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Retro Gamer Magazine - Issue 279

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In this issue

Achievement Unlocked
Find out how the 360’s Achievements system has evolved over 20 years

Covermount Corner:Amstrad Action #70
James Konik has found another covertape that’s filled with great games

Music Memories:Donkey Kong Country
David Wise revisits his soundtrack for Rare’s gigantic simian SNES hit

The Making Of:Real Bout Fatal Fury 2:The New Challengers
Yasuyuki Oda on creating the original Neo Geo game and bringing it back to modern systems

BROKEN SWORD II REMASTER TAKES SHAPE

Charles Cecil talks us through Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror Reforged

4 mins

Possible mission

When I was 11, Impossible Mission for the Commodore 64 lived up to its name - it was digital cruelty at its finest.

3 mins

CELEBRATING TOMONOBU ITAGAKI

THE CREATOR OF DEAD OR ALIVE PASSES

2 mins

Fables of the 360

Iam starting to come round to the idea that the Xbox 360 is the greatest console of all time.

2 mins

Back to R-Type

It's very important for you to know one thing: I'm not an actor.

2 mins

Blippo+

We speak to the designers of an indie game about retro TV that's out of this world

4 mins

Fishing Derby

THE REEL FISHING SIMULATOR

1 mins

20 YEARS OF THE XBOX

TWO DECADES AGO, MICROSOFT SOUGHT TO USHER IN A NEW ERA OF GAMES - BIGGER GAMES, SMALLER GAMES, AND GAMES THAT WOULD BE MORE CONNECTED THAN EVER BEFORE. WE JOIN THOSE WHO WORKED WITH THE SYSTEM DURING ITS LIFETIME TO LOOK BACK AT THE MOST BELOVED XBOX CONSOLE

10+ mins

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

TWENTY YEARS AGO, THE XBOX 360 INTRODUCED A TANGIBLE WAY TO SHARE YOUR GAMING ACCOMPLISHMENTS WITH THE ACHIEVEMENTS SYSTEM. WE LOOK BACK AT HOW IT CAME TO BE AND HOW IT HAS PERMEATED THROUGHOUT THE YEARS, EXPANDING, CHANGING AND INFLUENCING GAMING CULTURE

8 mins

Ninku Gaiden: Hiroyuki Daikatsugeki

Sometimes, it's best not to make things more complicated than they need to be, and I like to think that the existence of Ninku Gaiden: Hiroyuki Daikatsugeki is a good example of this. In my mind's eye, someone at Sega saw that the company had obtained a licence for an anime series with a penguin in it, and simply said, “Didn't we do a game with a penguin back in the day?” Then, after swiftly clarifying that they meant Pengo and not Doki Doki Penguin Land, this spin-off was born.

1 mins

THE MAKING OF stormbringer

THE FOURTH MAGIC KNIGHT GAME TOOK INSPIRATION FROM A FOLK ROCK ALBUM AND A STAR TREK EPISODE, AND FOR SO MANY YEARS IT SERVED AS THE BUDGET GAME HERO'S SWAN SONG. DAUTD JONES RECALLS HOW HE CREATED STORMBRINGER AND TEASES ITS SUCCESSOR

6 mins

AMSTRAD ACTION #70

The Amstrad CPC brand was struggling in 1991. Attempts to refresh it with the Plus models had failed.

2 mins

THE MAKING OF Pipe Mania

CREATING A WINNING PUZZLE GAME WAS NO PIPE DREAM FOR THE ASSEMBLY LINE. ALL IT TOOK WAS A FLOW OF IDEAS AND THE INPUT OF SOME WISE MASTERS IN A RANCH FAR, FAR AWAY TO PRODUCE A GAME THAT HAS MORE THAN STOOD THE TEST OF TIME

7 mins

DONKEY KONG COUNTRY

RARE'S DONKEY KONG COUNTRY WAS A GROUND-BREAKING GAME IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE, WITH GAMERS GOING BANANAS OVER DAVID WISE'S STANDOUT SOUNDTRACK. INCORPORATING ENVIRONMENTAL SOUNDS AND MUSIC INSPIRED BY A BUNCH OF ICONIC ARTISTS, IT GOT THE MOST OUT OF THE SNES' IMPRESSIVE SPC700 SOUND CHIP

3 mins

SUPER MARIO BROS

It may not be the oldest trick in the book, strictly speaking, but learning how to access the Warp Zones in Super Mario Bros was a formative experience for many of us.

1 mins

Kurushi

Shortly before I started on Retro Gamer, I had a housemate whose boyfriend would always turn off the music in videogames if given the option.

1 mins

THE MAKING OF RB2 TM THE NEWCOMERS

REAL BOUT FATAL FURY 2

8 mins

PlayStation Vita

Though the PSP didn't manage to unseat Nintendo as the dominant force in handheld gaming, it was a popular machine, so it's understandable that Sony didn't change too much for its followup.

1 mins

THE HISTORY OF TERMINATOR GAMES

SINCE THE DEBUT OF THE 1984 MOVIE, TERMINATOR VIDEOGAMES HAVE APPEARED WITH EVERY SUBSEQUENT INSTALMENT. MUCH LIKE THE FILMS THEMSELVES, IT'S BEEN AN ERRATIC AND SOMETIMES BIZARRE JOURNEY. RETRO GAMER STEPS BACK (OR IS IT FORWARD?) IN TIME TO INVESTIGATE

10+ mins

Silent Hill 4: The Room

WHERE GREEDY LANDLORDS ARE THE LEAST OF YOUR WORRIES

1 mins

Lumines Arise

THE RHYTHM IS GOING TO GET YOU

3 mins

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

THE SCORE TELLS HALF THE TAIL

2 mins

X MARKS THE SPOT

The team look back at Microsoft's Xbox 360

3 mins

PORTABLE SONY PASSION

Forever Arcade's Jay Drury loves his handheld gaming, especially Sony's brilliant PSP

2 mins

FIRE EMBLEM

Despite first debuting on the Famicom in the early Nineties, it took another decade for Intelligent System's long-running series to appear in the West. This might explain why that first release now fetches a princely sum

3 mins

A GENERATION REDEFINED

How upgrading to high definition has heightened Nick's Xbox 360 love

3 mins

The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age

NOW WITH ADDED ACHIEVEMENTS

2 mins

Read all Stories from Retro Gamer

Retro Gamer Magazine Description:

Publisher: Future

Category: Puzzle_Gaming

Language: English

Frequency: Monthly

The world’s best guide to classic gaming, Retro Gamer is the only magazine in the UK that’s fully dedicated to the halcyon days of classic gaming. If you’ve ever fondly blasted away at the Bydo Empire in R-Type, swung Bowser by the tail in Super Mario 64, or navigated all 20 levels of Matthew Smith’s Manic Miner, then this is the magazine for you. Created by a dedicated team of experts, Retro Gamer’s mission is to deliver constantly engaging and passionately written articles that cover a wide range of subjects. We offer our readership in-depth looks at classic games and franchises, behind-the-scenes glimpses of the software houses from yesteryear, and one-on-one exclusive interviews with industry veterans such as Archer Maclean and Hideo Kojima. Stylish, entertaining and beautifully presented, Retro Gamer is the ultimate guide to videogaming’s rich and diverse history.