Claim OwnershipRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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Retro Titans: the podcast dedicated to the epic world of retro and indie gaming. Interviews with the people who brought us the games, computers and consoles we love - and those who are bringing it all back.
44 Episodes
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Tony Warriner is a co-founder of Revolution Software — the team behind Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky, and Broken Sword. From his teenage coding experiments on the Amstrad CPC to shaping one of Britain’s most iconic adventure studios, Tony’s story is one of creativity, independence, and survival. In this episode, Tony joins me to talk about building Revolution from the ground up, the clever tech behind the Virtual Theatre engine, and what it really took to bring Broken Sword to life. We discuss the indie spirit that’s guided him through decades of change, his self-published book Revolution: The Quest for Game Development Greatness, his upcoming game UrbX Warriors, and his thoughts on the future of small-scale game development. Plus, Tony takes on a round of quickfire questions — including a story behind the goat puzzle, the most chaotic genius at Revolution, and the one game cover he’d want on his gravestone. 🔗 Links: Instagram: @TonyWarriner X: @tonywarriner Bluesky: @tonywarriner.bsky.social Tony's book: Gumroad 🎵 Music: Intro – Neon Gaming by Dope Stuff Revenge of the Mutant Camels (C64), by James Lisney
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
In this episode, we return to the world of Evercade to discuss the Evercade Showcase, which was released on 31st March. In a packed announcement, Evercade released 3 new carts, 2 Super Pockets, a hardware refresh for the EXP-R and VS-R, and teased a few things for the future. To make sense of it all and offer some analysis and predictions, we are joined by our regular special guest: retro gaming and Evercade YouTuber, Crazy Burger. In addition to Crazy Burger's thoughts and opinions, we managed to get a quick Q&A with Blaze Entertainment's head of marketing, Sean Cleaver. 🔗 YouTube Links: Crazy Burger Evercade Showcase 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming and Space Technology, by Dope Stuff
For 8-bit home computing fans, Thalamus is one of the great names of the late 80s and early 90s, publishing classics such as Creatures I & II, Hunters Moon, Hawkeye and Armalyte. When the company went bankrupt in the early 1990s, everyone thought the story was over - but the rights to the games were bought by former Commodore Format games writer Andy Roberts, and the company was reborn. This interview with Andy Roberts tells the full story of Thalamus's heyday, decline and return, including insights into the 80s/90s games industry, writing for Zzap64! and Commodore Format, publishing games in the early noughties and two of the latest games, Ceccanoid and Roguecraft. 🔗 Links: Website - thalamusdigital.co.uk Itch IO - thalamusdigital.itch.io Facebook - @thalamusdigital X - @thalamusdigital Bluesky - thalamusdigital.bsky.social Evercade - Thalamus Collection 1 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Wizzball (C64 remix), by Martin Galway and remixed by Tonka
Jon Hare is the co-founder of legendary game studio, Sensible Software, and was behind a host of global best-selling games, such as Sensible World of Soccer, Cannon Fodder, Mega Lo Mania and Sensible Golf. Jon's career as a creative director and game publisher stretches from the 1980s through to today, and is currently launching Sociable Soccer 25. We cover a lot of ground in this interview, from how he found his way into the industry, through to developing hit games and navigating the challenges of the games industry. We also discuss gaming music at length, including insights into working with gaming music legends Richard Joseph and Martin Gallway, and making music with his own group, The Sensible Band. Jon also offers advice to aspiring games developers and gives his thoughts on channelling creativity. It's an epic interview! 🔗 Links: Website - Sociable Soccer Facebook - Sociable Soccer X - @JonHare 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Narcissus, by Jon Hare and Richard Joseph Canon Fodder Theme, by Jon Hare and Richard Joseph Parrallax, by Martin Galway
If you loved football management games, this episode is a must-listen. That's because we got to speak with the man who pretty much invented the genre, Kevin Toms. He's the developer of Football Manager, the 1980s series of games that started the whole thing. Since you can also now play Kevin Toms' Football Manager on your mobile, we thought it would be a great excuse to find out the story behind the original games, and why they've returned. 🔗 Links: Website - kevintoms.games Facebook - KevinTomsGames X - KevinToms 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Space Invaders by Tomohiro Nishikado,
In this episode we catch up with Blaze Entertainment CEO, Andrew Byatt to find out more about the origins of Evercade and the key milestones that have led up to its popularity today. Andrew describes Blaze's vision for retro gaming, the reasons behind the Hyper Mega Tech! brand and explains how licensing works in retro gaming. We also hear Andrew's desert island carts - can you guess what he picked? 🔗 Links: Websites - Evercade, Hyper Mega Tech! YouTube - @EvercadeRetro Instagram - @EvercadeRetro Facebook - @EvercadeRetro X / Twitter - @EvercadeRetro BlueSky - @Evercade 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES), by Jun Funahashi
In our second season of Retro Titans, we welcome back Ally Low, game designer and founder of Lowtek Games. Ally discusses the inspiration and challenges around making Flea 2, which returns to Evercade as well as Steam, NES, Dreamcast and Itch-IO. We also cover his new innovation, the Lightbook project-mapped popup book, and his work around making games dyslexic-friendly. Season 2 will continue to cover Evercade extensively, but we'll also be looking beyond at other systems, so subscribe to get all the latest interviews with games designers, publishers, manufacturers and industry insiders. 🔗 Links: Website - Flea2 press kit YouTube - Lightbook teaser Facebook - LowtekGames X - Wallmasterr 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Noah's Ark NES music, by Chris Gill and Paul Summers.
It's the season finale of Retro Titans and we have drafted in a regular guest, Evercade YouTuber extraordinaire Crazy Burger to help us review Evercade and Blaze Entertainment's 2024. It's a 'questions and answers' show format, where Phil and Crazy Burger quiz each other about their Evercade highlights and things they'd like to see in 2025 - plus a few awkward and surprising questions thrown into the mix. 🔗 Links: YouTube @CrazyBurger Facebook @CrazyBurgerYouTube Facebook @Retro.Titans 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Goodboy Galaxy Zandunia Sunrise, by Vincent Verger with additional composition and production by Rik Nicol
In this episode we take a departure from our usual format focusing on Evercade to interview Chris Smith, CTO of Retro Games Ltd, about the launch of 'The Spectrum' – a modern day recreation of the iconic ZX Spectrum from 1982. Chris is literally the man who wrote the book on the ZX Spectrum and is full of knowledge about the inner workings of the much-loved 80s home computer. So, it's no surprise that after the launch of reimagined versions of the C64, Amiga and Atari 400, we now have The Spectrum. In this interview, Chris explains why they waited this long to tackle The Spectrum, described some of the challenges in the design and production, and given us a taste of his own home computer favourites. If you're a proud new owner of The Spectrum, or just have an interest in home computer history, you'll love this episode. 🔗 Links: Website - Retrogames.biz Facebook - Retro Games Ltd Facebook - The Spectrum Group 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra Monty On The Run theme, by Rob Hubbard
One of the best thing about Evercade is meeting interesting people who make you think differently about retro gaming and computing generally, not just on the platform - and this week's guest is no different. Shane Powell - aka Kenjara - works in the IT industry and discovered Evercade in the early days and has since become part of the scene, helping to test games, assist with the development of the Duke Nukem Collection 1 remasters, and even publishing his own 'hidden game'. This interview covers all this and more, including his Desert Island Carts. Make sure you stay to the end to hear Shane's fabulous playout music. 🔗 Links: Discord - @Evercade-Official (search for Kenjara) 🎵 Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra VVVVVV, by Souleye
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