#retro-gaming

The Analog Antiquarian's latest entry covers Opus 4: Henry VI, Part 3, continuing its exploration of historical and literary works.

The M64 Controller is a modern, wireless reimagining of the Nintendo 64 controller, designed to address the original's ergonomic flaws while retaining its unique button layout and analog stick. It features Hall effect joysticks, gyro controls, and broader compatibility, making it a premium option for N64 enthusiasts.

Electronic Plastic is an online museum dedicated to preserving and showcasing handheld and tabletop electronic games from the 1980s and 1990s, featuring extensive photo galleries and detailed information about classic LCD, VFD, and early LED games.

A project builds a handheld gaming device using an ESP32 microcontroller and an E Ink display, mimicking the classic Game Boy form factor. The low-power screen allows for longer battery life and a unique visual aesthetic, though it introduces latency challenges for real-time gaming.

A deep look at the 1986 game Silpheed, detailing its use of a mainframe ray-tracing system to generate pre-rendered 3D sprites and the engineering challenges of porting it from the PC-88 to the Sega CD.

In a video celebrating the 30th anniversary of Quake, co-creator John Romero plays through the game, reflecting on its development, level design, and legacy in first-person shooters.

Scott Miller and Joe Siegler recount the early history of Apogee Software and 3D Realms, from its founding in 1987 through the shareware revolution, the creation of classic titles like Commander Keen and Duke Nukem, and the development of the Build engine. The article details the company's evolution, key hires, and the transition from 2D to 3D gaming.

A developer demonstrates a GameBoy emulator running on an ESP32 microcontroller with an eInk display, showcasing retro gaming on low-power hardware.

The article describes the custom lossless compression scheme used in the game Full Quiet, which combines run-length encoding with a LZ77-style sliding dictionary. It explains the format of compressed chunks and provides details on the decompression algorithm implemented on a Game Boy Advance.

Dynamo Draughts is an open-source 10x10 draughts (checkers) game designed for DOS, available as a free download on itch.io. The game is released under the GNU General Public License, allowing users to access and modify its source code.

Wall-run is a video game available for Commodore 64, VIC-20, Commodore 16, ZX Spectrum, and PC platforms, released on the itch.io platform.

The video analyzes the behavior of CPU opponents in Super Mario Kart for the SNES, explaining that the rubber-band AI, combined with the CPUs' unrestricted access to maximum speed and perfect item usage, is what makes them appear unfairly fast to players.

The new owner of the 3DO brand is carefully navigating legal and technical complexities in an effort to re-enter the hardware market. The company aims to revive the once-pioneering game console name with a potential return to producing gaming hardware, though significant hurdles remain.

A developer demonstrates running a GameBoy emulator on an E-Ink display, showcasing how classic games render on the low-refresh-rate screen.

A developer has successfully ported Linux to run on a Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), using a custom cartridge with a 32-bit ARM microcontroller that emulates the original 68000 CPU and provides extra RAM. The hack allows the classic 16-bit console to boot a minimal Linux kernel, though performance is limited and the project prioritizes fun over practical use.

The article explores the numerous Star Wars Easter eggs hidden in the 1993 video game Alone in the Dark 2, including character names, dialogue references, and visual nods to the original trilogy embedded throughout the survival horror title.

The video tells the story of the Atari Lynx, a pioneering 16-bit handheld gaming console released in 1989. It details the system's advanced color display, technical innovations, and the business struggles that led to its commercial failure against rivals like Nintendo's Game Boy.

The creator documents the process of building a physical Space Cadet Pinball machine, inspired by the classic Windows game, showing the design, construction, and assembly of the playfield and cabinet.

The article discusses Opus 3: Henry VI, Part 2, continuing the exploration of early digital adaptations of Shakespeare's works on The Analog Antiquarian.

The article covers the Atari Video Music, a 1977 console by Atari that converted audio signals into colorful, animated television visuals. Designed to work with stereo systems, it generated psychedelic light shows synced to music, predating modern music visualizers. The device is now a rare collector's item among retro tech enthusiasts.

The classic physics-based motorcycle game Elasto Mania has been ported to run in web browsers via WebAssembly, allowing players to play the original game online without any downloads or plugins.

The article draws a comparison between Lionel Messi's seemingly effortless football style and the gameplay of Super Mario 64, arguing that both share a quality of natural, fluid genius that masks immense skill and practice. It explores how the game's design allows for intuitive acrobatics and creativity, much like Messi's dribbling, making complex actions appear simple and graceful.

John Carmack reflects on mistakes made around the release of Quake, including a failed studio expansion, an inefficient game engine licensing model, and internal conflicts that contributed to the decline of id Software.

Command & Conquer (1995) has been ported to the Atari ST, bringing the classic real-time strategy game to the vintage computer platform.

The Advanced Nintendo Entertainment System (ANES) is a modified NES that uses two Picture Processing Units (PPUs) to achieve enhanced graphical capabilities, such as 60 FPS gameplay and support for up to 128 sprites per line, while maintaining compatibility with original NES hardware and cartridges.

A Rust-based Game Boy emulator has been developed that runs directly in the terminal, allowing users to play classic Game Boy games without a graphical window. The project is open-source and available on GitHub.

Quake, the influential first-person shooter developed by id Software, celebrates its 30th anniversary today. Originally released on June 22, 1996, the game is renowned for its 3D graphics engine, atmospheric design, and pioneering online multiplayer, cementing its legacy as a landmark title in gaming history.

The article discusses the history and mechanics of the arcade game Target Panic, a Konami lightgun shooter known for its rapid-fire gameplay and unique scoring system. It explores the game's cabinet design, its place in arcade history, and the challenges players face with "target panic" under time pressure.

A Hacker News user is searching for a May blog post about reverse-engineering and emulating several obscure children's game consoles from the same company. The post detailed cheap hardware (stripped ARM, a 6502 variant), a VM inside the CPU, and a unique buffer feature for swapping drawing elements between cartridges.

The article presents a comprehensive ranking and review of every Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game released in North America, evaluating titles based on gameplay, graphics, sound, and overall impact.