Follow proper parliamentary procedure as original Xbox games come to Windows 11 (w/caveats), learn about the Bit 79, a souped-up Nintendo Famicom clone, and watch Chris dutifully delve into the world of pay-to-unlock content in an Artworx classic. youtu.be/14HUHNWZs1Y
Jason Compton
@jasoncompton.bsky.social
Writer, tech podcaster, actor, would-be heir to Richard Dawson. madisonshakespeare.org retroadventurers.com thisweekinretro.com
Some very tight deadlines for a very old genre in this month's edition of >OPEN MAILBOX, where you GET TEXT ADVENTURE NEWS AND LISTEN TO IT. Contest voting, (scary) Visible Zorker updates, lost games and a lost development environment, and much more. retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/46/
OPEN MAILBOX August 2026 | The Retro Adventurers
No rest for retro adventuring news this summer as Tim and Jason bring you lots of news: contest developments (don't delay, some deadlines are very very very soon!), Visible Zorker updates which aren't...
retroadventurers.podbean.com
After nearly 25 years, we forgot some of the quirks of the original Microsoft Xbox, like that it wouldn't actually play a DVD movie out of the box. Xbox makes a return for modern gamers and other special features are unlocked after additional purchase in This Week in Retro 279, arriving Saturday!
🎧 The one that emphasises human written, human researched, human everything! 🚫🤖 😆 Meanwhile, @jasoncompton.bsky.social waits patiently for his new Speccy 😈😁 and learns about sleeping policeman in the 🇬🇧 corner of the 🌍😊 🎮 #VideoGames 🕹️ #RetroGaming #RetroComputing ⌨️ #Podcasts 📻
The Washington Post named Doom the top cultural event of its decade. With retro blogger @stonetoolsblog.bsky.social we ask: was the television game show just as important to culture as Doom? Is buying arcade cabs ever sensible? And what happened to the Web and the browser? youtu.be/vOceobwqx3s
The Washington Post named Doom the top cultural event of its decade. With retro blogger @stonetoolsblog.bsky.social we ask: was the television game show just as important to culture as Doom? Is buying arcade cabs ever sensible? And what happened to the Web and the browser? youtu.be/vOceobwqx3s
High noon. Light guns at the chemist. Draw! Jason and Chris discuss a hotly contested story about NES nostalgia in the UK. Special guest Christopher Drum of Stone Tools watches politely (check out that to-do list, though) and will have more to say when the full episode hits on Saturday!
Bonus Dudley! The lovely @retroadventurers.bsky.social asked me to complete 2 random 1980s adventure games... In conversation with Jason Compton also of This Week in Retro, here's what happened. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vygo...
Gruds In Space and Steve Silver Adventure #1
YouTube video by The Retro Adventurers
youtube.com
"I don't want to suggest this is a more obviously American game than some others, but I will say you do solve one problem by shooting a tree." @yesterzine.bsky.social joins for Sirius Software's Gruds In Space and Spectrum exclusive Steve Silver #1. retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/45/
Gigawatts of retro power: Get immersed in a Rave virtual arcade, Learn the daily grind of an RBMK nuclear reactor operator, And the hosts' check Retro Games Ltd.'s unusual video FAQ for followers of THEA1200. Plus everything from the IBM System/360 to Jaguar and PlayStation. youtu.be/eNj8a-8oOko
THEA1200 sparks THEDiscussion of THEFilesystem challenges! Retro Games Ltd. put out a helpful Q&A video recently. But does it raise more questions than it answers? Chris and Jason grapple with decades-old Fast File System limitations and more this Saturday!
New episode of 260 Weeks Ago in Retro out now for our supporters, a look back at Episode 42 of the show from June 2021! www.patreon.com/thisweekinre...
Sony's pushed the physical media doomsday clock closer to midnight! Also: the life and career of Psion PLC founder and innovator David Potter, the many hazards of the modern online auction scene, a short-lived 3DO reboot, new uses for old RAM, and much more. youtu.be/7vcEHNCiemw
With Sony apparently accelerating the death of physical game media, what will the future of throwback-media nostalgia look like? Jason has one idea, involving a (hypothetical) very successful second date with (checks notes) Marguerite. Subscribe now and don't miss This Week in Retro 276 on Saturday!
Sega's mission: make history easier to play, also publish more Sonic 1 and 2 carts?! Also: Pentium-friendly KolibriOS and an Amiga 1200 upgraded beyond belief. Plus the best real-world locations to simulate in-game, more Commodore Callback chat, and a special 40th birthday! youtu.be/KoFj-4bluaQ
Is the pace of operating system upgrades increasing? Or are we just too old to conform? (You already know the answer.) Sega and Amiga features plus more operating system discourse, and more, when This Week in Retro 275 arrives Saturday!
Plenty of contest results, a new Inform library (or is it?) and news so late-breaking we have to interrupt our news to bring other news! retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/44/
"What now lies ahead in the ULTIMA saga can only be pure speculation!" Can Lord British reclaim Ultima? Can Chris tell the difference between reality and sims? Will new IDEs for C64 Ultimate, ST, Amiga, Mac, and DOS uncork new apps and games? Plus Commodore phone takes and more! youtu.be/zEiSTyUyLaI
A look at the planned C64 Ultimate Game Engine (a dev system for the enhanced FPGA model of the Commodore 64) prompts the questions: will users accept C64 Ultimate-only titles? And how's that been going for the Spectrum Next (assuming that yours has shipped, that is)? All this and more Saturday!
🎧 The extra long one that talks retro history, including the Computer Literacy Project which “was so great, you’re still explaining computer buying 15 years later.” A spicy @jasoncompton.bsky.social at a terrible hour this week! 👏😆 🎮 #VideoGames 🕹️ #RetroGaming #RetroComputing ⌨️ #Podcasts 📻
World-first reveal! Tony Smales (ex-Melbourne House) gives a tour of never-released pinball Arcade Wizzard for Commodore 64! Plus: definitive overview of the Sega Dreamcast, and home PC shopping in 1998. youtu.be/ThWzhOzD8BI and be sure to check @gamesthatwerent.com for more on Tony's attic disks!
Laugh while you can, monkey-boy! Telarium/Trillium's sequel to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Adventure International's sequel to Buckaroo Banzai in the latest game episode of The Retro Adventurers. retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/43/
World-first reveal! Tony Smales (ex-Melbourne House) gives a tour of never-released pinball Arcade Wizzard for Commodore 64! Plus: definitive overview of the Sega Dreamcast, and home PC shopping in 1998. youtu.be/ThWzhOzD8BI and be sure to check @gamesthatwerent.com for more on Tony's attic disks!
To accommodate Melbourne (House) guest Tony Smales and the usual international crew, one of us got up extra-early. It may have impacted his patience with a condescending BBC computer buying guide. All this, an exclusive game reveal after decades in an attic, and more crabbiness coming Saturday!
This week's guest quietly built Vintage Computer Festival Midwest into the world's largest annual retro computing event. It's the end for the revived Checkmate Amiga case, surprising differences in teletext around the world, and a look at the "overrated?" Amiga 500 Batman Pack. youtu.be/ZPsifCcF-H4
Jason Timmons of VCF Midwest and Chicago Classic Computing show-and-tell: a rare Quazon Quik-Link 300 home teletext terminal and last-minute product engineering. (Atari 400 catches a stray for good measure as well!) Just a sample of Saturday's latest news for the oldest tech!
Welcoming back guest @iainlee.com after too long away, we revisit Nintendo's too-brief run of mini consoles, explore the surprises buried in Microsoft NetMeeting's 30th anniversary, and find out what made an octogenarian game dev settle unfinished business. Episode 271 out now! youtu.be/GSRXr9LRq9Q
A space traveler wrestles with the need for human companionship... and LOSES! Join us as we discuss the pastoral sci-fi story Founding Father by Clifford D. Simak - new, FREE show!
Just what does returning guest @iainlee.com think we've done to deserve this? Enjoy our modern radio show which you can also watch like television with a real-life media professional when This Week in Retro 271 arrives Saturday! thisweekinretro.com
>OPEN MAILBOX. GET LEAFLET. READ IT Classic text adventure report for June 2026 with game contests you can still play-and-judge in, a Visible Zorker update, news on several development environments, and new games. On all podcast platforms, YouTube, and at retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/42/ now.
Exclusive hardware news caps a retro kit roundup this week: news of a MiSTer handheld from Heber plus PicoCPC, PicoIDE, and PicoGUS updates. Then we look closer at reimagined Atic Atac and Wolfenstein 3D, and explore wonderful, novel operating systems in the Virtual OS Museum. youtu.be/gf2piu17r0I