Remember Sky TV's Games World from the 90s? In this episode, we meet one of the early finalists and the youngest competitive video gamer of the era, Dean Kennedy - aka Mean Machine Dean. A relative newcomer to Evercade, Dean talks through his early experiences on the platform and what attracted him to it in the first place. 

As well as his love of Street Fighter, Dean has a passion for all fighting games and would love to see Tekken brought to Evercade - "never say never". Dean also talks about his Twitch channel, inspirations in the world of gaming and his new side-hustle making custom shells for classic gaming consoles. 

🔗 Links:

Website - meanmachinedean.com

Twitch - @meanmachinedean

X / Twitter - @meanmachinedean10

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Chaos Engine soundtrack, by Richard Joseph

Earlier this month, Retro Titans was invited to a special media day for journalists, influencers and creators, to get a rare opportunity to meet the people who run Blaze Entertainment and try out the new devices and games.

We were under embargo until the end of the month, so this interview recorded with Crazy Burger reveals the highlights of the day and our revised take on new launches, like the Alpha, Tomb Raider and Bitmap Brothers 2. 

Crazy Burger also gives us his take on all the releases and announcements so far in 2024, playing a game of 'Hit, Miss or Maybe'. 

🔗 Links:

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@CrazyBurger

Facebook facebook.com/Crazy-Burger-119134488910841

Instagram instagram.com/crazy_burger_youtube

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

BBC Live & Kicking show theme, by David Arnold Music

Tomb Raider 1 - Main Theme, by Nathan McCree

Witch n' Wiz is one of my all-time favourite games on Evercade, so I've been chomping at the bit to speak to the game's developer Matt Hughson. It was everything I hoped and more. We discussed how he came up with the idea for Witch n' Wiz and developed it into the game we all love. He explained his process for devising the levels and gets the difficulty level just right, before moving on to tell the story of his involvement with Evercade. 

Matt, who is based in Vancouver and works as a developer in his day job too, is also a fierce supporter of the homebrew developer scene and he explains why the community is so supportive, and tells us about some of his own favourite games. 

As always, we covered his top choices of a device and carts to take away for the Desert Island Carts feature. 

If you enjoyed Witch n' Wiz or have any interest in how games actually get made, this episode is for you. 

🔗 Links:

Linktr.ee - @matthughson

X / Twitter - @matthughson

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Nebs 'n Debs, by kulor (thanks to Chris Cacciatore)

The Evercade Facebook groups have been lit up in the past few weeks discussing collecting and selling carts. As a non-collector myself, I am intrigued by the desire to own the whole collection and equally curious about the prices some of these carts can command. So, to understand more about the art of collecting on Evercade, I spoke to reviewer, collector and all-round retro gaming fan Connor (aka Connor The Braixen) from Seafoam Gaming. 

We also have time to discuss licensing, why some carts go legacy and which ones could be up for deletion next. Connor has an extensive knowledge of Evercade and retro gaming in general, and his enthusiasm is infectious. 

As always, we have time to discuss Connor's desert island carts and play out with one of his favourite retro gaming tunes. 

🔗 Links:

Website - seafoamgaming.com

Blue Sky - @seafoamgaming.bsky.social

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Valis III - Nizetti, by Hisao Inoue, Jun Hasebe & Shingo Murakami

The Mega Cat Studios Collections (I & II) are firm fan favourites amongst the Evercade community, so having the opportunity to talk to the company’s founder James Deighan and cinematic director Andrew Marsh was a real treat.

This episode covers a lot of ground, from the origin story of Mega Cat Studios and how they started working with Blaze Entertainment, through to the business of making indie games and defining success in a hit-led industry.

If you have any interest in developing your own game or you’d like to peep behind the curtain of a successful game studio, this episode is for you!

It also happens to have a banging tune to play out at the end.

🔗 Links:

X / Twitter - @megacatstudios

Instagram - @megacatstudios

Facebook - @megacatstudios

Discord - @megacat

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Coffee Crisis theme tune, by Mega Cat Studios

Fresh from a mid-season break, we talk to gaming journalist and YouTuber Andi Hamilton and get his take on the latest Evarcade news, the growth of retro gaming and his love for Duke Nukem, Street Fighter and Sensible Soccer. 

As usual we have the Desert Island Carts feature, where Andi tells us his choice of device, carts and music to take away on a desert Island. 

Do make sure you subscribe to Retro Titans to never miss an episode and give us a review, if you have a moment to spare. 

🔗 Links:

X / Twitter - @andihero

YouTube - @andihamilton

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Splatterhouse 2 Genesis Music - Bellache Boss Battle, by Eiko Kaneda

We catch up with Nik Tyrrell, a retro gaming YouTuber, Evercade collector and fan of the 8-bit era. As well as providing his thoughts on all things Evercade, Nik gives us his perspectives on the golden era of gaming, what the appeal of collecting cartridges is and his hidden gems in the Evercade library, amongst other things. 

We also play an Evercade game, 'Evercade Family Fortunes', which you're welcome to join in at home or on the move. All you need is a pen and paper before you start listening. 

Do make sure you subscribe to Retro Titans to never miss an episode and give us a review, if you have a moment to spare. 

🔗 Links:

YouTube - @NikTyrell

Facebook Group - Nik Tyrell on YouTube

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

New Zealand Story - arcade in-game music

In our sixth epsiode, we catch up with three of the team behind Evercade Evolution, a fan magazine devoted to the world of Evercade. We find out why the magazine was created and hear some of the highlights so far - from a chance encounter with OutOfTheBit, which led to first Evercade single cart release, to how the magazine runs as a non-profit and raises money for charity. 

Liam, Mark and Vaughan also give their thoughts about the world of retro and indie gaming on Evercade, why they'd like to see a Spectrum cart and make their predictions on games and hardward for the year ahead. 

🔗 Links:

Evercade Info - Evercade Evolution

Twitter - @EvercadeMag

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Boomerang Kid, by AceMoon

So, what happens when you discover Evercade? You want to share your experiences and ask questions of like-minded people, of course. Thankfully there are plenty of options to choose from, including the Evercade Hangout on Facebook.

This week, we catch up with Ryan Andrews, head admin of the Evercade Hangout, which promotes itself as 'the only Evercade group that allows all opinions whether they're good or bad.' We find out what goes into running a successful Facebook Group, how the sister channel, the Total Evercade YouTube livestream works, and Ryan's personal take on all things Evercade. 

🔗 Links:

Facebook - The Evercade Hangout

YouTube - Retro Gaming Revival (where Total Evercade lives)

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Goal-scoring Superstar Hero, written by Jon Hare and Richard Joseph, performed by Jackie Reed

In this episode we catch up with three of the team behind the futuristic, dystopian Evercade classic, Full Void. The game's developer Out Of The Bit is a small independent studio based in Wimbledon London and was founded in 2008 by Ali Motisi.

Ali and two of his team Tom Cullen and Leo Halwart explain how the pandemic was the inspiration for Full Void and some of the decisions they made, from the choice of music to the style of pixel art. 

We also get find out how it got picked up by Evercade to become Blaze Entertainment's first single-game cartridge and how it felt to pick the Debug independent gaming Subscriber's Choice award.

If you are interested in indie gaming or the Evercade platform, this is a must-listen episode. 

🔗 Links:

Website - Out Of The Bit

Twitter / X - @outofthebit

Facebook - @outofthebit

Instagram - @outofthebit

🧑‍💻 Interviewees:

Twitter / X -@Ali Motisi

Twitter / X - @TCullenDA

Twitter / X - @Leoliolao 

🎮 Out Of The Bit games on Evercade:

Full Void 

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Full Void (Amiga version), by Robyn Powell

In this episode of Retro Titans, we talk to Ally Low, the founder and owner of game studio Lowtek Games and a prominent figure on dyslexia in gaming. Ally explains the progress around dyslexia, but why it's still coming up short and what he'd like to see happen next.

We also discuss his process for creating amazing, addictive games like Flea and Tapeworm Disco Party, and then promoting them with Blaze Entertainment. Ally provides budding games developers with his top tips for getting into gaming and creating the next Evercade classic.  

In the final part of the show, Ally also shares the top three carts and device he would take with him to a desert island, as part of our Desert Island Carts feature. Make sure you hang around for his music choice at the end of the show. 

Whether you are new to Evercade or a seasoned gamer on the platform, you'll love this deep-dive into all things Evercade.

🔗 Links:

Website - https://www.lowtek.games/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/wallmasterr 

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wallmasterr 

💾 Gaming-making engines:

GB Studio - https://www.gbstudio.dev/ 

Godot - https://godotengine.org/ 

🎮 Lowtek Games games on Evercade:

Indie Heroes 3

Indie Heroes 2

Indie Heroes 1

📖 Projector Mapping demo:

@JohnBlueRiggs on Twitter 

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Tapeworm Disco Party - in-game music

For our second episode of Retro Titans, we talk to one of the leading lights in the world of Evercade, Sir_Top_&_Hat. We find out how he discovered Evercade and played a role in the development of the platform, including gaining those early licenses and promoting the Evercade community. He also shares the top three carts and device he would take with him to a desert island, as part of our Desert Island Carts feature. 

Whether you are new to Evercade or a seasoned gamer on the platform, you'll love this deep-dive into all things Evercade.

🔗 Links:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/sir_top_and_hat

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

New Zealand Story - arcade in-game music

In case you hadn't noticed, there's another Evercade podcast out there: Total Evercade, which airs every other Monday evening at 8pm UK time. Here we catch up with one of the regular presenters, Oliver Barnett, to explain what it's all about and they have doubled down on the livestream experience for Evercade fans. 

We also hear about Olly's love of Xeno Crisis, why he plays Sensible Soccer every Christmas (even though he's not a football fan) and get his reaction to upcoming releases from Blaze Entertainment. Phil also pitches a couple of marketing ideas to Olly, because apparently Blaze bigwigs listen ;-) 

There's also a few references to Olly's collaborator, and head admin for the Evercade Hangout, Ryan Andrews - who appears on episode 5 of Retro Titans, if you want to check that out before or after listening to Olly. 

🔗 Links:

YouTube - Retro Gaming Revival 

Facebook - The Evercade Hangout

X / Twitter - @RetroGaming Rev1

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Xeno Crisis 'Area 1, Perimeter', by Daniel Bärlin (Savaged Regime) for the Sega Mega Drive. Mastered by Lee Mintram (Featurecast).

We kick off Retro Titans with an interview with one of the leading retro gaming YouTubers, Crazy Burger. We discuss his accidental success as a YouTuber, the early days of Evercade, the Super Pocket success, predictions for the future, and his Desert Island Carts + much more! 

Whether you are new to Evercade or a seasoned gamer on the platform, you'll love this deep-dive into all things Evercade.

🔗 Links:

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@CrazyBurger

Facebook facebook.com/Crazy-Burger-119134488910841

Instagram instagram.com/crazy_burger_youtube

Talk to any Evercade fan and it won't be long before Duke Nukem 1 & 2 Remastered comes up in conversation. And for good reason: it's an example of a classic game, made better for the Evercade platform, without tinkering with it too much. So, this episode goes into the background of how and why the games got (re)made, trying to uncover what makes them so special. 

Out guest, Nikolai Wuttke-Hohendorf - aka Lethal Guitar - was the lead developer of the Duke Nukem remasters, and he explains exactly how they brought the Duke back from the dead and the lengths they went to to preserve all the iconic features, whilst also making a number of gameplay improvements. 

🔗 Links

Twitter / X - @Lethal_Guitar

Blog - lethalguitar.wordpress.com

🎵 Music 

Duke Nukem Title Screen, by James Paddock

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Axis, by Danimal Cannon 

Whether you’re a veteran Evercade collector or new to the world of collecting retro gaming carts, you’ll enjoy this interview with Matt Upton. We discuss what it means to be an Evercade collector, whether you need to collect the full set, and hacks for acquiring hard-to-get Legacy carts. 

Matt is a keen collector himself and was game enough to play our Evercade 'Price Is Right' game - can you beat him guessing the correct price for popular Evercade classics? 

As always, we have our Desert Island Carts feature, where Matt shares his choices of carts and device to take to a desert island. 

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Streets of Rage 2 'Good Ending', by Yuzo Koshiro

We caught up with Sean Cleaver, Blaze Entertainment's spokesperson and head of marketing, to find out more about Evercade's plans for the future and answer questions about the upcoming Alpha mini arcade and what's been going on in the world of Evercade.

We cover the Alpha launch in detail, including how the Evercade mini arcade came about, as questions about specification, game line-up and whether we'll see more mini arcades in future. Sean also answers listener questions, including dealing with bricked carts and whether we'll ever see a Spectrum carts. We also pose the idea of a real-life Evercade event (EverCon?) 

As always, we have Sean's Desert Island Carts and find out the games and device one of the heads of Blaze Entertaintment would take, if stranded on a desert island. 

🔗 Links:

X / Twitter - @cleaverslips

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

OutRun 'Spash Wave', by Hiroshi Kawaguchi

In the second of our ALPHA reaction episodes, we catch up with previous Retro Titans guests Crazy Burger, Vaughan Anscombe and Nik Tyrrell to find out what they think about Blaze's first mini arcade cabinet launch.

As well as finding out whether Evercade have got a hit on their hands and if they will be buying one, we also discuss the future of Blaze Entertainment and what they are most excited about for the rest of 2024. 

🔗 Links:

Crazy Burger on YouTube - @crazyburger

Nik Tyrell on YouTube - @NikTyrrell 

Evercade Evolution on X / Twitter - @EvercadeMag

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Manic Miner, by Matthew Smith. Published in 1983 by Bug-Byte

In this first of two reaction minisodes to the launch of Evercade ALPHA, the new mini arcade bar top machine from Blaze Entertainment, we catch up with journalist and gaming streamer Andi Hamilton. Here we get Andi's initial take and his thoughts on where this fits into the Evercade ecosystem, following the big reveal on Thursday 30th May.

🔗 Links:

X / Twitter - @andihero

YouTube - @andihamilton

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Mega Man 3 Rock Medley, produced and performed by Daniel Araujo and friends, composed by Yasuaki Fujita and Harumi Fujita

If you're serious about retro gaming and can recall all your devices from days gone by, you'll love this episode with retro gaming journalist and author, Mike Diver. Publisher of three books on retro gaming, with another in the works, Mike has an encyclopedic knowledge of arcades, consoles and computer games. Here we delve into his latest book and talk about why retro gaming holds such a fascination for many of us. 

As always we get our guest's take on what's happening at Blaze Entertainment and in the Evercade universe, plus our regular Desert Island Carts feature. Turns out Mike is also a big music fan, so we cover that too. 

🔗 Links:

X / Twitter - @mikediver

Muck Rack - Mike Diver

Amazon - Mike's retro gaming books 

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Xenon 2 - Megablast (Amiga Music), by Bomb the Bass and Dave Whittaker

In a packed episode, we talk to IT lecturer and media commentator Andy Caomhanach about his love of retro gaming, which goes back to his Commodore 64 days and the Light Fantastic Pack. He describes how is love of computing and gaming led to the discovery of the Evercade platform and what makes it so special. 

We also tackle the thorny issue of cart failures, which has come up on various groups and forums, in an attempt to get to the bottom of why they might be happening, whether we should be worried and what gamers can do about it. 

Finally, as always, we have the Desert Island Carts feature and Andy explains his love of retro gaming music, especially from Richard Joseph. 

🔗 Links:

X / Twitter - @andycaomhanach

LinkedIn - @andycaomhanach

University of Galway - www.universityofgalway.ie

Andy on RTE - www.rte.ie

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

The Chaos Engine (1993) World 2 music ('The Workshops') by Richard Joseph

Boulder Dash was released in 1984 - yes, that means it's 40 years old - and to celebrate we caught up with the game's designer and developer, Peter Liepa. Boulder Dash was included on the Evercade C64 Collection 3 release this year and, despite its age, still plays like a dream. Peter explains the origins of the game, what it was like making games in the 80s and the creative process he went through to bring this classic to our computer screens. This is a must-listen for fans of the toe-tapping cave digger, Rockford. 

🔗 Links:

Peter's website - brainjam.ca 

Boulder Dash website - boulder-dash.com

X / Twitter - @peterliepa

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Boulder Dash music, by Peter Liepa

Goodboy Galaxy is widely regarded as one of the best games on Evercade, so having the chance to speak to one half of the development team, Rik Nicol, was a too good an opportunity to pass up on. In this episode we find out how Goodboy Galaxy was conceived, why it was developed on Game Boy Advance, the biggest challenges in making the game, and what it was like working with Blaze Entertainment on launch. 

Rik also tells us about his Desert Island Carts and which piece of gaming music he would like to take with him to a desert island. 

If you enjoyed Goodboy Galaxy, you'll love this deepdive into the game. And if you haven't played it before, you'll be wanting to buy the cart after listening to Rik!

🔗 Links:

Website - goodboygalaxy.com

X / Twitter - @hot_pengu

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Gods: Into the Wonderful (1991) main theme arranged for Amiga by Richard Joseph. Original by Nation XII.

One of the best thing about Evercade is meeting interesting people who make you think differently about retro gaming and computing generally, not just on the platform - and this week's guest is no different. Shane Powell - aka Kenjara - works in the IT industry and discovered Evercade in the early days and has since become part of the scene, helping to test games, assist with the development of the Duke Nukem Collection 1 remasters, and even publishing his own 'hidden game'. This interview covers all this and more, including his Desert Island Carts. Make sure you stay to the end to hear Shane's fabulous playout music. 

🔗 Links:

Discord - @Evercade-Official (search for Kenjara)

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

VVVVVV, by Souleye

Ollie Houston Blunn - aka Blunners - is one of the team behind the Retro Gaming Revival YouTube channel and a regular presenter on the Total Evercade livestream. He shares his love of Evercade, his strange affection for Foxyland, and what Blaze needs to do next to keep the fanbase happy and ensure it continues to grow.

As a grassroots football club chairman, we talk about the absence of decent football games on Evercade, Sensible Soccer aside, and what he'd like to see brought to the platform. Blunners is also a big Nintendo fan and talks about his collection, including his museum piece Virtual Boy, which he claims was ahead of its time. 

🔗 Links:

YouTube  - Retro Gaming Revival

Instagram - @RetroGamingRevivial1

Facebook - Retro Gaming Revival

X / Twitter - @RetroGamingRev1

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

War Has Never Been So Much Fun, by Richard Joseph and Jon Hare

In this episode we take a departure from our usual format focusing on Evercade to interview Chris Smith, CTO of Retro Games Ltd, about the launch of 'The Spectrum' – a modern day recreation of the iconic ZX Spectrum from 1982.

Chris is literally the man who wrote the book on the ZX Spectrum and is full of knowledge about the inner workings of the much-loved 80s home computer. So, it's no surprise that after the launch of reimagined versions of the C64, Amiga and Atari 400, we now have The Spectrum. 

In this interview, Chris explains why they waited this long to tackle The Spectrum, described some of the challenges in the design and production, and given us a taste of his own home computer favourites. 

If you're a proud new owner of The Spectrum, or just have an interest in home computer history, you'll love this episode. 

🔗 Links:

Website - Retrogames.biz

Facebook - Retro Games Ltd 

Facebook - The Spectrum Group

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Monty On The Run theme, by Rob Hubbard

It's the season finale of Retro Titans and we have drafted in a regular guest, Evercade YouTuber extraordinaire Crazy Burger to help us review Evercade and Blaze Entertainment's 2024. 

It's a 'questions and answers' show format, where Phil and Crazy Burger quiz each other about their Evercade highlights and things they'd like to see in 2025 - plus a few awkward and surprising questions thrown into the mix. 

🔗 Links:

YouTube @CrazyBurger

Facebook @CrazyBurgerYouTube

Facebook @Retro.Titans

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Goodboy Galaxy Zandunia Sunrise, by Vincent Verger with additional composition and production by Rik Nicol

In this episode we catch up with Blaze Entertainment CEO, Andrew Byatt to find out more about the origins of Evercade and the key milestones that have led up to its popularity today. Andrew describes Blaze's vision for retro gaming, the reasons behind the Hyper Mega Tech! brand and explains how licensing works in retro gaming. 

We also hear Andrew's desert island carts - can you guess what he picked? 

🔗 Links:

Websites - Evercade, Hyper Mega Tech!

YouTube  - @EvercadeRetro

Instagram - @EvercadeRetro

Facebook - @EvercadeRetro

X / Twitter - @EvercadeRetro

BlueSky - @Evercade

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES), by Jun Funahashi 

In our second season of Retro Titans, we welcome back Ally Low, game designer and founder of Lowtek Games. Ally discusses the inspiration and challenges around making Flea 2, which returns to Evercade as well as Steam, NES, Dreamcast and Itch-IO. We also cover his new innovation, the Lightbook project-mapped popup book, and his work around making games dyslexic-friendly. 

Season 2 will continue to cover Evercade extensively, but we'll also be looking beyond at other systems, so subscribe to get all the latest interviews with games designers, publishers, manufacturers and industry insiders. 

🔗 Links:

Website - Flea2 press kit

YouTube - Lightbook teaser

Facebook - LowtekGames

X - Wallmasterr

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Noah's Ark NES music, by Chris Gill and Paul Summers.

If you loved football management games, this episode is a must-listen. That's because we got to speak with the man who pretty much invented the genre, Kevin Toms. He's the developer of Football Manager, the 1980s series of games that started the whole thing. Since you can also now play Kevin Toms' Football Manager on your mobile, we thought it would be a great excuse to find out the story behind the original games, and why they've returned. 

🔗 Links:

Website - kevintoms.games

Facebook - KevinTomsGames

X - KevinToms

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Space Invaders by Tomohiro Nishikado,

For 8-bit home computing fans, Thalamus is one of the great names of the late 80s and early 90s, publishing classics such as Creatures I & II, Hunters Moon, Hawkeye and Armalyte. When the company went bankrupt in the early 1990s, everyone thought the story was over - but the rights to the games were bought by former Commodore Format games writer Andy Roberts, and the company was reborn.

This interview with Andy Roberts tells the full story of Thalamus's heyday, decline and return, including insights into the 80s/90s games industry, writing for Zzap64! and Commodore Format, publishing games in the early noughties and two of the latest games, Ceccanoid and Roguecraft. 

🔗 Links:

Website - thalamusdigital.co.uk

Itch IO - thalamusdigital.itch.io

Facebook - @thalamusdigital

X - @thalamusdigital

Bluesky - thalamusdigital.bsky.social

Evercade - Thalamus Collection 1

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Wizzball (C64 remix), by Martin Galway and remixed by Tonka

Jon Hare is the co-founder of legendary game studio, Sensible Software, and was behind a host of global best-selling games, such as Sensible World of Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Mega Lo Mania and Sensible Golf. Jon's career as a creative director and game publisher stretches from the 1980s through to today, and is currently launching Sociable Soccer 25. 

We cover a lot of ground in this interview, from how he found his way into the industry, through to developing hit games and navigating the challenges of the games industry. We also discuss gaming music at length, including insights into working with gaming music legends Richard Joseph and Martin Gallway, and making music with his own group, The Sensible Band. 

Jon also offers advice to aspiring games developers and gives his thoughts on channelling creativity. It's an epic interview! 

🔗 Links:

Website - Sociable Soccer

Facebook - Sociable Soccer

X - @JonHare

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Narcissus, by Jon Hare and Richard Joseph

Canon Fodder Theme, by Jon Hare and Richard Joseph

Parrallax, by Martin Galway 

In this episode, we return to the world of Evercade to discuss the Evercade Showcase, which was released on 31st March. In a packed announcement, Evercade released 3 new carts, 2 Super Pockets, a hardware refresh for the EXP-R and VS-R, and teased a few things for the future. To make sense of it all and offer some analysis and predictions, we are joined by our regular special guest: retro gaming and Evercade YouTuber, Crazy Burger. 

In addition to Crazy Burger's thoughts and opinions, we managed to get a quick Q&A with Blaze Entertainment's head of marketing, Sean Cleaver. 

🔗 YouTube Links:

Crazy Burger

Evercade Showcase 

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Retro Asylum is widely regarded as one of the top gaming podcasts in the world, so we wanted to find out the secret to their success and why they've taken on the challenge of playing through and reviewing every single Evercade cart, on top of the rest of their output. So, Jim Middleton and Chris Worthington were kind enough to share their views and experiences covering the space, why they love Evercade, and whether it's OK to play emulation-based devices. 

🔗 YouTube Links:

Website - https://retroasylum.com/ 

Discord - @RetroAsylum

YouTube - @TheOfficialRetroAsylumYouTubeChannel

Spotify - Retro Asylum on Spotify 

Spotify - Playthrough on Spotify

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

The Secret of Monkey Island, composed by Michael Z. Land

Despite being over 27 years old, developers are still making games for the Game Boy Color - and one such game designer and coder is Shane McCafferty. He has been making games since he was 11, but has taken his side hustle and hobby onto a whole new level, releasing 9 Game Boy Color games on ItchIO in the past 18 months. 

We find out what it is that compels Shane to make games like Block Droppin, Cave Dave and Word Forward for the Game Boy Color, which projects kept him up at night, and the ones he's most proud of. We also discuss his current project to make a 'What If?' version of OutRun for the GBC.  

🔗 YouTube Links:

Itch.IO - @egvrooms-game-boy-games

BlueSky - @EGVroom

X - @EGVroom

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Robocop (Spectrum version), by Jonathan Dunn

This episode's guest's fingerprints are all over some of the most iconic games of the 80s, 90s and beyond - Simon Phipps, aka Simes. 

From the 8-bit bedroom coding scene to the heights of AAA development, Simon’s career has spanned hits from Rick Dangerous and Shadow Man, to the Harry Potter games for EA.

In addition to finding out about his long career in computer and video games, we hear about his love for art and making Star Wars props and costumes. This feature-length episode covers a lot of ground, and is essential listening for anyone working in the creative or gaming industries - or just wants to find out about them.

🔗 Links:

Websites - www.simonphipps.com

YouTube  - @SimonPhippsArt

Instagram - @SimonPhippsArt

Facebook - @SimonPhippsArt

X / Twitter - @SimonPhippsArt

Plus Three Fields Entertainment (where Wreckreaction is mentioned) 

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Captain Blood soundtrack - "Ethnicolor" by Jean Michel Jarre 

It's the five year anniversary of Evercade, the cart-based retro and indie gaming system, and we are celebrating with a special interview with the CEO and head of marketing of Blaze Entertainment - Andrew Byatt and Sean Cleaver respectively. 

Following the latest Showcase announcement on 29th May 2025, we have a deep-dive interview covering all the cart releases, and of course the Taito Alpha! It's a packed announcement, with fan favourites NEOGEO back, Taito getting a first cart release, and a wonderful new indie game, Roguecraft. 

🔗 Links:

Websites - Evercade, Hyper Mega Tech!

YouTube  - @EvercadeRetro

Instagram - @EvercadeRetro

Facebook - @EvercadeRetro

X / Twitter - @EvercadeRetro

BlueSky - @Evercade

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Happy Birthday, by jimlapbap

My guest today is Brandon Saltalamacchia, the founder and publisher of Retro Dodo – one of the most trusted and beloved destinations for retro gaming gadget reviews, news, and geek culture.

Brandon joins me to share his deep love of retro gaming. We swap thoughts on Evercade, and dive into how he built Retro Dodo into one of the most successful retro gaming websites – only to see it hit hard by a major Google update in 2023. We unpack what happened, its impact on the business, and his candid views on why AI is threatening the future of independent publishers and, ultimately, consumers.

He also gives us his hot takes on the best retro gaming handhelds to buy, explains why Evercade is doing things right, and reveals the games and device he’d launch into space on the Retro Titans rocket.

This is one of our most compelling interviews yet – a mix of retro gaming nostalgia, hard-earned insight, and a real David vs Goliath story.

🔗 Links:

Website: retrododo.com

Facebook: @retrododo

YouTube: @retrododo

X: @retro_dodo @iambrandonsalt 

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Zelda’s Lofi Kingdom, by Jokabi

In this episode we welcome back YouTuber and retro gaming aficionado, Crazy Burger. Although perhaps best known as an Evercade reviewer and content creator, Crazy Burger has a decent sized retro gaming handheld collection, and has tinkered with devices and explored the emulation gaming scene over the years. 

Our objective in this episode is to answer the question: if you were to buy only one emulation-based handheld, what would it be? With brands like Anbernic, Miyoo, Retroid and Powkiddy pumping them out on a weekly basis, there is a baffling amount of choice. Our aim is to break down the hype and steer you in the right direction. 

We explore the pros and cons of emulation-based gaming, hop around the piracy issue, and cover common questions, like which operating system is best, and what do I get for my money? 

Crazy Burger also gives a quick verdict of the year so far for Blaze Entertainment and Evercade, comparing the platform with the handhelds we discuss on the show. 

🔗 Links

YouTube Crazy Burger

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Celeste, First Steps - written, performed & mastered by Lena Raine

This episode features Grant Sinclair, inventor of the IRIS eTrike and nephew to legendary innovator Sir Clive Sinclair. Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, Grant Sinclair is a futurist and innovator who is making waves in the gaming market with the launch of a new handheld gaming device called the GamerCard.

This interview covers life growing up in the Sinclair household during one of the most exciting times in British computing history, seeing the launch of the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and, of course, the ZX Spectrum. Grant shares what it was like to see Sir Clive Sinclair at work, his love of taking things apart, and how he and Grant's father Iain supported the family in their innovation ambitions. 

We also find out about the GamerCard, which is a unique gaming device based on stack of PCBs and Raspberry Pi, with a high resolution IPS square screen format, and dual dome navigation discs. 

As usual, we have more entries for the Titan 1 rocket-based retro gaming museum - and an unusal tale about astronaut, Major Tim Peake. 

🔗 Links 

grantsinclair.com

🎹 Music

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Guitar arrangement of Risky Ride from the XBOX port of "OutRun 2" by Fumio Itoh

Chris Donnelly — better known in the Pico-8 community as Gruber — is a professional pianist, Steinway Artist, and former jazz player and tutor at the University of Toronto who’s taken his love of music in an unexpected direction: composing soundtracks for tiny retro-styled games on the fantasy console Pico-8. His chiptune soundtracks have graced fan-favourite titles like Alpine Alpaca, Golf Sunday, and Pico Pirates, blending musical sophistication with 8-bit charm.

In this episode, Chris joins me from Nova Scotia to talk about his journey from the jazz world to retro game music, how Pico-8’s strict limitations inspire new forms of creativity, and what the experience taught him about community, creativity and learning.

But behind the creativity lies a more personal story. After years in academia and performing, Chris faced burnout that led him to step back from the piano - even selling his most cherished instruments. He has come out the other side and has an amazing, inspirational story to tell. 

And of course, we wrap up with a visit to the Retro Rocket Museum, where Chris chooses his one must-have retro device, two treasured games, and a track to send drifting through the cosmos.

🔗 Links:
YouTube – @Gruber_Music

Pico-8 www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

🎵 Music:
Intro – Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Kind of Bloop, by Andy Baio

Fez, by Disasterpeace

Ghouls 'n Ghosts, by Tamayo Kawamoto

Badger Punch Games — the duo of Ricki Sickenger and Henning Ludvigsen — have been creating games together since their Amiga demo scene days in the early ’90s. Their breakout title Roguecraft first made waves on the Amiga in 2024, later winning the Debug award and quickly earning a devoted following. Now the game has been reimagined and released as Roguecraft DX on Evercade, bringing their retro-inspired roguelike adventure to a whole new audience.

In this episode, Ricki and Henning join me to talk about their journey from humble beginnings in the demo scene, to building games as a side hustle, to becoming part of the Evercade family. We discuss the origins of Roguecraft, the challenges of bringing it to life on classic hardware, and the process of enhancing it for Evercade — from new features to the community support that helped make it happen. Along the way, they share insights into procedural generation, design choices like the lack of save states, and what they’d love to add in the future.

As always, we wrap up with a trip to the Retro Rocket Museum, where Ricki and Henning pick their all-time favourite retro device and two games to preserve for future generations, and finish with a music pick to play us out. It’s a must-listen for fans of Amiga, Evercade, and indie retro development.

🔗 Links:
Website – www.badgerpunch.com

Facebook – @BadgerPunch

Discord - @BadgerPunch

Evercade - evercade.co.uk/cartridges/roguecraft-dx

🎵 Music:
Intro – Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Outro – Driller C64 Loading Tune, by Matt Gray

Today’s episode takes us back to the golden age of the arcade, courtesy of one of the true giants of the industry: TAITO. We are celebrating the launch of a new game collection of four classics, which have been re-released and upgraded for fans old and new. The collection includes stone-cold classic Operation Wolf, and it’s sequel Operation Thunderbolt; plus two games less familiar to Western gamers - Night Striker and Space Gun.

To tell us more, we're joined by Yuichi Toyama, producer at TAITO, along with Embracer Freemode's James Wragg, who provides interpretation through the interview. For flow, we have only provided brief excerpts of Yuichi, and homed in on James' interpreting, so apologies to our Japanese-speaking listeners! 

This is a fascinating insight into the development of arcade games from inside the HQ of Taito, giving a brief glimpse into the decision making process around the games, and what they mean in Japan.

Thanks to Overload PR and Clear River Games for setting up and fascilitating the interview. 

🔗 Links

Operation Night Strikers on Steam 

Operation Night Strikers on Nintendo

Operation Night Strikers on Clear River Games

🎵 Music 

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Ray Force, Penetration - by Tamayo Kawamoto 

Tony Warriner is a co-founder of Revolution Software — the team behind Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Broken Sword. From his teenage coding experiments on the Amstrad CPC to shaping one of Britain’s most iconic adventure studios, Tony’s story is one of creativity, independence, and survival.

In this episode, Tony joins me to talk about building Revolution from the ground up, the clever tech behind the Virtual Theatre engine, and what it really took to bring Broken Sword to life. We discuss the indie spirit that’s guided him through decades of change, his self-published book Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness, his upcoming game UrbX Warriors, and his thoughts on the future of small-scale game development.

Plus, Tony takes on a round of quickfire questions — including a story behind the goat puzzle, the most chaotic genius at Revolution, and the one game cover he’d want on his gravestone.

🔗 Links:
Instagram: @TonyWarriner

X: @tonywarriner

Bluesky: @tonywarriner.bsky.social

Tony's book: Gumroad

🎵 Music:
Intro – Neon Gaming by Dope Stuff
Revenge of the Mutant Camels (C64), by James Lisney