Retro Recap All The Classic Gaming News From The Past Week (May 31st 2026)

Anbernic Rotate! Yuji Naka! Lenovo G02!

by Damien McFerran
39 mins ago

Retro Recap: All The Classic Gaming News From The Past Week (May 31st 2026) 1 — *Image: Nick Rowan / Time Extension*

Welcome to Retro Recap, a regular feature we run each and every weekend which rounds up all of the best retro gaming news and content of the past week in one place.

You Can Now Legally Rip Your Wii, GameCube And Xbox Discs Using A Blu-Ray Drive

A new tool has been released which allows you to legally rip optical media for a wide range of classic consoles using your PC's Blu-Ray drive.

OnmiDrive is a firmware modification for MediaTek MT1959-based optical disc drives manufactured by Hitachi-LG Data Storage, allowing the drive to read proprietary game discs for consoles such as the GameCube, Wii, and Xbox 360.

Lenovo Wants To Find Out Why Its G02 Emulation Handheld Comes Loaded With Nintendo, Sony And Sega Games

Lenovo is launching an investigation into how its G02 handheld is being sold with preloaded ROMs.

The G02 is a "white-label" device, which means Lenovo didn't actually make it – instead, it came from a different supplier and is being legally sold under the Lenovo brand.

However, Lenovo has pointed out that the G02 handhelds it and its authorised licensee ship do not include memory cards or preinstalled games. The company suspects that third-party resellers have bundled up the system with a memory card loaded with ROMs.

81-Year-Old Developer Colin Porch On The 'Head Over Heels' Sequel That Took 37 Years To Arrive

We've recently witnessed the arrival of the excellent Head Over Heels sequel Return to Blacktooth, a title which has taken its developer, Colin Porch, 37 years to complete.

Porch has been speaking to British television network ITV about how the project was revived, and credits his former boss at Ocean boss with encouraging him to return to the title after he had all but abandoned it following the rise of home consoles in the early '90s.

Gradius Advance Gets A Comprehensive Fan-Made Upgrade

The Gradius series certainly isn't short of must-play entries, but 2001's Gradius Advance isn't a title you'd automatically recommend to newcomers interested in exploring the franchise for the first time.

Developed by Mobile21, a studio founded in 1999 by Nintendo and Konami that only lasted until 2002, Gradius Advance (also known as Gradius Galaxies and Gradius Generation) is decent enough considering the humble nature of the host system, but it never quite reaches the heights the series is famous for.

Thankfully, allanrps has developed an upgrade patch which drastically improves the game, making it a far more appealing experience. New features include a dynamic rank display, high-visibility bullets, new weapons, enhanced bosses and a practice mode.

"The Most Miserable Person I Have Ever Worked With" - This Former Sega Exec Has A Dim View Of Yuji Naka

Former Sega of America Vice President of Entertainment Marketing Mike Fischer has given a new interview to Sega-16, and one of the topics that comes up often is Yuji Naka.

Fischer doesn't have a lot of particularly pleasant stuff to say about the former Sonic Team leader, pointing out that Naka was quick to claim credit for creating Sega's most famous character.

Review: Anbernic RG Rotate - The Most Charming Handheld I've Seen In Years

For the past several years, there has been shockingly little innovation in the gaming handheld space. Most products adopt the same candy bar design, with a few outliers chasing nostalgic designs like the Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo 3DS, or even PS Vita.

But the Anbernic RG Rotate ($87.99) is something else. Seeing the flipping screen open for the first time took me right back to the movie theatre in 1999, watching Neo snap open the Nokia 8110 phone to answer a call from Morpheus. As silly as it sounds, that scene is one of the foundational moments in my lifelong love of tech.