This week's retro news, hand curated down to the stories worth your time
In this issueAmigaMiSTerAtari 2600Commodore 64VectrexAmstrad CPCAtari 7800Atari 8-bitZX SpectrumAmiga AGA
Biggest story of the week
This week's big one
Full-size Atari 800XL announced by Atari and Retro Games Ltd
Atari and Retro Games Limited are releasing a full-size 800XL with a working cartridge slot, a mechanical keyboard, USB ports, HDMI output and a beige CX40 joystick. It has 25 built-in games, the same set as the 400 Mini, costs 200 pounds and is due in April 2027.
0:23 The Laird's Lair 12:58 also: ZeroPage HomebrewNew games
New games for old machines
Phantasia: Zelda-style RPG for the Atari 7800
Phantasia, the follow-up to Grizzards, with about 190 NPCs, over 200 rooms heading for the 256-room limit, AtarVox voices for all dialogue, SaveKey saving and wide controller support. Demo release is expected in a couple of weeks.
1:40 ZeroPage Homebrew
Hyper Runner – A wicked sci-fi racer for the Amiga AGA by Raster Wizards
Hyper Runner is sci-fi racer for the Commodore Amiga AGA by Raster Wizards that's available as a digital download and as a physical boxed edition
read Indie Retro News 10:43 also: Amiga Bill
Corellian Dog Fights for the Vectrex
Corellian Dog Fights puts you on a Millennium Falcon gun turret fighting TIE fighters in the Escape from the Death Star and Kessel Run levels.
0:36 ArcadeUSA
Labyrinth of Ur – C64
Labyrinth of Ur is a new game for the Commodore C64 computer. The game is made by Michal Ursiny (code & pixels) and Nordischsound (music).
read Retro Roundup
Gold Mine Run! for Amstrad CPC 128K
Asic28's work-in-progress platformer shown by Indie Retro News, with plenty of treasure to collect.
14:30 Pixel Cherry Ninja
Dead Light
Dead Light dungeon crawler for the ZX Spectrum, for 48K and 128K models.
7:10 Retrogaming Dino
Unlock with PatreonRebuilt
Old machines get a new life
Atari Falcon core for MiSTer
A core for Atari's last personal computer, the high-end 68030 powered ST successor, is available on the MiSTer forums.
0:04 Lu's Retro Extras 14:23 also: Lu's Retro Source 23:38 also: Pixel Cherry Ninja
Commodore 65 core for MiSTer
A from-scratch Commodore 65 core boots original C65 ROMs to BASIC 10 with an internal 3.5 inch drive backed by D81 images, and carries enough MEGA65 hardware to run MEGA65-style ROMs such as SBS65.
27:05 Pixel Cherry Ninja
Sega X Board core for MiSTer
A core by Ross Esposito for Sega’s X Board runs After Burner and II, Thunder Blade, Super Monaco GP, Racing Hero, AB Cop, GP Rider, Last Survivor and Line of Fire.
1:45 Lu’s Retro Extras 29:30 also: Pixel Cherry Ninja 11:55 also: Lu’s Retro SourceLost and found
Unearthed treasures and new homes for old games
Castlevania AGA 1.0 released with orchestral CD32 soundtrack
Dante RetroDev's Castlevania AGA is finished and free on itch.io, built on Earok's Scorpion engine. The CD32 version has an orchestral soundtrack and a physical edition may follow.
5:49 Amiga Bill
Dungeon Master for ScummVM
Dungeon Master, FTL's 1987 dungeon crawler, is in public testing in ScummVM for the Amiga (v2.0) and DOS (v3.4 US) editions. The Atari ST original is not supported yet.
read Time Extension read also: Reddit Retro
'Get Them Now or Never' – Leisure Suit Larry's Last Releases To Be Delisted From Steam And GoG This Month
The final two titles in the Leisure Suit Larry series will be delisted later this month from Steam and GoG.
read Time Extension
Super Mario 64 fan port for Atari Jaguar
A rudimentary build of Super Mario 64 for the Atari Jaguar by modder BudFolk, with a front-facing Chain Chomp.
read Time Extension read also: Reddit Retro 15:06 also: Pixel Cherry Ninja
DOOM on the BBC Micro
A BBC Micro Doom with BSP processing, hidden surface removal and perspective projection on a 2 MHz 6502 with 32 KB of RAM, running at about 7 fps.
10:26 Pixel Cherry NinjaNew hardware
Boards, carts and kit you can build or buy
GB-Link USB v2 for Game Boy
GB-Link, a homebrew device for the Game Boy, connects to another Game Boy over the internet as if the two were in the same room with a link cable.
read RetroRGB
FPGA SP handheld plays original Game Boy Advance cartridges
RetroRemake founder Taki Udon has shared in-game footage of the FPGA SP, a handheld emulation console capable of running original Game Boy Advance cartridges.
read Time Extension read also: Reddit Retro 20:13 also: Pixel Cherry Ninja
PiStorm RGB2RTG puts Amiga RGB and RTG on one HDMI cable
Astair880's software driver for the PiStorm outputs both native Amiga RGB and RTG over the same HDMI cable with no extra hardware.
0:36 Amiga BillTools
Things that help you make things
Peer Pressure softmod walkthrough for Xbox 360
Modern Vintage Gamer walks through Grimdoomer's Peer Pressure, a persistent softmod that lets a stock Xbox 360 run your own code from a cold boot, with no chips or soldering.
read Modern Vintage Gamer read also: RetroRGB read also: Reddit Retro
MiSTerZine core tracker adds hardware-verified badges
The core tracker now shows a badge for games checked against real hardware, the closest thing so far to transparency about what is low-effort AI-made.
17:13 Pixel Cherry Ninja
Simulant CPC Paint, Deluxe Paint for the Amstrad CPC
Simulant Systems has made a Deluxe Paint style art package for the Amstrad CPC.
11:08 Amiga BillChums of the Channel
Send some love to nice people
Can you make money from retro eBay? Repairing a 50 pound ZX Spectrum bundle
More Fun Retro buys a bundle of two ZX Spectrums, diagnoses and repairs them, ends with the eBay resale results.
0:02 More Fun Retro
Building a Hoth AT-AT battle scene in Amiga LightWave RTG
Hoth battle scene in the RTG version of Amiga LightWave. The scene rendered in 50 seconds at 720 by 360.
0:22 Hold and Modify
Humdinger, a previously unknown 1980s computer found at Goodwill
A $5 Goodwill keyboard bundle turned out to hold a Humdinger computer with a Z80 clone, a 6847 video chip and about 4K RAM. It has no system ROM and had been thought to be unpreserved.
21:40 This Week in Retro
Amstrad GX4000 repair part two: a failed diode, then Pico GX cart games
Retro4u finds the real GX4000 fault, and he tries games including Robocop and Sonic from a Pico GX cart.
0:00 Retro4u