Retro Recap All The Classic Gaming News From The Past Week (October 25th 2026)

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.

This New ROM Hack Lets You View N64 Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Hyrule from a Whole New Perspective

It's been three months since Reonu publicly announced ' OoT unJPEG', a project to recreate Ocarina of Time's 2D backgrounds in 3D, and they've just published what looks to be the first in a planned series of development updates, giving players an insight into what's been happening behind the scenes since the initial reveal.

Following 'Millions' of Computations, a Coder Is Convinced They've Deciphered the Mysterious Plaque in Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 is perhaps the most mysterious release in the history of Nintendo's prized franchise. Since its release back in 1996, the 3D platformer has been subject to a variety of rumours regarding its secrets, narrative themes, and, of course, the missing Super Mario Brother, Luigi.

But now, as reported by VGC, a fan believes one of the classic game's mysteries can be put to rest, as Mochi64 is confident that they have accurately deciphered the famously illegible text mounted on the Star statue in Princess Peach's Castle. This text has formed the basis of endless speculation, with the most consistent suggestion being that it offered some sort of code to unlock a playable Luigi.

How Many ZX Spectrum Heroes Can You Name in This Fun Cycle of 8-Bit Superstars?

For veteran video game fans, perhaps nothing sparks the nostalgia quite like seeing the iconic sprites from your favourite childhood games. These are characters that, despite being constructed from a mere pocketful of pixels, became permanently embedded in our minds and memories - simplistic designs that immediately conjure up wonderful and indelible images of the halcyon days of home computing.

A delightful animation, crafted by artist Scott Bateman, spotlights some of the heroes and villains that populated the 8-bit era, specifically as they appeared on Sir Clive Sinclair's rubber-keyed wonder: The ZX Spectrum. Created in Photoshop and Blender, "A Walk through the 8-Bit" features a parade of Spectrum superstars, gathered together to celebrate an era of monochrome majesty.

'Veins Of Iron' Is A New Wolfenstein 3D-Inspired FPS For SNES, With Some 'Offputting' AI Key Art

The Kickstarter for Veins of Iron is now live. The developer Mode VII is asking for €9,900 to bring the first-person shooter project to life, and has currently raised €7,502 (as of the time of writing) from 60 backers, with physical rewards (boxed NTSC and PAL editions) set at €99.

As its developer notes on social media, it will use a custom cartridge equipped with "a Raspberry Pi RP2350B with a dual-core ARM Cortex-M33 CPU running at 150 MHz, 8 MB flash and 1 MB SRAM," and is designed to work on real SNES hardware.

As we highlighted back when we first covered the project in May, right now, the game is unfortunately taking advantage of some ugly AI key art, which is currently all over the campaign. Speaking to us back in May, its main developer, Jan Olausson, assured us that this is simply a placeholder and will eventually be replaced with the work of a human artist once the Kickstarter funding has been received, while the developer elsewhere stated on the game's account that no AI was used for the in-game artwork (created in Aseprite) or the 65816 assembly code.

Long-Delayed Croc Collector's Editions Reportedly Shipping, After Argonaut Intervenes

Rock It Games' Croc Legend of the Gobbos Collector's Editions have finally started shipping to customers, with the game's developer, Argonaut Games, announcing on social media that it has now stepped in to resolve the delays customers have been dealing with.

80% of All PS3 Games Now 'Playable' on PC, Thanks to the Talented Team Behind RPCS3

The developers behind emulator RPCS3 have shared another amazing update on social media, revealing that "80% of ALL PS3 games" are now considered "playable" on PCs. That means a sizable portion of the PS3 library can now be played via emulation with "playable performance" and "no game-breaking glitches."

Namco's F1-Themed 3D Racer 'Ace Driver Victory Lap' Is Making Its Debut On Consoles, After Almost 30 Years

Namco's 1996 arcade sequel, Ace Driver Victory Lap, is coming to consoles for the first time as part of the Arcade Archives range.

Hamster, the creator of Arcade Archives, released the first game in the F1-themed series, 1994's Ace Driver, on modern platforms back in May of this year, but has now revealed it will also be bringing the second game in the series to consoles as well, later this week. Similar to its predecessor, the sequel was built for Namco's System 22 hardware, and was designed for eight-person multiplayer through linking together different machines.

Atari Is Officially Pulling Support for the Atari VCS

It's official! Atari is sunsetting the Atari VCS. Initially teased during E3 2017 under the name 'Ataribox', the Linux-based "computer in a box" was the company's first console in decades and featured a design that was essentially a streamlined version of the Atari 2600. It was officially revealed the following year, during the 2018 Game Developer's Conference, with the company turning to crowdfunding to make the console a reality, raising roughly $3 million from 8,471 backers.

AYN Odin 3 Portal Pre-Orders Are Live: New 1TB Model Added to the Range, Prices Start at $399

The AYN Odin 3 Portal pre-orders are now live over on the AYN website.

In addition to the models previously revealed, an additional MAX variant has been added.

• Base Model12+128GB - $399 USD / €355 (discounted from $419)
• Pro Model12+256GB - $479 USD / €426 (discounted from $499)
• Max Model16+512GB - $549 USD / €489 (discounted from $579)
• Max Model16+1TB - $669 USD / €597 (discounted from $699)

All models come with a year's warranty and are expected to begin shipping in November.

IPPON! Samurai Shodown Joins a Crop of SNK Movies in Production at The Arena

A film based on SNK's long-running franchise Samurai Spirits/Samurai Shodown is currently in pre-production. The project is being touted by new studio "The Arena", helmed by former Lionsgate and Sony Pictures executive Erik Feig.

As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the Samurai Shodown project is the latest in a slate of productions based on SNK's legacy of fighting games. Previously, The Arena announced pictures based on '90s franchises Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury - the latter already bagging writer David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight), and confidently planning spin-off Geese, telling the origin story of SNK's most notable villain, Geese Howard.

The Samurai Shodown movie will be penned by Laeta Kalogridis, showrunner for Netflix' Altered Carbon and co-writer of Terminator: Genisys for Paramount and Alita: Battle Angel for 20th Century Studios.