Hey! This week, we’ve got so much news, plus we find out what “Weird” Al Yankovic’s favourite retro game is.
Let’s get on with it. Ready, Player 1?
Table of Contents
Recalbox RGB JAMMA invades Nationaal Videogame Museum
Zoetermeer, north of Rotterdam, is the home of the Nationaal Videogame Museum – and of several Recalbox RGB JAMMA boards.
🇺🇸 Recalbox and Recalbox RGB JAMMA now equip the Nationaal Videogame Museum’s arcade machines in the Netherlands! 🕹😍
To protect & expose their original PCBs (now rare and fragile), the museum has equipped around twenty of its arcade machines with Recalbox RGB JAMMA 👾— Recalbox 🎮👾 (@recalbox)
1:10 PM • Jul 23, 2024
Essentially a way to add a Raspberry Pi running Recalbox into an arcade machine, the Recalbox RGB JAMMA was initially launched as a Kickstarter. As you can see, the project was successful enough to raise money for fabcrication.
Because of how Recalbox can be configured, an authentic gaming experience can be delivered using the adapter. This can help protect the original PCB from damage.
Hopefully other retro museums will follow suit. Learn more about the RGB JAMMA at www.recalbox.com.
Football Champ gets Arcade Archives release
One of the first arcade football titles I ever played was 1990’s Football Champ. In the late 90s, it was my go-to machine every Friday morning after picking up my pay packet from a local pub.
Then, as now, video games were the only way England would ever win anything. The World Cup competition protrayed in Football Champ was purely knockout-based, with the challenge to win (no draws) 7 games.
I’m not sure how many times I won “the cup” in this game, but while the tackling got more aggressive as the competition proceeded, the paths to goal remained. As such, once you knew the angles to score or cross from, the game became a bit same-y. On the other hand, it’s a great multiplayer title, and Football Champ is now available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch as part of the Arcade Archives series.
“KICK….OFF!”
Retro gaming news in brief
We’ve got so much retro gaming news this week.
Diablo is being ported to the Sega Dreamcast. This followas a different project that ported DOOM64 to the console.
The DOS Retro-Emulation Arena for Maniac Mansion (DREAMM) emulator for LucasArts games has been updated. Many people think this is better than ScummVM, although the latter runs games from other studios.
SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive port of Batman: Revenge of the Joker is being improved by fan, with “Improved Controls! Color Select! New Mechanics!” – grab it at Romhacks.org.
Halo has been ported to the Game Boy (yes, really) in demaked form.
Classic ZX Spectrum game Scuba Dive has been fan-ported to PC.
The RGDS Podcast has released a two-part book of the 50 best Amiga games (Part 1 and Part 2)
A fan-made Dreamcast port of GTA 3 works on unmodded hardware.
And finally… someone has shrunk the Nintendo Wii down to a keychain-sized device.
More retro gaming news next week!
“Weird” Al Yankovic reveals his top retro game
With a new polka medley (Polkamania) hitting the charts this week, who better to quiz about his favorite retro games than “Weird” Al Yankovic?!
Can you guess what it is?
(Clue: something to do with killing Nazis…)
Game Over
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Christian Cawley is the founder and editor of GamingRetro.co.uk, a website dedicated to classic and retro gaming. With over 20 years of experience writing for technology and gaming publications, he brings considerable expertise and a lifelong passion for interactive entertainment, particularly games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.
Christian has written for leading outlets including TechRadar, Computer Weekly, Linux Format, and MakeUseOf, where he also served as Deputy Editor.
When he’s not exploring vintage consoles or retro PCs, Christian enjoys building with LEGO, playing cigar box guitar, and experimenting in the kitchen.
