DF Retro

- Season 5

(2020)

A Super NES/Super Famicom game thought lost forever has been miraculously recovered. Cooly Skunk may never have received a physical release on 16-bit, but it did get a PlayStation 1 revamp. It's the most fascinating example of a cross-gen game we've seen to date. Learn about the Super Famicom's satellite gaming download system, how it made recovering Cooly Skunk possible and - of course - how the completed but never released SNES game compared to the actual PS1 release.

Join John for a very special, extended episode of DF Retro. Midway's classic Mortal Kombat is under the microscope, with a look at its beginnings, its meteoric success in the arcades and the inevitable ports to console systems - and beyond.

One of the shining lights of its game library, Road Rash on 3DO was an impressive title for its day, with conversions following for PlayStation and Saturn. Here, you'll get to see the game being played on original 3DO hardware - with a twist. Picture quality from the 3DO out of the box isn't exactly impressive, but John's packing the Blackdog Technology 3DO RGB mod - so you'll get to see a key title looking pretty much as good as it's going to get.

John Linneman returns with one of his latest retro gaming finds - and it's a fascinating one for all of the wrong reasons. Behold the baffling, infuriating and downright strange movie tie-in - Batman Forever - sort of like Mortal Kombat meets Streets of Rage, but where the controls benefit from having two sets of hands and where you need the manual to figure out the various button combinations required to do the most basic things. It's a gameplay experience you won't want to miss.

Join John Linneman and Audi Sorlie as they break open a vintage 2000 sealed copy of Shiny Entertainment's Messiah. Lauded in its day for its groundbreaking tech, but not exactly renowned for classic gameplay, DF Retro revisits the game on period appropriate PC hardware.

In a DF Retro exclusive, John Linneman talks with Nightdive Studios about the process of bringing the classic, totally original Nintendo 64 rendition of Doom over to the current-gen platforms. In this video, you'll see what made the original release so fascinating, while Nightdive staff tell all on how the game was reverse-engineered and delivered on current-gen platforms. Oh - and is this the first 1440p Xbox One S game?

We've had a ton of requests to take a look at Blaze's Evercade - a cartridge-based retro handheld. It's certainly a fascinating device with a unique game delivery mechanism, and the emulation is strong. DF Retro's John Linneman gives the device a thorough road-test.

What made the original Final Fantasy 7 such an epic release for the original PlayStation way back in 1997? How well did the ports to other systems fare and how did Square seek to follow up on his stone-cold classic? Join Digital Foundry for a celebration of a groundbreaking game, culminating in its recent release as the Final Fantasy 7 Remake for PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro.

John Linneman loves Streets of Rage 4. In fact, we all do. It's a retro-themed game powered by modern technology that delivers a unique, brutally wonderful experience. In this special episode, we take a look at what makes this series so good - and how it's taken to the next level in Streets of Rage 4.

Bubsy the Bobcat - one of the 90s' most notorious platform mascots. But did you know that the game came to PC with a bespoke variant port created by ATI? Yes, ATI - the graphics firm that's now part of AMD. Getting this version to actually work today is almost impossible, but John Linneman and Audi Sorlie came up trumps. So here's what it looks like.

Join John Linneman, Rich Leadbetter and Alex Battaglia for a minute-by-minute commentary of the ORIGINAL PlayStation 4 reveal way back in 2013. How good was the presentation? What technologies were revealed - and which of them never made it to the system? And yeah - Killzone Shadow Fall still looks great today, right?

Continuing our look back at noted console reveals, Rich Leadbetter, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia tackle one of the biggest reveal disasters of all-time. Join the team as they return to May 2013 to revisit the unveiling of the Xbox One, the full debut of Kinect 2.0, the bizarre emphasis on watching TV, the baffling lack of game content and so much more.

The biggest DF Retro ever. In this massive documentary, John Linneman, Audi Sorlie and a range of special guests assess one of the Capcom's finest arcade achievements: the brilliant Final Fight. The origins of the game are discussed, the original coin-op is dissected and every single port and sequel comes under the microscope.

There have been many poor E3 press briefings across history, but none are quite so weird, wacky, bizarre and surreal as the Konami's E3 2010 'event'. Join John Linneman and Audi Sorlie for a blow-by-blow look at one of the event's most notorious conferences.

Recently revealed as coming to Netflix in a new big budget series, Usagi Yojimbo has a rich, storied history across multiple media - and that includes games. In this DF Retro Play, Audi Sorlie plays through the vintage Commodore 64 game and explains the series to John Linneman.

After the incredible Castle of Illusion, Sega continued its Disney tie-ins with QuackShot Starring Donald Duck - another visually brilliant Mega Drive/Genesis title. In this DF Retro Play, John Linneman and Audi Sorlie convene to replay the game.

One of the greatest console libraries of all-time can now be enjoyed with the very best possible image (and sound!) quality, with a hardware modification that adds pristine HDMI output to original hardware PlayStation 1 consoles. Is this the best way to experience PS1 on a modern display? What features do you get and how do they compare to the existing options? John Linneman and Audi Sorlie share their thoughts.

Has hell frozen over? Sonic the Hedgehog is now playable - to a certain extent - on Super NES. Thanks to the development work of TiagoSC, a demo exists of Sonic 1 for SNES, built on original Sonic Team code adapted and optimized for SNES. Unlike today, pixel-for-pixel identical ports aren't possible - SNES was a very different machine to Mega Drive/Genesis - so there are necessary differences, which makes the port all the more fascinating.

Join John Linneman and Audi Sorlie for some DF Retro Let's Play action, as the pair tackle Sonic Robo Blast 2 - a fan-made 3D Sonic game powered by the Doom engine. It sounds like a mish-mash that shouldn't work, but the reality is that it's one of the best 3D Sonic games you can play.

John Linneman returns to the mid-90s and the arrival of the 3D accelerator boards that would revolutionize gaming as we know it. These days, we buy a new GPU, we play and play and it works, but things were very, very different back in the day.

Despite deploying lethal counter measures and a state of the art security system, Audi Sorlie has invited himself back onto Digital Foundry and this time he's brought a couple of Pyramid games for your audio-visual entertainment - and yes, the Philips CD-i takes centrestage with Pyramid Adventures, with able backup provided via the more competent 3DO release, Pyramid Intruder.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 arrived this week on PC, Xbox One and PS4 and to put it quite simply, it's one of Activision's best releases this generation and one of the best remakes of all-time. But how did the series begin? What made it special? And how did THPS 1+2 originally run across a range of consoles back in the day? John Linneman and DF Retro have you covered.

Dark Forces was LucasArts' brilliant attempt in bringing the Star Wars universe into the Doom-style first-person shooter genre. The original PC version is a classic and has been covered many times - but the PlayStation 1 received a port and it's an intriguing conversion.

While it's been a fantastic year for new games, John Linneman and Audi Sorlie have been busy bolstering their retro game collections too. In this video, the duo compare notes on their retro purchases in 2020 - and show you exactly what vintage games they've enjoyed most.

Join John Linneman and Alex Battaglia for some fun, larks and detailed information on a fascinating N64 console port of the classic Hexen - played with some minor mods to improve the presentation.