Features
ZX Spectrum Hidden Gems: 10 Games the Charts Forgot
Chaos, Rebelstar, Gargoyle’s lost cities and an astral-projection dungeon crawl: ten verified Spectrum classics the charts forgot, recovered and reappraised.
Author: Sal Benedetto
From the Vault columnist. Grew up feeding quarters to the Ms. Pac-Man machine at his uncle's pizza place; still owns his childhood SNES and every Nintendo Power he ever begged his mother for. Writes the retrospectives and the hidden-gem hunts.
Reviews
Manic Miner Review: The Twenty Caverns That Started It All
Twenty caverns, one committed jump and Grieg on the beeper: how Matthew Smith’s 1983 Bug-Byte classic invented the British platformer. Our review.
Reviews
Jet Set Willy Review: Matthew Smith’s Impossible Houseparty
Willy’s party is over and Maria wants the house tidied: sixty rooms, one hangover and the Attic bug — Matthew Smith’s impossible houseparty, reviewed.
Reviews
Elite Review: The C64 Port That Carried a Universe in 64K
Eight galaxies, a working economy and the long road from Harmless to Elite — Firebird’s 1985 C64 port of Braben and Bell’s classic kept the whole universe. We take the Cobra out again.
Features
The SID Chip: How the Commodore 64’s Voice Outlived the Machine
Three voices, one legendary filter. From Bob Yannes’ design and the Hubbard–Galway golden age to the demoscene and chiptune, this is how the 6581 became music’s most loved chip.
Features
Commodore 64 Hidden Gems: 10 Brilliant Games That Slipped Past the Charts
Beyond Impossible Mission and Elite lies a second C64 canon: Wizball, Armalyte, Mayhem in Monsterland and seven more brilliant games the charts forgot. Here is your digging guide.
Reviews
The Last Ninja Review: System 3’s C64 Masterpiece
System 3’s 1987 isometric epic looked like a painting and sounded like a film score. We return to Armakuni’s quest to find a masterpiece that still demands your patience — and rewards it.
Reviews
Impossible Mission Review: Stay Awhile, Stay Forever
Epyx’s 1984 classic still sets the standard for C64 platforming — Dennis Caswell’s randomised stronghold, that animation, and the most famous voice in 8-bit gaming, revisited.
Reviews
Ecco: The Tides of Time Review: The CD Version Swims Deeper
A full CD soundtrack, video sequences and an ocean that teaches you to read water — the deepest, hardest swim on the Sega CD, in its reference edition.
Features
Night Trap and the Hearings: The Game That Helped Invent the ESRB
A campy trap-’em-up was debated in the US Senate, pulled from Christmas shelves and blamed for an industry — how Night Trap’s winter of 1993 built the ESRB.