Retro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation

Chris Donnelly — better known in the Pico-8 community as Gruber — is a professional pianist, Steinway Artist, and former jazz player and tutor at the University of Toronto who's taken his love of music in an unexpected direction: composing soundtracks for tiny retro-styled games on the fantasy console Pico-8. His chiptune soundtracks have graced fan-favourite titles like Alpine Alpaca, Golf Sunday, and Pico Pirates, blending musical sophistication with 8-bit charm.

In this episode, Chris joins me from Nova Scotia to talk about his journey from the jazz world to retro game music, how Pico-8's strict limitations inspire new forms of creativity, and what the experience taught him about community, creativity and learning.

But behind the creativity lies a more personal story. After years in academia and performing, Chris faced burnout that led him to step back from the piano - even selling his most cherished instruments. He has come out the other side and has an amazing, inspirational story to tell.

And of course, we wrap up with a visit to the Retro Rocket Museum, where Chris chooses his one must-have retro device, two treasured games, and a track to send drifting through the cosmos.

🔗 Links: YouTube – @Gruber_Music

Pico-8 www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

🎵 Music: Intro – Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Kind of Bloop, by Andy Baio

Fez, by Disasterpeace

Ghouls 'n Ghosts, by Tamayo Kawamoto

Badger Punch Games — the duo of Ricki Sickenger and Henning Ludvigsen — have been creating games together since their Amiga demo scene days in the early '90s. Their breakout title Roguecraft first made waves on the Amiga in 2024, later winning the Debug award and quickly earning a devoted following. Now the game has been reimagined and released as Roguecraft DX on Evercade, bringing their retro-inspired roguelike adventure to a whole new audience.

In this episode, Ricki and Henning join me to talk about their journey from humble beginnings in the demo scene, to building games as a side hustle, to becoming part of the Evercade family. We discuss the origins of Roguecraft, the challenges of bringing it to life on classic hardware, and the process of enhancing it for Evercade — from new features to the community support that helped make it happen. Along the way, they share insights into procedural generation, design choices like the lack of save states, and what they'd love to add in the future.

As always, we wrap up with a trip to the Retro Rocket Museum, where Ricki and Henning pick their all-time favourite retro device and two games to preserve for future generations, and finish with a music pick to play us out. It's a must-listen for fans of Amiga, Evercade, and indie retro development.

🔗 Links: Website – www.badgerpunch.com

Facebook – @BadgerPunch

Discord - @BadgerPunch

Evercade - evercade.co.uk/cartridges/roguecraft-dx

🎵 Music: Intro – Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Outro – Driller C64 Loading Tune, by Matt Gray

Today's episode takes us back to the golden age of the arcade, courtesy of one of the true giants of the industry: TAITO. We are celebrating the launch of a new game collection of four classics, which have been re-released and upgraded for fans old and new. The collection includes stone-cold classic Operation Wolf, and it's sequel Operation Thunderbolt; plus two games less familiar to Western gamers - Night Striker and Space Gun.

To tell us more, we're joined by Yuichi Toyama, producer at TAITO, along with Embracer Freemode's James Wragg, who provides interpretation through the interview. For flow, we have only provided brief excerpts of Yuichi, and homed in on James' interpreting, so apologies to our Japanese-speaking listeners!

This is a fascinating insight into the development of arcade games from inside the HQ of Taito, giving a brief glimpse into the decision making process around the games, and what they mean in Japan.

Thanks to Overload PR and Clear River Games for setting up and fascilitating the interview.

🔗 Links

Operation Night Strikers on Steam

Operation Night Strikers on Nintendo

Operation Night Strikers on Clear River Games

🎵 Music

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Ray Force, Penetration - by Tamayo Kawamoto

This episode features Grant Sinclair, inventor of the IRIS eTrike and nephew to legendary innovator Sir Clive Sinclair. Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, Grant Sinclair is a futurist and innovator who is making waves in the gaming market with the launch of a new handheld gaming device called the GamerCard.

This interview covers life growing up in the Sinclair household during one of the most exciting times in British computing history, seeing the launch of the Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and, of course, the ZX Spectrum. Grant shares what it was like to see Sir Clive Sinclair at work, his love of taking things apart, and how he and Grant's father Iain supported the family in their innovation ambitions.

We also find out about the GamerCard, which is a unique gaming device based on stack of PCBs and Raspberry Pi, with a high resolution IPS square screen format, and dual dome navigation discs.

As usual, we have more entries for the Titan 1 rocket-based retro gaming museum - and an unusal tale about astronaut, Major Tim Peake.

🔗 Links

grantsinclair.com

🎹 Music

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Guitar arrangement of Risky Ride from the XBOX port of "OutRun 2" by Fumio Itoh

In this episode we welcome back YouTuber and retro gaming aficionado, Crazy Burger. Although perhaps best known as an Evercade reviewer and content creator, Crazy Burger has a decent sized retro gaming handheld collection, and has tinkered with devices and explored the emulation gaming scene over the years.

Our objective in this episode is to answer the question: if you were to buy only one emulation-based handheld, what would it be? With brands like Anbernic, Miyoo, Retroid and Powkiddy pumping them out on a weekly basis, there is a baffling amount of choice. Our aim is to break down the hype and steer you in the right direction.

We explore the pros and cons of emulation-based gaming, hop around the piracy issue, and cover common questions, like which operating system is best, and what do I get for my money?

Crazy Burger also gives a quick verdict of the year so far for Blaze Entertainment and Evercade, comparing the platform with the handhelds we discuss on the show.

🔗 Links

YouTube Crazy Burger

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Celeste, First Steps - written, performed & mastered by Lena Raine

My guest today is Brandon Saltalamacchia, the founder and publisher of Retro Dodo – one of the most trusted and beloved destinations for retro gaming gadget reviews, news, and geek culture.

Brandon joins me to share his deep love of retro gaming. We swap thoughts on Evercade, and dive into how he built Retro Dodo into one of the most successful retro gaming websites – only to see it hit hard by a major Google update in 2023. We unpack what happened, its impact on the business, and his candid views on why AI is threatening the future of independent publishers and, ultimately, consumers.

He also gives us his hot takes on the best retro gaming handhelds to buy, explains why Evercade is doing things right, and reveals the games and device he'd launch into space on the Retro Titans rocket.

This is one of our most compelling interviews yet – a mix of retro gaming nostalgia, hard-earned insight, and a real David vs Goliath story.

🔗 Links:

Website: retrododo.com

Facebook: @retrododo

YouTube: @retrododo

X: @retro_dodo @iambrandonsalt

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Zelda's Lofi Kingdom, by Jokabi

This episode's guest's fingerprints are all over some of the most iconic games of the 80s, 90s and beyond - Simon Phipps, aka Simes.

From the 8-bit bedroom coding scene to the heights of AAA development, Simon's career has spanned hits from Rick Dangerous and Shadow Man, to the Harry Potter games for EA.

In addition to finding out about his long career in computer and video games, we hear about his love for art and making Star Wars props and costumes. This feature-length episode covers a lot of ground, and is essential listening for anyone working in the creative or gaming industries - or just wants to find out about them.

🔗 Links:

Websites - www.simonphipps.com

YouTube - @SimonPhippsArt

Instagram - @SimonPhippsArt

Facebook - @SimonPhippsArt

X / Twitter - @SimonPhippsArt

Plus Three Fields Entertainment (where Wreckreaction is mentioned)

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Captain Blood soundtrack - "Ethnicolor" by Jean Michel Jarre

It's the five year anniversary of Evercade, the cart-based retro and indie gaming system, and we are celebrating with a special interview with the CEO and head of marketing of Blaze Entertainment - Andrew Byatt and Sean Cleaver respectively.

Following the latest Showcase announcement on 29th May 2025, we have a deep-dive interview covering all the cart releases, and of course the Taito Alpha! It's a packed announcement, with fan favourites NEOGEO back, Taito getting a first cart release, and a wonderful new indie game, Roguecraft.

🔗 Links:

Websites - Evercade, Hyper Mega Tech!

YouTube - @EvercadeRetro

Instagram - @EvercadeRetro

Facebook - @EvercadeRetro

X / Twitter - @EvercadeRetro

BlueSky - @Evercade

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff

Happy Birthday, by jimlapbap

Despite being over 27 years old, developers are still making games for the Game Boy Color - and one such game designer and coder is Shane McCafferty. He has been making games since he was 11, but has taken his side hustle and hobby onto a whole new level, releasing 9 Game Boy Color games on ItchIO in the past 18 months.

We find out what it is that compels Shane to make games like Block Droppin, Cave Dave and Word Forward for the Game Boy Color, which projects kept him up at night, and the ones he's most proud of. We also discuss his current project to make a 'What If?' version of OutRun for the GBC.

🔗 YouTube Links:

Itch.IO - @egvrooms-game-boy-games

BlueSky - @EGVroom

X - @EGVroom

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

Robocop (Spectrum version), by Jonathan Dunn

Retro Asylum is widely regarded as one of the top gaming podcasts in the world, so we wanted to find out the secret to their success and why they've taken on the challenge of playing through and reviewing every single Evercade cart, on top of the rest of their output. So, Jim Middleton and Chris Worthington were kind enough to share their views and experiences covering the space, why they love Evercade, and whether it's OK to play emulation-based devices.

🔗 YouTube Links:

Website - https://retroasylum.com/

Discord - @RetroAsylum

YouTube - @TheOfficialRetroAsylumYouTubeChannel

Spotify - Retro Asylum on Spotify

Spotify - Playthrough on Spotify

🎵 Music:

Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff

The Secret of Monkey Island, composed by Michael Z. Land