Ristar24

10 years... I loved watching The Young Ones as a kid, and Bottom as a teenager. I often went past the bench from the opening of Bottom in Hammersmith on my way to work, it was covered in tributes after he passed away.

We used to have import shops in London... I bought a lot of my Japanese Saturn games in Game Focus in Goodge St. Still have my Japanese GameCube copy of Sonic Gems I pre ordered there, the shop is long gone sadly. Ha, I only ever buy retro games to play them in the first instance, lots of them are in the loft now though. Be nice to visit Japan one day.

@NewBond For me the original was worth it for Midnight Resistance on the Data East cart, the actual Mage Drive version goes for around £100. Plus, the Oliver Twins collection as was interesting, to play the NES versions of Dizzy, plus the Namco collections. I still plug the original hand held into the TV now and again, but the battery seems to only charge half way these days. They also had some weird choices, a Bitmap Brothers collection without Amiga versions was pretty odd.

I've just lost interest in Evercade at this point, I liked it when it was a basic system with some unusual cartridge releases. I have a Saturn and can play PS1 on my PS3, and have NSO on my Switch, so I really doubt this will reignite my interest.

Ha I do remember these...

Nice, I like this one, also remember that the C64 version had a bug with an impossible jump over a fire pit. Master Sytem version was great though.

I've not had good experiences with their hardware, and some weird problems with the carts. I did get a VS last Christmas but it wouldn't update out of the box so I sent it back. PS1 Tomb Raider wouldn't really get back into this system when I can play better versions of the games on Switch. Still happy to have the original Data East collection though (mainly for Mega Drive Midnight Resistance) and the Oliver Twins collection cart is good. I think I have six or seven of the early released carts.

Sad times... I miss Zzap! 64. I never owned an Amiga (too expensive), but the C64 is probably my favourite ever home mirco, I still enjoy Platoon, Last Ninja, Batman the Movie, Stunt Car Racer, Bubble Bobble, International Karate, Dizzy... even the Ocean Loader is forever in my memory.

I have two 16-bit soundtracks on vinyl, Streets of Rage and Super Castlevania IV, I very much enjoy the SNES and the Mega Drive for their respective qualities. My other favouite sound chip is the SID in the C64, remarkable for its time, so many great tunes.

I never visited this store, but I do remember the basement in Rathbone, bought my region modded SEGA Saturn in there I think. There was also Game Focus on Goodge Street which was great for imports, was a real loss when that went too.

I was near Rathbone recently and went into the basement, it's all just DVDs and Wii games, the service counter downstairs is long gone, along with the massive retro collection in one place. It's a weird feeling to go back there now.

Well that's out of the blue, now I'm thinking of the catchy music on the C64, and the nice box art it had. I did like the games simplicity at the time (plus it was a single load off the cassette, which was always nice when many games had cumbersome multi-loads). Be great if they included the original as an extra.

I still have my boxed US copy I obtained on import. Played it a lot back then.

I've been enjoying playing this, it is a bit odd having to open a menu for the English translation but overall it works well enough, and I'm glad to get to play the game on Switch. Also bought Uforia the Saga 2.

I always find these lists a bit odd to be honest. I'm happy with the games I'd consider to be my favouites of all time and their validation in a collective list, or not, doesn't trouble me much.

...and I paid £10 or so for a big box version on the C64, that they knew was broken!

I still have issue one with it's cover disc. I think I recall it was going to be a quarterly magazine originally, but it became popular really quickly so became monthly. I still have the whole first run and the various cover discs, up to when they had to change publisher. I sadly no longer regularly buy the mag, but I do check in on whats covered and buy the odd issue here and there these days.

Thinking back to first finding and buying the magazine at the time, seems retro in itself these days.

I remember Retro Gamer magazine covered the Multisystem in it's really early days, which seems retro in itself now. Pretty interesting to see this game see the light of day.

How awful, something so unique and created with passion for retro gaming to go up in smoke. Hope they get the insurance and can maybe start again.

I remember all the Hollywood surnames I rescued in Burning Rangers on the Saturn, Mark Brando, Mira Ringwald.. of course, Castlevania on the NES has the classical Hollywood credits, Christopher Bee and so on.

Wow, takes me back, I went the the re-curated 2.0 exhibition at Barbican in 2010. I can't remember it so well now, but I recall was pretty good.

@no_donatello Over in the PAL regions, modding the Saturn for 60Hz output was also pretty essential as we were still often receiving non optimised, boardered and slower running games. Modding the console and importing was well worth it at the time. I own the offical 1MB and 4MB versions which came with specific Japanese releases. Of those I own, Xmen vs. Street fighter is the stand out, loading in almost non existent and it's an outstanding port. It's a shame it never saw a western release at all.

Xmen vs. Street Fighter with the cart was great, still own my Japanese copy and KoF 96.

I think the problem with C64 on Evercade is some of my favourite games I'd be nostalgic for such as Platoon, Power Drift and Batman the Movie, would never show up on compilations due to licensing. I've played Break Dance and had no desire to play it twice.

@-wc- I clicked though so quick I had to check I saw it! I have a tendency to keep pressing A,X, Fire or the return key while intro screens are flashing up. I wasn't going to buy this at launch, but as the performance looked good on Switch thought would be good to revist a game I've not completed since it's Saturn release.

I was trying to recall any obvious rascist stereotyping in the first game which was the only one I played properly, but couldn't think of much. May become evident when I get to the sequels at some point, but I'll view it in context of the times I guess.

It seems to only display the first time you play the game. It's not something I think that fits a sweeping approach very well, games and other pop culture can only really be reviewed on an individual basis, but then someone has to make the call on what's offensive and what's not. Suppose that's why it's a disclaimer with no specific detail, though the lack of context sits a little oddly with 'we just charged you £25 for this'. I guess it's for the player to discover and reflect upon as they play through the games, if they're not familiar with the originals.

Ultimately, I'd rather a disclaimer and present the game in it's historically accurate form.

Temporal disruption imminent...it's been a while. I enjoyed this show so much, one of my favourites to watch. My friend had the original game on the Amstrad and I think we never got out of the first room, to the second at most.

First of their Mini computers I wont be picking up, I just have no nostalgia for this as never saw one back in the day. Most my friends had the C64, a Spectrum or the Amstrad CPC 464. It's a shame their C64 emulator doesn't include Plus/4 as would be a nice addition and they will probably never get to that as a dedicated mini.

I think I only had one issue of Mean Machines... which had the MegaDrive port of Champion Edition previewed. My go to mags around that time coming off Zzap! 64 were SEGA Power and SEGA Force. I had limited money so had to choose, I only had SEGA home consoles, and a Game Boy for a while, I might have bought one issue of Mean Machines SEGA too. Good old days.

@Moroboshi876 Yes, the GBA cart got expensive quickly. I recall it was scheduled for an EU release but seemed to get cancelled at the last minute. I definitely recommend on Switch, its a really nicely emulated and presented version, even if stage 1 is missing the VW Beetle poster due to licensing!

@Moroboshi876 Have you tried Double Dragon Advance? It's an outstanding scrolling beat 'em up that is one of my favourites within the genre, was also recently released as a digital game on Switch and other platforms, so finally more widely available. It never had an EU release at the time so I had to import a US copy.

The first two arcade games are pretty dated now, though I remember the first one really impressed me when I saw the arcade back in the 80s. Then I made the mistake of buying the C64 version.

Combatribes is an interesting one, the recently released Double Dragon Gaiden almost reminded me more of that game.

Weirdly, the arcade version of the original Double Dragon was in the VS announcement trailer, though it's not on any carts. After sending a faulty VS back at Christmas, I think I've decided to stick to the Switch and original hardware for retro gaming. I still have my hand held and a few carts though, the Oliver Twins and Data East (with Mega Drive Midnight Resistance), remain my favourites.

@Gamecuber Yeah I agree, C64 games were much more affordable though I had both. The Master System looked really nice, but the C64 still sounded way better for me.

It's difficult to rank the 4 main consoles for me, Mega Drive is the one I still play most, but probably as its the easiest to play on modern Systems. My actual consoles including Master System, Game Gear, Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast are stored away.

@smoreon Well, Ryo had a Saturn at home in 1986, so anything seems possible...

I see. Ryo and Kiryu should bump into one another at the arcade and try set a high score in OutRun.

Super Castlevania IV for me, one of my favourite games of all time.

Ridge Racer 7 on PS3 still looks really good today, though the drifting is super slippery. Someone actually did a version of the PS1 game in Dreams which was surprising good. This looks pretty neat, it's a shame after the odd DLC focused Vita release Namco seem to have given up on the series. Playing Daytona 2 in Like a Dragon recently reminded my how much I miss good arcade racing games, stlll waiting for OurRun 3!

I was a big Ghostbusters fan as a child, first VHS tape I ever owned! I had the original C64 game, also played The Real Ghostbusters on my mate's Atari ST which was a fun 2 player game, and Ghostbusters 2 I bought full price in a cardboard box for my C64. The original on C64 was enjoyable if odd. The sequel was dreadful and had the awful distinction on C64 of making you reload the whole thing off the cassette, even if you lost on the first stage. I finally made it to level 2 and it wouldn't load, had real buyers remorse over that one.

Wii game was good but had a tendency to crash on later stages for me at least, and couldn't be patched. I really enjoyed the PS3 version and replayed recently on Switch. Mega Drive is good fun.

I started with Atari 2600 so every subsequent computer and console do remind me of another time, at least the games I played while they were contemporary. By the time I got to consoles though, games were expensive, so it's only years later I got to explore their a wider range of games on each system. It's not always nostalgia therefore, sometimes it's just catching up. Super Castlevania IV became one of my favouite games ever, but I never got around to playing it until the Wii VC as I never had SNES. That's what additionally interesting about retro games for me, they can be 'new' even now if you've not played them before.

I had the opposite issue with OutRun on C64. I could never get the tape to load until I finally figured out the version someone gave me (for free), was actually a tape of the arcade soundtrack! The US Gold version came with two tapes and I only had the one.

I own this one, its quite good. A shame the VS I got for Christmas was faulty out of the box, I just sent it back. My original console also no longer gets past two battery bars. I like the concept, but my experience of Blaze's hardware isn't great.

@MegaDru Ha yes it was, my C64 version was preferable despite the low resolution... the smooth scrolling and SID renditions made up for it! I must obtain the Mega Drive cart at some point, but it goes for around £80 or more sadly.

@MegaDru Ah yes me too with the C64, though I think I first played on a friends Atari ST, where it was flick screen! The opening with the jeep riding in to 'Flood of Power' is so iconic for me.

@MegaDru Yep, or even the Mega Drive version on NSO would be good. The Mega Drive port has better music than the arcade and that version was released on the Evercade Data East collection at least.

The arcade has no official rerelease to my knowledge beyond the Super Retro-Cade mini console, a shame as it's one of my favourite games.

I'm still hoping for Midnight Resistance on Arcade Archives, it plays fine on my Super Retro-Cade using the triggers to rotate the direction of fire. I enjoy the various versions of Contra but it tends to get rereleased, whereas Midnight Resistance gets forgotten, and I really like the game.

Wow, I remember this from the time, at one point System 3 also seemed to be working on PSP and DS remakes of the originals which had a few screen shots in the mags, but never materialised. I remember playing the first game on C64, was outstanding but those isometric jumps across the water and that bog were super frustrating. Ninja 2 was also great, I still replay these games on C64 when I have a chance and listen to the soundtracks.

I'd be happy even if System 3 put out a compilation of the C64 and Amiga versions particularly, we've recently seen Monty Mole return, so why not!

Nice, I still have my Dreamcast version, it looked great on a CRT TV back in the day and was so creative and interesting to play with each level having a unique style. The last stage particularly impressed me.

Hmm, I think I'd almost prefer the C16/Plus 4, or a Spectrum, or an Atari ST. Was this computer popular in the UK, in my memory it was all C64, Amstrad CPC 464 and the Spectrum we discussed in the playgrounds, though was the 80s by then. I confess I'm unfamiliar with this machine, so no nostalgia.

@Andee Weirdly enough, I bought a modded boxed Saturn in Rathbone Place CEX! I still have it and it still works. Game Focus was such a great shop, I remember the note posted to the door when it shut from 'the Scottish guy' who worked there. I had some credit when it it shut but mainly I was sad the place had gone. I bought a lot of Japanese Saturn and DS games there.

@UK_Kev I remember the downstairs retro collection in Tottenham Court road, I remeber seeing SEGA Rally 2 on Dreamcast in the window of that CEX on import, looked amazing at the time. There was another shop called Game Focus near Goodge Street that had a great import and retro collection, which closed years ago.

@Damo Thanks for covering this classic, played on my friend's Atari ST back when it was new, the atmosphere was something else and certainly made an impression on me at the time. I own the SNES cart (which sadly does not support the SNES mouse) and Nexus on Saturn in my collection, but could only get so far due to the language barrier. The game deserves a proper rerelease, it's not even on GOG.