Tag: retro
This handheld packs an Intel 386 CPU for true retro PC gaming
Screenshot Saturday Mondays: Retro styles and dynamically slicing a cat (the cat is fine)
Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter’s #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by retro-inspired stylings everywhere from JRPGs to platformers, and a demonstration slicing a cat Revengeance-style (do not worry, the cat is fine, it’s not a real cat, it isn’t even meant to be a fake cat, it really is fine). Come admire these interesting and attractive indies!
Retro Football Shirts
The evolution of retro football shirts and the influence of retro football shirts on modern fashion
Read the full blog post at Menswear Style here
Article by Menswear Style
11 Best Retro Game Consoles (2023): Evercade, Polymega, Analogue Pocket, and Controllers
‘The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes’ trailer makes child death matches retro
The official trailer has arrived for The Hunger Games prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, giving us a look at a new round of child death matches with retro theming.
Set 64 years before The Hunger Games, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes follows future Panem president and series antagonist Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth). Still only 18 years old, Snow is assigned to be a mentor during the 10th Hunger Games, tasked with guiding District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) in the arena.
The film also stars Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, and Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer.
Of course, Snow’s task won’t be as straightforward as simply helping to force a bunch of impoverished kids to fight to the death.
Songbirds & Snakes probably won’t have a completely happy ending though, considering the Hunger Games are still being held over half a century later. It is a ballad, after all.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes arrives in theatres Nov. 17.
The Rise of DOOM Chronicled on Retro Site for ‘Shareware Heroes’ Book
The book promises to explore “a hidden games publishing market” that for several years “had no powerful giants,” with games instead distributed “across the nascent internet for anyone to enjoy (and, if they liked it enough, pay for).”
And the site features a free excerpt from the chapter about DOOM:
It seemed there was no stopping id Software. Commander Keen had given them their freedom, and Wolfenstein 3D’s mega-success had earned them the financial cushion to do anything. But all they wanted was to beat the last game — to outdo both themselves and everyone else. And at the centre of that drive was a push for ever-better technology. By the time Wolfenstein 3D’s commercial prequel Spear of Destiny hit retail shelves, John Carmack had already built a new engine.
This one had texture-mapped floors and ceilings — not just walls. It supported diminished lighting, which meant things far away could recede into the shadows, disappearing into the distance. And it had variable-height rooms, allowing for elevated platforms where projectile-throwing enemies could hang out, and most exciting of all it allowed for non-orthogonal walls — which meant that rooms could be odd-shaped, with walls jutting out at any arbitrary angle from each other, rather than the traditional rectangular boxed design that had defined first-person-perspective games up until then.
It ran at half the speed of Wolfenstein 3D’s engine, but they were thinking about doing a 3D Keen game next — so that wouldn’t matter. At least not until they saw it in action. Everyone but Tom Hall suddenly got excited about doing another shooter, which meant Carmack would have to optimise the hell out of his engine to restore that sense of speed. Briefly they considered a proposal from 20th Century Fox to do a licensed Aliens shooter, but they didn’t like the idea of giving up their creative independence, so they considered how they could follow up Wolfenstein 3D with something new. Fighting aliens in space is old hat. This time it could be about fighting demons in space. This time it could be called DOOM.
The book’s title is Shareware Heroes: The Renegades Who Redefined Gaming at the Dawn of the Internet — here’s a page listing the people interviewed, as well as the book’s table of contents.
And this chapter culminates with what happened when the first version of DOOM was finally released. “BBSs and FTP servers around America crashed under the immense load of hundreds of thousands of people clamouring to download the game on day one.
“Worse for universities around the country, people were jumping straight into the multiplayer once they had the game — and they kept crashing the university networks…”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
You’re a cyberpunk T. Rex using your tiny arms to fix electronics in this ‘ironic’ retro adventure about customer service, time travel, and true love
Modder adds ISA slot to modern PC for retro gaming goodness
The Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) slot was introduced on the IBM PC in 1981 and served as the primary expansion interface for peripherals like graphics and sound cards for years. It was eventually replaced by the PCI slot although some boards retained a legacy ISA slot well into the late 90s.