Retro Games Blog

Be Afraid. Be Slightly Afraid. It's Atic Atac.

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:11:57 GMT

In almost any context, it is usually a good idea to avoid trapdoors. They are the sort of thing that just sound like trouble, or else they would be called welcome gates, or warmth ways. Or cuddle ports.

Two brothers - Tom and Chris Stamper - certainly understood the tacit malevolence of trapdoors in 1983 when they decided to invent a sprawling maze of a game set in an underground castle, into which the player stumbled after falling through a - yes - trapdoor. The game itself, Atic Atac, was excellent, combining a tangible sense of doom with several key gaming innovations. It was, for example, the first game in which the player could choose a character class - wizard, knight or serf - with differing skills and tactics. The aforementioned sense of doom was provided in no small part by Tom Stamper's artistic understanding of the 'less is more' principle of suspense building - which is handy, as with only 48k of memory around, Doom was a very long way off.

I Spy Something Beginning With Classic Gaming - It's Spy vs. Spy!

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:40:36 GMT

The ideal place for storing state secrets in the post Cold War era is on laptop computers, which are then placed in briefcases and left in random places upon the public transport networks of Southern England.

In the Eighties it was a very different kettle of coconuts. With the ever present threat of nuclear oblivion and massive ideologically exclusive armies poised to hurl themselves at each other across the European landmass, things were rather more watertight. Obscure software house First Star Software decided that the best way to represent this global powder keg was by having a couple of pointy faced fools chasing each other around a split level video game. For those of you who might want to introduce a trick question into a very dorky indeed pub quiz, it definitely was Spy Vs. Spy that has the accolade of being the first split level game. Motor racing trailblazer Pit Stop 2 usually claims this title; however, while its split screen was certainly the first in development, Spy vs. Spy was the first to mix it up in Woolworths with the Thompson Twins 12 inch singles and Return Of The Jedi trading cards.

Desktop Arcade Cabinet

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:24:00 GMT

If you don't have the space for a full sized arcade cabinet, this could be the answer.

It's a familiar story. You desperately want an arcade cabinet running Mame with the best custom joystick parts... But either you've got no space, or more often a wife/girlfriend who strongly disagrees that the spare room should be used as a games room. (Honestly... I run a company selling video game t-shirts, you knew what you were signing up for!)

Well this desktop sized cabinet could be the answer. Combining top quality parts, with a small build, this is a truly beautiful piece of kit - and importantly, can be easily hidden in a cupboard.

We were lucky enough to get chatting to the creator of this awesome cab in a pub recently, so we're hoping to eventually get them for sale on the site, but you can get your hands on the prototype right now over on eBay. And for a mere £350, you're not going to find a better deal, anywhere, ever.

Desktop arcade cab eBay auction

Calling all Street Fighters!!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:53:00 GMT

Do you have what it takes to be UK's best Street Fighter IV player?

That's right, our friends over at Neo Empire are hosting a Street Fighter IV tournament this Sunday (7th June). Best of all, the winner will earn a place at Capcom Europe's UK finals (without having to gain a mountain of GP via the game's Champioship Mode). Sweet. It takes place at Westminster University, Harrow (North West London) and will be run on the Xbox 360 so don't forget to bring a stick/pad. The original 128 places have been filled but they've extended the number of slots by an extra 32. Only a handful of places remain so sign up soon.

You can find out more on the mini-site here: http://www.neoempire.com/sfiv/

And here's the signup thread: http://www.neoempire.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5767

Sadly, we won't be there to kick arse since we'll be at Collectormania in Milton Keynes but we wish everyone the best of luck. While I'm at it I may as well plug Neo Empire's Games Night: Sunday held in London nearly every Sunday. It's basically a session of fighting games where players get to meet and square up face to face. Due to popularity, most machines are currently set up with Street Fighter IV but they also cater for Marvel, Virtua Fighter, King of Fighters, etc. The players are always friendly and helpful. It's a great way to pick up tips and improve your game, I recommend it to anyone who loves fighting games. http://www.neoempire.com/

New Designs added: Tank Rush, Famicom & Gauntlet

Fri, 29 May 2009 22:07:00 GMT

Finally. It's been a busy couple of weeks but we're proud to announce 3 new designs. The first is influenced by the RTS 'tank rush' tactic and comes in orange vinyl which looks totally sweet on both brown and white shirts. The second is based on Nintendo's japanese Famicom pad and the last is Atari's classic dungeon crawler Gauntlet.

Retro GT @ MCM Expo & Collectormania 15

Sat, 16 May 2009 13:06:00 GMT

Just a quick update to say that we will be attending 2 shows in the coming weeks. The first will be London MCM Expo on Sat 23^th - Sun 24^th May 2009. This is the one with all the fantastic cosplay and Manga madness. More info@>> http://www.londonexpo.com/

Two weeks after that will be Collectormania 15 on Fri 5^th - Sun 7^th June. Traditionally held in Milton Keynes shopping centre it has now moved to a new venue, the MK Dons football stadium. Entry is still free and Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock) among others are set to attend. More info on guests here >> http://www.collectormania.com/

Our show offer of 2 shirts for £25 will be available and we're working feverishly on new designs in time for the shows. Our new Gauntlet design has already been on sale at the markets.. just finishing off something else. Watch this space. ;)

Paperboy - it's delivery madness!

Wed, 06 May 2009 10:44:00 GMT

Since medieval times, children riding mountain bikes around housing estates have been the traditional English method of buying drugs, guns, and litters of dangerous dogs. Happily, across the Atlantic, things are very different. In America, children are healthy, hearty, cheerful, and consider a lithe physique and an excellent well rounded education to be the foundation stones of a happy, productive society. It for this reason that Paperboy, released by Atari in 1984, finds the titular hero delivering Scientific American around Southern California rather than dumping Inside TV in a canal in Leeds.

Ready-Up set gaming world record!

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:24:48 GMT

Our mates over at ready-up.net have always been pretty fanatical about gaming. It's pretty much all they ever talk about which, frankly, is fine by us. So we weren't entirely surprised when we heard that they were going to attempt to get themselves in the Guinness book of records for a gaming challange... Seemed about right... what was surprising however, is how they intended to do it. A 24-hour gaming marathon, playing Burnout Paradise.

Now, let's break this down a little bit.
Gaming... right, we like gaming... that's fine.
Gaming for 24 hours straight? Well... wow that's going to be kinda difficult, right?

I mean sure, you can lose track of time playing certain games... I've played Civilization for around 10 hours without realising that the sun's beginning to come up, I'm sure we've all been there... but 24 hours is a LONG time to be playing a game. All they get is toilet and brief food breaks... that's it.

Ok fine, I'll buy that if the game's particularly engaging... but a racing game?!
24 hours driving? I imagine they could see the road in their peripheral vision for about a week afterwards!

Nevertheless, six of the Ready-Up team took up the challenge, and joined by members of the community over X-Box live, they raced the day, and night, and day away. They are now proud holders of the racing game marathon world record.

It's not all fun and games though (well, it is obviously, but there's a serious side too) the event helped to raise money for 'GamesAid' - a new charity aimed at using the gaming industry to help young people. Which is all pretty admirable really.

So, 24 cheers for the Ready-Up team!
http://ready-up.net/worldrecord

But You Have So Much To Live For! Lemmings Uncovered

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:10:07 GMT

For an innocuous and perfectly likeable little mammal, lemmings seem to have attracted something of a bizarre press. For instance, it was once widely believed that they formed clouds and were rained down during storms. It was then argued that although they did regenerate spontaneously, they were blown in by Scandinavian winds, and were killed by grass. This was in turn debunked, and replaced by the popular myth that lemmings are gloomy little animals, who end up hurling themselves off cliffs in fits of despair. It's all nonsense, and your average lemming is a perfectly happy little chap, eating leaves and various grasses, pausing only to sleep and breed. Sounds quite nice, really.

Fortunately, there is no such ambiguity surrounding Lemmings, released in 1991 by Psygnosis. It was universally loved, and even hailed as a latter day Tetris in some quarters. It also contains perhaps the most eclectic soundtrack of any video game, as a result of Psygnosis' canny avoidance of copyrighted music. Hence, players can find themselves playing solemnly to Chopin's Funeral March, or enthusiastically to camp fire classic She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain. On later versions, it was possible to be stirred by Scotland the Brave, or treat yourself to a right old knees up to the strains of My Old Man (Said Follow The Van) . So where did this rodent themed musical extravangza come from? And in God's name, why?

New designs added: Salamander & Bubble Bobble

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:20:44 GMT

Spring is here, and despite the gloom in the daily news the glow of the shining sun and warm air dare to promise good times ahead. So we bring you not one, but two new designs to accompany those cheerful vibes. One features the giant brain of Salamander attacking pixellated ships, sweet!! The other features bubbles from legendary platformer Bubble Bobble. Bubble Bobble is available in two varieties, each one representing the bubbles blown by that player. 1up (Bub) blows green bubbles and 2up (Bob) blows blue bubbles. Enjoy.

Street Fighter IV - In training (Week 3)

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:15:01 GMT

Technically this is week 4, but I've been away on an exotic cycling trip to the Isle of Wight. I know...you're jealous right!? Anyway, this is my 3rd week of actual training.

To be honest, my training has somewhat been neglected. I haven't been training that much at all. It's like joining a new gym. At first you're really up for it. You want to get that six-pack, build those biceps and woo the...ladies. But, then you get tired, fed up, sore and just generally de-motivated. You begin to resent paying for that membership.

Well, I'm in a similar scenario here. Don't get me wrong. I love the game. But I hate just plodding along. Whereas the first 2 weeks I felt like I was learning, improving and building those virtual biceps, this week I have gotten nowhere. I've become too predictable with my usual characters and I can't seem to get remotely good with any new ones. The honeymoon period is over.

If I could afford it I would buy an arcade stick - I'm definitely struggling with the combos. It's extremely frustrating as I KNOW I'm pressing the right buttons, in the right order and quick enough. The game just isn't recognising this, obviously it's a glitch - there's no way it has anything to do with me being rubbish.

I have a mate who is going to teach me how to show off some moves and deal some damage. In his words he is 'kickass' at Street Fighter 4 and routinely dishes our some serious 'ownage' online. I dunno - these young people and their new online lingo. I'll let you know if it works either at week 4 or 5.

Retro GT @ Memorabilia

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:16:00 GMT

It's show time again and the first show we're attending this year is 'Memorabilia' at the NEC in Birmingham. It's held over the weekend of 28th / 29th March and we've been making t-shirts in preparation. With any luck we'll have time to squeeze out a new design too. As usual, you can pick up two t-shirts for £25 at the show... bargain.

Geared towards nostalgia fans, Memorabilia features guest appearances from the worlds of TV, Film and sport. Craig Charles and Robert Llewllyn of 'Red Dwarf' fame will be there on the Saturday while Jack Coleman who plays Noah (aka HRG / Claire's dad) in hit show 'Heroes' is due to attend on Sunday. Follow this link for more details of the show: www.memorabilia.co.uk.

Street Fighter IV - In training (Week 2)

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:50:22 GMT

I'm annoyed. Frustrated. In pain. Tired and drowsy yet worryingly satisfied.

It's week 2 of my training and I've improved. Only ever so slightly, but still improvement nonetheless. I have managed to grasp at least 3 fighters in the form of Ryu, Ken and Fei Long. I can also use Abel, but to be honest...he sucks. It's probably me, but he's far too slow for my liking. In any case, Ryu, Ken and Fei Long seem to be fighters that suit my style and I have learned most of the combos for. I can now easily use Supers and Ultras facing either direction - using the d-pad is a must.

Rather than spread my infinite 'skill' learning all the fighters, I stuck with a few. I still find the charge moves hard to pull off and that's partly the reason I choose fighters with the easier combos. The main thing I have learned is to choose attacks wisely rather than go full on with fists flying so to speak. It's far more effective and you are less vulnerable to counters. Blocking has also become an essential part of my game and there is nothing more satisfying than blocking multiple attacks and then counter attacking with a shoryuken.

The reason I've been frustrated with Street Fighter 4 has been trying to do various combos in trial mode. I'm in pain because I've spent so many hours trying to do one move on the d-pad that the skin on my thumb has worn away through friction. Typically I get to Trial 3 with any fighter and get stuck. At the moment it's Ken giving me hassle with the Heavy Kick/Hadoken combo. Seems pretty straight forward and I'm sure most people pull it off, but I have real trouble with the quick combos.

I've also been wading through the arcade mode in a bid to unlock some more fighters. I've been quite successful so far, but I do find the mode tedious and it's a real pain to have to keep going through it. I suppose it forces you to get to grips with other fighters though.

Hopefully in the next blog I will have grasped those combos and I will look to venture online to test my new found skillz innit.

Street Fighter IV - In training

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:12:24 GMT

I'm about to say something that might send shivers down your spine. In fact it's quite disgusting if I say so myself. I have never really got into any Street Fighter game. Now before I receive an abundance of Hadokens aimed at me, just read on.

I always admired the Street Fighter games, but the honest truth was that I was terrible at them and I hate losing so naturally I didn't play the games I wasn't any good at. However, I have matured now and with all the hype surrounding Street Fighter 4 I just had to buy it. I will write a few short blogs detailing my progress as a Street Fighter 'noob' and my thoughts on the game.

Neo Empire SFIV Ranking Battles

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:25:00 GMT

By now I'd expect that everyone's had enough time to rush out and purchase the AWESOME new Street Fighter IV, find out about the wealth of new fighting strategies it provides, and in all probability, create massive sores on their hands through extensive gameplay.

So... Reckon you're any good?

Well, now's your chance to prove it, as the wonderful Neo Empire have set up a series of Ranking Battles at London's famous Trocadero - Picadilly Circus.
The first one was a great success and over the next five consecutive Fridays, you'll have the chance to play some of the greatest players around.
It's an XBox 360 tournament, so remember to bring your own controller!

So, that's Fridays from 7pm - 11pm, HMV Gamerbase, Trocadero.

As always, Neo Empire have put together some footage of last fridays event for you all to marvel at... Neo Empire presents SF IV London Ranking Battle 1:1

Oh, and no playing as Seth - that's just ridiculous.

Never Mind The Hagglers - it's Elite!

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:40:07 GMT

In 1984, 8 bit computers all over the country started running seed numbers through fixed algorithms, creating sequences of other, bigger, numbers that might, for example, be used to determine the fictitious characteristics of a fictitious planets within a fictitious galaxy. These busy little algorithms could, with a bit of persuasion, be coaxed into generating a name for the planet, its relative position, the kinds of stuff its inhabitants might want to buy and sell, and the political climate in which they lived.

It also meant that Cambridge undergraduates David Braben and Ian Bell, whose considerable egg-headedness had made this awesome (for 1984) bit of number crunching possible could swap their separate but similar pet projects - Freefall (Braben) and Fighter (Bell) - and combine to produce Elite, the first true incitement-to-divorce gaming experience, twenty years before relationship-deleting delights of franchises such as Chanpionship Manager, Total War, or Sim City.

A fact: one year after its release, Elite had sold 160,000 units on the platform for which it was designed, the venerable BBC B micro computer. This was more than the total number of BBC B micro computers.

New design added: Arcade Stick

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:21:04 GMT

The release of Street Fighter IV on home consoles is certainly creating something of a buzz. Could this be a return to form for the series? HD Remix was great but we totally expect Street fighter IV to put 2D fighters back on the map by taking the competitive vibe of the arcade into the living room. We dusted off our sticks in preparation and revisited previous versions of Street Fighter, even the EX versions, lol. In doing so we realised the close relationship between people and their arcade sticks and came up with our latest design.

Horace Goes Skiing, Eating, Fighting Spiders, and Cloning

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:26:02 GMT

The ZX Spectrum is a great technological milestone. Not only was it pretty much the first popular home computer, it contained - as the rainbow device on the right hand side of the machine will verify - the first gay microprocessor.

To save memory space, most of the games written for it were rubbish. However, most of the eighteen thousand programs written for it were gaming titles, and it did come up with some classics, among which are what is known as the Horace series. Not a great deal is known about the author of the series - William Tang - except that he suffered a collapsed lung halfway through writing them.

Berzerk

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:25:00 GMT

Sixty four thousand shades of madness - that's berzerk for you.

Berzerk is an eerie and malevolent game. Visually and conceptually simple - the stick figure player wanders around the screen from room to room avoiding stick figure robots programmed to kill him - the whole bleakly addictive shebang is presided over by a horrible smiley killjoy called Evil Otto. The atmosphere is foreboding and, while playing for extended lengths, it is not hard to reach the chirpy conclusion that you've inadvertently unleashed some ghastly being which will be hiding just behind you, dodging out of sight no matter how quickly you spin around, for the rest of your life. Berzerk has the unhappy distinction of being the only video game to have directly killed people playing it: 19 year old Jeff Dailey suffered a fatal heart attack after achieving a slightly creepy 16,660 in January 1981, and fifteen months later, 18 year old Peter Burkowski also died from heart failure during a long session in which he posted two consecutive high scores at his local arcade in Mitchigan.

So, brace yourself and whistle a cheery tune to keep your spirits up as complete our Pac Man Fever odyssey by taking a wander around the murky yet brilliant world of Berzerk.

Street Fighter IV interview with Leo Tan

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:58:00 GMT

With Street Fighter IV's long awaited release looming, those awesome guys over at Ready-Up have managed to get an exclusive interview with Capcom's Leo Tan - who among other things, assures the gaming world that the last six months he's spent honing his fighting skills will result in the "utter annihilation" of everyone he meets online in the first week of launch.
Fingers flexed and at the ready then.

Get on over to Ready-Up to read the exclusive Leo Tan interview and in part 2 released later this week, you'll have the chance to win one of our coveted Street Fighter t-shirts.

Perfect.

Defender

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Defender has been described as 'quite possibly, the hardest significant game there is' by people who know about these things. It is also the most referenced in popular culture, appearing as the subject of part six of our Pac Man Fever odyssey, the Weirdies' recent 'I Wanna Play Defender', 'Defender Contender' by, apparantly, R. Cade and the Video Victims, and getting a mention on the Beastie Boys' 'Body Movin' with the line '...and if you play Defender I could be your hyperspace'. This last point bears further explanation. Hitting hyperspace is a usually a guarantee of a fairly safe, if a bit haphazard, safety net, as we saw previously in Asteroids. However, Defender's standard gameplay is so barking mad that it's already like being trapped in some random electronic maelstrom. Nonetheless, so iconic is Defender that it is the only video game to feature on a postage stamp, and it's ringtone package is the internet's most frequently dowloaded non-musical fellow passenger annoyer. Welcome, then, to to a baffling world of instant death and mutant madness, of baiters and pods and swarmers, of one joysticks flanked by a battery of buttons, all screaming for attention. Welcome to Defender.

OMG, it's 2009 already?!!

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:41:25 GMT

Yeah. Christmas has been and gone, and New Year's day was only 2 weeks ago but feels much, much longer. The festive season is well and truly behind us but we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support throughtout 2008 and wish everyone the best for the new year. Roll on 2009!

The winter chill is still with us but that hasn't stopped us braving the cold to set up for the markets. Oh no. Nor has the burns from the heat press stopped us making shirts. Retro GT is very much a labour of love, for gamers, by gamers. So what's in store for 2009? Well the firstly, we've plans to update the website to make it prettier, with more features, yet easy to navigate. This will take some time so won't happen just yet. We will, of course, continue to bring you more designs. More vectors. More pixels. More gaming love. If all goes to plan we will make available limited edition prints of artwork to compliment our range of shirts and hoodies. We're very excited about 2009.

Stay tuned and keep warm,

Gary and Lawrence

New design added: Sonic Boom!

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:12:00 GMT

We've been playing a lot of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix recently and it's gotten us even more excited about the arrival of Street Fighter IV, coming to console in February. Due to much Hadoken-ing, old gaming injuries have started to resurface. We stopped playing Street Fighter just long enough for the aches to vanish, albeit temporarily, and used that time to create this new design. It's the SONIC BOOM!! We've created black or white versions to give you more choice.

Check it out, or "Go home and be a family man.."

Win t-shirts with the Ready-Up.net 2008 game awards

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 02:18:00 GMT

We're giving away 10 free t-shirts in association with those lovely people over at Ready-UP.net, and all you have to do to enter is vote for your favorite games of 2008!

A lot has happened in the world of gaming in 2008, with some of the most eagerly anticipated sequels of all time, as well as some surprise new innovations and a few instant classics.

Our friends at Ready-Up are interested to know what you think, and have set up the 2008 Game Awards to celebrate such an awesome year in gaming.

The nominees are in and voting has already begun, with winners announced in two weeks - So get on over to the site and VOTE NOW! You'll help to pick out the best titles of 2008, and 10 lucky winners will receive a free RetroGT t-shirt too.

Over here at RetroGT, we like to keep things pretty old skool, and we weren't disappointed this year with the truly awesome Street Fighter IV, and of course the beautiful update of 'Super Street Fighter 2 HD Remix' - a mouthful to say and a joy to play

We've also been knocked out this year by some of the new downloadable titles that put the emphasis back on gameplay over graphics - just like it was in the old days.

Video games have come a long way since Spacewar and Pong, and with the current generation of consoles offering online gameplay, downloadable content and faithful updates of the old classics, there's really never been a better time to be a gamer.

All in all things are good. We feel.

Mind Your Wing Mirrors! It's Asteroids!

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:20:42 GMT

Imagine the scary music from Jaws, but played on a cardiac monitoring machine in a hospital corridor. That is the enigmatic sound of all round minimalist Asteroids, track five on our journey through Buckner and Garcia's Pac Man Fever album. The track - Hyperspace - is so bad that we are better off promising never to mention it again, but no fag-smoke and Lilt-can infested early 80s arcade would be complete without the game itself. The stark and distinctive line drawing graphics look they way they do because Asteroids is a 'vector' game. Vectoring is a method that games programmers at the time used as a clever way to make their graphics look really, really bad. In this instance, however, it works very well, and, combined with the medical equipment audio set up, gives a fair representation of the bleakness of fighting a lonely battle you will inevitably lose in the bleak and chilly depths of space.

Have A Banana! It's Donkey Kong!

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:31:00 GMT

Frank Krmel, of Atlanta, Georgia and Shigeru Miyamoto of Kyoto, Japan are unlikely to find themselves mentioned together in any sentence other than this one. Miyamoto spent his childhood exploring the lakes and caves with which the land around his family home was amply blessed, endlessly drawing and sketching local wildlife. Krmel spent his childhood hunting catfish in a swamp. Both men, however, chased an ape-themed dream which would elevate them to the top of their respective professions: this dream would manifest itself as Donkey Kong, which is also the fourth track on our Pac Man Fever odyssey. For Miyamoto, Donkey Kong was the beginning of an incredible journey that would see him hailed as 'the Father of Modern Videogames' by the New York Times, and 'the Walt Disney of electronic gaming' by the Wall Street Journal. He invented the Wii gaming system, and his sheepdog, Pikku, was the inspiration for the Nintendogs franchise. For his part, Krmel drove a monster truck called Donkey Kong into the ninth Monster Jam World Finals in 2007. The truck is designed to look like a big monkey wearing a tie. Two men, one shared destiny: an angry gorllla throwing barrels at an Italian.

New hoodie colours

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:10:09 GMT

Due to popular demand, we've added two new colours to our range of lovely hooded tops.
All our designs are now available in bright red and dark grey.

Retro Review: Crazy Taxi

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:17:00 GMT

It was quite hard picking the next retro review. I've been buying some retro games from the internet, but I finally decided.

I was going to review Crazy Taxi 2 actually. I'm not sure why, but it may be because I thought it would be better than the original. How wrong was I! Crazy Taxi 2 sucks like you would never believe. On appearance it looks the same as the first installment (which is a good thing) and it has the same modes (which is a bad thing).

In short, Crazy Taxi 2 keeps most of the recipe which made the first so great, but doesn't add enough to the mix. You now drive around New York, but all the fares seem to go to the same places and you barely see much of the city in any case. They just didn't make enough progress to warrant a crappy sequel.

Thankfully the original Crazy Taxi doesn't have any of these problems - in fact it would make a better sequel to the...er...sequel.

New Design added: Mega Drive joypad

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:17:47 GMT

Here's one for you Sega fans. The Mega Drive pad has been given the pixel makeover with much chunky love. Hopefully, this will prove that we aren't biased towards Nintendo.

Centipede

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:14:00 GMT

Dona Bailey was one of the only female programmers involved in gaming at the turn of the 1980s. As a representative of a gender not traditionally at ease with insects, spiders, and creepy crawlies generally, it is perhaps remarkable that she threw her creative and technical know-how into a game about a giant centipede. The subject of track three on our Pac Man Fever odyssey, Centipede itself is not one of the more immediately recognisable games featured on the album, but spawned a litany of similar games, including the pre-3G mobile phone standard. Atari released Centipede in 1980, and it was one of the first games to become familiar to home console players. It is fair to say that the album track is a less familiar landmark in popular culture, although artwork adorning the side of the arcade cabinet was used on the cover of the Strokes' 2004 single Reptillia.

It's Not Easy Being Frogger.

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:27:00 GMT

As we have often observed, the first great rush of gaming technology was hallmarked by the drive for novelty. While the rest of the industry tended to concentrate upon space battles and threats to the ever-luckless planet earth, and with a limitless blank canvas before them, Konami chose to develop a game involving a frog on a motorway. Whether or not it would have gone on to become an instant classic under its original name of Highway Crossing Frog will never be known, however, a meeting of Sega executives charged with worldwide distribution of the game decided upon the far more zesty Frogger, and this instant classic became a must-have throughout the arcade world. Also, considering that there are more ways to get killed in Frogger than any other arcade game, not only is it not easy being green, it's a positive bloodbath.

Let's Not Dance! It's Pac Man Fever!

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:47:08 GMT

Ohio based songwriting duo Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia have always resented the 'novelty' tag often attached to their work by the wider musical community. They must, therefore, feel the odd twinge of we-have-kind-of-bought-this-upon-ourselves-ness when considering their back catalogue, which includes Merry Christmas In The NFL, E.T. I Love You, Pog Nation and Do The Donkey Kong. But it is for their 1982 hit Pac Man Fever, taken from the album of the same name, for which they are best remembered. On its initial release, it peaked at number 9 in the US Billboard charts, which, when you consider that it thereby outperformed The Beatles' She Loves You, is not bad going.

MCM Expo photos are up

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:45:00 GMT

Photos from October's London MCM Expo are up, you can find them in the gallery section. It's mostly cosplay but at least we brought a decent camera this time. We had trouble naming the characters or what they come from.. it was mostly from anime and our anime knowledge is patchy at best. You can post a comment to help us name them.

Quick link: http://www.retrogt.com/gallery/London-MCM-expo-Oct-2008.cfm

Download Red Alert for FREE!!

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:54:00 GMT

For those who aren't aware Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, already available in the U.S, is being released in the UK today. This time around the Soviets travel back in time to screw with history and results in Japan becoming a third super power. The Empire of the Rising Sun brings transforming tanks, ninjas and giant robots to the battlefield. We expect the Soviet Tesla coils to make a reappearance. The hammy cutscenes are back, this time with a star studded cast including Tim Curry, Jonathan Pryce, George Takei and ex-Playboy model Jenny McCarthy in the role of Tanya, oh yeah. It all sounds rather sweet.

What's more, to celebrate 13 years of the franchise EA have offered the original Red Alert for free download. Follow this link to the official site: http://www.ea.com/redalert/news-detail.jsp?id=62

Don't forget to install the XP / Vista patch and run it in compatibility mode. Red Alert still works a treat on newer Windows.. we've tested it.. lots.

New design added: C&C Red Alert

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:20:00 GMT

When Russia marched into Georgia earlier this year they changed the rules of global politics. With the U.S weakening on the world stage and Russia becoming bolder, could this be the start of a second cold war?

Uhm.. dunno but it reminds us of the times spent playing Red Alert, having a laugh with big Soviet tanks and frying people with Tesla coils. The world seemed so much safer back then. But let's face it, russian ~~brutality~~ stoicism has a certain cool factor, Red Alert showed us that much at least. Which brings us to our latest design based on that RTS classic, check it out.

Shake it baby:

Retro GT @ London MCM Expo

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:06:00 GMT

Retro GT will be attending the London MCM Expo on the weekend of 25th - 26th October. The show is part of the London Games Festival and will have playable demos of upcoming releases such as the new Prince of Persia, Mortal Kombat vs DC, Far Cry 2 and more. There's also a Rock Band tournament run by DDR:uk and our friends at Neo Empire will be there with Capcom and Street Fighter 4, sweet.

RetroGT @ Collectormania 14

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:31:55 GMT

Just a quicky to say we're going to be in Milton Keynes this weekend exhibiting at Collectormania 14. It's held in the large hall of Milton Keynes Shopping Centre so there's no entrance fee and it runs from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th September. It's the usual combination of guest signings and merchandise galore, check the site for more info http://www.collectormania.com. Lastly, we are continuing our stall offer of 2 t-shirts for £25.

New design added: Big Invader

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:54:00 GMT

Space Invaders is more than just a classic videogame. The game features one of the most recognisable pop culture icons, right up there with Batman, Godzilla and Elvis. Yes, the faces of dead rock stars are a popular choice for t-shirt designs but they're not usually very pretty, well, not compared to the awesome effigy of one big arse space invader.

So here's our take on the iconic Invader, rendered with faux rasterscan lines for a retro finish.

Clickety click:

Play Til Your Eyes Bleed - It's Emlyn Hughes' International Soccer

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:02:00 GMT

As a teenager, Emlyn Hughes would run up and down flights of stairs in tower blocks until he passed out, in an attempt to build up his stamina. He would do this once or twice a week, and on one occasion ran himself into a coma. It was this kind of behavior that would, in later life, lead to him being called 'Crazy Horse'. It worked though - he became captain and defensive stalwart at Liverpool throughout the '70s, winning just about everything the domestic and European game had to offer. He also captained foppishly underachieving England sides under Don Revie and Ron Greenwood. Seemingly unable to stop captaining things even in retirement, Hughes skippered a team on the BBC's it-will-never-end quiz show A Question of Sport for three years. Not bad for a player who, despite having infectious enthusiasm and iron self discipline, was not actually all that good.

In 1983, Audiovision released Emlyn Hughes' International Soccer, complete with the Hughes himself beaming away on the front cover, presumably urging the purchaser to play until he collapsed from malnutrition.

Oh Lordy! It's Out Run!

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:43:00 GMT

A couple of weeks ago we spoke about - yes, that's right - isometric projection and the way it vaguely brought a kind of 3Dish feel to the yawn-smothering delights of Zaxxon (see 'The angles and the Zaxxons', June 21st.) An altogether more exciting gobbet hurled from the bubbling white hot cauldron of mid-80s gaming evolution was sprite scaling. This was a technique that allowed hitherto sluggish sprites to be chucked about all over the place nice and quickly, giving a far greater feeling of 3D movement and, above all, speed. Not only this, but the word on Arcade Street was of something called force feedback. This was an innovation which allowed player interface objects - such as, for example, steering wheels - to judder violently in time with game events - such as, for example, accidentally driving off a road at high speed. With breakthroughs like this going on, it wouldn't be long before someone gave the world a top notch driving game. Sega were all over it.

New Megaman 9 goes retro

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 09:15:23 GMT

Coming to console this Autumn is Capcom's action platformer Megaman 9, also known as Rockman 9: The Ambition's Revival!!. This new sequel to the popular Megaman franchise will be available for download on WiiWare, Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Of particular interest to retro heads is that the entire game will be developed to resemble a NES game. Megaman debuted on the NES in 1987 and although it appeared on many platforms including the SNES and Megadrive, it was during the NES era that the franchise hit its height of popularity. Megaman 9's producer Hironobu Takeshita explains the decision to go retro:

New designs added: Burger, Chicken and Ham

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:44:00 GMT

We've gone back to the Health Food design and extended the range so the 'Chicken' and 'Ham' are available individually along with the new 'Burger', an important food group in its own right. Pixellated text and a health bar makes a nice finish... yum.

Serving suggestion:

Little computer people

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:42:53 GMT

There's a little person in my computer! And I have to feed him!

Imagine a sim version of the Sims, but back in 1985 before the Sims had been invented, and before the word 'sim' had entered the English language.

It's a tricky one, but your reward is Activision's quirky Little Computer People. This was one of the very first games to use digital DNA, which would predetermine the personality of the little chap who was going to come and live inside your computer. Him and his dog, actually, and the blurb accompanying the floppy disk - which was fourteen foot in diameter - explained that the Little Computer People were always in your pc, and that the software you had just spent sixpence ha'penny on was merely the vehicle which enabled you to see them.

Battle of Destiny 2008

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:21:00 GMT

Last weekend (26th & 27th July) was Neo Empire's Battle of Destiny event bringing together fighting game fans from all over Europe. The event was held in a London venue with 2 floors featuring tournaments and exclusive plays of Street Fighter 4, Soul Calibur 4 and the latest build of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix. The tournament winners get tickets to Las Vegas to compete in the Evolution World 2008 finals.

Super Soccer Retro Review

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:09:00 GMT

Hot. Sweaty. Passionate. No I'm not talking about 'the other night', but rather the intense sport that is Football. It's a sport that captivates much of the Earth's population with tens of thousands of fans turning up to most Premier League matches. But what can 'match' the intensity of Football? Yes, that's right...Super Soccer on the SNES.

Don't tell me you didn't see that one coming. Okay, so there have been many Football games on consoles over the years. Some remain popular today (FIFA and PES) while others have faded into obscurity (anyone remember 'This is Football'?). But nothing can rival the immense realism and joy that comes from playing Super Soccer. Not even the modern FIFA games.

I'll be honest...this game is bad, soooo bad! But for a few reasons it sticks out as an all-time classic. One of those classics that not everyone remembers, but it's a classic to me and sometimes that is what 'retro' is all about right? So let's get down to business and kick off (they get worse) with what's so good about Super Soccer on the SNES.

New Designs added: GTA and BFG 9000

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:26:00 GMT

Here's two new designs, one based on Doom's BFG 9000 and the other on Grand Theft Auto carjacking.

The angles and the Zaxxons

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:17:00 GMT

When you think of 1982, you immediately think of isometric projection. It was this go-on-then-but-we're-being-very-generous 3D-ish effect that first came to the popular consciousness with the landmark game Zaxxon, an early arcade hit for the pre-Sonic house of Sega. In truth, this effect was the only thing that marked Zaxxon out from a number of the fly along and bomb stuff games which were the early glimmerings of a key genre that would one day spawn graphics card gobbling thrillathons as Il-2 Sturmovic, and the Fighter Ace massive multiplayer.

Retro GT @ London Film and Comic Con

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:25:00 GMT

We will be exhibiting at the yearly London Film and Comic Con held in Earl's Court 2, London. Guests confirmed to be attending include Patrick Stewart, John Hurt, Pete Postlethwaite, Christopher Lloyd and a whole bunch of other people including Clerk's Jason Mewes. You can find out more about the show here. The show is held over this weekend, Saturday 19th July and Sunday 20th.

We will have two new designs to debut, one featuring Doom's BFG9000 and the other based on the popular Grand Theft Auto. There will of course be our regular show offer of 2 shirts for £25 so come on down and pick up a bargain.

Sim City - Here Comes The Neighbourhood

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:09:00 GMT

Tiredness? Sore eyes? Headache? Forget Lemsip and Clarityn. The best way to clear all these symptoms is to remove Sim City from your hard drive.

So what's going on here. Well, the early versions - and it was originally designed for the Commodore 64 back in 1857 - were a flat bird's eye view of a simulated city (do you see?) in which the player could apportion land to industrial, residential or commercial activity. The zones then build themselves, and then flourish or not according to how astute the player (ie Mayor) had been in planning the layout in the first place. This initial version was called Micropolis, and the creator - Will Wright - was inspired by a short story entitled 'The Seventh Sally' by Stanislaw Lem, in which a tyrant is given a tiny artificial city to oppress. Because of the non-winnable nature of the game, it was ignored by the industry at large until 1989, when the-size-of-a-dining-room-table software minnows Maxis picked it up and republished it as Sim City.

Like all the major franchise games, it has various versions, but essentially has not changed at all. You start with a flat (or landscaped to however you want it to look) piece of land, and you build a city on it. Remembering the golden rules for starting up - industrial land should equal same as residential and commercial combined, get everything supplied with water and electricity and chuck a primary school in for good luck - your city starts to grow. It actually does appear to literally grow too - you can zoom right in and see individual construction workers hammering away at scaffolding, reading the Sun or shouting into mobile phones in Latvian in some versions - and it is genuinely heart warming. It's an altogether gentler buzz to the Championship Manager rollercoaster we spoke about last week, but absolutely no less addictive. It's like watching the most interesting fish tank in the world.

What game would you bring back?

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:57:00 GMT

After a marathon session of gaming on my SNES, I began wondering what it would be like if some of the games from my childhood were remade on current-gen systems.

Looking through my retro catalogue, I would love to see what an up to date version of some of the games would be like. Donkey Kong Country, Super Bomberman are among my favourites to see revitalised. Donkey Kong Country (DKC) on the SNES was revolutionary in terms of graphical prowess. Colourful level design and smooth 3D animation were a big part of what made DKC so great. But, in all honesty there hasn't been a decent DK game since - c'mon Donkey Konga hardly counts!

Championship Manager

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:36:00 GMT

Shropshire is like pipe smoking tobacco, Last of the Summer Wine box sets and spleens: you'll never need them, but it's nice to know that they're there. It's the home of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Ditherington flax mill, the first skyscraper in the world, which is probably about twenty foot high. I once visited Shropshire on a school trip to look at, I dunno, geology or something, and found a badge which was a take off of a Coke advert, and had something along the lines of 'smooth running goal getting cup winning Liverpool FC' on it. At around the same time, two brothers - Paul and Oliver Collyer - were fiddling about with Commodore 64's in a bedroom not so far away. Less than a decade later, they would unleash Championship Manager on the world. That's right. Spouse ignoring, divorce getting, custody losing Championship Manager.

Battle of Destiny trailer released

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:47:00 GMT

Neo Empire have released an official trailer for the fighting games tournament of the year.
Check out all that's on offer at Battle of Destiny, and if you haven't done already, go and sign up! We'll see you there.

Clocking Defender

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:39:00 GMT

When I was younger, I did two paper rounds every morning, which provided me with the then-massive weekly income of £9. I would be paid this on a Saturday and, if West Ham were playing away, would convert this into nine quids' worth of enormous ten pence pieces and head towards an arcade in Bow for a morning of grubby entertainment. Our arcade was typical of many at the time, being a dark room with a line of games machines circling round like a Blade Runner version of Stonehenge, in the middle of which block sprite galactic battles would take place, under the twinkling gaze of kindly old gentlemen - or, as they prefer to be called, paedophiles - who were always happy to provide Fanta and crisps to thirsty space warriors, or, to once again use the correct term, jailbait.

Mars Explorer

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:54:00 GMT

I found this free in-browser game last night called Mars Explorer. Designed by a remarkable 18-year-old chap called Aubrey Falconer, Mars Explorer puts you in control of a space buggy in a small 3D environment that is meant to resemble Mars. The supposed draw is the online multiplayer laser tag mode, but I couldn't connect to any games. The alternative is a charmingly aimless single player exploration mode that reminded me of playing Hunter on the Amiga. What really makes Mars Explorer is this looped piece of music that wouldn't be out of place over the opening or end credits of a Werner Herzog film.

You can drive around with the cursor keys, but when you press the space bar something special happens: your buggy spreads a pair of green, semi-transparent wings. Press the down key and your strange little craft will take off. In flight, controls are really responsive, and you can glide around the very limited environment to your heart's content. If you like Herzog films and nice gliding physics, try playing Mars Explorer.

PC users can play the game here:

http://aubreyfalconer.com/view-238

Mac users can download the dashboard version here:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/games/marsexplorer_atidesign.html

RetroGT launches affiliate program

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:05:03 GMT

Retro GT has teamed up with Affiliate Future to bring you an oppurtunity to make money from your website or blog.
It's easy, all you have to do is sign up, then place a banner or link to Retro GT on your website or blog. Then for every sale you generate we'll give you a 12% commission!

Paradroid

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Paradroid was excellent. Geography homework competed with it in the manner of plankton competing with a blue whale, and Andrew Braybrook - the game's creator - must bear at least some responsibility for a wave of poor O Level results in the mid 1980's. For those of you unfamiliar with this bona fida classic, Paradroid was a simple game, in which the player adopted the guise of a weak but clever low level robot - an Influence Droid - placed aboard a series of rogue space cruiser fleet in which some kind of crazy android mutiny has taken place. They were robo freighters on the way to Beta Ceti system by all accounts, but that wasn't really important, as your task was to kill everything. Or was it? Yes. Well no. Well yes and no, and kind of. Your Influence Droid had about as much combative power as the Commodore 64 you were probably playing the game on but - and here was Paradroid's great hook - it had the ability to take over the brain of other robots, effectively gaining mad power ups. This game-within-a-game took place amid a lateral grid of backgammon-meets-Connect 4 hardwiring complete with circuit splitters and logic gates. You have one side, the host robot has the other. Whoever controls the most circuits after an allotted time is deemed the winner. If it's you, you get a shiny new set of weapons and armaments. If it isn't, you run the risk of being consigned to on-board litter duty for ever.

Street Fighter 4 - UK Exclusive!

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:56:00 GMT

Join RetroGT at the Battle of Destiny tournament and witness the UK debut of Street Fighter IV

After a decade of waiting, Street Fighter 4 is soon to be released and we are literally about to explode with excitement when we say that RetroGT will be among the first to play the completed UK arcade version!

Our friends over at NeoEmpire have teamed up with Capcom Europe to put on the 'Battle Of Destiny' fighting games tournament. This fighting games extravaganza will see the first UK play of the long awaited Street Fighter 4. The winners of the event will be sent to Las Vagas to compete against the best players from around the globe in the Evo Championship Series World Finals!

It's going to be an incredible event, with the first completed version of Street Fighter 4, as well as the first chance to play Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix in the UK.
As with all Neo Empire events, there will be causal play as well as multiple tournaments for games including:

Hyper Street Fighter 2
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection on PS3
Capcom vs. SNK 2 on PS2
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike on PS2

The tournament will be held over the 26th and 27th July 2008 in the London Metropolitian University, Holloway Road.

RetroGT will be there showing off our t-shirts and testing our gaming skills against some of the best players in Europe. It's going to be a weekend to remember and we'd love to see you there.

For your chance to play, and possibly make it all the way to Las Vagas, sign up now at www.BattleOfDestiny.com.

The King of Kong gets a UK release

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:20:00 GMT

Win copies of 'The King of Kong' DVD and exclusive RetroGT T-shirts with MTV and Revolver Entertainment.

'The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters' is a movie that has created quite a stir over in the US. It's a documentary that follows newcomer Steve Wiebe as he challenges classic gaming veteran Billy Mitchell to become the high score champion of Donkey Kong. This is an exciting story that features twists, controversy and fascinating characters in a ruthlessly competitive world. It's not just for gaming fanatics, it is truly insightful and more importantly, downright hilarious. We totally recommend it.

This critically acclaimed documentary is due for UK DVD release on 16th June. To celebrate we have created an exclusive T-shirt design featuring a RetroGT pixel treatment of Steve Wiebe at the arcade cabinet.

To get your hands on one of these lovely T-shirts, MTV are giving some away along with copies of the DVD. Check out their website to enter: www.mtv.co.uk/channel/mtvuk/competitions/win_a_king_of_kong_dvd_t_shirt

The official King of Kong website are also running a competition to give away these T-shirts, copies of the DVD and Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008. You can enter their competition at: www.thekingofkong.co.uk

Lost Winds

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:07:29 GMT

I downloaded Lost Winds yesterday and completed it this afternoon. Lost Winds is an adventure platformer made by Frontier Developments for Nintendo's WiiWare series. While the world and characters are in 3-D, the game controls in 2-D, with sideways movement mapped to the Nunchuk. Instead of a jump button, you use the motion control of the Wii Remote to create gusts of wind around the player character, lifting him from platform to platform. It's this innovative control scheme, rather than the story and the graphics, that really blew me away.

It's rare that I come across a game where it's the very act of playing, of moving through the levels and enjoying the physics of the movement, that makes it memorable. As the game progressed, I levelled up my wind powers, and by the time I was near the end, all I wanted to do was experiment with the different ways I could alight on a grassy platform. I haven't played a game with such satisfying physics since Exile on the Amiga. I do recommend it if you have a Wii.

Dino Run

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:26:01 GMT

Dino Run is a free flash side-scroller developed by Pixeljam. You are a yellow dinosaur trying to escape extinction, running and jumping from left to right, away from a wave of mutilation. The game is about timing your jumps and keeping up the momentum of your run, collecting bonuses, and most importantly hitching rides with pterodactyls. The world is lovingly rendered in a 4-bit style, with set-piece obstacles that will take your breath away. In the event that you crash into another dinosaur or fall down an awkward crater, you will hear the rumble of your impending doom, which takes the form of a wall of destruction that is always just behind you. When it catches up, everything gets darker and silhouetted, while meteors crash around you, creating dynamic obstacles for you to negotiate on the fly. Believe it or not, this game is really exhilarating once you get going, and the attention to detail in the art department keeps the journey from left to right interesting, and, dare I say it, quite beautiful.

There is also a hectic and brilliant online multiplayer option.

Play Dino Run here:
http://pixeljam.com/dinorun

And play other Pixeljam games here:
http://www.pixeljam.com

New design added: Shoryuken

Sat, 31 May 2008 17:32:00 GMT

Here's another design for Street Fighter fans. It's none other than the Shoryuken. After doing the Hadoken and Hurricane Kick we had no reason to miss this out, it finishes off the moveset nicely.

We hope you like it.

Click below for quick link to:
Men's Shoryuken T-Shirt
Girl's Shoryuken T-Shirt
Unisex Shoryuken Hoodie

Pac-man the movie - a classic tale of one man's desire to eat lots of pills unhounded by the DEA

Tue, 27 May 2008 10:46:13 GMT

In the last few years there have been a shedload of movie-videogame tie ins. Most of these efforts have been lame. But as the video game industry has grown Hollywood has taken an interest - well more than it has in previous decades anyway. Various games are constantly rumoured to be 'in production' and then cancelled and then back 'in pre-production'. Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether these rumours have certified sources and are true or whether they're lies from die-hard fanboys. In recent years games like Halo, Metroid and Spiderman (oh wait...wrong way around; easily done!) have been cited as films in the works but then the movies never materialised. The latest rumour I've read about is a Pac-Man movie. Now I love Pac-Man, but this is ridiculous! How could you make a movie about a big, fat (assuming he'd be fat in 3D) yellow ball that eats pellets when his vocabulary consists of 'waka waka waka' - according to the original game at least!

This got me thinking - would movies based on video games work? Would they be any good or is Hollywood just cashing in? And which video games would actually make a decent film?

Dōkutsu Monogatari (Cave Story)

Fri, 23 May 2008 15:48:00 GMT

I was recently looking for freeware games I could play on my laptop. I would have been okay with a Tetris or Marble Madness clone, but I emerged with Dōkutsu Monogatari (Cave Story), a non-linear platformer that evidently took the Internet by storm when it arrived in 2004. I'm sure some people reading this already know about and have played Cave Story, but for those that haven't, you must. The game was developed over a period of five years by Daisuke Amaya (codename: Pixel), who, in a rare and oblique interview described himself as a programmer who rode his bike to work everyday, "standing the whole way." He wrote the music first, and made the game up as he went along.

The You Tube of fighting video games

Thu, 22 May 2008 16:13:00 GMT

We're a little bit late on the uptake with this one, largely because our mates over at NeoEmpire never remember to tell us when they're launching new stuff, but nevertheless those awesome chaps, along with DNA of Electronic Dojo have launched what is essentially, You Tube - for fighting games.

VS Fighting is a You Tube style video sharing site, specifically for uploading videos of your fighting game battles. Essentially, a place to show off your, errr... 'mad skillz' as it were.
This idea is so awesome that we really don't know why we didn't think of it first - but still, here it is: VSfighting.com

Starglider 2

Mon, 12 May 2008 14:54:00 GMT

Set someone free in a game world and they will do their best to test the limits, whether it's finding the altitude ceiling in a flight simulator or walking up to the horizon in a game like Hunter (Amiga/Atari ST).

Often game designers will deal with this kind of behaviour by simply telling the player they will die if they stray from the path. Other times games will use story elements to account for restricted movement in the world. Mario Bros. played with your expectations by having hidden items and the ability to head-butt your way out of the frame in Bowser's castle.

Then there was Starglider 2 for the Amiga. I bought the game second-hand from a market stall in Dartmouth, Devon, where I grew up. You could point your spaceship at the sky in Starglider 2 and leave the planet's atmosphere. The sky changed colour as you ascended and then went black as you entered space. You could travel through space to different planets. All this without a loading screen. I spent many hours exploring the Starglider universe. To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to the game's plot. I was happy exploring the endless tunnel systems beneath the planets' surfaces, collecting alien items, and blowing up petrified trees.

New design added: Syntax Error

Thu, 08 May 2008 22:29:24 GMT

Here's a new design for you lovely programmers out there.

The Syntax Error is available with white decals:

Men's Syntax Error T-Shirt
Girl's Syntax Error T-Shirt
Unisex Syntax Error Hoodie

And also with black decals:

Men's Syntax Error T-Shirt
Girl's Syntax Error T-Shirt
Unisex Syntax Error Hoodie

Braid

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:39:53 GMT

I've never forgotten the music of Turrican and Turrican 2. They were two of the only games I completed on my Amiga 500. Playing Turrican again recently on an emulator, muscle memory took over, and I flew through the first level, collecting hidden power ups and timing jumps just right. This had nothing to do with skill. The truth is I must have played that level a hundred times as a ten year old, played till my eyes hurt, not because it was hard, but because I was happy just to explore the world and allow the strange, melancholy music of Turrican to take over.

What makes a game retro?

Tue, 06 May 2008 13:50:00 GMT

Anyone born before the PlayStation knows what gaming used to be like. Anyone born before the crash of the gaming industry (and the boom) in the 80s will have seen how rapidly games changed. While we are content with our PlayStation 3 consoles, Halo games and motion-controlled tennis, it's easy to look back at the bygone 'golden' eras with a hint of jealousy, some regret and a lot of nostalgia.

Many nostalgic objects that were considered unfashionable at some point can suddenly become popular and the masses surge to buy them. Think lava lamps, classic Mini's or 60s designer chairs. None of these were an instant hit but have become popular in latter years. The same can and has happened to games. What may have been, at the time, quite good and enjoyable becomes super cool and 'retro' simply because it has aged or is distinct. This concept got me thinking. What makes a game retro? Is it just the age of a product? Does it need a unique design feature or furthermore does it need to be rare? The idea of retro is quite subjective, so I'll give it my best shot at delving into what it is.

This is no ordinary NES cartridge

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:33:00 GMT

There are many dedicated modders out there. We've seen some pretty cool stuff ranging from lighting systems to skins and many software mods. But this, for me, has to be one of the best.

It's a complete NES system built into an original Mario Bros. cartridge. This majorly cool creation has been put together by 'Kotomi' - a french dude with a blog. He's obviously a dab hand when it comes to chips because managing to fit all the original circuitry into this cartridge would be near impossible. In this case, the chips are much smaller in order to cram it all in.

It also houses all the essential components - controller ports in the carts mouth, power and reset buttons and AV composite jacks. This makes the 'console' fully functional.

I don't know about you but I think this thing is wiki-mondo!

See the original post on this miniature beauty here: http://kotomiblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/fami-card.html

Is Sonic the Hedgehog actually rubbish?

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:32:00 GMT

With a hint of irony, I was downloading Sonic 3 the other day via the Wii's Virtual Console. Bearing in mind the only classic Sonic game I'd played was the original, plus the mediocre 3D efforts on Dreamcast and GameCube, I was pretty excited.

However, my joy did not last. Once the download had finished I started up the game. I was so eager to re-live the memories of childhood and so it was such a shame when I actually got into the game.

New design added: 1337

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:05:00 GMT

OMG, this T-sh!rt r teh r0xx0rz!!

We have added a new design based loosely around the logo of the classic game Elite on the BBC Micro. The word "Elite" is replaced with "1337" on a new winged insignia but retains its pixel charms.

It is yours to pwn as a T-Shirt, girl's T-Shirt or hoodie.

Retro Review: Virtua Tennis

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:43:00 GMT

Last month I re-gained the use of my Dreamcast after managing to get hold of the AV cable I'd lost. I even picked up two controllers for a quid each - this means Fur Fighters is a must buy now. Ever since my consoles reincarnation I've been playing Crazy Taxi and Chu Chu rocket endlessly. But the one game I've not been able to keep away from is Virtua Tennis. I've 'virtually' completed the game now so it seems appropriate to post a retro review.

Virtua Tennis made it's debut in 1999 in the arcades. It was a decent game then but in 2000 it was ported to the Dreamcast - things got a whole better. There were added modes, players and various other things. At the time though that didn't matter; the fact that Virtua Tennis could be played in peoples' homes was smashing. (okay, no more puns I promise).

Wii Ware Tetris

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 03:42:31 GMT

A version of iconic game Tetris will make it's way to the Wii Ware service, it has been announced. The game will include online capabilities for battling opponents. It's likely the Wii's Infra Red (IR) functionality will be used as an on-screen pointer as well as some motion based controls being implemented.

For those than don't know, Wii Ware is a service that allows users to purchase and download games from a variety of developers. It allows smaller businesses to develop games for the service with relatively low risk as well as more established franchises having a presence. Downloadable games cost 'Wii points' much like buying anything from the Wii shop. A number of games have been named for Wii Ware as well as plenty on the way. Japan is set to have the service operational this month with other regions to follow.

I think the Wii Ware service is a great idea. Finally, something slightly more worthwhile other than a voting channel. As smaller developers are in on the whole thing, expect some quirky, innovative games to be released. As for Tetris, it's good that such a world-renowned game will be on Wii with new additions as well.

Monkey Island Guitar

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:23:00 GMT

Having literally just finished playing through Monkey Island 2 once again, I was absolutely gobsmacked to see this fantastic offering on eBay.

Some awesome human being has bought a brand new Yamaha F310 guitar, and expertly painted it with a scene featuring Guybrush Threepwood.

I want this so much it hurts...
Monkey Island Guitar on eBay

Leisure Suit Larry: An interview with Alen Covert

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:52:00 GMT

I for one, think it's a damn shame that Leisure Suit Larry is no longer under the control of the immortal Al Lowe, and after the hideous disaster that was 'Magna Cum Laude' you'd be forgiven for giving up on Larry altogether - but that said I'm still eager to see what the latest installation of this adult classic has in store for us. The next Leisure Suit Larry game, currently in production by Team 17 (of 'Worms' fame) boasts voiceovers from such luminaries as Shannon Elizabeth and Carmen Electra to name but a few - and it seems that the Team 17 / Sierra conglomorate are attempting to take this franchise back to it's roots.

It's still hard to see Larry's world in full next-gen 3D as opposed to the old point and click format we fell in love with in the 'good old days' but the screenshots do look pretty impressive, and I'm sure it'll be good for a laugh nonetheless.

The Internode Games network have an exclusive interview posted on their site, with the writer of the next game, Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust - a Mr. Allen Covert. He's a longtime friend of Adam Sandler, but let's not hold that against him.

Check out Internode's interview with Allen Covert to see what's next in store for die hard Larry fans.

For more Leisure Suit Larry related info, check out the following sites:

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust - Official website
Leisure Suit Larry on Wikipedia
Al Lowe's website
Sierra Entertainment
Team 17
Our lovely t-shirt inspired by the original Leisure Suit Larry

New Designs added: NES and SNES joypads

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:27:00 GMT

We've added a couple of new designs to the website for all you Nintendo fans. They are pixel renditions of none other than the NES and SNES joypads. The SNES pad is also available as in its US variant with purple buttons.

They've both been put into a new Nintendo category along with the Gameboy. As usual they come in standard T-shirt, girls T-shirt and hoodie form.

BBC Micro team reunited for the first time at the London Science Museum

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:43:00 GMT

For those of us growing up in the UK back in the 80's, the humble BBC Micro was to be seen in classrooms across the country. They boasted many educational games and applications and for many of us, represented our first experience with computers.
Who can forget the legendary 'Granny's Garden', or the 'Logo Turtle'?!

I was lucky enough that my school had around 20 of these machines all linked up in a computer room, giving me my first taste of networking.
The idea that I could write an insult about my teacher on one computer, and have it appear on another computer at the other side of the room was incredibly exciting!

While other home computers existed at the time, the BBC Micro was unique in that it was a joint project between the BBC and Acorn Computers, to develop a machine that could be implemented in the classroom - known as the BBC Computer Literacy Project.

Granny's Garden on the BBC Micro

Today, the London Science Museum brings together the original team responsible for the BBC Micro, John Radcliffe and David Allen, from the BBC, and Hermann Hauser and Andy Hopper, from Acorn, in a special meeting of the Computer Conservation Society.
This will be the first time the team has been together since they worked on the project in 1981.

Dr Tilly Blyth, Curator of Computing and Information at the Science Museum, said: "This is a rare opportunity to hear about the remarkable impact and legacy of the BBC Micro and the Computer Literacy Project. The BBC Micro helped stimulate the imaginations of a generation of children, and inspired them to see computer programming as a career. This period of intense creativity is a major reason why the UK is now the fourth largest producer of computer games in the world and a major player in the global interactive market."

David Braben, the co-writer of the groundbreaking game 'Elite' - written first for the BBC Micro - has also released an article on BBC News about the BBC Micro computer, and it's role in UK computing.

Science Museum Press Release
David Brayben article on the BBC Micro
BBC Micro on Wikipedia
Granny's Garden on Wikipedia

New design added: Breakout

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:56:00 GMT

A brand new RetroGT web exclusive, not yet available at any of our stalls or exhibitions.

Instant coolness and guaranteed success with girls* await you when you don this mighty new t-shirt inspired by the Atari classic, Breakout.

A slick 2 colour vinyl print, complete with player scores of the infamous 1337 and the year of Atari's initial Breakout release, 1976.

Our new Breakout t-shirt is available in the following flavours:

Men's Breakout T-Shirt
Girl's Breakout T-Shirt
Unisex Breakout Hoodie

*Success with girls not actually guaranteed... but we reckon you stand a fair chance, handsome chap like yourself.

New design added - Hurricane Kick

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:41:00 GMT

Our Love for Street Fighter continues. Following on from our Hadoken design this is the Hurricane Kick done in stylised japanese kanji.

Those who have met us at shows or the London markets may have seen the Hurricane Kick before but this is the first time we've made it available on the website. We've put it in a new Street Fighter category and moved the Hadoken and Sheng Long designs there too. This creates a place for more Street Fighter based designs. :)

The Hurricane Kick is available in standard T-shirt, girls T-shirt and hoodie.

Formal complaint from Mario to Nintendo

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:50:00 GMT

Link bait it may be, but the concept of Mario writing a formal letter of complaint to his bosses at Nintendo is just hilarious.
Greg Lockwood has taken on the Mario persona in order to level a firm barrage of abuse at Nintendo, and the result is chuckle-worthy to say the least.

"Whose bright idea was it for me to compete in Olympic events against Sonic of all people? What were you thinking? He runs so fast you can't see his fucking feet."

Love it.
Check out the full letter over at Sea.Man.Ticks

Old skool Nintendo adverts

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:49:52 GMT

I came across this, and just had to post a link for you guys to see - SmashBrawlRankings.com have put up a list of 12 old Nintendo adverts from the cheesy 80's.
Some of these are just hilarious - the list even includes the really old NES advert with ROB the robot... Ahh, the memories.

Follow the link to check out this little slice of nostalgia.

Nintendo Commercials

The Nestari - Part NES, part Atari, all AWESOME!

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:34:48 GMT

This is quite possibly the most awesome thing I've ever seen.
This is the 'Nestari'.

As the name suggests, it combines a NES and an Atari 2600 in a portable handheld console. It was created by one 'Benjamin J Heckendorn', who it appears is a god of all things console-like.

On his site, Benheck.com, Benjamin documents how he hacks old machines to pieces, creating new masterpieces such as the Atari 800 Laptop, the portable Colcovision and the handheld Sega Megadrive, to name but a few.

Seriously, I would literally kill several people, including friends and family members, to be able to do what this guy does. It's just incredible... Luckily I don't have to go that far as he's had the foresight to write a videogame hacking book with tutorials, and even sells 'kits' via his website.
So that'll save a few lives.

Commodore 64 hits the Wii virtual console.

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:21:00 GMT

Nintendo have announced that later this year, the Commodore 64 will be added to the Wii virtual console. It'll be a great day for retro gamers, who will be able to enjoy classic games from one of the greatest home computer systems of the 80's.

Bala Keilman, CEO of Commodore Gaming, commented, "The massive impact the Commodore 64 had on video-gaming is still evident today with many gamers remembering the computer and its games with great fondness. By working with Nintendo of Europe, we are ensuring that future generations of gamers can play some of the best and most popular titles that kick-started the computer games revolution and so keep the C64 legacy in gamers hearts."

It's unclear at the moment how many C64 games will be released for the Wii, however we have been told that they will cost 500 Wii points (around £2.50) each and that the first two games released will be the all-time Commodore classics, 'International Karate' and 'Uridium'.

Own the rarest video game of all time?

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:10:00 GMT

So rare, it doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry, the Atari 2600 game, 'Gamma Attack' is thought to be possibly the rarest video game of all time. Apparantly, only 20 were ever produced... and you could own one of these little gems for a mere... wait for it... $500,000.00

Yeah, we think it's possibly a bit steep, especially since the graphics are well naff, but each to their own.
If you fancy owning this trophy of geekiness, and you have half a mil to spare, get on over to eBay now!

Gamma Attack on eBay

Dizzy: The ultimate cartoon adventure

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:27:00 GMT

Created in 1986 by Andrew and Phillip Oliver (The Oliver Twins) for Codemasters, Dizzy the egg was an 80s phenomenon. Dizzy spawned eight full length adventure games as well as six spin-off games, and was ported to many formats including Spectum, C64, Amstrad, Amiga, Atari ST and several consoles.

Dizzy began life on the ZX Spectrum. His somersaulting antics where due largely to the fact that the Oliver Twins had previously developed a program called 'Panda (PhillipANDAndrew) Sprites' which enabled them to rotate sprites by any degree. Yes, in the 80's, rotating a sprite was a difficult affair.

Neo Empire launches 'Super VS Battle 2008' event website

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:35:00 GMT

Our friends over at Neo Empire have been working hard to promote the UK fighting games scene. They host regular tournaments attended by some of the best fighting games players from around the world.

Super VS Battle is the biggest professional Fighting games tournament in the UK and is open to the all players Worldwide. This is the place where the best come to show their stuff and be crowned Super VS Battle Champion.

Almost all the information needed to participate in this event is available on the Super VS Battle website. Most of the games have already been announced for SVB 2008, but there are still more to come.

Retro GT launches Facebook page - World rejoices

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:32:00 GMT

Yeah, we're not entirely sure why, but it seems that everyone and his dog has a profile on Facebook. We just use it to play Scrabble and Jetman, but since they'll let us have our own little corner to promote our lovely retro t-shirts, we thought we might as well sign up.

You can view our little Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RetroGTcom/7956673257

If you'd all be so kind as to sign up as 'fans', it would make us simply ecstatic with joy.

RSS feed launched

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:05:00 GMT

The Retro GT blog is now being offered as an RSS feed, so you can easily keep up to date with all the news in retro gaming, as well as the latest developments here at Retro GT.

All you need to do is point your favourite feed reader at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RetroGT.

SNK Arcade Classics: Vol.1 for PS2 and PSP

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

SNK Playmore the creators of the Neo-Geo arcade and home systems have announced that it plans to launch a compilation of its Neo-Geo games for Sony's PS2 and PSP. Scheduled for release in the first half of 2008 it mostly consists of early titles and the first titles of SNK's more popular game series like King of Fighters and Metal Slug. This is a list of the 16 games in the compilation:

Art of Fighting

Baseball Stars 2

Burning Fight

Fatal Fury

King of Fighters '94

King of the Monsters

Last Resort

Magician Lord

Metal Slug

Neo Turf Masters

Samurai Shodown

Sengoku

Shock Troopers

Super Sidekicks 3

Top Hunter

World Heroes

A look at the greatness of Doom, and where to find copies of the Alpha version

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil... prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon..." - Terry Pratchett

As gamers, there are a few moments in our lives that are just seminal. Perhaps the first time you beat one of the older kids at Street Fighter in the local newsagents; maybe when you completed Sonic 2 on the day it came out within 2 hours of getting it home; or the day you finally got to the end of 'Secret of Mana'. As for me, it was all about Doom.

Retro GT launches new website

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

After several months of hard toil, blood, sweat & tears, Retro GT launched our new website on January 17th 2008.

The new site has loads of new products and features:

All retro designs are now available on Girl's t-shirts and Hoodies.
Our search function is now literally 10 times better.
Customers can post reviews of our lovely retro t-shirts on the site.
We have a slick new blog system to keep you informed of all the best retro games related stuff out there.

We're not resting now though, there's much more to come including:

Loads of new designs.
Kid's t-shirts.
Ability to post photographs of yourselves and your mates sporting our wares.
Retro games forums.

So, check back often because the face of Retro GT is ever changing.

If you don't fancy the idea of continually sitting in front of your computer clicking the 'refresh' button in case we've added something new to the site, then just sign up to become a member. That way you can add yourself to our lovely mailing list and be informed just as soon as anything cool happens.

Chip Tunes, the musical 8bit revolution?

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Did you know that there is a thriving music scene based solely on sounds from our most loved consoles?
If this excites you, please read on..

The genre commonly named 'chip tunes' consists of sounds sampled or synthesised on old consoles ranging from the commodore 64 through to the gameboy and NES. Many new pieces of software have been written for these old consoles to maximise their musical use. Prophet64 has just been released for the C64, which converts your Commodore 64 into a drum machine, 303 emulator, mono synth and sequencer. Nanoloop and LSDJ have been around for some time on cartridges for the gameboy which again enables a gameboy to be a fully fledged music studio.

Some artists choose to only use the old consoles in their music production whereas others incorporate them within a modern studio for the added advantages that come in hand.

E:LF has put together a 35 minute mix of chip tunes that he has collected online to showcase this amazing genre. Listen to the mix the next time you are playing your megadrive for maximum effect!

Neo Empire hosts 'Fighter's Day 2'

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Our fighting friends over at Neo Empire are hosting another Fighter's Day event. It's an event dedicated to fans of fighting games with tournaments and casual matches for people to enjoy. It is going to be held at the same plush venue with alcohol and hot food available. This time they have added even more games and extended the event to 11 hours.

Fighter's Day 2 will be held on Sunday 29th October. Head over to neoempire.com for more details.

Frogster Interactive to remake Bitmap Brothers titles

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Frogster Interactive have decided to modernise not one, but two titles from the 16-bit era. The German publisher recently announced that it has signed a deal with The Bitmap Brothers to remake 'Speedball 2' and 'Chaos Engine'. The titles are scheduled for worldwide release in 2007 and judging by the publisher's back catalogue the target platform is most likely to be the PC.

This isn't the first time that someone has tried to breathe life into the Speedball brand. The Bitmap Brothers themselves developed Speedball 2100 for the PlayStation back in 2000 and, sadly, Speedball Arena for the PC was cancelled mid-development.

Arguably The Bitmap Brother's most famous title, 'Speedball 2' was a future sports sim resembling American football but with fewer rules and more violence. Chaos Engine was a shoot'em up with co-op play and ambitious gameplay twists. Both games made their mark on the Commodore Amiga before moving onto other platforms, they were typical examples of The Bitmap Brothers' programming prowess and stunning artistic style. Let's hope Frogster Interactive can do the titles justice.

Speedball2.de

Neo Empire hosts 'Fighter's Day'

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The guys at Neo Empire have thrown down the gauntlet and invite fighting game fans to join the fray at their "Fighter's Day" event. It is a 10 hour gaming session of tournaments and casual matches with games ranging from Street Fighter to Tekken 5. You will have the chance to win cash prizes and if you're lucky, some Retro GT t-shirts... so brush up on your skills and head on down. The Venue serves alcohol so losers can drown their sorrows or join in the merriment with other players. Fighter's Day is held on Sunday 10th September in North London.

Neo Empire represent the UK Fighting games community and regularly hold events and tournaments. For more information on "Fighter's Day" and other Neo Empire events visit neoempire.com.

New T-Shirt added - Atari joystick

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

"Nothing says 'old school' more than the Atari."

Up, down, left, right, fire. None of this X, Y, R3, Triangle, oblong rubbish.
Keep it simple.. keep it real.

Retro GT returns to Memorabilia

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

It has been a busy, hot summer. After exhibiting at the London MCM show and London Film & Comic Con, Retro GT will be returning to the Midlands for another Memorablilia show. It takes place at the NEC in Birmingham on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th of August. We debuted our 'Pong' design at the London Film & Comic Con, this time we'll reveal our new 'Gameboy' T-shirt... and perhaps another Streetfighter T-shirt?

"Shun Goku Satsu!!"

http://www.memorabilia.co.uk/

RetroGT meets Craig Charles

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Late last month, RetroGT exhibited at the Memorabilia convention in Birmingham. Two large halls of the NEC was filled with traders dealing in collectables like sports, sci-fi and movie memorabilia. There were sections dedicated to talks, movie showings, star photos and guest signings. Some of these star guests included the crew of Red Dwarf, and yes, Craig Charles was among them.

We didn't venture away from our stall very often. Only food and toilet breaks were important enough to stop us playing Street Fighter, albeit briefly. So it wasn't until the 2nd day when everyone was packing up that we decided to put down the joypads. It was at that moment when Craig Charles strolled past looking rather merry. We called out to him and beckoned him over. When asked if he liked videogames, his reply was a simple "yup", it was instantly obvious that he had been drinking. It was our second encounter with the Red Dwarf legend, the first being in an old London pub a few years back. We offered to him a free T shirt of his choice so he gratefully picked our 'Break the System' one. During our chat we asked for a photo of him in front of our stall. He clocked on to our ruse for a free photo opportunity and humorously exclaimed "oooh, you don't get something for nothing in this world, do you?" He remained merry and left with a smile on his face, after a quick photo of course.

So Craig, if you're reading this, we apologise for duping you into the photo and hope you enjoy your T shirt. It was an Honour and a pleasure.

New T-Shirt added - HADOKEN

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

"A relentless barrage of Hadokens are coming your way!!"?

Here we have a new design inspired by late night Street Fighter sessions. It's a cool-blue fireball with the japanese writing for Hadoken over the top. Underneath that is the familiar notation for pulling off this special move. We also created a red version for those who prefer their balls fiery!

Frogger's 25th Anniversary

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

"I got to the other side of the road and crossed the river. There was nothing there... so I did it again."

Not only has our traffic dodging friend reached the other side but he has also reached a ripe old age of 25. Our frog expert sources tell us that 25 is old for a frog. Their longevity averages between 4 and 15 years with the oldest reported being a European Common Toad who had a lifespan of a whopping 40 years.

Frog facts aside, Konami have launched a website (see related link) and a promotional campaign to celebrate the Frogger franchise's milestone.

"One of the original video game icons, Frogger remains just as popular today as when he first tried to cross that busy street 25 years ago," said Konami senior VP of sales and marketing Catherine Fowler. "We are celebrating Frogger's silver anniversary with a variety of new products and programs that will ensure that he remains an enduring figure to an all-new generation of gamers as well as the millions of existing fans of the franchise."