Console Shock, Retro and Modern Gaming Chat.

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Stu’s got his hands on the Nintendo Switch 2 and gives us his honest review — no over-the-top YouTube theatrics here! Plus, the long-rumoured Microsoft x ASUS collaboration is finally official: meet the Xbox ROG Ally, a new handheld console. But will this be the Steam Deck killer, or is the real story the custom gaming-optimised Windows OS it runs? Here’s what we’re covering: How does the Switch 2 launch compare to the original Switch? First impressions of Mario Kart World Did the Switch 2 really need groundbreaking innovation? How do Switch 1 games perform on the Switch 2? External controller support: Switch 2 vs Steam Deck Where the Steam Deck still outperforms Windows-based handhelds The most exciting part of the Xbox Ally: a gaming-optimised Windows OS How will the new custom Xbox Windows handle launchers, UI quirks, and game libraries? Is Xbox Ally’s branding confusing? Does the average gamer think it’s a portable Xbox console, not a Windows handheld? Gaming-optimised Windows vs SteamOS performance speculation Will Xbox Windows support all generations of Xbox titles? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Are physical releases dying? With the PS5 Pro going fully digital by default, is the industry finally moving away from physical media for good? What does that mean for the mountains of games sitting on our shelves? Trev and Stu tackle all of these questions and more, as we debate the pro’s and cons of a disc-less future. Stu is still addicted to Call of Duty! Trev dives back into the Ratchet & Clank series. PS3 on the Steam Deck vs an actual PS3. Did the PS2 do mascot platformers better than the GameCube? Is streaming a good solution for backwards compatibility? How movies and TV shows maintain forwards compatibility. Is it reasonable to expect every old game to work on every new console? Are official remasters and small official emulated game collections as good as it will ever get? Current-era games, and how they could be handled by future consoles. Is piracy the only way to preserve old games? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Collision Chaos (Present) Stage Theme – Sonic CD (1993) – Sega Mega CD – Composer(s): Masafumi Ogata

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! It’s the 100th episode of Console Shock!!! We are joined by fellow Console Shock charter member Al, as we tackle a subject worthy of an anniversary like this, our Top 3 video games of all time! We don’t want to spoil the countdown too much with the episode notes here, so dive in, listen on, and feel free to add your own Top 3 in the comments. Oh and a huge thank you to everyone who has supported the Shockcast over the years. Here’s to the next 100! Intro/Outro Music – Soul on Desert (Desert Course Theme) – Sega Rally 2 (1998) – Arcade/Sega Dreamcast/PC – Composer(s): Jun Senoue

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! A little late to the party, but Trev and Stu finally celebrate the 20th birthday of the greatest Xbox of all time—the Xbox 360! Released in November 2005, the 360 pioneered a host of features that would become industry-standard: built-in online play, DLC, achievements, robust multimedia support, wireless controllers, a full digital marketplace, and much more. In this episode: How Xbox 360 changed the industry: From achievements to digital distribution, the features that set the template for modern consoles. Speculation on the upcoming Steam Machine’s potential high price Stu’s thoughts on Metroid Prime 4 Reacting to the early reveals of Xbox 360 hardware and launch-window games Why the Xbox 360 wireless controller was (and still is) legendary The Red Ring of Death — and how Xbox survived one of gaming’s biggest hardware crises Did the Kinect spark the decline of the Xbox brand? Surprisingly solid backward compatibility with the OG Xbox How digital downloads revived short, 2D-style games via Xbox Live Arcade Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Valve drops a surprise wave of new hardware announcements, leaving a completely unprepared Trev and Stu to unravel the chaos and excitement rippling through the SteamOS/PC gaming world! GTA VI delayed again — but is that actually good news? Stu experiments with Bazzite on an Intel NUC PC. The Valve SteamCast (Steam Machine) is finally revealed! Steam Machine vs. Current-Gen Consoles — how do the specs stack up? Can the Steam Machine finally deliver true sofa-friendly PC gaming? A sequel to the Steam Controller appears! — but will it be practical? Valve announces a new VR headset — can it take on the Meta Quest? What will all this new Valve hardware cost? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! This Week on the Podcast: As a self-confessed handheld gaming fan, Trev is seriously excited about the rumoured PlayStation 6 handheld, codenamed “Canis”. Will it really deliver a full-fat next-gen PS6 experience in portable form — or will there be too many compromises to make you ditch your Steam Deck or ROG Ally? Xbox Game Pass Price Hike — We unpack the latest changes, what they mean for subscribers, and whether the value still holds up. BREAKING NEWS! — Retro Games Ltd announce the full-size A1200, a dream come true for Amiga fans everywhere. PS6 Handheld Deep Dive: Will it truly play all PS6 games, or will it top out at PS4/PS5 level content? How will PS5 compatibility work — every title, or only ‘handheld-patched’ releases? Could upcoming FSR and frame-generation tech make it the first no-compromise handheld? What sort of price tag might we see for Sony’s next portable? And how could disc-based PS6 games be supported on a handheld system? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! The Mega Drive is a legendary console we’ve revisited in many ways throughout the history of the show—but what’s it actually like to buy one and start a collection today? Are the games easy to track down, is there a best controller to seek out, and should you even bother with the Mega CD or 32X? Trev and Stu are here to guide you on your Sega journey! In this episode: Stu tries out Sega Rally Anniversary Edition on PC Which model Mega Drive should you go for? The obscure hardware variants like the Nomad and Multi-Mega Why 50Hz vs 60Hz matters The controllers you should hunt down What’s the deal with light guns on the Mega Drive? Flash carts – play ROM files on real hardware Mega CD & 32X – worthwhile add-ons or pointless indulgences? Game collecting – where to buy and what’s a fair price Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Trev’s finally done it — he’s bought a PS5! The big question is: why now? Is a PS5 still worth it in 2025? Can it coexist peacefully with a Steam Deck, or is a showdown inevitable? We dive into all that and more in this week’s episode. Also in the mix: Stu shares his thoughts on Deliver At All Costs for PC. First impressions of the PS5 — what stands out, what falls short, and what surprised. Trev gets hands-on with PS5 YouTube streaming. First impressions of Space Marine 2 — and a nostalgic look back at the original. Can the Steam Deck keep up with today’s heavy-hitting games? Would the Steam Deck make a good PS Portal alternative? PS Plus Premium vs Xbox Game Pass — which service comes out on top? And is the Xbox still worth it now that its exclusives are creeping onto PS5? Hit play and join the conversation. Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! In the latest instalment of our “Saving the System” series, we turn our attention to our all-time favourite gaming platform — the legendary Commodore Amiga. Its fate was sealed the moment Commodore collapsed, but can Trev and Stu breathe new life into this classic machine? Join us as we dive into what could have been, what went wrong, and what should have been possible. This episode includes: Thoughts on Oblivion Remastered Could the Amiga 1000 launch have been handled better? Why the Amiga 500 was pure perfection Should Commodore have canned the CDTV and CD32 to focus on CD-ROM add-ons? Did the Amiga 1200 arrive too late? Why the 68020 CPU was already showing its age in 1992 How the unreleased AAA chipset might have kept the Amiga competitive Imagining what successors to the A1200 and A4000 could have looked like Fire up your Workbench disks — it’s time to rewrite history. Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! #marchintosh is here! Trev and Stu join in the annual YouTube tradition of Marchintosh, dedicating an episode to all things Apple Mac in March! This year, we’re flipping through a couple of Macworld UK back issues from 2004 and 2005, reminiscing about an era when Apple was transforming into the tech giant we know today. Join us as we dive into: Stu’s new obsession: Robocop: Rogue City Were 80s and 90s movie-licensed video games actually better than we remember? Was Macworld UK just a reprint of the US edition? Trev’s 20th anniversary as a Mac user! The long-forgotten Apple eMac desktop. Apple’s simple pro vs. consumer product matrix in 2004. The never-ending saga of gaming (or lack thereof) on Mac. A look back at iPods and the entire iPod family. Remember when buying Mac OS X meant getting a massive box? Where did Brits buy Macs before Apple Stores? A look at Mac retailers in the UK. How mid-2000s Apple computers still hold up today. And more! Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Nvidia has just unveiled its latest generation of RTX graphics cards, and the prices are absolutely eye-watering. But is it really worth dropping thousands on a gaming PC when a £350 second-hand PS5 could deliver a great gaming experience? Let’s dive into the debate! In this episode: Looking back & ahead – We reflect on the podcast’s journey and where it’s headed. GPU sticker shock! – Are the astronomical prices of modern graphics cards justifiable? Console vs. PC – Is a £350 pre-owned PS5 better value than a high-end gaming rig? Upscaling & frame-gen – Have these technologies narrowed the image quality gap between PCs and consoles? The PS5 Pro conundrum – Is the PS5 Pro a true alternative to a high-end gaming setup? A blast from the past – How gaming PCs like the Commodore Amiga stacked up against their console rivals. PC gaming on a budget – Do cheap digital games offset the high cost of hardware? Handheld revolution? – Are low-end gaming PCs, like those from Valve & ASUS, the real value champions? What do you think? Team PC or Team Console? Let’s discuss! Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! The Nintendo Switch 2 was officially unveiled just days after our last show, and now Trev and Stu finally get to dive in! What did we make of the slightly unusual trailer, and what does the future hold? Will the original Switch finally see a price drop when the new model launches? Tune in to find out! Trev visits ‘CEX Prime’ on Rathbone Place. Reminiscing about video game shopping in the 90s, including Woolworths! Stu shares his thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Cheap controllers from Amazon, are they any good? Have Nintendo played it safe with no major gimmicks for the Switch 2? How innovative will Mario Kart 9 be? Will 128gb or 256gb be the minimum storage on the Switch 2? What tricks will the Switch 2 use to make games look good on 4k screens? £350 or £400, what price will Nintendo go for? Can the OG Switch beat the PS2 for the console sales record? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Turn The Page (Tutorial Theme) – Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Trev and Stu are finally back together after the Christmas break, with a whole bunch of new retro/modern gaming ramblings. This time around we dive into Bazzite, a SteamOS-like operating system that can turn Windows machines into Steam Decks, as well as looking into some of the PC gaming handheld news to come out of CES 2025. We also speculate what we might see in the upcoming Switch 2 reveal. This was recorded before the actual reveal a few days later! General overview of Bazzite, and why you might want to use it. The pain of using Windows with a controller on a gaming handheld. Trev’s experience of using Bazzite on the Lenovo Legion Go. The future of SteamOS and gaming PCs in the living room. Where will the Switch 2 fall in terms of graphical performance? How the OG Switch launched into a very different climate vs the Switch 2. Will the Switch 2 launch at £350 or £399? How will backwards compatibility look on the Switch 2? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Special Stage Theme – Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) – Sega Mega Drive – Composer(s): Brad Buxer, Bobby Brooks, Darryl Ross, Geoff Grace, Doug Grigsby III, Cirocco Jones, Sega Sound Team

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Trev and Al celebrate the 30th birthday of the PlayStation with a discussion on its chaotic origins, its astonishing rise and how it became the all conquering gaming giant that it is today! The PlayStation starting life as a Super NES add-on Nintendo’s betrayal, and the creation of the PS1 console as an act of Sony revenge! Ridge Racer, Wipeout and their impact on the PS1 launch. What did the early 32-Bit systems (Jaguar, 3DO, 32X etc…) offer before Sony joined the race? CD-ROMs and how they kept the PS1 ahead of the N64. The quirky reason why PS1 graphics looked ‘wobbly’. How do PS1 games hold up on a modern TV? Which region had the best PS1 game box design? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Attract Mode Theme – Ridge Racer Revolution (1995) – Sony Playstation – Composer(s): Hiroshi Okubo, Nobuhide Isayama

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Following on from our “Saving Saturn” episode a while back, we decided to give the Dreamcast the ‘saving’ treatment for the 25th anniversary of its UK launch! In reality the DC died a premature death, but can we try to turn the dials of history and give it a better life? Featuring our recurring guest, Al! Al dives into the world of Amiga emulation! DVD and the Dreamcast, was it ever feasible? The Mega CD/32X/Saturn era poisoning the SEGA well. No decent football (soccer) games limiting its appeal to sports fans. Too much focus on short-burst arcade style experiences? Publishers and developers who were MIA on the Dreamcast. Was the online capability too ahead of its time to be practical? Millions of marketing pounds spent on football club sponsorship, money that could be better spent elsewhere. Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – GO GO ! Sega Rally (Attract sequence/menu theme) – Sega Rally 2 (1998/1999) – Arcade/Sega Dreamcast – Composer(s): Tatsuhiko Fuyuno, Susumu Isa, Tetsuya Yamamoto, Jun Senoue, Kenji Eno, Hideki Naganuma, Tomonori Sawada

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! The Sony PlayStation 5 Pro has finally been revealed, with the main talking point being its eye-watering £700 price-tag. Do the upgrades that come with it make it worth the extra cost, or should you just save the cash for a PS6? We discuss! Stu is still addicted to Call of Duty! Trev has another go at PS3 emulation on Steam Deck, is it any better? What motivated Sony to release the PS4 Pro back 2016? Why aren’t current gen consoles becoming cheaper over time like previous ones? Do the ‘Pro’ upgrades justify a purchase over the standard PS5? No disc drive included, and issues with digital only devices. Is £800 for an OG PS5 with PSVR2 a better deal than a PS5 Pro? Are there parallels with the PS3’s original controversial pricing, and other expensive consoles of the past? Will the PS6 have even more models in varying form factors and price points at launch? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Egg Carrier: A Song That Keeps Us on the Move (Egg Carrier Theme) – Sonic Adventure (1998) – Sega Dreamcast – Composer(s): Fumie Kumatani, Kenichi Tokoi

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! The Sony PSP was a groundbreaking handheld console that set a new standard for portable gaming devices. Compared to its contemporaries, such as the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance, it featured powerful processing capabilities, allowing it to handle 3D graphics that were comparable to the PlayStation 2, a remarkable feat for a portable device at the time. Al joins us as we discuss how impressed we were upon first encountering it, and how its home console level experience inspired current era handhelds like the Switch and Steam Deck. – Stu has started game streaming on our YouTube channel! – Utter Nintendo dominance of the handheld landscape in the early 00s. – A hint at the future of handheld gaming in pre-PSP consoles such as the Nokia N-Gage and Game Park GP32 – Stu recounts his Regent Street Gizmondo experience! – Trev getting his mind blown playing Wipeout Pure on an import PSP in 2004. – The revelation of the PSP providing close to a PS2 gaming experience in the palm of your hand. – UMDs, the PSPs achilles heel? – Legendary PSP games like Ridge Racer, God of War, Tekken, GTA, MGS Portable Ops, and more…. – Was the PSP useful as a music or movie player? Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Attack The Barbarian (Boss battle theme) – Streets of Rage (1991) – Sega Mega Drive – Composer(s): Yuzo Koshiro

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! More adventures with Stu on his retro PC gaming odyssey! This time we focus on the Windows XP era, a point in time when a single PC could natively run a game from the DOS, Win 9x, and late 00s eras. Where do you start when you have access to everything from the mid 90s all the way to the Xbox 360 generation? – The joys of picking up cheap physical copies of early-mid 00s PC games! – The story of the first PC Trev owned, featuring the legendary AMD Duron CPU. – What Mac gaming was like during the late PowerPC era. – How physical PC games started to decline, and the rise of digital downloads during the XP era. – Some thoughts on Windows Vista, does it have any value for retro PC gaming? – Trev has finally finished Red Dead Redemption 2. – Red Dead v GTA, which is better! Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – passport.mid – Windows 3.1 (1992) – IBM PC & Compatibles – Composer(s): George Stone

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! No it’s not RedLetterMedia, it’s Console Shock! This time, Trev and Stu explore the boulevard of broken console dreams as we try to figure out which of the 90s failed systems are actually not bad. Are there any redeeming features to the likes of the CDi and CDTV, and can the Saturn triumph against the Dreamcast? – Stu describes the tragic death of a retro gaming PC. – Trev (who is English) controversially describes the Scotland national football team as “alright”. – Are AAA games limiting their audience by being too complex? – Jaguar, the Atari swan song. – Why the 3DO is the best of the pre-PS1 32Bit era. – CDi vs CDTV, which is better. – Turbografx-16, not really a failure. – Handhelds and was the Game Gear really a failure? – Saturn vs Dreamcast, the Sega shootout! Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Desert Stage Replay Theme – Sega Rally (1995) – Sega Saturn – Composer(s): Takenobu Mitsuyoshi & Naofumi Hataya

Retro and current gen gaming chat, with Trev and Stu, its the Console Shockcast! Kickstart 02 is coming this summer, and we have the force behind the operation Ravi Abbott on the show to give us some background on this year’s biggest UK Amiga expo! – Trev and Stu experience some podcast recording pains! – What topics end up being popular on a retro gaming podcast? – Ravi gives us an update on the amazing Amiga Addict magazine. – How difficult it is to produce a monthly print niche magazine in the age of digital. – Amiga events in the 90s and 00s and how Ravi got into organising Amiga expo’s. – Organising the first Kickstart Amiga convention last year. – What incredible Amiga goodness can we expect from Kickstart 02? – ….and all the great non-Amiga stuff that will be featured. – All the info on how to grab tickets and the after-show party! Get more info and buy tickets to the Kickstart Amiga Expo here : https://www.amigashow.com Check out Trev and Al’s other podcast where they reminisce about a different episode of Star Trek every month! : https://longrangesensors.com/episodes Intro/Outro Music – Loading Theme – Desert Strike (1993) – Commodore Amiga – Composer(s): Jason A. S. Whitely