiscal 1996, when Dave & Buster’s introduced its Power Card. Company filings said the rechargeable card replaced coin activation on most midway games, made games easier to start, and gave the operator more flexibility in pricing and promotions. For Dave & Buster’s, the important shift was not just from metal to plastic; play moved to a rechargeable stored balance.

That shift from physical coins to stored balances still shapes how games are paid for today. Modern game platforms often place an account, wallet or virtual currency between the player and the underlying payment method, and those balances usually belong to one ecosystem. Crypto introduced a different model: the payment asset can exist independently of the platform using it. A practical example is tether sports betting, where USDT is used to place bets online rather than being a currency created by the betting platform itself. That distinction matters for video games because it separates a platform balance from a portable payment asset. The next sections follow how games developed the first model through store wallets and virtual currencies before crypto introduced the second.

Digital Storefronts Put Payments Inside the Gaming Account

A major step toward that closed-balance model was the store account. On PlayStation Store, for example, adult accounts have an online wallet that can hold funds, be topped up with a registered payment method or PlayStation gift card, and then be used for digital purchases. The player no longer has to think in terms of inserting money for one play session. Payment becomes attached to an account that can buy a full game, add-on, subscription or other digital content.

Virtual Currency Added Another Layer

Games then put another balance between the player and the card. Fortnite’s V-Bucks are a clear example: players can buy them directly, redeem V-Bucks cards, receive them through Fortnite Crew, or earn some through passes, then spend them on cosmetics and other eligible content. That makes the payment experience feel native to the game. The real-money transaction may happen at the platform store, but the player sees an in-game balance and prices denominated in a game-specific unit.

Crypto Reached Game Stores, Then Hit a Volatility Problem

Cryptocurrency briefly pushed that logic further. Steam once accepted Bitcoin as a payment method, but Valve later stopped supporting it. The official explanation was practical rather than ideological: transaction fees had risen sharply and Bitcoin’s price could move enough during checkout that the amount owed changed before a transaction completed.

That episode exposed a mismatch between a game storefront and a volatile payment asset. Buying a low-cost game works best when both sides agree on what the price means from checkout to settlement. Bitcoin could move while the payment was in flight, and a network fee that looked trivial at one point could become a meaningful part of the purchase price.

Stablecoins Change the Crypto Equation

Stablecoins are designed to maintain a more stable value than assets such as Bitcoin. Tether describes USD₮ as a token pegged 1-to-1 with the U.S. dollar and backed by its reserves. That does not mean major game stores suddenly accept USDT, and it should not be presented as the next universal gaming payment method. What it changes is the comparison: a dollar-linked token behaves differently from an asset whose market price can swing materially between the start and end of checkout.

The Payment Layer Keeps Moving

What the coin slot and the crypto wallet share isn’t really speed, since a quarter dropping into a slot was already instant. It’s that the payment interface keeps being redesigned around whatever the player already has in hand and whatever the platform can reliably accept. Arcades moved from coins to stored-value cards; console and PC stores moved toward account wallets and gift cards; games added their own virtual currencies; crypto introduced a payment rail with a different set of tradeoffs; and stablecoins try to reduce the price-volatility problem on that rail. The object changed from a quarter to a card to an account balance to a token. The underlying job stayed the same: turn real-world value into something a player can spend with as little friction as possible.

The post From Arcade Coins to Stablecoins: How Video Game Payments Became Digital appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

INTERVIEW WITH Stephen Kick of Nightdive 

Q: What made now the right time to bring SiN back with SiN Reloaded, and how did the project first come together?

A: SiN has always felt like unfinished business for us. We originally re-released the game as SiN Gold back in 2014, and over the years our technology and experience have evolved to the point where we felt we could finally give it the treatment it deserved. It’s a game that has lived in the shadow of some of its contemporaries for far too long, and Reloaded is our opportunity to remind people just how ambitious SiN really was.

Q: How do you balance modernizing the graphics, controls, and overall presentation while preserving the feel of a late-1990s first-person shooter?

A: We want to remove the limitations of the era without removing its character. Higher resolutions, better controls, improved models and modern rendering can make the experience more accessible, but the movement, level design, combat and personality are what make SiN feel like SiN. Whenever we’re faced with a choice between changing something because it’s old and preserving something because it’s part of the game’s identity, we tend to err on the side of preservation.

Q: What were some of the biggest technical challenges involved in taking a game built around technology from the Quake II era and adapting it for modern hardware?

A: One misconception about this kind of work is that you simply drop an old game into KEX and everything starts working. Every title has its own assumptions, quirks and modifications to the original technology, and SiN pushed the Quake II engine particularly hard. A tremendous amount of work goes into understanding those systems, recreating their behavior accurately, and then getting them to operate reliably across modern PCs and consoles without losing the characteristics of the original game.

Q: The original SiN has developed a cult following since 1998. What elements of the original game were considered untouchable when developing Reloaded?

A: The personality of SiN was absolutely untouchable. The characters, humor, level design, interactivity, weapons and that slightly exaggerated late-’90s attitude are all fundamental to what makes the game memorable. We never wanted to sanitize those qualities or reinterpret SiN through a modern lens—we wanted to preserve what Ritual created and present it in the best possible way.

Q: For someone who has never played SiN, what do you think separates SiN Reloaded from both modern shooters and the growing number of other remastered 1990s FPS games?

A: SiN comes from this wonderful period where developers were discovering just how much more an FPS could be than running through corridors shooting enemies. There are interactive environments, alternate routes, objectives, consequences to your actions and an incredible amount of variety from one level to the next. It has this ambitious, experimental quality that can still surprise you today, even if you’ve played hundreds of shooters since.

Q: John Blade, Elexis Sinclaire, and JC are memorable characters from the original game. Did you make any changes to their presentation, dialogue, models, or characterization for SiN Reloaded?

A: One of the mandates I proposed to the team was bringing the in-game character models closer to their appearance in the cinematics. There was a dramatic difference between the two in the original game, largely because of the technical limitations of the time, so this felt like an area where we could make a meaningful improvement without changing the characters themselves. I think the new models make a huge difference to the overall presentation while still looking unmistakably like the characters people remember.

Q: How much attention has been given to the game’s AI, enemy behavior, weapon handling, and environmental interaction? Were these areas preserved closely or substantially improved?

A: Our starting point is always preservation, particularly with systems like enemy behavior and weapon handling where seemingly small changes can dramatically alter how a game feels. We’ve fixed issues and made improvements where appropriate, but we aren’t trying to redesign SiN’s combat to behave like a modern shooter. The environmental interaction in particular is one of the things that made SiN remarkable in 1998, so preserving all of those little details and making sure they work correctly was incredibly important to us.

Q: What is your favorite part of this game that you were involved with?

A: My favorite part was reaching out to the original developers and hearing their stories about making SiN—their inspirations, their ambitions, what went right, what went wrong, and everything in between. These people were trailblazers, and I don’t believe they’ve received enough credit for the artistry and influence they left behind. That’s become one of the most rewarding parts of what we do at Nightdive: not simply preserving the games, but shining a light on the people who created them during an extraordinary period of passion, experimentation and creativity in this industry.

The post appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Limited Run Games and Telltale Bring The Expanse: A Telltale Series To Physical Media On PlayStation®5 and Nintendo® Switch

Pre-orders for the critically acclaimed sci-fi narrative prequel are open now!

Limited Run Games, a premium publisher of physical video games, announced today that time-limited pre-orders for the sci-fi narrative adventure The Expanse: A Telltale Series are still open for PlayStation®5 and Nintendo® Switch, with the time-limited period ending on October 4th.

Beloved storytellers Telltale has upped the excitement and intrigue in this mysterious series of expeditions, set in the unforgiving brutality of space. Within these five episodes of atmospheric sci-fi, players will don the spacesuit of one of the beloved show’s key characters, Camina Drummer, voiced by returning show star Cara Gee. Hop aboard spaceship The Artemis and embark on a perilous adventure set before the events of the television series.

In this narrative-driven title the universe has yet to experience civilization being flipped on its side by The Ring, a massive, alien megastructure that acts as a stable wormhole portal to a vast network of star systems.

In the hostile, zero-g environment, players will need to make difficult, world-changing decisions that decide the fate of their crew and everyone around them, while at the same time embarking on scavenging missions and combating terrifying pirates who have their eyes on your precious loot.

There are no easy choices in a Telltale title, but every decision will have consequences…and players will have to guide Camina through a landscape shaped by the choices they make.

To commemorate the physical edition of The Expanse: A Telltale Series Limited Run Games has included the game case, with special cover art, the game disc or cartridge, and an eight-page booklet for an MSRP of of $39.99  / £40.00 / €44.95 / $56.99 CAD.

Pre orders for The Expanse: A Telltale Series are open right now and will finish on October 4, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET (3:59 AM UTC October 5, 2026) at https://limitedrungames.com/products/the-expanse-a-telltale-series-standard-edition-switch-ps5

-Brave space and buckle up, beltalowda because it’s gonna be a wild ride.

The post Limited Run Games and Telltale Bring The Expanse: A Telltale Series To Physical Media On PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 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.