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Nintendo's NES Classic Edition returns on June 29th
About a year ago, Nintendo announced that it was effectively killing the popular NES Classic Edition. Several months later, however, fans rejoiced when the company reversed itself, saying the product would once again ship in 2018. Now we know exactly when: The retro 8-bit console will arrive on June 29th, and should be available through the end of the year, according to a Nintendo tweet.
Steve Dent05.14.2018
'Pac-Man' on Amazon's Alexa isn't at all like 'Pac-Man'
Pac-Man might never have left the public eye, but with Wreck-it Ralph, Pixels and Ready Player One, the iconic elder statesman of gaming is now in front of people that may have never touched an arcade joystick. To that extent, Pac-Man's latest 'game' makes sense — it's arriving on Amazon's Alexa as a skill today.
Mat Smith05.02.2018
Atari VCS pre-orders start May 30th, but it won't ship until 2019
Nearly a year after it was first revealed, retro gaming enthusiasts will finally be able to order the Atari VCS beginning May 30th via an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign.
Andrew Tarantola04.30.2018
Arcade classic '10-Yard Fight' is the Switch's first football game
Nintendo has been keen to capitalize on nostalgia, however, its latest attempt has us scratching our heads. Next week the Switch will have a football game to call its own, but rather than, say, a classic Madden, Mutant League Football from EA or Tecmo Bowl, we're getting 10-Yard Fight for $7.99. The game originally appeared on the NES back in 1985, a two-year delay after its arcade debut.
Timothy J. Seppala04.26.2018
Internet Archive is saving all your favorite handheld LCD games
The Internet Archive has been saving gaming history for a while now. It's archived Amiga games (and apps), Macintosh stuff from the '80s (including Space Invaders) and a ton of other retro games you can play for free. Now the group has started collecting handheld games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Space Jam while also making them available to play in your web browser via MAME emulation.
Rob LeFebvre03.19.2018
Atari's retro console has a new name, but remains a tease
Atari's retro Ataribox console has been more sizzle than steak since it was first unveiled last summer, with delays and a distinct lack of game announcements dampening the enthusiasm. And unfortunately, that trend is mostly continuing today. The company has announced that it's rebranding the Ataribox as the Atari VCS in a nod to the 2600's little-used full name and plans to show prototypes of the system, the Classic Joystick and the Modern Controller at the Game Developers Conference this week. However, that's about all it's showing.
Jon Fingas03.19.2018
Casio revives its musical, game-playing calculator from the '80s
Back in 1980, Casio released a musical, game-playing calculator cleverly named the MG-880. Apparently, kids went wild for the thing, playing a mini Space Invaders-inspired game with just numbers on the LCD screen. Now, Casio is releasing a revival of the calculator -- the SL-880 -- in Japan on March 23rd.
Rob LeFebvre03.15.2018
'Mega Man Legacy Collection' is headed to Nintendo Switch May 22
Mega Man fans were likely excited to hear that the next chapter in the venerable video game franchise, Mega Man 11, is slated for a release sometime this year. At the same time, Capcom announced plans to release two new Mega Man Legacy Collection compilations. Now we've got a date for their release on Nintendo Switch: May 22, 2018.
Rob LeFebvre02.19.2018
Retro-bit brought brand-new Sega accessories to CES
While Nintendo's 'classic' consoles have soaked up much of the retro love lately, Sega fans do have something to look forward to. The last booth I stopped by at CES 2018 was one of my favorites, as Retro-bit showed off new officially-licensed accessories it's releasing for Sega consoles later this year, including (but not limited to) Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my hands on any of these controllers to see how they match up with the originals, but it's nice to see them upgraded with modern capabilities like USB and Bluetooth.
Richard Lawler01.14.2018
8Bitdo's wireless SNES controller is perfect for Switch retro gaming
The Nintendo Switch's controllers shouldn't work as well as they do. That might be why options beyond a Joy-Con in each hand (or the Switch's own Pro controller) are few and far between. 8Bitdo's latest wireless peripheral, the SN30 Pro, might be worth considering for your secondary controller needs. Beside that allure of nostalgia, the SN30 Pro particularly shines with older games and tries to balance a classic design with modern controls. I picked up the (obviously prettier) European / Japanese model, the otherwise identical SF30 Pro, and had a play.
Mat Smith12.01.2017
Microsoft resurrects its most iconic mouse
The Surface Precision Mouse isn't the only new input device in Microsoft's arsenal. The company's Surface site has quietly teased the Classic IntelliMouse, a wired peripheral directly inspired by the legendary IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 you might have used in the early 2000s -- yes, this is the second time Microsoft has brought back the iconic design. The company isn't saying too much about what this revival will entail, but it'll have more precise tracking (up to 3,200DPI) while preserving the "firm" scroll wheel you knew from the days when Windows XP was still hot stuff.
Jon Fingas10.17.2017
Play Atari's 'Centipede' on a tiny, authentic arcade cabinet
There's something special to playing a vintage arcade cabinet, but it's usually impractical to own one. It's no mean feat to lug a gigantic machine into your home, and you'll probably have to restore it to recapture its glory. Atari and New Wave Toys think they have a better idea. They've partnered on Replicade X Centipede, a 1/6th-scale cabinet replica that lets you play (what else?) Centipede in an authentic-looking system that won't chew up tons of space in your den. The 3.5-inch LCD won't recreate the experience you get with an old-school CRT screen, but everything else is surprisingly close. It's made of metal and wood, the art is sourced directly from Atari's vaults, and you even steer the game using a tiny trackball.
Jon Fingas10.17.2017
Of course there's retro-inspired 'Stranger Things' mobile game
Netflix has flirted with simple games starring its most popular original series, but its latest stab at interactive promo goes a little deeper. The streaming juggernaut tapped developer BonusXP to make a full-on mobile game for Stranger Things. And as you might expect, it's is about as retro as possible, aping classics of yore like River City Ransom and the NES' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for inspiration. All that to say, it's a bit more complicated than Netflix Infinite Runner from January. You can do sweet jumps on your bicycle as one of the kids and explore the Upside Down as Hawkins police chief Jim Hopper, for example.
Timothy J. Seppala10.04.2017
A mini version of the Commodore 64 is coming in 2018
It's hard to deny the popularity of Nintendo's retro mini systems. After all, demand far outstripped supply for the mini version of the original console, and the same is expected to happen for today's SNES release. It's not a surprise, then, that other companies are getting in on the action. Retro Games is launching a mini version of the 1982 computer Commodore 64 called the C64 Mini. It will be available in early 2018, with a price point of $70.
Swapna Krishna09.29.2017
8BitDo brings its wireless controllers to the SNES Classic
The SNES Classic is a cute microconsole with a hell of a selection of games. While it's a pretty accurate recreation of the original number, and its controller cords are indeed longer than the NES Classic Edition that preceded it, the modern convenience of wireless controllers is hard to beat. The good news is that if you ordered up one of 8BitDo's wireless SNES-styled gamepads and have last year's Retro Receiver, it'll work with the miniature 16-bit console in a pinch. Don't have one? Then the company has something new, just for you -- the SN30, a 2.5G wireless controller built specifically for the SNES Classic Edition.
Timothy J. Seppala09.29.2017
Nokia remakes its remade 3310 with... 3G
As companies continue to pull open our wallets through the nefarious magic known as nostalgia, Nokia is back with another attempt to syphon some more disposable income from millennials and... whichever generation came before them. The re-reheated Nokia 3310 3G has, yes, 3G, which upgrades the 2.5G of the relaunched dumbphone, but still trails the LTE (4G) speeds we're used to. (Not that technical specs matter if you're interested in buying one.) It'll arrive with new Azure and Charcoal color options -- and silver buttons -- but that's pretty much the only other things that have notably changed.
Mat Smith09.29.2017
Lenovo’s leaked 25th-anniversary ThinkPad sports a familiar look
The latest ThinkPad that Lenovo brought to CES back in January had a notably sleeker, more modern appearance than the line's traditional boxy black look. But it kept a couple features, like the red TrackPoint nub and 45-degree ThinkPad logo, that have become trademarks of the beloved brand since it debuted under IBM back in October 1992. But WinFuture reports that a leak revealed Lenovo is releasing a 25th-anniversary retro version that mimics the look of the first ThinkPad laptops that reached consumers.
David Lumb09.22.2017
Capcom to re-release $100 'Street Fighter II' SNES cartridges
As if grabbing the SNES Classic Edition weren't challenging enough, retro gamers have another limited re-release to look out for: brand-new Street Fighter II cartridges. Capcom and iam8bit have teamed up to produce a run of 5,500 units, available in either "Opaque Ryu Headband Red" (4,500 cartridges) or "Glow-in-the-Dark Blanka Green" (1,000 cartridges). The boxes are all identical and will be sealed, so which one you might actually get is random.
Richard Lawler08.31.2017
Lomography's all-analog square camera uses familiar film
Do you prefer to shoot photos with a completely analog camera, but wish you could get in on the square photo trend that's all the rage with the Instagram crowd? Lomography thinks it can help. It's crowdfunding the Lomo'Instant Square Camera, a fully analog instant camera that takes the same square Instax film you'd use in Fujifilm's semi-digital Instax Square SQ10. You won't have to look far to restock, in other words. The camera itself, meanwhile, revels in its non-digital nature -- although there are some concessions to modernity.
Jon Fingas08.29.2017
Nintendo's second 'Classic' console is better, but not perfect
When Nintendo announced that the already impossible to find NES Classic Edition was going out of production, there were two reactions: outrage that the company could introduce such a popular product and fail to meet demand, and curiosity -- why would Nintendo kill off the most popular throwback console ever made? The official line is that it was never intended to be a long-term product, but in the months that followed, you had to wonder if the original retro console was merely discontinued to make way for a sequel: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition. Now, that console is almost ready to hit the market, and Nintendo promises that it will make up for the original's shortcomings. The company expects to ship "significantly more" of the new console than the original. And we hope it does -- because if the short preview we had with the console last week is any indication, it's going to sell just as fast as its predecessor.
Sean Buckley08.22.2017