Howard Scott Warshaw—he’s the man who created such beloved Atari 2600 games as Yar’s Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark. He’s also the dude who programmed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, a subpar 2600 adaptation of...

I received a nice surprise a few weeks back - my Arduboy FX finally arrived, a credit card-sized handheld designed to resemble the original Game Boy. It's wafer-thin (a cracker or two thick), sports a 1-bit OLED display (meaning it onl...

Did you know the arcade classic Bubble Bobble never received a dedicated machine? Rather, it was released in 1986 as a conversion kit meant to replace/repurpose an existing coin-op unit, one that was presumably no longer popular or was...

At long last, I received Numskull’s Ms. Pac-Man “Quarter Arcade” machine. Designed to be a nigh-perfect replica of the original coin-op cabinet at only ¼ the size, this is the fourth release in a line that incl...

When I was a wee lad, a buddy of mine had a portable Pac-Man machine that bore a surprisingly close resemblance to the original arcade version. Released by the late, great Coleco, the gizmo used vacuum fluorescent display (VFD) technol...

After several delays, New Wave Toys’ Street Fighter 2 arcade miniature is finally shipping out to fans! As part of the company’s Replicade series, this long-awaited machine is third in a line of high-quality collectibles me...

The Legend of Zelda is a peerless series—an eternal, unrolling scroll of primal belief and Campbellian myth made flesh via the grace of our digital age. Indeed, the “Zeldaverse” has become both a refuge and lifes...

What? Who would dare hate on Limited Run Games (LRG)? Since 2015, this noble enterprise has served the cause of game preservation by converting digital-only releases, both the popular and obscure, into physical copies perfect for anyon...

Update 12/20/2018: After pac-king (ha!) a few more hours into this device, I've uncovered another unfortunate issue--the game will occasionally freeze when left alone in "attract" mode (the game's demo mode, essentially), forcing the p...

Greetings gamers! I just became the proud owner of Arcade1Up’s not-quite-released Pac-Man/Pac-Man Plus home arcade machine and figured I’d share some quick, bloggy thoughts. Apparently, this machine is being hoarded by Wal-...

Toys "R" Us, that iconic and ubiquitous childhood refuge, has finally shuttered its doors, heaving its last goodbye beneath banners and signs wildly proclaiming its slow demise. The retail chain, so often associated with everything gol...

Nintendo’s outselling those infidels, Microsoft and Sony! Shall there be rejoicing? Indeed, Nintendo’s sudden ascension from underdog to top dog seems practically biblical, and its fans are legion. But are Nintendo follower...

This just in: Come Oct. 7, 2017, Microsoft will be shuttering its Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) service—forever! Noooo! But wait…what? Oct. 7th? Hasn’t that already passed? Indeed, few probably noticed or cared when ...

Cuphead! It’s been nearly two weeks since Microsoft’s “little exclusive that could” was released to the world, and if rampant media buzz is any indication of success, then the Xbox One has finally received the h...

Everyone likes a good book. Especially when it’s about video games, right? Cleary some people do—gaming has become a hot genre in the world of nonfiction, with writers of all stripes pounding out books about every imaginabl...

Behold, the Playstation Vita, the most elegant handheld to ever unfold. It came with powerful hardware! A vibrant display! Unique features and a healthy slate of games! Yet, the system never found a proper audience, withering to consum...

Video games are an incredibly versatile art form. No other medium conveys such a diverse array of artistic styles over an equally eclectic line of genres. Romance, sci-fi, action—video games are unique in that they can deliver al...

The Wii U launched on Nov. 18, 2012. Four years later, it was dead, soundly replaced by a sleeker model—er, a sleeker machine. After all, what is a Switch but a Wii and Wii U combined, with a little DS portability thrown in? Inde...

I love animation. Old-timey, 1930s animation. Multi-million, CGI-workstation animation. Small mouth, big eyes Japanese-stylized animation. Cartoons combined with live-action animation. Sprite-based, 16-bit parody animation. Even the cr...

When I blog about games, I prefer to spend that space on the more positive elements of the hobby we love. I want to use my limited time regaling readers with the industry’s young but storied past and guiding them to those crimina...

Ah, anime. Just twenty years ago, a revolutionary new form of animation was sweeping into existence—an exciting new style few in the West had seen before. Indeed, this new kind of “cartoon” was nothing like our typica...

Like any dedicated fan, I headed out to my friendly neighborhood movie theater this weekend to catch the newest Spider-Man flick. In short—it’s fun, really fun, with barely a drop of the dour grit that pervades most superh...

Pac-Land and Mario Land are not so different...   In gamer years, I’m an old man. Indeed, I remember a time when it wasn’t Mario-Mania that ruled the world, but Pac-Mania. That yella fella dominated birthday parties, ...

Hello everyone. I’m Pacario, returning from a long, wayward absence. I once blogged over at 1UP.com, but ever since that site faded away, my will to write similarly disappeared. Nevertheless, my fervor has returned--expect at lea...

A few weeks back, I snagged a copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and found myself completely smitten by the nostalgic gameplay. It was everything I loved from the classic series that culminated in 1992&rs...