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Retro Game SuperHyper

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5 YEARS!

That’s right, October 16, 2021 marks the 5th anniversary of Retro Game SuperHyper! It’s been five whole years since I was having lunch with my wife and suddenly blurted out, “I think I’m gonna start a retro gaming blog.”

Thanks to all of you for reading the blog and the fanzine! It’s been a light year for blogging but a crazy year for gaming — who would have guessed at the beginning of 2021 that we would be playing a new version of Actraiser, and Metroid Dread, of all things?! I have plans to write about both of those games and lots more, and of course issue 5 of the ‘zine is in the works, so please keep visiting for more!

If you haven’t yet, please follow my Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, pick up a zine or a t-shirt, and let me know you like what RGSH is all about. The retro gaming community is pretty rad and I’m proud to have been a part of it for so long. Game on!

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Never Say Never

Just the other day, the Nintendo Direct broadcast on the 23rd of September, 2021, my mind was blown clean out of my skull by Square Enix’s surprise announcement of Actraiser Renaissance, a remake of one of my all-time favorite, put-on-a-pedestal games, Actraiser for the Super NES. Making the news that much more nuclear was the uranium cherry on top: the game was available THAT DAY.

Continue reading “Never Say Never” →
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Happy 30th, Super NES!

While last November saw the 30th anniversary of Nintendo’s Super Famicom, today is the 30th anniversary of the release of its North American counterpart, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System! Or Super NES, or SNES, or Super Nintendo…however you refer to it, it was 30 years ago that we finally got the big N’s 16-bit powerhouse on this side of the Pacific.

I wrote about my first experiences with the Super Famicom in that article linked above, but I still have a story or two left to tell about the Super NES.

Continue reading “Happy 30th, Super NES!” →
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Almost-4.5-year State of the Blog Address

Hey there, guys and gals. Look, we need to talk.

*pulls up chair, turns it around, and sits on it backward like a school guidance counselor or church youth group leader who really wants to “rap” some “real talk” with the kids*

So, you guys still liking Retro Game SuperHyper? Yeah? Good! Yeah, no, that’s great, I’m glad to hear it! So before you go freaking out or anything, don’t worry — Retro Game SuperHyper isn’t going anywhere, it’s not getting shut down, the blog is staying right where it is, the t-shirts are still for sale, and the fanzine is continuing.

The reason I wanna talk is because there’s just gonna be a few…changes around here, that’s all. But don’t sweat it, champ! It’s all gonna be good stuff, I promise!

Seriously though, as I approach the fourth-and-a-half-year mark of the blog, I felt the need to shake things up a bit, so I wanted to do my half-year SOTB address (which is usually posted mid-April) a bit early to share my plans!

Continue reading “Almost-4.5-year State of the Blog Address” →
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Happy 30th, Super Famicom!

It’s a bit belated, but November 21, 2020 was the 30th birthday of one of the greatest video game consoles of all time, Nintendo’s Super Famicom!

The 16-bit follow-up to the monstrously popular Famicom/NES was highly anticipated in the months before its release, and with Sega’s Mega Drive and NEC’s PC Engine already leading the way into the 16-bit era, all eyes were on Nintendo to see what their machine would deliver.

The Super Famicom’s legacy has been so firmly cemented in the past 30 years that there’s not much more commentary I can offer that wouldn’t be a reiteration of anything that’s already been said. So instead, on this monumental three-decade anniversary, my mind drifts back to my memories of what the vibe was like leading up to the launch of the SFC, as those are some of my most nostalgic feelings of video game excitement.

Continue reading “Happy 30th, Super Famicom!” →
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Ys-y Like Sunday Mornin’

The cooler autumn weather brings a different mood to every aspect of life, and to counteract the oncoming gloom of winter’s shorter days and my disappointment about having to actually put on pants to go outside, there are some good things about it, too. I get to bust out my trusty old leather jacket, myriad delicious Oktoberfest beers appear on store shelves (especially here in Wisconsin), and my dogs love running through the leaves and, eventually, the snow.

Along with all the bundling-up and hunkering-down comes a change in my gaming mood, too. Yes, ’tis the season of RPGs, when a nice, long quest to save some crystals or prevent the destruction of the world or some such nonsense is just what the doctor ordered to get us through the months that end in “-ber” and “-uary.”

Lately, after doing some thinking about it and with no new games catching my interest, I’ve wandered back to the Ys series.

Continue reading “Ys-y Like Sunday Mornin’” →
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4 Years!

Today is Retro Game SuperHyper’s 4th birthday! Yay! You’re all invited to my party at Showbiz Pizza, tokens for everybody!

…If only, amirite? What a year 2020 has been. I obviously don’t need to get into the overall state of the world right now, but it has definitely affected my video game hobby and it’s been reflected somewhat here on the blog.

Midwest Gaming Classic got canceled this year, I canceled my trip to Tokyo, I haven’t been to any arcades, and some games and products have been delayed. The Replicade Dragon’s Lair machine, for instance, saw lots of setbacks in manufacturing and shipping. (Happily, they are finally, actually, really-for-real on the boat to the US right now, so we should be seeing that by the end of this month!)

But some good happened too — although it sucked that my job was shut down for two months, I did do a lot of blogging and gaming. The lack of arcade visits, I think, inspired me to do my Arcade1up mod project that I wanted to do. And I had time to get a head start on issue 4 of the RGSH fanzine, which is on track for January 2021!

Usually in these birthday posts, I talk about the site’s stats, how it’s doing, what my plans, are, etc. But this time, I think I’m just grateful to still be around to do what I’m doing — if I have time to post or make a video, I do, and I’m always around on social media if anyone wants to get at me. I hope you continue to enjoy the blog and my content, and look for the next issue of the ‘zine very soon!

As always, thank you so much for reading. Stay safe and healthy.

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Attainable Goals

For most of my life, I’ve chased one seemingly simple goal: 100,000 points on Galaga.

Continue reading “Attainable Goals” →
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Unboxing a Sealed CIB Xenophobe for Atari 2600

Two video posts in a row? What’s this blog coming to?

I’d been on the lookout for a copy of Xenophobe for the Atari 2600, one of the later titles released in the system’s twilight years. Many of the copies you’ll find on eBay are from Europe, and are therefore the PAL format; of course, I was looking for a North American NTSC version, which is a bit harder to find. Well, I took a bit of a gamble on a sealed CIB copy from a seller here in the US, and I recorded the unboxing and the big reveal when I put it into my ol’ VCS and found out whether or not it was what I was looking for. Check it out!

If you like my videos, please don’t forget to click the Like button and subscribe to my YouTube channel! My numbers are tiny but every bit of encouragement helps!

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Waxing Nostalgic

There’s a new video on the Retro Game SuperHyper YouTube Channel! This time, I show off video game trading card wax packs from the 1980s!

If you were a kid during the Golden Age of video games, you probably ran across these more than a few times, and if you were like me, you bought ’em, played the scratch-off games, and stuck the stickers on everything you owned. Let’s revisit them, shall we?

I’m also thinking about turning this into an expanded pictorial in issue #4 of the RGSH fanzine, so stay tuned for more waxy memories!

Super Metroid Re-Acquaintance (Updated 06.24.20)

(This post is being continually updated.)

It’s rare that there’s an immediate follow-up to a post here on the blog, but in my last post, I wrote about climbing back into the ol’ Chozo armor and trying to GIT GUD at Super Metroid again. While I’m in no way a speedrunner, I used to feel pretty proficient at Metroid 3; sadly, my skills had atrophied over the years, and I really wanted to polish them up again, and use what I’ve learned about the game in the many years since I last beat it to improve my own personal best in-game time of 1:28, which I had set wayyyyy back in the ’90s.

So how’d that go? Let’s find out… Continue reading “Super Metroid Re-Acquaintance (Updated 06.24.20)” →

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Wait…WHAT Are We Playing?? Super Metroid?!

Usually I post articles called “What Are We Playing?” when I start a game or two that I plan to write about when I’m done. They’re always games that are new to me — even if they’re old, I’m playing them for the first time. So why am I alerting you to the fact that I’ve been playing good ol’ Super Metroid?

True confession time: Even though I’ve plowed through Super Metroid dozens of times since it came out (I lost count somewhere around 38 back in the ’90s, so I’d estimate 60-80), it’s actually been YEARS since I’ve done it. And in the few times I’ve picked it up more recently, a terrifying truth revealed itself to me: I’ve actually forgotten how to do it. Continue reading “Wait…WHAT Are We Playing?? Super Metroid?!” →

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