We smell a conspiracy here…We were recently sent this rather lavish Commodore 64 book (expect a review in issue 52) to complement the Speccy book we already have, but we’d love to see an actual Amstrad CPC outing in the same style. Then, and only then would the 8-Bit holy trinity be complete* * We purposely didn’t include the BBC Micro, so please don’t write in and complain. 

Ok, so we’ve not updated the blog for a while (that’s deadlines for you) but we’ll return with a fresh ferocity from tomorrow. In the meantime here’s a Christmas card that Konami sent us. It’s several months old now of course, but it’s so cute we just couldn’t bear to throw it away. 

Imagine how well this baby would have sold if it was actually real. I spent three weeks scouring the internet and was prepared to pay any price until I discovered that it had been created as promotional material.  

For those of you who are unaware, Retro Gamer has a brand new designer in the form of Stephen Williams. Hailing from a place that isn’t Bournemouth; a quick glimpse into his mind proves that he’s a perfect addition to the Retro Gamer team. Take a look at what he was seeing while playing Asteroids. 

We’re huge fans of Halo, so when we heard that it would be appearing on the Spectrum 48K we became ecstatic. There’s no news as to when the game will be released, but here’s an early screenshot to get you excited.   

Sorry for the late post everyone, but ever since we watched The King of Kong yesterday we’ve been trying to set our own world records on the hit arcade game. You can expect to see our own interpretation of the classic documentary in the next few days. In the meantime here’s a picture of the lovely Link statue we received to mark the release of The Twilight Princess. Unlike the versions that were available on Nintendo’s online store, this one is actually from a limited run. A gift from the lovely Robert Saunders. Cheers mate. 

Very, very occasionally, we will sometimes be able to get out of the office and do a little travelling. While we rarely get to go abroad (most companies don’t promote retro games you see) we do occasionally get to visit our heroes.

One such example was when I was lucky enough to get invited to Rare’s headquarters and interview Wil Overton, Nick Burton and several other team members about JetPac Refuelled (you can read the full interview in Retro Gamer 39.) Anyway, after being shown around, having the interview and reminding myself that few other magazines had received the same privilege, it was time to take the five-hour trip home.

I didn’t leave empty-handed however as I received my very own Piñata and a framed piece of JetPac Refuelled artwork signed by all the developers. Needless to say it was a brilliant end to a rather special day.

A lovely framed piece of art. Don’t worry guys, it hasn’t been flogged on eBay.

Look everyone, it’s Horstachio! Play’s art editor, Justyn Chan slyly hides in the background, Thundercats  toys just out of  sight.

Having relatives in Singapore means I periodically get to spend some time in South East Asia, which is great for a retro arcade fan like myself. Video game arcades are hugely popular here, and although they don’t bristle with the latest titles as in Japan, retro arcade games are a very common sight. This could be down to operators happily running old stock or an indication of the popularity of retro-styled titles (games like Metal Slug and shooters like Raiden 2 are still played frequently here.) Either way it’s a great thing to be able to pop into an arcade and play Outrunners, Virtual On, Strikers 1945 and Marvel vs Capcom, especially when the comparative UK experience today is nowhere near as enjoyable (unless you’re solely into light gun games and racers that is).Here are a few recent pictures taken during a jaunt around Malaysia, in February 2008. I didn’t spend my time looking for arcades, but I stumbled across a few nice ones while awaiting various boat and train connections, and captured the sights, the sounds, the smells (cancel that last one. Ed) of their innards for you lucky Retro Gamer blog readers. One last thing though, if you are thinking of travelling to South East Asia for retro arcade game hunting, avoid Thailand. Video game arcades are banned there…By Retro Gamer freelancer Mike Bevan

Here’s something you don’t see every day – eight-player linked Outrunners.



A sit-down two-player Virtual On with a rack of eight-player linked Daytona in the background.



The impressive kit for Namco’s 1988 System2 hardware heli-shooter Metal Hawk. Wikipedia erronously thinks this was only released in Japan.



The beautifully constructed original cab for Sega’s G-LOC. They didn’t have the hydraulic version mind.



Mahjong and puzzle games a-plenty.



Ever fancy playing Bomberman on a 50-inch Super Megalo?



Super Megalo city: Metal Slug X, Rival Schools 2, X-Men Vs Street Fighter and many, many more on the big screen.



Shoot-’em-up heaven: A bank of Astro City cabs featuring Raiden 2, Strikers 1945 II, Raiden DX and Raiden Fighters 2.



Two of the finest shmups of all time in their natural arcade environment- Raiden DX and Battle Garegga.

Right then, we felt that the blog was the perfect place to run a highscore competition, so we’re going to start off with my favourite game. All you need to do is post your score in the comments thread and send proof to our website (for verification). The person with the highest score by Thursday gets to pick the next game.This week we’ll be playing the Mega Drive version of Strider and it should be on default settings with no credits. I’ve had a few warm-ups and the current score to beat is 55,300. Good luck everyone.