DF Retro

- Season 6

(2021)

Having exhausted leads in tracking down even more awful Philips CD-i games, Audi Sorlie has turned his attention to the works of Phoenix Games - creators of some of the most terrible games on PlayStation 2. And of course, he made John Linneman play them for your viewing pleasure.

What is the MiSTer FPGA? Well, an FPGA is a special kind of processor that can be programmed to emulate other processors at the most fundamental level, meaning stunningly accurate retro emulation - provided that talented developers provide the necessary emulation cores. In this video, John shows off his MiSTer, some of his favorite games and his bespoke set-up.

This one was put together back in the summer - where Audi Sorlie visited John Linneman and together they played their way through a bunch of great retro titles. In this one, It's the NES/Famicom that takes centre-stage. Moon Crystal, Batman: Return of The Joker (aka Dynamite Batman) and Haradius ZERO are three games that really put the veteran Nintendo hardware through its paces - so let's get to it.

Genuine arcade royalty. Ghosts 'n Goblins is back, this time for Nintendo Switch with a stunning new direction in visuals, powered by Capcom's impressive RE Engine. John Linneman revisits the series' history and evaluates this new take on the classic gameplay.

Dinosaur Planet is the last Nintendo 64 game developed by Rare and thought lost - the original game having been revamped and re-purposed as Star Fox Adventures for Nintendo GameCube. However, advanced development code for the game has recently been discovered, giving us a fascinating glimpse at the game that never was. In a DF Retro special, John Linneman examines the recovered code, stacks it up against Star Fox Adventures on GameCube, and brings us exclusive insight about the game from one of the people that made it.

Acclaim's Shadow Man was an impressive 1999 tech showcase for N64, with decent PC and Dreamcast versions and a poor PlayStation port - but the game truly shines via its recent remaster thanks to Nightdive Studios. In this DF Retro EX, John Linneman takes us through the game's origins, what made it special and how the various ports compared. Then we go deep - *really* deep - into the creation of the remaster, where modern rendering technique merge with the original game aesthetic to create something exceptionally impressive.

DF Retro strikes back with one of its most ambitious episodes ever. Join John Linneman for an hour's worth of background story, analysis and performance testing on a range of PC graphics hardware, plus the full breakdown on the console ports - and the legacy of what is one of the biggest releases in gaming - ever.

DF Retro Play is back and better than ever. Celebrating the first Play episode since the Patreon relaunch, the DF best buds take on Power Blade for the Nintendo Entertainment System. More than just a long-play, this is a live running commentary on all the localization changes, related games and music history to this rather underrated NES classic.

It's DF Retro's BIGGEST episode yet. John Linneman and Audi Sorlie revisit the launch of the Sony PlayStation from its origins in Japan to its eventual rollout across the globe - and in the process, assess every single launch title in all three territories, stacking them up against other versions on other systems. It's coverage without compromise. This is DF Retro.

Journey back with us to 1992 and the release of Super Star Wars on Super NES - and the beginning of a renaissance in spin-off media from the classic trilogy. John Linneman and Audi Sorlie assess all three Super Star Wars trilogy titles, their ports, prototypes - and even the series' predecessor on the original NES.

DF Retro Play is back, and the best buds of retro sit down with the brand new N64Digital from PixelFX to test out some nifty futuristic racing action on the Nintendo 64. And surprisingly, the games hold up quite well despite the reputation of the console. We also check out Wipeout 64, the entirely exclusive Wipeout experience for the Nintendo console, a much requested game from the DF Retro: Playstation Launch episode.

The game that introduced us to Mode 7 on its launch for Super Famicom and SNES, F-Zero enjoyed a long and distinguished history across three generations of Nintendo home consoles - plus some excellent Game Boy Advance support. But with F-Zero GX, it was also a series that bowed out at its absolute peak. John Linneman and Audi Sorlie assesses the history of the series and the technology that delivered some outstanding futuristic racing.

Join John Linneman for this comprehensive look at Ridge Racer's second decade from the highs of RR6 on Xbox 360 and RR7 on PS3, the brilliance of Ridge Racers and its sequel on PSP and then on to the sad decline of an iconic franchise.

The boys are back in town, and they're having themselves a Disney afternoon. This time around, John and Audi go for some co-op action in Capcom's excellent Magical Quest 3, the Japan only follow up to their Mickey Mouse platformer series. This game was later released on Game Boy Advance, but as you'll see, this Super Famicom original is among the finest game on the Super Nintendo hardware.

Namco struck gold with the brilliant Splatterhouse - an arcade game that tapped into the horror movie genre that was so popular back in the 1980s. In this DF Retro episode, John Linneman and guests revisit the entire series - from its brilliant arcade roots, through its many console ports and its eventual - and unfortunate - demise in the PS3/Xbox 360 era.

With the upcoming arrival of Halo Infinite and its campaign's many callbacks to the original Combat Evolved, John and Audi decided to revisit the original game, as played on classic Xbox hardware. Both single-player campaign and co-op put through their paces.

The Analogue Pocket aims to bring us the definitive handheld experience for classic gaming, combining FPGA-based emulation with a simply sensational, state-of-the-art LCD display. The pedigree of Analogue is beyond doubt, but does the Pocket and its dock truly deliver the final word in handheld retro gaming?