Featured Posts
Mike Ditka’s Big Play Football
Mike Ditka’s Big Play Football is yet another miserable football game created for the NES. The one thing that separates this game from the pack is that it was never released. Nintendo Power mentioned it in their "Coming Soon" section for almost an entire year while...
Theme VS. Design – by Howard Scott Warshaw
Hey there, I’d like to interrupt you for a moment, if I may. Did you know psychotherapy and game design have a lot in common? This is not to say that game developers are insane. Of course, I’m not not saying that either. What I am saying is this: since becoming The...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Ken Williams
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Ken Williams, A.K.A “Sushi-X”, who currently is displayed on card number 30, from the Superstars of 2011 Collection. Ken was on the staff of Electronic Gaming Monthly in the early 1990’s. In 2006 Ken, along with Terry...
The Long Road to Game Boy Color – by Michael Mertes
When people think of the console wars in the 1990s, they instantly picture an epic 16-bit fight with Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System against Sega's Genesis/Mega Drive console. Yet the war also expanded to the handheld realm of both respective companies....
The Unpopular Ones – by Michael Mertes
While the U.S. has seen a wealth of portable game consoles released across the continent, many never had the opportunity even to make it to store shelves. Allow us to introduce you to two such portables: The Gamate and WonderSwan GAMATE: THE MAIL ORDER PORTABLEThe...
Sega’s Game Gear by Todd Friedman
In the latter 1980s, Sega made a big push to compete with Nintendo in the home console market. The Sega Master System brought a whole new generation of gamers to decide whether they should be team Sega or team Nintendo. Then, in the early 1990s, there was the 16-bit...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Ghostbusters?
Release Date: 1985 Publisher: Activision Controller: Joystick Players: 1 Genre: Arcade Alternate Title: N/A Model #: AZ-108 Rarity: 4 Programmer: Dan Kitchen This sub-par game based on the popular movie is a slog to get through. You are the world famous Ghostbusters,...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Kyle Goewert
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Kyle Goewert, who is displayed on card number 26 from the Superstars of 2011 Collection. Kyle is also featured on cards 327A and 554. Kyle is one of only a few that have competed in the Kong Off, an annual Donkey Kong arcade...
Game Boy: The Early Arcade Ports
Despite being outgunned by the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear in terms of color palette, lighting, screen size, and sheer processing power, the original Game Boy trounced the competition in the category that mattered most to Nintendo: unit sales. The success was driven...
Arcade Classic Lode Runner Coming Soon to iiRcade
iiRcade Inc., the ultimate connected arcade machine that allows gamers of all ages to play their favorite retro and modern games in arcade style at home, is adding four officially licensed Lode Runner games from Tozai, Inc. to...
Hold That Tiger! Tiger Electronic LCD
Despite Tiger Handheld games being considered video games, they often did not sit in the electronics section where one would expect to find a Game Boy and its games. Instead, Tiger's LCD games would sit in the toy aisles at stores. Having Tiger games next to Teenage...
Welcome to the Video Game Capital of the World
I started making plans to have the Scoreboard grow into becoming the “crossroads” of gaming. It was perfectly fine that the scoreboard had existed so far as a free service to help all the arcades, but I thought of all the fun we would all have if the players came...
7 Most Popular Computer Games of All Time
Video games first rose to prominence in the 1970s. Teenagers throughout the world flocked to arcades to while away their evenings and weekends. In the 1980s, consoles became widely available and everybody was able to play video games at home, though they were...
Edutainment Games: The Good, The Bad, and The Yikes.
I grew up in the 90's and for video games the 90's were great. SEGA and Nintendo were going at it with Sony waiting in the wings while PC gaming started to show off how cool it could be with the internet. Things were looking to be great for gamers in the 90's,...
Turrican Flashback Review (PS4/Nintendo Switch)
Fans of run and gun action platformers like Contra that don't know what "Turrican" is are about to have their worlds blown apart thanks to the upcoming release of Turrican Flashback. Available on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on January 29th, 2021, Turrican...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Battlezone?
Release Date: 1983 Publisher: Atari Controller: Joystick Players: 1 Genre: Shoot’em Up - 3D Alternate Title: N/A Model #: CX2681 Rarity: 3 Programmer: Michael Feinstein This is one of the more technically impressive games in the 2600 catalog. The year is 1999 and the...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Jesse Porter
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Jesse Porter, who is displayed on card number 2644, from the Superstars of 2017. Jesse is a huge classic console fan. Jesse holds over 300 Twin Galaxies world records, which one of them, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi...
A Classic Tetris Community Report
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CLASSIC TETRIS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (CTWC) In 2010, three visionaries, Vince Clemente, Adam Cornelius, and Robin Mihara (NWC 1990 Finalist), crossed paths on their separate journeys to find the “Best NES Tetris Player on the Planet”. After holding...
Burning Force – A Hidden Gem
You know, it’s hard to remember a time when video games weren’t ubiquitous. Today, we experience video games everywhere, from Twitter to Twitch. Even if you could afford every video game magazine that was published in the 80’s and 90’s, what you really learned...
Pinball: From Arcade to Home TV
During the early 1930’s, Pinball was a staple in drugstores and taverns. It was a rather simple game of luck based on the French game Bagatelle, using spring launchers to score points. Electrification and active bumpers added more excitement, but the game didn’t...
End of Days – Sonic and the Sega Master System
What if you took Sonic the Hedgehog and toned down every gimmick that brought him to the public eye? No, I’m not talking about his love for chili dogs. I’m talking about tweaking his super-sonic speed that SEGA’s marketing department touted was only possible due to...
Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – George Spanos
Our next Trading Card Spotlight features George Spanos, who currently is displayed on card number 3333, from the Superstars of 2020 Collection. George is one of the great arcade mechanics in the Chicagoland area. He has serviced machines at all the top arcade...
The RETROSPECTIVE Mailbag
Long Overdue On account of a seemingly endless series of non-gaming related distractions (sometimes referred to as life), I've been regretfully slow at responding to some of the great reader questions that find me on social media. Let's take a look into the digital...
Atari 2600 Encyclopedia: Do you know Double Dragon?
Release Date: 1989 Publisher: Activision Controller: Joystick Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Arcade Alternate Title: N/A Model #: AK-050 Rarity: 5 Programmer: Dan Kitchen This port of the arcade classic came along very late in the 2600 lifespan and stands apart from every...
