The Nostalgia Corner

A fine hello to you all and thank you for stopping by to read my musings about the topic of retro games and retro gaming in general. I very much enjoy writing (not so sure if I am any good at it to be honest) but there is something therapeutic about getting your thoughts down on paper so to speak, so I have thought to myself a blog would be a great start. There are many passions and interest in my life that I could choose to write about, family, travelling, fitness/work, sports, but I have chosen gaming as its something that has been there though out my life. I am fortunate enough to have witness the evolution of gaming from my days playing on the Atari 2600 as a eager youngster playing ghostbusters to current gen Playstation 4 and most consoles in between. At 36 I am and definitely feel like a veteran gamer, in another life I may have perhaps tried my hand as a You Tube content creator but also as a family man with a full time job its a commitment I could not commit too, for now I...

For someone who had had the pleasure of gaming for more years than id care to admit, you get to playing a fair share of games across many platforms, so much so if this was a paying job i could sit and type reviews for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, but its not a paying job, its passion, its history, its nostalgia, my memories, our memories as gamers, a loading screen, intro music, that first glimpse of those 8/16 bit graphics and so on. I have recently stumbled across a very random website whereby i can type in a console/computer, even a genre of game and as many game as i want numerically and hit generate it boom up pops a list, and i thought to myself, this is good, this is great in fact, there are probably hundred of games I've completely forgotten about, i wonder if this is a way to delve into this gamers archive and see what initial memories are pulled out from it, review if from recollection as well as going back and having a go again to see how it measures up to those memories...

So its been a minute. I sort of fell of the planet for a while, well in a writing sense that is, my bad, life has a way of doing that, i feel, since my last article the world has certainly changed, we survived through a pandemic, unfortunately there are other evils in the world with wars being waged which is sad. If anyone from these parts of our planet reads my heart goes out to you and i hope peace returns for you sometime in the immediate future. So yeah a hiatus came into play, i hit pause and lost the remote to press play again. I am a bit older, not so sure wiser, but I'm here and want to write again and i hope i can ask some to join me. My blogs to which there are 2 focus on 1. retro gaming (sometimes current) and my second blog titled Pint Size Pizza which focuses on craft beers and pizza, more to the point homemade (i spent my lockdown becoming a self proclaimed aficionado in both, i like to think you could bundle all 3 topics up and find something you like from any of tha...

Seems some what strange to include up to date content in a blog that look at the past, but hey I am a modern day gamer who just so happens to have a passion for the retro.  E3 came and went. all in all the event was a success, despite the Sony no show, we were treated to an appearance from the man himself Keanu via what I think is going to be the game of the year 2020 in Cyberpunk, and well the less said about Dr Disrespects IRL toilet antics the better (never trusted anyone who wears sunglasses indoors) hopefully this was an error of judgement on his part and he's back doing what he does best soon. Now the theme is set of more modern stuff today I want to talk about good old Los Santos, Rockstar and GTA 5, damn game has been out that long there is a case for it almost being retro. I will admit in its day absolutely awesome and I look forward to spending my retirement in 30 years time when GTA 6 finally gets released. I took some time the other day and thought "ok lets...

Hope you all had a productive weekend filled with plenty of gaming retro or current based. Leading on from the last piece on our part 1 of PS2 titles it won't come as a surprise that we are doing part 2 today. The titles in part 1 may not have been to everyone's tastes  and that's cool, we all have entirety different opinions and more importantly memories of past titles. GTA Vice City - Rockstar 2002 Swiftly on to the main content. I want to start the piece with a bang, a 1980's shoulder pad wearing bang. Rockstar GTA Vice City. Rockstar had to bring something special to the party following the huge success of GTA III and for me boy did they deliver. Vice city to this day is probably pound for pound Rockstars best GTA title, why you ask, they took what they learned and developed in III and turbo charged it 80's style. Main cover art work Very colourful strip The game had a stellar host of Hollywood names carrying out voice over work to this day I d...

Getting some free time to sit down and write is priceless when you have a young family, so having some time off from work and the kids at school means i can sit and game or even better research some ideas to blog, or both, today I am switching my time between writing this piece and getting stuck into more Mafia III, very much enjoying my time as Lincoln Clay. Today we are following on from something i touched on at the end of the last article, and that is top 10's, PS2 in particular, the top 10 series will hopefully prove both easy reading but also stir up nostalgia and debate, i doubt very much you would find one 10 ten then same , we all have games that resonate with us differently and games that were just that good its impossible to ignore them. I recently found a you tube channel called MetalJesusRocks, does what it says on the tin, retro gamer who has passion for games and mental who boasts a Jesus like head of hair. Good channel if you like retro gaming, a strong thum...

Happy Friday, which means one thing to this gamer, the internal battle come midnight tonight, wrestling with the decision to game on or get some sleep, usually gaming wins and I end up like a extra from the Walking Dead (even after my first coffee) the next day having went to bed close to 3am, my fellow gamers with kids will understand (unfortunately kids have no pause button) and gamers without well you will reach that level soon enough. I digress, on to my piece for today, first person shooters, get the formula right for a first person then its like printing your own money. first and third person shooters are everywhere now but rewinding to the 90's, not so much, which for me makes it a pretty special time for this particular type of game. Now the good thing about gaming is we are not limited to picking just one game, we are allowed to have love for multiple games, but I pose the hypothetical of if you had no other choice which first person shooter would you choose. I have ma...

The Zelda series is synonymous with any gamer worth their salt, lets be honest.  I challenge anyone to admit there is not one Zelda title past or present they have played and not enjoyed. I will admit this, i have yet to play the newest instalment of the series, manly due to the fact i do not yet own a Switch, which is a travesty as i am all about Mario and Mario Kart so i think that is something i must rectify in the near future. I have owned multiple Nintendo 64 consoles throughout my years since its release, along the way they were sold to make way for other life priorities, college, uni and the copious alcohol that went along with said college and uni, but time and time again Mario, Link and the gang would find their way back into my life. Proud enough to admit i bought my first Nintendo 64 and also a copy of Mario Kart 64 upon the UK release via funds through jobs such as gardening and car washing (good old days indeed) eventually i bought myself a copy ...

New week new things to talk about. well not so much new as this is a retro gaming blog so old things to talk about I guess. Moving back from the opening blog on Broken Sword the time machine is going back again to an even simpler time in gaming, the late 80's and early 90's and for me this was when gaming really stating to come to the fore, we moved away from more keyboard based and we were introduced to the console, now I know consoles were around before this but the good old 8 bit Nintendo onwards is where things really started to go boom. I was never in one camp (Nintendo or Sega) I much preferred to be able to play both and at one stage or another in my youth owned one of the other and in later life with my  'ahem' unquestionable wealth I would have both. I sadly do not have a Sega product to my name at present, my retro console collection remains somewhat sparse (Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Nintendo Gamecube, Playstation 1 & 2) I do however like to use my ...