Sad news and humble brag combo ahoy! Me book's sold out (although I believe there are a few floating about at retail)! So anyway. A) thanks to all you fine folks for buying it, and B) a second edition will arrive in August. Get notified here:.

Did this very fun interview the other night with Video Tasties. We talk about all sorts of random stuff, making this pretty entertaining and fun and definitely not a run-of-the-mill chat. However, lots of swears - so be warned!.

Here's the arcade flyer for the original coin-op. Terrific looking cab thanks to its Marlboro color scheme. The deluxe sit-down version had a vibrating seat for some serious ass-tickleage. Just a great arcade racing experience.

35 years ago I was playing this brilliant coin-op conversion. It didn't have the sheer number of trackside objects as the arcade game, but that was a perfectly fine tradeoff as its gameplay was very close to the original machine. A fantastic, fun, blisteringly quick racer.

35 years ago I was playing this PC Engine classic. This version of Namco's fabulously gory Splatterhouse coin-op was top-tier, providing an excellent challenge, great audiovisuals, highly entertaining gameplay, and some really, really fun bosses. Total bucket list PCE game!

40 years ago, ZZAP! featured Skyfox on its cover. We rated it 91%. Other top reviews: Hyper Sports (90%), Summer Games II (97%), Frankie Goes to Hollywood (97%), Finders Keepers (90%), and Rescue on Fractalus (91%). An absolutely outstanding month for C64 games, it must be said!

35 years ago I was playing this really fun match-3 game. This was the coin-op version of what originally began as a 1989 HP-9000 game, and was then picked up by Sega and ported to most period consoles. Especially loved the Mega Drive and Game Gear versions! Super-addictive game!

40 years ago, this headline info leaked from Amstrad. The machine was released as the PPC512 in 1987 and weighed a svelte 12 lbs.🤣. Meanwhile the Amiga rolled out in the US, Sinclair played more managerial musical chairs, and an Olivetti cash injection helped Acorn stay afloat.

35 years ago, CVG had UN Squadron on its cover (the US Gold ports). Top reviews: ST Anarchy (96%) and Simulcra (92%), Amiga Murder (92%), Amiga/ST Plotting (94%), Mega Drive ESWAT (93%), PCE Don-Doko-Don (94%), and SMS Super Monaco GP (92%) and Alex Kidd in Shinobi World (92%).

40 years ago, Konami's massively influential shooter Nemesis (AKA Gradius) began to arrive in European arcades. I remember playing it for the first time and being absolutely blown away. Especially once I figured out how its innovative power-up system worked. Simply brilliant!

What do you get when you cross Super Hang-On with Out Run? Racing Hero, a Sega coin-op that I was having a lot of fun playing 35 years ago. What made it great was the fact that you weren't just racing other bikes. You also got to weave between cars like a maniac. Top stuff!

Btw, here's the ad we created and published in CVG to promote the magazine. We didn't use the cover because we wanted to redesign the logo and layout, but the interior pages we created for issue 0 were very much like what we wanted for the final product, so we used those instead!

35 years ago, Gary Harrod and I made this. Mean Machines issue 0 was a mockup of a console mag we hoped to launch later in the year. It was used for market research and went down a storm. The mag launched in Sept and the rest, as they say, is history (and kicking monkey ass).

40 years ago, Commodore was readying the C128 for launch in Europe, Amstrad was wheelin' and dealin' to get it CPC computers into schools, and Ultimate released Nightshade (excellent but felt somewhat more of the same), and Blackwyche (which I felt was disappointingly average).

35 years ago, I was playing the absolute shit out of this top-tier coin-op. Basically, Robotron meets dystopian game show plus a Robocop vibe and two-player co-op gameplay. Just utterly brilliant. B-i-g Money, B-i-g Prizes, I Love It! I'd definitely buy that for a dollar!

While the Amiga 1000 was amazing, in Europe, the machine was an extremely expensive rarity until late 1987, when the groundbreaking Amiga 500 launched. At around £1,500 in today's money it was not cheap, but you certainly got what you paid for: a fabulous, cutting-edge system!

Today is the 40th birthday of the Commodore Amiga! This landmark system evolved pixel graphics a quantum leap overnight. These four pics are my most enduring memories of this remarkable 16-bit computer. Do you have any favorite games or memories about this amazing machine?

Been chatting to Grant Sinclair about his GamerCard, a cool-sounding Raspberry Pi-powered device designed for retro emulation (Recalbox, RetroPie, Lakka). It's also PICO-8 compatible. More details when I get sent one to review next month. Details here:.

Here's the ad for the Soft Aid compilation. A pretty decent selection of titles for just five quid, it must be said. Not all great, but you'd get your money's worth just checking them out. Plus free copy of "Do they know it's Christmas?" Bargain!

Check out CVG's charts from 40 years ago. Landmark beat 'em up Way of the Exploding Fist sits atop a list packed with a myriad of classics. Also nice seeing the Soft Aid compilation (the games industry's contribution to Life Aid) still riding high after months in the charts!

This 40-year-old ad is fantastic. A brilliant piece of art, with a similar minimalist quality seen in Ultimate's marketing materials during the same period. Would make a lovely giant poster. Game was really good, too.