Total Evercade podcast, Xeno Crisis, and Alpha vs Super Pockets, with Olly Barnett
Retro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
Release Date: 07/22/2024
Retro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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, Simonโs 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 -...
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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. ๐ Links: Websites - ...
info_outlineRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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...
info_outlineRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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. ๐ YouTube Links: Website - Discord - YouTube - Spotify - Spotify - ๐ต Music: Neon Gaming and Space Technology,...
info_outlineRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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. ...
info_outlineRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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...
info_outlineRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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...
info_outlineRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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. ๐ Links: Website - Facebook - X - ๐ต Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Space Invaders by Tomohiro Nishikado,
info_outlineRetro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation
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? ๐ Links: Websites - YouTube - Instagram - Facebook - X / Twitter - BlueSky - ๐ต Music: Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates...
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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...
info_outlineIn case you hadn't noticed, there's another Evercade podcast out there: Total Evercade, which airs every other Monday evening at 8pm UK time. Here we catch up with one of the regular presenters, Oliver Barnett, to explain what it's all about and they have doubled down on the livestream experience for Evercade fans.
We also hear about Olly's love of Xeno Crisis, why he plays Sensible Soccer every Christmas (even though he's not a football fan) and get his reaction to upcoming releases from Blaze Entertainment. Phil also pitches a couple of marketing ideas to Olly, because apparently Blaze bigwigs listen ;-)
There's also a few references to Olly's collaborator, and head admin for the Evercade Hangout, Ryan Andrews - who appears on episode 5 of Retro Titans, if you want to check that out before or after listening to Olly.
๐ Links:
YouTube - Retro Gaming Revival
Facebook - The Evercade Hangout
X / Twitter - @RetroGaming Rev1
๐ต Music:
Neon Gaming, by Dope Stuff
Desert Island Disc theme tune, by Eric Coates and his orchestra
Xeno Crisis 'Area 1, Perimeter', by Daniel Bรคrlin (Savaged Regime) for the Sega Mega Drive. Mastered by Lee Mintram (Featurecast).