cawley1

I'll always remember that early issue of SuperPlay (think it's Issue 1) where Jason and his team are explaining the difference between 50hz and 60hz televisions and speed the Super Nintendo runs at. Most people understood the difference between PAL and NTSC, but it was still the most informative article of it's type up to that point, and you can see how SuperPlay -in particular- influenced so many British webpages on our favourite hobby in the late 90's/early 00's.

On top of the memories above, I cannot believe it's been five years. RIP Jason Brookes.

Jesus Christ! I don't think I have ever seen such a long comments section on Time Extension.

Clearly an emotive subject. I'll probably just stick to the disk version on my 800XL, if it still boots!

Sorry, but I can’t find any enthusiasm for these vintage cartridge re-releases at all, as they never have Sega or Nintendo branding on them. I can see the arguments about not taking the easy route and getting a bootleg or putting a rom on an Everdrive, but outside of them being licensed, what’s the difference?

Look at what PCE Works does with the PC Engine titles they release. I’m fully aware these are just glorified bootlegs, but given they look practically identical to the originals, that’s what I would want from a vintage re-release.

They did a limited run of Darius for the Mega Drive a few years ago, with amazing box art and ‘official’ Sega branding and details. Much more like it!

It astounds me that anyone would run a Mega Drive in 50hz PAL in 2024! Who in their right mind would do that?

Great news, but when will it come to Android? With all the retro handhelds that run on it, getting BigPEmu going on Android would be fantastic!

Love this game on Dreamcast, it’s the only official release I have that came in a DVD case!

I’d totally forgotten this tape ever existed, and I’m pretty good at remembering all kinds of random ***** usually!

@KonixSlipstream - Don't! It still hurts it never came out...

I've got an Odin 2 Max and an RG35XX SP - can't go wrong with that combo in my opinion!

No love for Atari ST? 😔

@-wc- That's exactly what I thought!

That looks bloody awful!

Easy to knock Alan Sugar and he certainly took his eye off the ball of his business while messing about with Tottenham Hotspur, but the guy is a marketing genius - I would recommend his autobiography to anyone interested in consumer electronics as it's a very interesting read (at least up to the football stuff, if that is of no interest to you).

In terms of the GX4000, you can't fault Amstrad for trying, but the simple fact is at that time anyone that wasn't Sega or Nintendo had a massive uphill battle to even make a dent in the console market. At least this one used some more interesting and modern hardware than the C64GS. Back in 1990, I would argue that if you lived in the UK and weren't getting a Mega Drive somehow, you would be getting (or already owned) a Master System.

Really it needs to be someone like Geoff Brown of US Gold, Gary Bracey of Ocean (given David Ward has passed), surely these big publishers would have had multiple issues of the publication, probably even had them in their lobby - but I can imagine they were binned once the next issue arrived. Think that people didn't even think to back up or archive their work in the majority of cases back then, not sure a trade newspaper really stood a chance! The other issue is I would imagine many of these went to commercial properties, and not to home addresses, where it would be more likely that they may have made their way to a loft or shed.

@KitsuneNight Oddly that single 1996 issue is all the way over in the US!

Shocking, but not really surprising - trying to track down more fringe publications from the early to mid 90's is a tricky proposition, with magazines changing publisher and those at the end of their commercial lives just vanishing from the newsstand, with speculation over the final issue numbers of various magazines.

I made it one of my collecting missions to track down every issue of Popular Computing Weekly, from issue one in 1982 through to issue 429 in 1990. It took me years to do it, and I got lucky with a couple of eBay sellers who helped me fill a lot of the gaps with bulk deals. Those last issues from 1990 were a nightmare to track down, and even confirm what the last issue was (I worked it out by cross referencing a story in rival New Computer Express!)

I can well imagine that finding many issues of CTW will be very difficult. Chances are a couple of large collections are sitting in lofts around the country and risk being disposed of, by family members at the passing of an elderly relative, or 'house clearance' who have no idea the importance of them. Let's hope someone somewhere can help out.

Why have Namco never done a Ridge Racer / Ridge Racer 2 / Rave Racer compilation? Go the extra mile and include the PS1 games with upscaled options - would be absolutely amazing.

Ah, back in those wistful days when CEX was Computer Exchange and was stuffed with import titles (before Nintendo put a stop to it by refusing to supply them with PAL GameCubes if they didn’t cease to do so). Was also staffed by genuinely enthusiastic individuals who loved games.

I’ve just had shipping confirmation of the last outstanding order I have with them, I’ll never say never, but I’m in no rush to buy anything else.

Funny thing is PCE Works get a lot of stick, but I’m pretty sure even their discs are pressed, and not CDR’s!

Kind of beggars the question, why the hell didn’t people just open the console and remove the bit of plastic that formed the lock?! It’s not like the MD is difficult to get into, and not exactly difficult to work out which bit to remove once you have!

Loved the weird French games from both Infogrames and Ubisoft back in the late 80’s! Maybe we’ll see some of that spirit return?

California Games and Slime World are with the price alone, Electrocop and Zarlor Mercenary aren’t bad, either. These were all seen as solid Lynx games back in the day.

Always had a soft spot for Elite’s original (it was on one of the disks that came with the Atari ST Super Pack I got for my 13th Birthday!) Still go back to it on emulator from time to time, mainly for the catchy David Whittaker tune.

Clearly they’ve just got the rights to the IP and stuck it on a Dead Cells-alike. Looks alright but nothing like the original.

How bloody strange they would even bother? Looking at the comments, not many people are going to remember a game from nearly 40 years ago enough to rush out and buy it, especially when it’s nothing like the original!

Anyway, let’s see how it turns out.

@Guru_Larry That picture is definitely in there, although it was published in C&VG first, I believe. Even the Skips branding triggers my retro itch these days!

Don’t forget The Complete Guide to the Commodore 64! Yes, it exists and is part of the same series with the same format. Fantastic collection of magazines, absolutely did their job of making all of us computer loving kids drool for the more powerful consoles and handhelds which hadn’t come out in the UK at that point.

The Atari 8-Bit range was my computer back in the 80’s, Had an 800XL, moved to a 130XE at some point, quite a few families in the close I lived in had 400/800’s or an XL - not really expected given most other people had Sinclair/Commodore/Amstrad. I’ve still got a large collection of these computers, and unlikely I’d buy this for that reason, but for anyone else who fancies what I’d still consider the premier 8-Bit computer experience until the C64 hit its stride in 1986, you can’t go wrong. There are so many great games.

@Gs69 Ha ha, just force yourself to get used to it like all us lefties did back in the day!

For me, Prop Cycle is an absolute classic. I actually bought the same cabinet as the one pictured on that flyer from eBay or somewhere not working, as I’d just moved into my first rented house with my fiancée (how she ever let me get away with that I don’t know). It took four people to carry the various bits inside the house, through the patio doors! I somehow managed to get it working as it was just the huge rear projection TV that was faulty - first by running it off a monitor then I found some place selling parts for the TV and got it mostly working. Trying to calibrate the red, green and blue lamps to converge on the screen was an utter nightmare. It was fun, but impractical having that huge cabinet hanging about, so I sold it a year or two later. Good times!

@BulkSlash Agree 100%. Try dodging the stick that comes down in the candy floss machine, or the bee that stings you. Very slow response rate, but oddly has its own charm.

Weird Dreams! Had this on my ST back in the day. I still fire it up on an emulator to hear the music now and again. Very odd game but the surreal visuals created a bit of a buzz back in the late 80’s.

Like many who will have memories of this time, I was hooked on the Mean Machines section in the back of C&VG so when they announced a standalone magazine I couldn’t get enough. I still have those 24 issues, plus the four ‘Complete Guide to Consoles’ from back then. Agree with what’s been said that it was never quite the same once it split. I had moved on to the SNES from my Megadrive at that point and only got NMS, so was probably missing out. That and other magazines like Super Play and EGM imports also grabbing my attention, plus of course Edge launched. I know everyone thinks their formative years are the best time to do something ever, but I’m certain you’ll never see a time like that again. 16-Bit computers in the UK and onset of Japanese consoles starting with the PC Engine, grey importing and all these crazy guys who lived to write about it all for kids like us. You can’t beat the years 1987-1996 for gaming in my opinion.