The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)

Gremlin Graphics is making a comeback, and this week we meet Alan Turvey, the lifelong fan helping bring it back through Gremlin Graphics Classics. Alan shares how a Monty Mole project led to a partnership with founder Ian Stewart, the plans to bring classic characters to new audiences, and the community of bedroom coders helping make it happen. We also explore his journey with Midnight Brew, the painstaking work to recreate Gremlin’s lost artwork for a new book, and why giving fans the chance to work with their heroes is at the heart of the revival.

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GamesMaster legend Dominik Diamond joins us for a brand-new conversation recorded live at PLAY Expo in Blackpool. From landing the presenting job and meeting Patrick Moore just once to backstage rivalries, celebrity guests and the infamous Dave Perry fallout, Dominik shares hilarious and candid stories from the show that defined gaming TV in the ’90s. Plus, audience questions, his return to stand-up and an honest look at the pressures of overnight fame.

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
49:54 – Dominik Diamond Interview

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This week we’re joined by legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro, recorded live at Retromessa in Norway, for the story behind the iconic Streets of Rage soundtracks. From the club music that inspired those unforgettable beats to getting the most out of the Mega Drive, Yuzo shares how he helped shape the sound of Sega—and reveals his role designing moves and voicing characters in Streets of Rage 2! Plus, we talk Revenge of Shinobi, Sonic and his return to Mega Drive development with Earthion.

Plus, Modern Vintage Gamer joins us for the news!

MVG: https://www.yout...

This week, we’re joined by legendary game designer Warren Spector to explore the stories behind Ultima, Deus Ex and Epic Mickey. From the Dungeons & Dragons session that changed his life to John Romero’s offer to make his dream game, Warren shares how he championed player freedom, why Deus Ex almost became a Command & Conquer RPG, and what working with Mickey Mouse meant to him.

Paul Drury's The Arcade book: https://lnk.ua/vLieP7PVA

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
55:50 – Yuzo Koshiro Interview

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Recorded live at Retromessa in Norway, we sit down with legendary video game composer Yuzo Koshiro for part one of our conversation, exploring his Nintendo years. From his earliest piano lessons to the orchestral sounds of ActRaiser, the infectious grooves of Super Adventure Island and the worlds of Etrian Odyssey and Super Smash Bros., Yuzo shares the stories and influences behind his music. Plus, audience questions uncover his favourite games, the origins of his YK2 alias and a contribution to Terranigma he’d forgotten he made!

Slope's Book Kickstarter: https://lnk.ua/N6GM8pALm

Co...

How do you turn a handful of pixels into one of gaming’s most recognisable characters? Recorded live at RetroMessa 2026, Dan and Joe meet illustrator Duncan Gutteridge, whose hand-painted artwork helped define Sonic’s European image during SEGA’s 16-bit glory years. Duncan recalls reimagining Sonic 2, creating artwork for Sonic 3 and Knuckles, working with airbrushes, phones and fax machines, and enjoying a level of creative freedom that would be almost unthinkable today. He also reveals the fate of his long-lost original Sonic paintings.

Amiga Bill Links: Twitch.tv/AmigaBill
https://YouTube.com/@AmigaBill
https://AmigaBill.tv

It's Ravi's final episode of the podcast, we give him a good send off!  Plus, we bring you our Best of British panel from RetroMessa, featuring Mike Dailly (DMA Design), Glen O'Connell (Psygnosis), Duncan Gutteridge (Sega UK) and Brian Watson (DMA Design) for a panel discussion about British gaming history, iconic games and the moments that helped shape an entire era.

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
1:05:50 – Best of British

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Bitmap Books – https://www.bitmapbooks.com

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Veteran game designer Richard Rouse III joins us to revisit his journey from Bungie’s early Macintosh games to Centipede 3D and The Suffering. He reveals how the horror classic found its prison setting, blended action with psychological storytelling, and remembered players’ moral choices, plus the stories behind its lost sequel and unmade movie.

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
39:42 – Richard Rouse III Interview

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:

Bitmap Books – https://www.bitmapbooks.com

Go to https://surfshark.com/retrohour or use code...

Australia gave the world pioneering adventures, cult classics and global hits,but much of its gaming history has been left out of the story. This week, we're joined by Region Locked creative lead Michael Refalo and veteran game designer John Passfield-co-creator of Halloween Harry, Flight of the Amazon Queen and TY the Tasmanian Tiger, to explore bedroom coding, cassette-tape publishing, The Hobbit’s groundbreaking parser, Beam Software reverse-engineering the NES, the infamous Power Glove and the games you never realised were Australian. Plus, discover how the new Region Locked documentary series plans to preserve these stories before bit rot, an...

This week, we’re coming to you from Amiga Kickstart in Derby, where we recorded a fascinating panel looking at what comes next for one of computing’s most iconic names. With the long-running legal battle between Hyperion Entertainment and Cloanto finally at an end, the Amiga company took to the stage to discuss the future, its plans for the platform and what this new chapter could mean for the wider Amiga community. After years of courtroom wrangling and uncertainty, could this finally be the fresh start Amiga fans have been waiting for?

Amiga: https://amiga.com/

This week, we’re joined by Roel van Mastbergen of Senile Team to discover how a homemade MS-DOS tribute to Streets of Rage exploded to around a million players, crashed two servers and evolved into OpenBOR. Roel also reveals how the project led him into Dreamcast development, the fate of Age of the Beast and what’s next with Hypno Tiles.

Senile Team: https://www.senileteam.com/
Zoom Platform: https://www.zoom-platform.com/

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
45:17 - Beats of Rage Interview

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This week, we’re joined by Veronica from the brilliant YouTube channel Veronica Explains for a journey through a lifetime of tinkering with technology. Veronica shares stories of growing up in a family of programmers, exploring the early Internet through Prodigy and GeoCities, inheriting a 50-year-old COBOL codebase, her love of the Commodore 64 and Amiga, the lost art of the computer manual, and why older computers often encouraged us to understand, repair and truly own the technology we used. 

Veronica Explains: https://veronicaexplains.net/
https://www.youtube.com/@VeronicaExplains

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro...

This week's guest is Haz Dulull whose career has taken him from creating FMV and cinematics for games like Colin McRae Rally and Battalion Wars, to working on blockbuster films including The Dark Knight, Prince of Persia and The Chronicles of Narnia. He's returned to his gaming roots with his colourful new SNES style shoot ‘em up, AstroBurn. 

Astroburn: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3810660/Astro_Burn/

Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockbuster's Inevitable Bust: https://lnk.ua/zrymFBq2V

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
50:36 – Haz Dulull Interview...

This week, we’re joined by former Blockbuster franchisee Alan Payne, author of Built to Fail, for the inside story of the video & game rental giant’s spectacular collapse. Alan reveals why Netflix and streaming weren’t really to blame, how Blockbuster disastrously mishandled the switch from VHS to DVD, and why decisions such as scrapping late fees helped destroy the business from within. We also revisit the glory days of Friday-night rentals, Blockbuster’s video game business, Game Rush, the PlayStation 2 DVD boom and the  story of the final store.

Built to Fail: The Inside Story of Blockb...

Synth musician, performer and self-described “bleakwave” artist Paulee Alex Bow joins us. We explore dark ’80s music and an love for the Commodore Amiga. Paulee reveals how OctaMED became the heart of a modern hardware-synth setup, why original machines can't be replaced, and what it takes to perform live with two Amigas in tow. We also hear about the Arcade Dreams soundtrack, haunted synths, Amiga MIDI, car-boot retro discoveries and why the Amiga community can sometimes feel almost spiritual.

Magical Synth Adventure: https://www.youtube.com/@magicalsynthadventure3216
Sonic State: https://www.youtube.com/@sonicstate/videos

Cont...

This week, we’re joined by legendary documentary makers Ant and Nic Caulfield, the team behind From Bedrooms to Billions, The Amiga Years and The Rubber-Keyed Wonder, as they return to celebrate one of the most iconic home computers ever made: the Commodore 64. 

Commodore 64: The Birth of a Cultural Icon on Kickstarter: https://lnk.ua/TRJ0cmHX1

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
56:23 – Commodore 64 Documentary Interview

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:

Bitmap Books – https://www.bitmapbooks.com

Check out PCBWay at h...

This week we’re joined by Brian Watson, formerly of DMA Design who worked on the Atari ST version of Lemmings 1 and 2, and porting it to the Atari Lynx.  He later worked for Iguana Entertainment, Acclaim, working on Turok, N64 audio drivers and clever memory systems used across dozens of games. Brian shares brilliant stories from the trenches of 16-bit and 32-bit development, the challenge of making ambitious games work on limited hardware, and what it was really like behind the scenes at DMA and Acclaim.

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
43:31 - Brian W...

Rob Landeros joins us to share the incredible story behind Trilobyte and The 7th Guest, from discovering the Amiga and working at Cinemaware and Virgin, to teaming up with Graeme Devine and helping ignite the CD-ROM revolution with one of the most iconic FMV horror puzzlers of the 1990s. 

The 7th Guest Remake: https://the7thguestremake.com/
Diddly on Kickstarter: https://lnk.ua/9XeHAcgxM

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
47:15 - The 7th Guest Interview

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:

Bitma...

This week we’re joined by veteran programmer Colin Porch, whose career took him through some of the biggest names in British gaming history, including Imagine, Software Projects and Ocean Software. Colin shares stories of Imagine’s dramatic collapse, converting arcade hits like Dragon’s Lair, Operation Wolf and Gryzor to home micros, the infamous lost Parasol Stars C64 port, and the technical wizardry behind bringing Head Over Heels to the Commodore 64, Atari ST and Amiga. Plus, we hear the incredible story of Return to Blacktooth, the Head Over Heels sequel Colin began in 1989 and has finally completed 37 years later...

This week we’re joined by video game music expert Matt Ombler, head of music and gaming partnerships at Laced, to explore the incredible world of game soundtracks, from Sonic on the Mega Drive and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater shaping a generation’s music taste, to Wipeout, Halo 2, retro sound chips, vinyl reissues and the growing importance of preserving game music history. Matt also shares stories from his journalism days interviewing legends like Nile Rodgers and Nobuo Uematsu, plus how he helped bring metal heavyweights including Howard Jones, Trivium and Polyphia into Cult of the Lamb’s Hymns of the U...

This week, we’re joined by Wingham Rowan, creator and host of the pioneering ’90s ITV show cyber.cafe. Long before YouTube, Twitch, Tinder and social media, cyber.cafe explored the strange, funny and sometimes shocking human stories emerging from the early internet, from chat room romances and online communities to JenniCam, alien abductees, moral panics, bizarre websites and late-night web culture. Wingham shares brilliant behind-the-scenes stories from making one of the UK’s first TV shows to take the internet seriously, capturing a moment when the web was still mysterious, chaotic and full of possibility.  

cyber.cafe: h...

This week, we’re joined by Elite Systems co-founder Steve Wilcox for a journey through one of the most important names in British gaming history. Steve shares how a family business in the West Midlands evolved from mail-order cassette games into a major force of the 8-bit era, publishing hits like Airwolf, Commando, Ghosts ’n Goblins, Bomb Jack and Paperboy. 

Chuckie Egg for iOS: https://tinyurl.com/2hpsvj7a

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
48:26 – Elite Systems Interview

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:

Bitmap...

Inside Psygnosis: WipEout, PlayStation and the Rave Generation - The Retro Hour EP531

This week we’re joined by former Psygnosis PR manager Glen O’Connell for a brilliant journey through one of the most exciting eras in British gaming. Glen shares stories from Liverpool’s arcade and computer shop scene, his move from rave music promotion into games, and his time at Psygnosis during the huge shift from Amiga and Atari ST to CD-ROM, Saturn and PlayStation. We hear how WipEout fused club culture, cutting-edge design and licensed music to help define the PlayStation generation, plus memori...

This week, we’re joined by Stuart Cox, artist at the legendary Midland studio Gargoyle Games, for a brilliant trip through the golden age of British 8-bit development. Stuart shares how he went from the Dragon 32 and early arcade obsessions to working on Scooby-Doo, Light Force, Shockway Rider, Hydrofool, ThunderCats and more, with stories of rapid-fire development, clever tricks to push the ZX Spectrum, digitised graphics, Rob Hubbard’s incredible turnaround times, the truth behind the “Wolf” and “Samurai Dawn” confusion, and even the lost ThunderCats NES port. A proper behind-the-scenes look at one of the UK’s most fascinating 19...

This week, we’re joined by Larry Kuperman, former VP of Business Development at Nightdive Studios, former Business Development Manager at GameStop, Stardock veteran, and co-founder of the IGDA Ann Arbor Chapter. Larry shares incredible stories from the business side of games, from discovering Wolfenstein 3D on a mighty 486, selling custom PCs in the ’90s, and Stardock’s early digital distribution gamble, to GameStop’s attempt to compete with Steam and Nightdive’s mission to bring classics like Turok, System Shock, Star Wars: Dark Forces and more back to life. We also dig into DRM, lost source code, game preservati...

This week, we’re joined by John Mathieson, the hardware designer best known as the father of the Atari Jaguar. John takes us through an extraordinary career that began at Sinclair Research on the ZX Spectrum, before moving through ambitious and often misunderstood projects including Loki, the Konix Multisystem, Atari’s Panther and Jaguar, and later the Nuon. Along the way, he shares brilliant behind-the-scenes stories about working with Clive Sinclair, Jeff Minter and the Tramiel-era Atari team, and reflects on the technical ideas, challenges and missed opportunities behind some of gaming’s most fascinating machines.  

Contents:

00:0...

On this week’s podcast, we celebrate 42 years of the Amstrad CPC with special guest Jo Cook, who takes us deep inside the Amstrad scene of the late 80s and 90s. From growing up with a CPC 464 and helping run the legendary King Arthur’s Domain PD library and Merlin-Serve, to writing for Amstrad Action and seeing the community evolve into the modern day, Jo shares a warm, funny and fascinating insider’s view of one of Britain’s most beloved computer scenes.

UK Amstrad Group: https://www.ukag.org.uk/

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Ret...

On this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Galloping Ghost Arcade owner Doc Mack and filmmaker Craig Bass to explore the story behind one of the most legendary arcades on the planet. From Doc’s earliest memories of Pong and the golden age of the arcade, to rare prototypes like Primal Rage 2 and the making of Craig’s upcoming documentary Ghostlord and the Quest for Dark Presence, this is a fascinating look at arcade history, preservation, and the passion that keeps these classic games alive.

Ghostlord movie: https://www.ghostlordsquest.com/
Galloping Ghost arcade: https://www.gall...

On this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Alexander Danielian, the Electronics Boutique retail manager whose Sunset Galleria store became Sega’s official US Dreamcast launch location on the legendary 9/9/99 release day. Alexander takes us inside one of the wildest retail events in gaming history, from building Dreamcast hype against all odds and working directly with Sega and Bernie Stolar, to the midnight queues, tournament atmosphere, sell-out crowds and the chaos caused by faulty launch copies of Sonic Adventure. It’s a brilliant insider story from the shop floor at the exact moment Sega made its last great hardware...

Step back into the underground world of 90s dial-up piracy as we’re joined by Beast of Quartex, SysOp of Arcadia, once the largest pirate bulletin board system in the UK. From trading disks in the post to running a five-line elite BBS packed with the latest cracked Amiga games, Beast shares how the scene really worked: the hierarchy, the rivalries, and the race to release first. Plus, the secret world of crackers and couriers, and the moment it all came crashing down when FAST raided his operation.

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Storie...

Alex Sulman joins us to share his journey from typing in code on the ZX Spectrum to designing major titles at Sony, Blizzard, DICE and beyond. We hear about his early days in QA at Sony Cambridge, working on classics like Medievil, Frogger and Primal, and hear behind-the-scenes stories from PlayStation’s golden era, the launch of the PS2 and PS3. Alex also discusses developing 24: The Game, contributing to God of War 3, and bringing his experience to Diablo 3, along with insights into how games were really made during the 90s and early 2000s—and how a simple fanzine helped laun...

This week we’re joined by Vincent Bitetti, former CEO of TDK Mediactive, for a fascinating look at one of gaming’s most unusual industry journeys. Starting in the early days of BBS networks and sound-effect licensing, including iconic properties like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Babylon 5, Vincent helped pioneer digital media distribution before leading TDK’s push into video games during the CD-ROM boom. We discuss how TDK evolved from an audio hardware giant into a multimedia powerhouse, their links to Nintendo and the GameCube era, and the art of spotting market opportunities before they explode. 

Content...

This week we’re joined by David Oghia, the man behind the upcoming Vectrex Mini. We explore his journey from discovering the ZX81 in the early 80s to working on official Star Wars publications and visiting Skywalker Ranch, before diving into the revival of one of gaming’s most unique consoles. David explains why the original vector-display Vectrex remains so special, the challenges of recreating it with modern hardware, and how the Kickstarter campaign unexpectedly smashed its funding goal. We also discuss games, overlays, controllers and what the future might hold for the reborn Vectrex brand.

Contents:

This week, we’re joined by Core Design artist and animator Billy Allison, whose incredible career spans hand-drawn children’s TV classics like SuperTed and The Forgotten Toys through to iconic 16-bit games including Chuck Rock, Wonder Dog, Bubba 'n' Stix and more. Billy shares how he went from experimenting with animation on a ZX Spectrum and Deluxe Paint to pushing early 3D on Shadow Man and revisiting Alien Breed years later. From sneaking into film school rostrum rooms to pioneering full-screen Amiga cutscenes.

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
51:34 – Billy Allison Core Design Inte...

This week we’re joined by Hilary Goldstein and Dave Clayman, two of the voices behind IGN’s legendary Three Red Lights podcast, the loud, chaotic and gloriously irreverent Xbox 360 show that helped define mid-2000s gaming culture. From sleeping on office couches and playing Halo 2 before anyone else, to Don King promos, 50 Cent interviews and the early days of podcasting when you had to manually download episodes onto an MP3 player, they share wild behind-the-scenes stories from the golden age of online gaming media. 

Contents:

00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
50:46 – Three Red Lights Podc...

This week we’re joined by Todd Hayes, original US CEO of GameShark, the device that changed how a generation played games. From arcade beginnings to building a $252 million video game empire, Todd shares the story of bringing Action Replay to America, battling Sony in court, navigating Nintendo’s lockout chips, and launching the ambitious SharkWire online service for the N64. We also hear aboutthe return of GameShark for the modern era and his new GameShark Cheat Code Compendium, preserving the secrets behind gaming’s most legendary cheats.

GameShark Kickstarter: https://tinyurl.com/4t6a96jb

Cont...

This week we’re catching up with Andy Robert of the legendary Thalamus Software, for a chat about one of the most fascinating careers of the 8-bit era. From discovering computers via library games and typing in listings, to writing for Zzap!64 and Commodore Format, Andy shares incredible stories from the golden age of the Commodore 64. We dig into Creatures, Mayhem in Monsterland and that infamous 100% review score, the realities of magazine bias, late-night map drawing, and the risks of going indie before “indie” was a thing. Plus, we fast-forward to the modern Thalamus revival, deluxe boxed releases, Amiga...

This week on The Retro Hour, we’re getting hands-on with the unsung heroes of gaming: video game controllers! We’re joined by Christian Wenk, author of Trigger Happy, a stunning visual celebration of over 200 iconic (and sometimes downright bizarre) controllers from gaming history. From mushy Commodore joysticks to the ergonomic oddities of the N64 and beyond, Christian shares the nostalgic stories, design quirks, and sheer passion that fuelled his epic project. 

Trigger Happy: https://tinyurl.com/2s4nyfpc

Contents:

00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories 
59:11 - Christian Wenk Interview 

Please...

What makes a truly great gaming community? Sean Baptiste, who helped grow Harmonix’s forum from a dozen diehards to hundreds of thousands of fans, shares what it really takes. From the secret struggles behind QA on Karaoke Revolution, to rocking out with the stars at the Grammys, Sean reflects on how fan feedback shaped Rock Band, how social media changed the game, and why authentic engagement still matters more than ever.

Contents:

00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories 
52:18 - Sean Baptiste Interview 

Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the...

This week we welcome Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook, for a chat about the retro tech behind his biggest hits. From discovering MIDI to refusing upgrades for decades, Norman explains how the Atari ST became the backbone of his workflow, powering Beats International, Freak Power and every Fatboy Slim track right up to Eat Sleep Rave Repeat. We talk step-time sequencing, floppy disks, crashing STs, pirate radio, bedroom studios and how a track made 25 years ago on an Atari is still charting today. 

Fatboy Slim: https://www.fatboyslim.net/

Contents:

00:00 - The Week's R...