About Retroblique

“Another retrogaming blog?”

At first glance the internet would appear to have retrogaming adequately covered. Google returns about 2 million results if you search for that word, another 1.6 million if you break it in two. But dig a little deeper and you find that the ocean of coverage is only a few inches deep. The vast majority of retrogaming web sites tend to focus on providing the following:

• Emulation/ROMs
• Software databases
• XBLA/VC/PSN coverage
• Discussion forums

That’s not to say these sites are surplus to requirements. In fact, there are excellent examples of each, but they tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

No, what’s missing are those web sites that delve a little bit deeper into gaming history, telling the story of our favourite entertainment medium through the eyes of the gamers who were there. Gamers who tore the shrink-wrap off an original copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, slotted the cartridge into their SNES and had their 12 year-old minds blown away by the spectacle that unfolded before them. Gamers who gathered in the playground at school to exchange their Elite rankings, whisper nervously about their first encounter with the Thargoids, then lie their arses off by claiming to have seen one of the elusive Generation Ships mentioned in the brick-sized manual. Gamers who were careful enough to nurture their Little Computer People all throughout the Christmas holidays, only to murder them in their sleep by fucking up a cheat code printed in Zzap! 64.

I was never able to find an adequate number of those web sites on my travels, so I decided to put one together myself.

Retroblique is essentially aimed at me: a gamer who grew up in the UK during the 1980s, who was fortunate enough to dabble on a number of platforms, primarily the C64, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Amiga, Atari ST and PC. An avid reader of Zzap! 64, Crash, The Games Machine, Ace, PC Zone, PC Gamer and Edge. These formative years of gaming helped shape me into the gamer (maybe even the person) I am today. I thought it might be fun to turn back the clock and relive those halcyon days of 8-bit and 16-bit bliss.

Welcome to Retroblique. Enjoy your stay.