GravyThief

My first memory of Lylat Wars was having the big box with the rumble pak in our house but not being able to play it. My parents had purchased it for Xmas for us. My brother and I kept asking to look at it. Through the process of iteration, we went from looking at the box, to opening it to look at the cart and rumble pak, to reading the manual (to prepare for Xmas day, naturally), to ‘testing’ it worked. All prior to Xmas day. My Dad was fully behind this process, my Mum, not so much 🤣

I’ve only just got into Retro Gamer recently, after buying issue 284 in the airport for our holiday in April. I’ve actively avoided it as I really didn’t want to go down the rabbit hole, but alas the rabbit hole has finally caught up with me! I’ve since ordered some back issues that are still available in print form on the website, and duly got myself a subscription.

One of the great things about the subscription is that you get unlimited access to issues digitally via the Pocket Mags app, including back issues. So I’ve been reading lots of old issues which has been great. Looking at the app now, I see it only goes back to issue 168, so unfortunately nowhere near far back enough to be able to read this issue as I’d be very interested to do so.

I’ve bought the odd new games for SNES and N64 - Retro-Bit’s Jaleco’s brawlers pack and PIKO’s 40 Winks. Everything felt cheap, from the carts themselves to the boxes and manuals, and the games themselves didn’t even run great either (40 Winks had bad audio levels). I sold them and decided I’d never again get these new releases, they’re just not worth it.

(I tell a slight lie. I did recently buy the new DOOM release for SNES from LRG. While this suffers from the issues mentioned above, although not as bad, I loved SNES DOOM back in the day and just had to have this new expanded release.)

I need to get one of these. I only bought the standard Everdrive GBA last year (after upgrading from the old X5 model which used an over-sized cart), but these additions are really worthwhile in my opinion.

I think I’ll get a Commodore phone. I’m happy to pay $500 for the nostalgia of using a Commodore phone again. I loved using my Commodore phone in the 80s and early 90s. Me and my mates had great times calling each other on our Commodore phones, as well as all the great games we played on our Commodore phones.

I’ve managed to watch Rubber Keyed Wonder via Amazon Prime (I really enjoyed it), but I’ve not been able to find anywhere I can watch Bedroom to Billions (and the PlayStation follow-up). I hope this becomes widely available on streaming platforms somewhere at some point. If not, I guess I won’t be watching this one either!

Depending on the game, I’d prefer this type of translation to nothing at all, if it’s a game I really want to play but can’t due to the language. As long as it’s transparent and clear then what’s the problem? If the translations really are that bad, then the ‘market’ will decide and not play them.

Thank you for clarifying that Al Nilsen was on the right in that photo with Michael Jackson. I wouldn’t have known otherwise. Much appreciated.

I’m confused as to why Commodore would release a phone, any phone, even a retro one. What does it have to do with Commodore? When I think of Commodore, I think C64 and Amiga, the 80s and 90s. What does early 2000s have to do with Commodore? Finally, the marketing photos are way off. Their models should be over-weight, greying and balding men in their 40s and 50s, because that’s their target audience surely?

Ohhh, you’re so edgey Timothy

I recently bought their ‘The Spectrum’ and C64 (full sized) consoles and I’m really impressed with them. They look and feel really authentic with their working keyboards and original sizes. I’ve also been able to play any game I’ve tried via USB.

While I don’t really have any Nostalgia for the Amiga, other than a friend of mine having one growing up and me being fascinated by it, I think I’ll have to get this if it’s up to the same standard as their other consoles. It’s nice trying games I’ve never played before for a change, rather than the same old Nintendo and Sega games.

Glad they chose the Master System rather than the NES for a change. Most MS games look so much better, so this should look much better and colourful as a result.

I agree with him. I’m one of these older gamers, and the Evercade devices and games really do appeal to me. However, I just have so much other retro gaming hardware and games that I don’t want/need another device and set of games. If I was just coming into the scene, I’d probably go for Evercade, but I went down the rabbit hole long ago with original hardware and CRTs so I’m a lost cause now!

@Damo no worries. I highly recommend it. I put off buying it for quite a while because of how expensive it was, and I was unsure about its format (it’s effectively a set of discussions with various key figures from that period). But I’m glad I bit the bullet and bought it. It was excellent and because it’s two books in a slipcase it took me ages to get through it. Well worth the money. John Blanche isn’t directly interviewed, but he comes up in it numerous times, such as him interviewing Mike McVey when Mike first started working at GW.

His art was such a big factor of my childhood. The 2nd edition 40k’s box art, many of his illustrations in White Dwarf, Warhammer Armies and Codex books, and also the Fighting Fantasy Sorcery Series of books, where he did both the cover art and internal illustrations. There are also lots of good anecdotes about his time at Games Workshop in the 80s in the ‘Talking Miniatures’ book, which I highly recommend to anyone who was into GW during the 80s and 90s, even if not into it now.

I mean, he directed Klonoa Door to Phantomile, one of the best games ever made, so it’s not too surprising he could come up with the Game Boy design two years before the Game Boy design was known.

Given he’s so self-centred I’m guessing he wanted to call the game Giant Cock to get a reference to himself in the title

I’m only just now getting into ZX Spectrum games. I grew up with the C64 and Master System, I don’t recall ever knowing anyone with, or playing on, a Spectrum. I bought ‘The Spectrum’ mini console from Retro Games Ltd and I think it’s great. I love how it looks and feels like the real deal, right down to the working rubber/silicone keyboard.

Head over Heels is on there too so I’ll definitely be playing it.

Those flyers were glorious!

I’ll have to give this a go. I’ve been underwhelmed by the 5X to be honest. I’m not doubting it’s a great upscaler compared to most other ones, it’s just I was expecting it to be much better than it is after all the glowing reviews from YouTubers. I was hoping I’d be happy enough with it to replace my CRT, but that isn’t the case.

I played my GameCube the other week on it using RGB 480i, to an HD 1080p TV, and I thought it looked pretty awful to be honest. Maybe I need to mess around with the settings, but I really can’t be bothered. I bought it because of its touted ‘plug and play’ ability. Maybe this firmware update will make me like it more.

I’m really only interested in transferring and backing up save data from the cartridges. Is there a cheaper alternative for doing that? I have the Joey Jr for the Game Boy, and that does loads for a cheap price. You can transfer the save data AND rom files to your PC from the carts for three systems, and it can also be used like a pen drive with your phone to view and save photos from the GB Camera. And it’s much cheaper than this. I basically want a Joey Jr equivalent for the SNES.

I was just about to purchase it. £12.99 for the physical seemed more than reasonable. But then it added £6 for postage (in the UK), nearly half the cost of the book. Surely it can be posted cheaper than that?

Excellent re… oh wait, that’s what I commented back in 2019 when I first read this article and have since completely forgotten 🤣

Well I for one am glad it happened exactly the way it did.

My favourite Castlevania soundtrack is probably the first N64 game. That violin on the opening title screen is amazing, and I love the ambient and atmospheric tunes that play throughout the game. I actually like the game as well (yes really)

I’m intrigued by the C64 one, as I had one growing up so would love an easy way to play many of the games again. I tried emulation on my laptop but it was too fiddly and I never game on laptops.

However, I don’t recognise any of those games, so I’d have to rely on loading my own ones via SD card. But will that be easy and seamless, or will it be fiddly with glitches and issues? I’d need to understand that a lot more before spending money on this.

@sdelfin thanks. I’ll definitely try that. I did read the manual last time (not that I remember any of it now) so I’ll try and find a guide or a video just to help me along. I used to love SIM City on the SNES, so I’m not averse to some light sim’ing in my games, I just need to know what I’m meant to be doing.

I really should try and get into this. I love the first level, the music, how it plays etc. It’s the sim part that comes next that puts me off. From the above comments it sounds like those parts are quite linear and simplistic, which is actually a good thing for me. I think I just need to spend a little time figuring out what you’re meant to do.

I would never even consider powering my consoles from the 80s, 90s and 00s with any type of USB adapter. It’s just never entered my consciousness. I always just buy the original power bricks.

I won’t be buying one, but it has nothing to do with who owns the company, I just have no interest in the Neo Geo. If I did, then I’d buy it. I cannot be ar5ed considering who owns what company in my purchasing decisions. If I did, I’d probably hardly buy anything and be less happy as a result.

Great read, thank you!

As expected, graphically it looks much nicer than any of the NES Mario games, and is much more colourful too. It’s a shame it didn’t receive all the good games that the NES got, it was a much better system hardware-wise.

I had an email a few months back to say that DOOM on SNES was delayed from Jan’26 to May’26. I was fine with this. Although I did receive an email earlier this week to say they’re preparing my order for shipping. So I guess they’re sending them out sooner than they anticipated. Which would normally be good, except I’m on holiday next week and they use EVRI on the UK side. So goodness knows what’s going to happen to it. They usually just leave parcels on my front doorstep, without waiting to see if anyone is actually in or not. I really hate EVRI, hopefully they go bust soon.

Given you need to have the cart in hand, a good old gamebit screwdriver is a much better and cheaper method in my opinion. Just open it up and check the board. And it works for any system, not just gameboy.

Thought that was Clarkson when I first scrolled down

There’s something out already where you can literally plug the GB camera directly into your phone via USB-C and it shows as a drive, where you can transfer the photos to your phone. It’s literally plug and play. I forget which device it is now. Is it the Benn Venn Joey Jr?

Really interesting, thanks!

@Damo how do you manage to keep the print on such old till receipts? I have receipts from a few months ago that I can barely read!

@Sketcz I have no idea who Frank Cifasda is, or how to pronounce his surname, but what did you guys here do to make him hate Time Extension so much? Did you make him cry?

Thanks for showing the picture of a screenshot showing the pop-up of an arbitrary achievement counter. I don’t need to read the rest of the article to realise this isn’t for me. Cheers.

What’s the issue? What are these unintentional amusing moments? Or do I have to watch a video to find out?

I have great memories of playing DM on the SNES. I found the first person view and ambient sounds so immersive, even if I did get lost and confused sometimes due to the single frame movement without it being obvious which direction you just moved in. Was the ST version the same or did that have smoother movement?

I also found it hilarious that you could kill your party by walking into a wall enough times 🤣

I never did get that far into the game. I didn’t really understand RPGs and levelling up at the time. I suspect I needed to do some grinding, but as I didn’t know anything about that I would have just ploughed ahead until I found the enemies too strong and gave up.

@Coalescence what / when is this concert exactly please? I’ve tried Googling it but I’m getting lots of different results, including it seems, reference to some in-game concert in the Chrono Cross game. I just want to get the right thing to check out, I love the Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross music so much.

Gosh who picks the track listing? They’re missing some bangers.

What about Green memories, Corridors of time, Scala’s theme, Desolate World, Singing Mountain, Tyrano’s Lair, Epoch Wings of time?

But hey, least we get Robo’s Theme.

Thankfully I purchased the Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra version of the soundtrack years ago. It’s just the full soundtrack in orchestral form, and it’s delightful.

Unless I’ve missed anything, I’m not sure there was much competition was there?

Wonder Boy III Dragon’s Trap did it long before Castlevania. So the genre should be called Wonderoid. Or Metroboy.

I’ve only ever really heard the DS version of the soundtrack, and I think it’s great. I’ll have to check out a comparison of the two versions.

There’s a simple solution to this. Once you’ve finished retro-brighting your vintage hardware, sell it on straight away while it looks its best, to maximise your profit. Easy.

The soundtrack Wise did for DKC Tropical Freeze is also excellent. Busted Bayou is probably my favourite from that game, shame it only play on one level.