This week's retro news, hand curated down to the stories worth your time
In this issueAmigaMiSTerZX SpectrumAmstrad CPCC64DreamcastAndroidApple IIAtari 2600Atari 8-bit
Biggest story of the week
This week's big one
Every ZX81 Expansion Card You Ever Wanted, All At Once
The Sinclair ZX81 was a masterpiece of Sir Clive’s desire to get the most out of the least hardware, being about as minimalist as it was possible to get
read Hackaday retrocomputing read also: Reddit RetroAn amazing piece of electronical genius. Everything you could want in an expansion for the tiny "just enough to be a computer" bargain machine of the early 80s UK market.
New games
New games for old machines
Check Out This Impressive Footage Of Sega's Virtua Racing Running On Playdate
Some inspiring video has been shared that appears to show a homebrewed port of Sega's Virtua Racing running on … Playdate??
read Time Extension 14:10 also: Pixel Cherry Ninja 5:14 also: Mr. SujanoUnfortunately it was shared on Twitter. I don't like going to the bad place. Stop making me go to the bad place!
Aonic: Sonic the Hedgehog port for AGA Amigas
Reassembler is porting Sonic to Amiga (A1200, A4000, CD32), and a playable Green Hill Zone demo is even available on itch.io.
5:05 The Laird's Lair 22:11 also: Amiga Bill
JOAN OF ARC for the Commodore 64
A fantastic platformer from team Griffonsoft and publishers Psytronik Software
read Indie Retro News 22:37 also: Pixel Cherry Ninja
Lumines ZX, a Lumines port for the ZX Spectrum
A Spectrum take on the PSP puzzler Lumines is out now as name-your-price.
8:20 Pixel Cherry Ninja
Return to Blacktooth: Head Over Heels sequel on Atari Jaguar
Colin Porch started this Head Over Heels sequel in 1989 before Ocean cancelled it, and finished it 37 years later. CyranoJ (Lawrence Staveley) ported it to the Jaguar, out digitally on 27 August.
12:25 ZeroPage Homebrew
Announcing A NEW ZX Spectrum Book! The Rubber-Keyed Wonder
Kim Justice is working on the Rubber Keyed Wonder book about the Sinclair ZX Spectrum
read Reddit Retro 0:00 also: Kim Justice
Unlock with PatreonRebuilt
Old machines get a new life
Primal Rage II MiSTer core released
Available to download from Patreon
read patreon.com read via Reddit Retro 28:15 also: Pixel Cherry Ninja
Star Wars Trilogy Arcade Dreamcast Fan Port
Sega's Star Wars Trilogy Arcade , which debuted in 1998, getting a Dreamcast fan port (finally!)
read Time Extension 4:56 also: Pixel Cherry NinjaLove, love, love this in the arcade, but then I loved the vector graphic version too. Use the force, luke!
Lost and found
Things that were lost but now are found
Half-Life Dreamcast port reverse engineered to source
Reverse-engineered source code of the cancelled Half-Life Dreamcast port, from a build compiled in May 2001 a month before Sierra cancelled it, published via Sega Dreamcast Info.
4:13 Pixel Cherry Ninja
Tic-Tac-Dough game board rebuilt from scratch on nine Apple IIs
Steven and Kevin recreated the 1978-86 TV quiz show's game board, originally nine Apple IIs orchestrated by an Altair, with the source code long lost. They rewrote it from watching hundreds of episodes: still nine Apple IIs, now driven by a Raspberry Pi.
7:32 This Week in RetroNew hardware
Boards, carts and kit you can build or buy
Artendo: NES and SNES controllers on the Atari 2600 and 7800
World-premiere unboxing of the Artendo, an adapter by FDR4Pres that plugs into the DB9 port and natively reads NES and, with a cable, SNES controllers.
9:30 ZeroPage Homebrew
MiSTer handheld update from The Retro Collective
The Retro Collective shows off its injection-moulded MiSTer handheld, explaining why they chose a smaller screen, plus cover the MiSTer Multisystem Arcade.
24:04 Pixel Cherry NinjaTools
Things that help you make things
Ami2HA: Amiga to Home Assistant
Ami2ha 0.3 lets an Amiga control Home Assistant: lights, sensors, camera snapshots and media players, with an MUI window and ARexx port.
16:03 Amiga Bill
LightWave RTG: LightWave 3D reworked for graphics cards
AmigaWave disassembled LightWave and rewrote its graphics routines to run natively on RTG cards, with a display-mode tool and faster redraws.
20:32 Amiga BillChums of the Channel
Send some love to nice people
A barebones Amstrad CPC 464 on a VGA monitor via a sync-splitter board
A small board from a CPC Wiki design that plugs into the CPC's monitor socket and uses an LM1881 sync separator to supply sync some 15 kHz-capable VGA monitors need, and a rat-rod barebones CPC 464 test rig
0:00 Retro Tech Repair
Toki and Total Recall on the C64, from the Ocean artist who drew them
Former Ocean Software artist Bill Harbison recalls the abandoned first C64 Total Recall and laying out the whole of Toki on his own from a VHS recording of the arcade game, using a background editor written by John Meegan. He explains how he mixed multicolour and single-pixel hi-res blocks, Spectrum-style, for the giant god bosses, and quotes Gary Bracey on why Ocean backed the C64GS out of loyalty to Commodore
0:21 Will Harbison
The story of Denise and Alicia, the mini-ITX Amiga 500 Plus and A1200 boards
Hack Build Restore talks to shoe of Enterlogic about the boards Mr. A designs: from reverse-engineering the A500 onto a Flex ATX board, through the Amy and Easy Amy boards, to Denise (a mini-ITX A500 Plus) and Alicia (a mini-ITX A1200).
0:26 Hack Build Restore