Retro News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

While most Baldur's Gate 3 players are still blissfully making their way through Larian's lavish and expansive world, others are taking it upon themselves to do the essential work of memeing its memorable cast of characters.

Gaming on Mac becomes more of a reality every day, with powerful Apple Silicon processors and the Game Porting Toolkit unlocking surprisingly decent performance in a wide range of modern games and emulated titles alike. We don't normally cover Mac gaming here, but I thought you might want to know that the latest M2 Mac Mini is down to $499 at B&H Photo in the US, a $100 reduction on the base-spec unit that makes it quite a powerful computer for the money.

Before there was PlayStation and Xbox, before there was Sega, even before there was Nintendo, at least in your home, there was Atari. The studio created Pong which should tell you everything you need to know about how influential it has been on the video game industry. It also got into the home console game by the late 1970s, and if you have been longing to relive that iconic era of gaming, or introduce it to the next generation of gamers, a modern recreation of the Atari 2600 is coming this holiday season.

Cyberpunk 2077 is not afraid to include the odd reference the another game or TV show here and there. You can find several scattered throughout Night City, including little nods to Death Stranding, Mortal Kombat, Blade Runner, and a lot more. You also probably won't be surprised to hear that CD Projekt Red loves to reference its previous work too, as you'll find several references to The Witcher 3 on top of all the other cool easter eggs.

There’s a lot to do in the 2.0 version of Cyberpunk 2077. You can engage in some high-speed vehicle combat, or re-do all your cyberware. Or, maybe, go find an old retro cabinet to while away the hours in Night City. There’s still a secret or two to find in Cyberpunk, it seems.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was released in September of 2020, and unlike the “HD” re-releases, 1+2 garnered a degree of critical acclaim. It managed to recapture the lightning in the bottle of the original two releases, and wouldn’t you know it: they’re still extremely good games. Well, the two-pack release is coming back in a new format, as a listing for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 just popped up on Steam.

I've been greatly looking forward to sci-fi immersive sim shooter Fortune's Run, despite absolutely sucking at the demo. Scandalously, we don't appear to have covered this indie sci-fi FPS on these golden pages, so here's a quick overview: you're the high-jumping, sword-wielding, bullet-pumping lovechild of Deus Ex and DOOM, galloping through a world that recalls the Imperial bases and sewers of Dark Forces, taking down grungy pixelart sprites by means of precision parries, grabs, combos, headshots, terrain traps and much more besides. Between dust-ups, you can play basketball and leave crayon graffiti for other players care of a Dark Souls-style messaging system. It's a feast!

In the week Radio Times celebrates its 100th anniversary, RadioTimes.com is launching a new gaming podcast called One More Life.

Cyberpunk 2077's latest version 2.0 update adds two new arcade machines, joining Roach Race added last year. Now, we can also play through Trauma Drama, as well as Arasaka Tower 3D - a boomer shooter very clearly inspired by Doom.

CD Projekt's retro game-focused digital storefront, GOG, has been with us for a whopping 15 years now. To celebrate, GOG's having a storewide sale and giving away free copies of the 2013 point-and-click adventure game, The Night of the Rabbit.

The Sega Genesis didn’t technically get Valis II. Instead, it got the remake of the first Valis and Valis III. However, between these two games was a title that remained exclusive to the platform, and that was the bizarrely named Syd of Valis. The Japanese title makes more sense. It’s SD Valis, named such because it uses a “super deformed” anime art style, which might be better known in the West as “Chibi.”

Time to dust off your miniature Jeff Goldblum collection, because Magic: The Gatheringis going to Jurassic Park. The new Universes Beyond crossover cards will be part of the upcoming Lost Caverns of Ixalan set, which arrives at retail on Nov. 17. The announcement was made live from the floor of MagiCon Las Vegas — and included more of Wizards of the Coast’s plans for next year.

Lofree has announced its latest keyboard, the Lofree Flow, a brand-new low-profile mechanical keyboard. The peripheral and hardware innovator created the Lofree Flow as the world’s first low-profile keyboard to contain Kalih full POM switches.

Nintendo Switch Online's retro library is growing bigger yet again with another Kirby addition.

The Nintendo Family Computer (more commonly known as the Famicom) launched in 1983 in Japan, a full two years before its Western analog, the NES, debuted in North America. This was right as the video game market underwent a temporary implosion in other parts of the world and was strangely the best time possible for Nintendo to break into the home market. 

I love creative tools in videogames, from drawing Worms levels in Deluxe Paint to optimising r_speeds in Half-Life maps to using Minecraft worlds to generate 3D renders. That love has only been amplified by having a kid whose first instinct in any game is to create his own character, unit, level - whatever is available.

Making a TV spinoff of the most influential action franchise of the century is a daunting task.

By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.

Julian Scott of Space Pants Games just dropped the unreleased Genesis/Mega Drive version of Wacky Races up on Itch.io for free. While the game was developed to completion for publisher Virgin Entertainment, it was left unpublished because they didn’t have the rights to the property.

There’s no shortage of peripherals for Nintendo Switch, but it’s fair to say we haven’t seen anything quite like the Nitro Deck.

Every year, I partake in one particular autumn tradition against my own better judgment: I watch the first episode of American Horror Story, getting all my hopes up, absolutely knowing that I’m going to be disappointed.

As massive Vanillaware fanboys, we think September's PS Plus Extra and PS Plus Premium update is especially tasteful, but as always, we want to know what you think of the selection. Just to recap, this month's line-up is headlined by NieR Replicant, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. And then you've got a whole bunch of other Star Ocean titles, most of Vanillaware's back catalogue, and a handful of interesting indies, like Unpacking and Call of the Sea.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

A new first-person RPG dropped onto Google Play recently. Hole Of Abaddon looks weird, a bit creepy, and feels a bit like a 90s throwback, so we thought we’d take a closer look.

Once thought far too cheesy to bring with us into the modern gaming era, FMV has been enjoying a bit of a renaissance over the last decade, thanks to games like Her Story and Alan Wake. If you're not familiar, it stands for full-motion video—in other words, it's when live-action filmed sequences are used in videogames. Also, it turns out it can be intensely creepy.

I received an unexpected (but not unwelcome) care package from Retro-Bit the other day. It contained five of their recent retro reissues. Now, I don’t think I agreed to anything at any time, but they obviously know my weakness. If you put old game cartridges in front of me, I can’t help but play them, research them, turn them over, and tickle their underbelly. So, heck yeah, let’s give them a look.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the most important RPG ever created, and this direct predecessor to the likes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy is finally getting the remake it's deserved for over 40 years.

Metroid Prime 4 skipped another Nintendo Direct show yesterday, causing speculation that the sequel won’t arrive until the Switch 2 releases (or whatever the Big N's next console gets called).

If major RPG franchises like Final Fantasy introduced me to RPGs, it’s the B-tier titles that made me love the genre. Throughout the SNES, PSX, and PS2 eras of gaming, those lower budget, heartfelt RPGs were my bread and butter. Games like Illusion of Gaia (and later Terranigma), Lunar: The Silver Star Story, and Wild Arms meant so much to me, and I’m always in search of titles that capture that same creative energy. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails may not come from that same time period, but it is absolutely cut from that same cloth.

By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

Retro specialist Digital Eclipse has announced a remake of Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord.

Many new games, including NieR Replicant and Civilization VI, are joining the PlayStation Plus Extra October 2023 lineup, as per the PlayStation Blog. Some retro games, including the Star Ocean series, will be available for PlayStation Plus Premium members as well. All of these titles can be downloaded to your PS4 and PS5 on September 19.

Whether it’s the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or even your phone, it’s never been easier to carry an entire library of games while on the go. With Apple’s recent announcement that the iPhone 15 Pro will be able to natively play games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Death Stranding, it’s safe to say the mobile gaming space is about to receive a major upgrade.

Games like Chrono Trigger aged well, and Sabotage Studio knows as much. It’s evident in the open-world encounters, ambitious soundtrack, vivid environments, and even a few overarching plot ideas within Sea of Stars, the developer’s latest, classically-inspired RPG.

By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

James Wan is super keen to make Aquaman 3 – and he doesn't want to stop there either. At an exclusive trailer-reveal event for the upcoming second movie in LA recently, the filmmaker touched on his hope of one day turning the series into a cinematic universe, which'd take viewers to all corners of Atlantis.

There’s perhaps no Nintendo community quite as hard done by as F-Zero fans. The last major entry in the series (a couple of minor GBA titles aside) was F-Zero GX all the way in 2003. Since then, fan demands for a new F-Zero have largely fallen on deaf ears, and a lot of the series’ trademark antigrav gameplay was unceremoniously lifted for Mario Kart 8. Ah, but perhaps it’s not all doom and gloom – in the past year, prominent Nintendo leakers have begun to hint something F-Zero related was again in the works, and today during the most recent Nintendo Direct it was confirmed.

In playing around with the retro game streaming subscription service Antstream Arcade recently, a thought occurred to us.

Marvel's original pre-teen superteam are back for a new adventure in the year of their 40th anniversary - and they're bringing their creators along with them. Louise Simonson and June Brigman are the team writing and drawing Power Pack: Into The Storm, a "five-issue retro series" starting in January 2024.

Star Trek does not have a long history of being funny, but it has its moments. The original series’ “The Trouble with Tribbles” saw Gene Roddenberry’s social commentary take a light-hearted swerve, and future generations were more than happy to dip back in (see: DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-ations.”) Thanks to the godly powers of Q, The Next Generation crew found a reason to dress up in Robin Hood attire for the delightful romp “Qpid.” Lower Decks was born from the obvious potential of Trek stories being able to poke fun at themselves while sprinkling in the catnip of Easter eggs.

PAX Australia is 10 years old this year, which means it is officially old enough to solve a mystery by cycling around with its friends while uncovering the town's dark secrets. It is also old enough to put on a gaming convention with a stacked lineup of exhibitors.

If it hasn’t been made clear by now, Masahiro Sakurai takes every aspect of video game creation very seriously. We’re not just saying that because of his beloved “Creating Games” YouTube Channel, but instead, we’re saying that because the videos within that channel highlight many experiences he’s had that indicate just how seriously he takes things. For example, he’s talked multiple times about music on his channel, and his latest video highlighted a pair of songs that required both his input and a true understanding of music. An understanding that even Sakurai admitted he misunderstood for one piece he wanted in Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

The Steam Deck has managed to make quite a splash since it launched in 2022. According to analysts at Omdia, the handheld is expected to surpass 3 million units sold this year. You won’t have much trouble figuring out why the portable gaming PC has been so popular. Running the Linux-based SteamOS, the Deck gives you instant access to your Steam library while you’re on the go. It’s not just for games, however, and when you switch to desktop mode, you have a fully-fledged PC in your hands.

Positives: The gameplay mechanics are fluid and satisfying, the music is amazingly composed, the general aesthetic wonderfully captures thePositives: The gameplay mechanics are fluid and satisfying, the music is amazingly composed, the general aesthetic wonderfully captures the retro feel of the megaman X series while injecting its own personal flair, the abilities and power-ups are creative and varied, the the quasi-random level generation provides good replay value. Negatives: This game does a pretty poor job of explaining itself and how it works. The power-ups, for instance, oftentimes have descriptions that do not explain how they work or what they do effectively at all, opting instead to provide some tongue-in-cheek one-liner, leaving you to piece together what the power does.

The great company Atari, arguably responsible for the popularisation of home videogaming, was founded in 1972. But after its heyday things went badly wrong, and the original Atari would be acquired, split, merged, declare bankruptcy, and go through various corporate shenanigans, such that the current Atari is an iteration founded in 2001. Over that time it has had some less-than-ideal custodians, but the mood music under current CEO Wade Rosen has changed. 

Baldur's Gate 3 has 11 species to pick from, but modders have taken it upon themselves to add even more from across the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse. There are more Faerûn picks, as well as species from Eberron, Krynn, Etharis, Malipāla, and Eorzea, finally letting you play as goblins and aasimar, among over 50 others.

Who else grew up reading magazines like OPM, PSM2, and GamesTM? While print media has receded over the years, there's still a lot of passion for it among enthusiasts. There have been lots of high quality, independent mags cropping up, and RPM looks like another great example.

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

Your Starfield ship might be great, but there isn’t even the slightest possibility that it’s as great as the Planet Express Ship. We can fix that. User SP74 has shown on Reddit the process for creating the iconic electric mucus-colored, goldfish-shaped spacecraft.

Atari today announced that it has agreed to acquire the Atari-focused community and news site AtariAge.

The full game line-up for WASD x IGN, the upcoming gaming event at the Truman Brewery in London that will take place from September 14 - 16, has been revealed and it includes playable demos of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Tekken 8, Pacific Drive, Ultros, and more.

Nintendo Switch Online subscribers can now access four more retro games via its emulation services.

Nintendo has added four more games to its Nintendo Switch Online service, two of which have come to the west for the first time.

First confirmed during this year's PlayStation Showcase, developer Hadoque has shared a fresh look at the psychedelic PS5, PS4 indie game Ultros. Slated to release in 2024, you can catch a glimpse of the 2D title's first few minutes, where it introduces the colourful world protagonist Ouji is set to explore. Take a look above.

With the frankly flabbergasting PS Plus price increases announced overnight, Sony is in need of a win for its subscriptions – and a big one at that! One way it could curry favour with long-time members is by upgrading its PS2 emulator, allowing it to bring back classics from the early noughties alongside the PS1 and PSP titles it’s been adding as a PS Plus Premium perk.

Sea of Stars, arguably the best JRPG of 2023 so far, has exceeded its sales goal for the entire year in just a single week from launch.

While Nintendo is known for being a very forward-thinking company and trying to push the bounds of gameplay and console style creatively, they are also known for being incredibly frustrating on certain topics. For example, despite The Big N having the greatest gaming IP library out there, they don’t use them all to their fullest potential. The Nintendo Switch is their best-selling console of all time, and yet many IPs haven’t made it onto the system. One such IP is F-Zero, which fans have been begging for a reboot of for years, with many past members of its dev teams stating they’d help make it happen.

Fuji TV and Bandai Namco have announced they’re porting the first two games based on GameCenter CX to Switch. The bad news is that, right now, they’re only launching in Japan.

Stranger Things breakout star Joseph Quinn’s new movie Hoard has earned some rave early reviews at the Venice Film Festival. The directorial debut of Luna Carmoon is a coming-of-age story, beginning in the mid-1980s with a young girl called Maria and her mother (Hayley Squires), who spends her time hoarding rubbish.

It looks like Sabotage Studio is working on DLC for its retro RPG Sea of Stars.

Grab your space helmet and fasten in as we glimpse the upcoming free mobile game, Minuto – Galactic Deliveries. This mathematical puzzle game stunts a pleasant and fun pixel art retro style. 

Get ready for throwback action because developer Maple Powered Games is working on a new G.I. Joe beat ’em up. The studio announced G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra with Q1 2024 release plans on Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG. 

As I was reorganizing my Mega Man collection after a move — which is a perfectly normal thing for a human being to say — I paused a minute when looking at the Mega Man X series. While the original Blue Bomber made a return to the spotlight in 2018 with Mega Man 11, his edgier successor still hasn’t made a comeback in a mainline game. It’s a shame that Capcom hasn’t figured out how to do that yet, but in the meantime, the 1993 original still holds up.

Paramount has revealed the first new game dedicated to the Rugrats franchise in over 20 years, Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland.

The NES released in Japan 40 years ago, but a new Rugrats game is on the way to Nintendo's old console next year.

Cobra Commander has returned, and it’s time to put him back in his place, as G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra will bring the classic multimedia franchise back to the video game industry. In this upcoming retro brawler, the members of G.I. Joe will face the forces of Cobra, bringing all their weapons to bear, most importantly, their fists.

A new G.I. Joe beat 'em up is on its way. Hasbro, developer Maple Powered Games and publisher Freedom Games announced G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra today. The upcoming retro game will let you play as series stalwarts Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, Roadblock and other classic characters. It joins TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and Double Dragon reboot as the latest evidence that 2D side-scrolling punch-fests are enjoying an unexpected 2020s renaissance.

A movie about two students starting a fight club to hook up with hot girls might sound like it dates back to an earlier time: the 1980s circa Revenge of the Nerds, say, or the early 2000s, when raunchy R-rated high school sex comedies like EuroTrip and American Pie (and assorted sequels) were all the rage. But 2023’s Bottoms turns those two students from nerdy boys into lesbians and cranks up the self-awareness a few levels.

The annual Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) speedrunning charity gaming event is returning in January. It’s going to be an in-person affair once again, the first time since COVID. It all takes place in Pittsburgh at the Wyndham Hotel from January 14th to the 21st. Despite the change to an in-person format, you’ll be able to stream the festivities via the Games Done Quick Twitch channel.

Selling 1984’s Karateka on its own today might be a difficult proposition. It was an extremely influential game, and it’s still very entertaining to play today, but it was a pioneer on ground that has since become well-trodden. Typically, this sort of game that was important but largely superseded would be found in one of any number of game collections. But The Making of Karateka is not that.

The Iconfactory, home to a number of popular apps like wallpaper app Wallaroo, puzzle game Frenzic, and the unfortunately shuttered Twitterific, among others, is out today with its latest creation:Ollie’s Arcade. The new app aims to bring a retro gaming experience to iOS users with a collection of mini-games reminiscent of classic arcade-style or electric handheld titles.

The first game you play in The Making of Karateka, a release about the making of the cinematic action game Karateka, is an Asteroids clone. It may seem strange, but the attempt at recreating Asteroids was a seminal moment for Karateka creator Jordan Mechner, a humble beginning for a designer who would go on to create some of the most influential action games ever made, including Prince of Persia. The clone appears early on during a long, winding, and interactive timeline, which takes you through Mechner’s early days of experimentation before getting into how Karateka was developed and released.

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Steam introduced the Point Shop in 2015 to sell video game-themed profile add-ons that you can get with points earned when buying games. Most of these are harmless, like a retro green-hued makeover, or Dark Souls' estus flask emoji, but with Steam platforming games like Nazi Furry and Sex with Hitler, that means gamers are able to purchase Nazi iconography through official channels to put on their profiles.