We’ve reached another add-on with a fairly substantial library, and that means it gets a list of its own. The SEGA-CD, or MEGA-CD, wasn’t a smash success by any means, but it wasn’t the failure it’s sometimes painted as either. The libarary has a couple hundred games or so in it, and while its lows are very low, the highs are nothing to sneeze at. As usual, these are just my favorite games and may not reflect what I would put in a “Best Games” list. I’m also only including games...| Post Game Content
Right, I probably should have seen this coming. When Hamster does publisher-specific Arcade Archives sales, they usually come in two waves. Well, here’s the second wave of its Taito sale. You can still pick up the games from the first wave on sale, and I’ve already talked about those games in an earlier post. We’ve got ten more games to check out here, and while local prices may vary you should be seeing something in the neighborhood of a 30% discount once the sale kicks in. These games...| Post Game Content
In 1982, MicroProse advertised its first batch of games under the headline “Experience the MicroProse Challenge!!!” The three games, all written by Sid Meier for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers, included Hellcat Ace, Chopper Rescue, and Floyd of the Jungle. After nearly a year of detective work, a group of determined MicroProse employees successfully tracked […]| Retro365
Last week I wrote about G.I. Joe, one of three titles in Epyx’s “Computer Activity Toys” line. Barbie and Hot Wheels share the same origins and trajectory, and probably should have been part of that story… oh well. In the late 1970s, with the home computer industry still in its infancy, much of the software […]| Retro365
Welcome, dear reader. After more than a decade of writing this blog, it struck me that I’ve never stopped to tell a bit about myself. What follows is, in many ways, a tribute, not just to the games and computers I’ve spent a lifetime exploring, but to my parents, whose own journeys through technology shaped […]| Retro365
In the early 1980s, the home computer market was still finding its footing, the rules unwritten, the field wide open to anyone with curiosity, talent, and patience. With a machine like the Apple II…| Retro365
As a parent in the digital age, I’ve mastered the art of negotiating bedtime with a 9-year-old who’s convinced his avatar just needs one more diamond in Roblox. Picture this: It’s 8 PM, the house is quiet, and suddenly, the living room erupts into a symphony of frantic button-mashing, Shouts of “He stole my Brianrot” ... Read more The post Why I Traded My Son’s Roblox Empire for a Dusty Gameboy: A Parent’s Crusade Against Online Overload appeared first on Special Education and I...| Special Education and Inclusive Learning
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Classic arcade games are one of the best casual gaming experiences you can get. They are specifically designed to allow you to jump straight into the action, have some great fun and then finish the game without any of the bother of game saves or ongoing campaigns. Want another game, then just put in another coin and start again.| Bytes N Bits
In many ways we are living in a golden age for retro game rereleases. It used to be that only the biggest and most beloved of hits had any real guarantee of getting brought back. We are now in an era where even the likes of Nickelodeon’s G.U.T.S. for the Super NES is getting reissued. That makes it totally fine that the Jaleco IP’s current owner, City Connection, has given a relatively high-effort treatment to some Famicom games that Nintendo probably wouldn’t even take for free on Swit...| Post Game Content
Time for the Super NES edition of my Favorite Games series. Nintendo’s 16-bit console arrived later to the party than some, which gave it a fair few technological advantages. Curiously, it fell short of the competition in a few ways too. But it’s games that make the console, and Nintendo and its third-party partners didn’t rest on their laurels here by any means. As usual, I’m only including official releases from the console’s original commercial lifespan. Also, these are just my f...| Post Game Content
This is basically just a tradition at this point. It’s been a hot minute since the last Arcade Archives sale, and the time has finally come to blow some money on more old arcade games. The last sale was in May and centered around Namco titles, and this one follows that pattern with a focus on Taito games. It’s a 30% discount this time around, which is modest but meaningful. Ten titles, some of which have been on sale before. Adding another twist to the shopping decisions, many of these ha...| Post Game Content
In the late 1970s, wargaming was little more than an idea waiting to be realized on home computers. The hobby was popularized by companies like Avalon Hill and SPI, whose boxed sets of maps, counters, and thick rulebooks recreated conflicts ranging from ancient battlefields to hypothetical nuclear wars. For many, the appeal lay in the […]| Retro365
In the late 1970s, with the home computer industry still in its infancy, much of the software being written was aimed at hobbyists and technically minded players. In 1978, Jon Freeman and Jim Connelly founded Automated Simulations, one of the earliest independent computer game publishers. The debut, Starfleet Orion, was essentially a computerized board game, […]| Retro365
In 1981, Atari launched the Atari Program Exchange, APX, an unusual experiment that invited hobbyists to submit original programs for possible publication. It was part catalog, part competition. At…| Retro365
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Your mobile phone is probably the best handheld retro gaming device that you own. It contains a powerful processor and can easily be made to emulate pretty much any console using one of the free emulator apps. But to make it feel like a real games machine you’ll need a game pad.| Bytes N Bits
SEGA was the last to arrive to the handheld battle of the early 1990s, with the Game Gear launching the year after the Nintendo Game Boy and Atari Lynx made the scene. The Game Gear shared a lot with the SEGA Master System, and that extends even to its software library. Still, some of those games played better on one format than the other for various reasons, so don’t expect this list of favorites to map exactly to my Master System list. And hey, the console had plenty of exclusives of its ...| Post Game Content
Sometimes one’s memory plays tricks on them, and that’s what happened here for me. I remember the NEOGEO releasing after the Super Famicom/NES, not before. It actually came out several months before! That makes it the next console for me to list my favorite games for. A reminder that I will include multiple entries from a series, even if that means they might dominate a list. I’m mentioning that because it’s a very real possibility with this console. House rules on this list are the u...| Post Game Content
In the early 1990s, the games industry found itself on the edge of a revolution. For more than a decade, developers had battled against the limited capacities of floppy disks. Graphics, audio, and every line of code had to be squeezed, trimmed, and compressed until barely fitting into a handful of megabytes. With the arrival […]| Retro365
Born in 1946, Jeffrey Stanton was a child of the post–World War II generation, growing up in an era when science and technology were shaping both industry and imagination. From an early age, he was drawn to how things worked, an interest that pointed him toward engineering. After graduating from James Madison High School in […]| Retro365
In the spring of 1980, Ken and Roberta Williams were unknowingly about to change gaming. Working out of their small home in Simi Valley, California, their first game, Mystery House, had just been c…| Retro365
The Atari Lynx did not have a massive library, particularly if we only look at what was made available during its original commercial lifespan. With that said, unofficial releases started almost immediately after Atari dropped the handheld. The Atari Lynx was far from a success back in the day, but it has become a cult favorite of many handheld gaming fans. This was an easier console to pick my favorite games for in some ways, but a challenging one in others. Like usual, these are my favorite...| Post Game Content
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The Commodore Amiga was one of the last independently designed home computers before the market was swamped by the IBM PC and its compatibles. First launched in 1985 it was initially marketed as a business machine. But its revolutionary graphics and sound capabilities, teamed with its complete lack of success in the business computing arena, soon saw it morphing into a top end gaming system with success in the video and sound industries as well.| Bytes N Bits
The next gaming platform on my timeline for these rankings is Nintendo’s Game Boy. It launched in 1989 and had an incredibly long retail life, which translates out to a very large library. I’ve picked my favorites from that selection, and it was not easy. A couple of rules, as usual. Only games released during the original commercial life of the platform count, but all regions are fair game. No modern homebrews, though. I’ve made one tough executive decision, too. Only original Game Boy...| Post Game Content
This is a bit of an update on the PlayStation 4 modding state.| Bytes N Bits
It took me a little while to decide what to do about the PC Engine. It felt wrong to not include the CD games at all, since they’re a huge part of the console’s identity. But if I included the PC Engine CD games with the Hucard games, then surely the only fair thing to do would be to include the SEGA-CD and 32X games in the Mega Drive ranking. That didn’t feel right either. So in the end, I split everything up. That means this list is just my favorite TurboGrafx/PC Engine CD games. I al...| Post Game Content
Time for a big one, at least as far as classic consoles go. The Mega Drive/Genesis was a very successful machine globally, and that means its library ended up having a lot of interesting angles to it. As a result, I think people’s lists of favorite games on the console will vary wildly. I am here to share mine. Similar rules apply here as for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. No SEGA-CD or 32X; they’ll have their own time to shine. All regions are acceptable, but they have to be games that rel...| Post Game Content
Once again, I have to apologize if I’m skipping a platform you love. I did a Commodore 64 list because I owned one back in the day, but I don’t feel like I’ve experienced enough of computers like the Amiga, Spectrum, Apple II, PC-8801, Atari 8-Bit, and so on to make similar lists. Perhaps one day? For now, I’ll be trucking along with more familiar turf for me. Following the timeline along, the next console is NEC’s PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. This is going to be a fun one. As ever, I h...| Post Game Content
I perhaps don’t talk about it as much as I should, but the first thing I had in my home that was capable of playing video games was a Commodore 64 computer. We got one when the price had hit near rock-bottom, and while I really wanted an NES or even a Master System, I was appreciative for what I had. It’s with the C64 that I discovered my love of RPGs, and also learned the valuable lesson that the same game could be very different on different platforms. This list more than most will be e...| Post Game Content
Slackerz Inc. and Retro Arcade Remakes have launched Food Fight Frenzy, an official sequel to Atari's 1983 food throwing game.| Arcade Heroes
Okay, let me say this one up-front: I apologize to all the Colecovision fans out there, but I won’t be doing a list like this for that console. I just don’t have enough experience with it. The next list will be the Commodore 64. Anyway, the Intellivision. It’s a rather neat console, one that had a rollercoaster life. As a would-be rival to the Atari 2600, it brought the requisite sports and arcade ports to the fight. But it also tried to do a little more, incorporating ideas from more c...| Post Game Content
I know, I don’t really do news here all that much these days. Still, I like to mention these Arcade Archives sales just because they’re somewhat rare and easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. For the last few years, Hamster has dedicated the month of May to Namco. That usually translates to some highly-requested releases and a sale on some games, and 2025 is following suit. Many of these have been on sale before, but it’s still worth having a look. As usual, you get 30% off the...| Post Game Content
Over the past few months, I have been going through my basement clearing out old boxes of things kept from my childhood home. I recently came across an envelope that just said "Nintendo" on it. Being an avid retro gamer, my curiosity got the best of me. When I opened the envelope, I found several ...| The Z-Issue
Learn what a GDEMU is and how to install one in your Sega Dreamcast. A helpful guide for owners with consoles that won't read game discs.| Humble Bazooka
I’ve been holding onto a Raspberry Pi mini computer for a few years and never really knew what to do| Game Dummy
