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Indie game dev legend Jeff Vogel of spiderwebsoftware.com joins us for a provocative hour of conversation about legendary Apple products, summer camp with Lord British, moonshots and other artifacts of the Space Race, and much more!

00:00 - Show Opening

08:20 - Fifty Years Of Apple

23:17 - Moon - The Computer Art That Made Sure We Didn’t Miss

31:17 - Housekeeping - News links found below

37:15 - Omega Race Counts As Racing

49:29 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

Gaming Historian ends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV_Aww8_6wQ

XBox 360 GTA4 Devkit: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/xbox/xbox-360-devkit-bought-for-usd5-at-car-boot-sale-came-with-2007-beta-build-of-gta-iv-with-unreleased-assets-version-includes-cut-ferry-system-zombies-and-more

Manic Miner online: https://manicminer.online

Taito Crown 603 claw machine: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/after-asking-the-japanese-public-to-help-it-find-its-first-ever-claw-machine-game-taito-instead-found-its-second/

CLK emulator: https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK

Doom "on a BBC Micro": https://youtu.be/32hJLwrk-gY

Capcom mini-arcade machine: https://www.hackster.io/news/lcl-li-s-tiny-capcom-arcade-cabinet-uses-a-period-appropriate-though-scaled-down-crt-display-68d78f2c6743

Episode Credits

"Apple Lisa (Little Apple Museum)" by Alvy is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.

"Apple Vision Pro (M5, 2025) with Dual Knit Band on Display (cropped)" by AzureSaturn is marked with CC0 1.0.

"Apple Macintosh ー Computer History Museum (25364330319)" by Ik T from Kanagawa, Japan is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?

"Apple Newton MessagePad H1000 in NMAH" by National Museum of American History is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en/?ref=openverse.

It's taken too long to get prominent retro podcaster and archivist  @KaySavetz  (ANTIC, Eaten By a Grue, Internet Archive, and more) on the show! On this bonus-sized episode Kay joins Dave and Jason as we take a deeper look at 1990s nostalgia and the loss of multi-format cover art giant Philip Castle, and chart the dramatic rise and hard fall of Iomega's Zip drives. And for the sake of equal time, Kay presents a news brief involving source code hidden away on SyQuest media.

All this, your picks for a gaming industry legend you'd like to spend an hour with, and more in This Week in Retro 262!

You can check out the ANTIC podcast here: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/

Visit https://www.addict.media/ for your copy of Pixel Addict magazine.

00:00 - Show Opening

04:24 -  Elite Box Art Was Elite

17:33 - Media Giants Of The Past

32:42 - Housekeeping - News links found below

48:45 - I Wish It Was The 90s - Or Do I?

01:01:10 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

PicoGX Cartridge: https://shop.flamelily.co.uk/picogx

History of Creative SoundBlaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTPa6wRECw0

3dfx Voodoo on FPGA: https://hackaday.com/2026/03/22/the-3dfx-voodoo-lives-again-in-an-fpga/

Pico Z80: https://eaw.app/picoz80/

Windows 3.1 on AMD Ryzen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qP3Jy52RuQ

MS-DOS on Apple II: https://sethkush.com/post/2026/03/22/reboot-camp-83-ms-dos-on-the-apple-iie-is-ready/

Game stores final closure: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/major-uk-retailer-leave-high-085419192.html

Lemon20 community: https://lemon20.com

Nintendo64 Open World Engine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXxmIw9axWw

Kikstart documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW6AdUeIFLs

Jetpac remake: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/03/the-zx-spectrum-classic-jetpac-has-been-unofficially-remade

Kerbal flight via ZX Spectrum: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/enthusiast-lands-on-the-moon-using-hardware-from-the-1980s-zx-spectrum-home-computer-with-3-5-mhz-cpu-and-48kb-of-memory-power-kerbal-space-flight

AOL Macintosh source code: https://bitbang.social/@mac84tv/116313232502499502

🛠 Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com/ for all your PCB needs! 🛠

How did we allow this to happen?! Not the guest appearance by  @adriansdigitalbasement , but rather the proliferation of competing controller standards which has finally been solved (possibly) by a new multi-interface project for USB, Raspberry Pi, and MiSTeR devices. Plus the latest developments at the new Commodore International Corporation, a treasure trove of audio recordings from Game Developer Conference 1989, the mostly-respectful observance of an important anniversary for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and the first "Chris' Corner" segment to keep the transportation news flowing while Chris takes a brief holiday!

00:00 - Show Opening

02:25 - Every Joyport, Everywhere, All At Once

20:50 - Commodore Is Growing

39:04 - Housekeeping - News links found below

47:21 - Meeting Legendary Minds

Additional link: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/03/the-nes-is-not-gonna-go-on-forever-forget-gdc-2026-take-a-trip-back-in-time-with-recordings-from-the-1989-event

01:00:44 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

Young People Yearn For 1990s Tech: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/22/young-people-are-longing-for-the-low-tech-90s-and-so-would-i-if-i-could-only-remember-them

GBA At 25: https://www.eurogamer.net/the-best-gba-games-you-can-play-on-switch-and-five-we-hope-show-up-soon

Gunship Origins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni4AbrlROz4

Chuck Norris Obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/20/chuck-norris-was-the-rip-roaring-king-of-80s-friday-night-vhs-fests

Rosetintedspectrum: https://youtu.be/NJ-QxbVUg6o

Indy Classic Expo: https://indyclassic.org

OpenTTD News: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sim/openttd-asks-people-to-please-stop-being-mad-at-atari-for-forcing-the-game-off-steam-openttd-as-a-project-retains-its-full-independence-and-you-can-still-get-it-for-free/

Our most popular guest returns as  @ReesRambles  joins us to discuss the latest news surrounding the Myrient mega-archive, the legacy of operating system pioneer Digital Research, and some long-overdue game ports including one from the Sinclair QL of all things. Is reviving Cinemaware titles the retro equivalent of jury duty? Are there enough good Atari Jaguar games to count on two hands? Find out as we bid Chris a temporary farewell in episode 260 of This Week in Retro!

Visit https://www.addict.media/ for your copy of Pixel Addict magazine.

00:00 - Show Opening

02:16 - Preservation On The High Seas Saved

15:54 - DR DOS Is Back?!

35:54 - Housekeeping - News links found below

41:41 - New Old Games

54:37 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

Compute's Gazette Coverage: https://www.reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro/comments/1rp826s/twir_covered_in_the_march_2026_computes_gazette/

Sonic On The Amiga: https://youtu.be/JDBHzZS2wNQ

Laserdisc Under The Microscope: https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/10/laserdisc_microscope/

Hedley Davis Obituary: https://www.daniels-hutchison.com/obituaries/Hedley-Combs-Davis?obId=47519295

Star Wars Apple Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afNsXyAnUTY

Saturn Accelerator: https://retrorgb.com/former-sega-engineer-confirms-saturn-accelerator-was-in-development.html

Cookie's Bustle: https://gamehistory.org/cookies-bustle/

Commodore PET Restoration: https://retrohax.net/marchindore-commodore-cbm-3032/

Episode Credits

"Atari Jaguar console" by Easterbilby is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.

🛠 Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com/ for all your PCB needs! 🛠

The legacy of Lucasfilm Games looms large this week. We take on the controversial conclusions surrounding the global "Adventure Game Aptitude Test," which challenged gamers to complete the classic Maniac Mansion in four hours with no context, no documentation, and no hints. In other news we look at the improved access to Lucasarts classics thanks to a DREAMM emulator upgrade, and live vicariously through an outrageous hack to the infamous Sinclair C5. Plus your top picks in tiny software and an all-new Community Question of the Week.

00:00 - Show Opening

02:00 - You’re Not A Failure

Additional links: https://www.polygon.com/agat-adventure-aptitude-test-pc-adventure-maniac-mansion-guide/

18:03 - Dreaming Of A Galaxy Far Far Away

26:18 - Housekeeping - News links found below

34:14 - Sinclair C6… Speed

44:19 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

The Crew Unlimited: https://thecrewunlimited.com

PS2 with DVD-RW: https://www.reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro/comments/1rlfdxi/just_wanted_to_share_something/

Development Machine Controversy: https://www.sonicstadium.org/articles/sega/sega-stole-my-consoles-collector-raided-after-buying-stock-from-office-clearout-r3301/

Matthew Lillard On Games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhvMRw3OPjY

ZX Spectrum Street Fighter 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_HJvjzojZs

Ultima VIII Retrospective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4h1GIw32UU

IBM Training Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNC0mLsaqz4

All the fun you can squeeze into 64k or less as we look at the international sensation that was Jet Set Willy and the explosion of open-world adventure gaming in 1984. There's even a fully-realised Quake-style FPS available for modern PCs that fits into just 64 kilobytes, or you can code up your own retro memory-resident marvels with the aid of the new Kwyll system or dozens of other open-source development environments. 

Visit https://www.addict.media/ for your copy of Pixel Addict magazine.

00:00 - Show Opening

01:59 - Let’s Compare Our (Jet Set) Willys

19:22 - Retro Coding Roundup

Tprrt's Blog: https://tprrt.tupi.fr/retro-console-game-engines.html

36:06 - Housekeeping - News links found below

42:00 - QUOD Damage!

QUOD Download: https://daivuk.itch.io/quod

Quake Brutalist Jam III: https://www.reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro/comments/1r7pz1p/quake_brutalist_jam_iii_released_jan_3rd/

Free Unreal: https://www.reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro/comments/1r44enm/unreal_tournament_2004_is_now_free/

Chris' Unreal Maps: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oaBzMgV9oFHFpuTDnk4cytHOSdw0vII3?usp=sharing

51:22 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

TIE Fighter Total Conversion: https://youtu.be/IZtHOoMsrWs?si=X3S9v4aEJXPDZ03D

FreeDOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwLIgdRj5bI

MiSTer Floppy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN8TCz7Z0n8

eXoDemoscene: https://www.retro-exo.com/demoscene.html

GenZ and iPods: https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/23/why-gen-z-and-young-adults-are-embracing-ipods-again

Rob Grant obituary: https://www.ganymede.tv/2026/02/rob-grant-rip/

Floating Lemming: https://youtu.be/h-2KyTnxr5E?si=dZFkM8nKew3dyF9I

🛠 Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com/ for all your PCB needs! 🛠

"Keep a copy of what's important to you."

With these bullet points (provided by special guest  @RonsCompVids ) in mind, we take a critical look at a Philips CD-i retrospective, discuss a substantial update to the Stop Killing Games movement, and dig into the fundamental right of physical media ownership. We share your top tips to avoid doomscrolling and introduce a new Community Question of the Week: what retro technology would you resuscitate with a one BILLION dollar budget?

00:00 - Show Opening

05:18 - Was The CD-i Doomed From The Start?

30:54 - Ross Has Saved Your Game

48:53 - Housekeeping - News links found below

58:51 - Streaming Is So Last Year

01:15:02 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

SDF Public Access UNIX: https://connect.sdf.org/

Commercial Availability Of Pre-2010 Games: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Frflir4u3odkg1.jpeg

THEA1200 Preorder: https://retrogames.biz/products/thea1200/

Dolphin Emulator: https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2026/02/16/rise-of-the-triforce/

Lemmings 35th Anniversary: https://youtu.be/Ulx0WE8KnA4

ATABoy: https://youtu.be/XUmxxTCaCM4

Echo Aviation Controller: https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/pc-gaming/honeycomb-echo-aviation-controller-review 

Games You Missed: https://www.reddit.com/r/thisweekinretro/comments/1rbp5d2/new_column_from_itsmethyroid_games_you_missed/

Giant Macintosh: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/case-mods/computer-history-museum-unveils-comically-large-scale-rendition-of-the-1986-apple-macintosh-plus-towering-all-in-ones-keyboard-looks-disproportionately-huge-today

DJ Slope of  @slopesgameroom  is our guest for this week's dive into the history of shoot 'em up games of all shapes and sizes. In other departments we examine the claim that 1996 changed computing history forever and explore whether handheld retro tech can defeat the modern scourge of doomscrolling. Plus news in classic tech ranging from the Nabu to the CIDCO Mailstation, on Episode 256 of This Week in Retro.

Visit https://www.addict.media/ for your copy of Pixel Addict magazine.

00:00 - Show Opening

02:23 - Shmups Away Story

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9GFX6lIbeE

20:59 - 1996 Really Was A Big Deal Story

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM1gXDZsMO0

Additional link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OHkrQYSmtE

38:01 - Housekeeping - News links found below

44:07 - Doomscrolling Defeated

Story Link: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/feb/09/how-a-decades-old-video-game-has-helped-me-defeat-the-doomscroll

56:42 - Community Question of the Week

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https://bsky.app/profile/jasoncompton.bsky.social

Youtube: Chris - https://www.youtube.com/@005AGIMA

Jason - https://www.youtube.com/@jpcompton

Audio Podcast: https://retroadventurers.podbean.com/

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📻 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinRetro

This Week in Retro is a weekly roundup of the hottest stories from the world of retro gaming and computing, voted on by you, the listener! Hosted by Chris from 005 AGIMA, Jason from The Retro Adventurers and Dave. Edited by Duncan Styles.

News In Brief Links

Original GTA Working On PC: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/a-gta-modder-has-got-the-1997-original-working-perfectly-on-modern-pcs-and-steam-deck-and-its-a-joy-to-behold-i-wanted-pick-up-and-play-gta-on-windows-with-the-best-possible-compatibility-without-classic-installation/

BBC WAP: https://youtu.be/CYW0LngZ7v8?si=YP7ne10BFTEEWMyJ

Unreal Tournament: https://www.oldunreal.com/downloads/ut2004/full-game-installers/

Barn Find Nabu: https://glassalmanac.com/2200-vintage-computers-sat-in-a-barn-for-23-years-sold-on-ebay-for-under-e100-each/

Outrun On Apple Watch: https://youtu.be/fAXkovTMOvY?si=JAL8F0wD8y6wrseS

The Last Z80 Mass Market Machine: https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/11/last_z80_machine/

Episode Credits

"File:Amstrad CPC464.jpg" by Bill Bertram is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5

Parts of "How the Shoot ’Em Up Genre Was Born" courtesy of Pixel Playback

See the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9GFX6lIbeE

Parts of "This rare BeBox still works!" courtesy of PCWorld and The Retro Roadshow

See the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OHkrQYSmtE

🛠 Check out PCBWay at https://pcbway.com/ for all your PCB needs! 🛠

We're gonna need a bigger byte to hold future episodes of This Week in Retro, but the end of the 8-bit era leads off with an exploration of the innovative SCUMM adventure game engine. Originally created by Lucasarts Games for Maniac Mansion, the system went on to be used in major franchises including Sam and Max and Indiana Jones, and is the topic of an upcoming crowdfunded documentary. We also report on some major achievements for retro users of PowerPC Macs and ancient accounting packages, and sift through the 30 year legacy of Duke Nukem 3D and the origins of John Romero's Catacombs 3D.

00:00 - Show Opening

02:15 - Passport To Adventure

DevsQuest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq-am862uRg

15:11 - Herculean Efforts In Retro

Additional Links: 

34:03 - Housekeeping - News links found below

42:24 - Hail To The Catacombs Baby

Catacombs 3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcUqwMf01pI

52:42 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/02/taitos-1987-outrun-clone-top-speed-makes-its-debut-on-modern-consoles-later-this-week

https://www.bcs.org/articles-opinion-and-research/sir-clive-sinclair-views-on-ai-and-super-intelligence/

https://www.gog.com/redeem/WELCOMEGIFT

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/you-can-now-view-the-computer-history-museums-collection-from-the-comfort-of-your-own-home-and-its-full-of-retro-blasts-from-the-past/

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/beige-is-back-remembering-the-bbc-micro-with-raspberry-pi-500-plus/

https://www.ukag.org.uk/index.php/2026/01/08/more-info-on-the-june-uk-amstrad-group-meet/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxuvEtgfbPU

After years of uncertainty, the vast and historically significant Atari archives held by the late Curt Vendel have a new home at The Strong National Museum of Play. We hear from Atari chroniclers Kay Savetz and Martin Goldberg about the significance of this new installation and share behind-the-scenes photos. Game design pioneer Mike Singleton gets another day in the sun as a Midwinter remake emerges, and the history of Counter-Strike and player-vs-player mayhem get fresh perspective with a new look at Dust2 map designer Dave Johnston.

Visit https://www.addict.media/ for your copy of Pixel Addict magazine.

DESCRIPTION

00:00 - Show Opening

02:05 - Who Collects The Collections?

Additional links: https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com

14:31 - Take On General ReMastered

Additional links: http://mercenarysite.free.fr/mercframes_graphic.htm

28:18 - Housekeeping - News links found below

33:16 - n00b or h4x0r?

47:32 - Community Question of the Week

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News In Brief Links

Intel 486 motherboard: https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/the-m8sbc-486-is-an-open-source-intel-486-mobo-built-from-scratch-in-under-6-months-the-original-idea-was-to-achieve-linux-and-doom-compatibility-but-it-achieves-far-more-than-that

Speedball 2: https://youtu.be/Mujivih30bc

Native PC ports from PlayStation 2: https://www.timeextension.com/news/2026/01/native-pc-ports-of-ps2-games-could-be-on-the-way-thanks-to-new-recompilation-experiment

Arcade church: https://youtu.be/kPKJyJGucH4

Why Do We Say Sprites?: https://youtu.be/tTqfeJ2yJwE

Amiga 1200 Mini-ITX Alicia: https://youtu.be/NMKiRaLyuD8

The Visible Zorker: https://eblong.com/infocom/visi/