Retro Titans - the Evercade podcast

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 for the GBC.    

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. 

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.   

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 in the early noughties and two of the latest games, Ceccanoid and Roguecraft. 

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 working with gaming music legends Richard Joseph and Martin Gallway, and making music with his own group, The Sensible Band.  Jon also offers advice to aspiring games developers and gives his thoughts on channelling creativity. It's an epic interview! 

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.   

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? 

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 insiders.   

It's the season finale of Retro Titans and we have drafted in a regular guest, Evercade YouTuber extraordinaire Crazy Burger to help us review Evercade and Blaze Entertainment's 2024.  It's a 'questions and answers' show format, where Phil and Crazy Burger quiz each other about their Evercade highlights and things they'd like to see in 2025 - plus a few awkward and surprising questions thrown into the mix.   

In this episode we take a departure from our usual format focusing on Evercade to interview Chris Smith, CTO of Retro Games Ltd, about the launch of 'The Spectrum' – a modern day recreation of the iconic ZX Spectrum from 1982. Chris is literally the man who wrote the book on the ZX Spectrum and is full of knowledge about the inner workings of the much-loved 80s home computer. So, it's no surprise that after the launch of reimagined versions of the C64, Amiga and Atari 400, we now have The Spectrum.  In this interview, Chris explains why they waited this long to tackle The Spectrum, described some of the challenges in the design and production, and given us a taste of his own home computer favourites.  If you're a proud new owner of The Spectrum, or just have an interest in home computer history, you'll love this episode. 

This week we welcome back Andy Caomhanach and Matt Upton, guests from episodes 12 and 17 respectively. Recruited for their expertise in technology and collecting, and a passion for Evercade, we got together to discuss three questions: What kind of collector are you? Would you recommend Evercade to a fellow gamer? Is the bricked cart issue finally over? We also had time for a quick round of 'Hit, Miss or Maybe'. Buckle up, this is an epic episode. 

One of the best thing about Evercade is meeting interesting people who make you think differently about retro gaming and computing generally, not just on the platform - and this week's guest is no different. Shane Powell - aka Kenjara - works in the IT industry and discovered Evercade in the early days and has since become part of the scene, helping to test games, assist with the development of the Duke Nukem Collection 1 remasters, and even publishing his own 'hidden game'. This interview covers all this and more, including his Desert Island Carts. Make sure you stay to the end to hear Shane's fabulous playout music.   

Ollie Houston Blunn - aka Blunners - is one of the team behind the Retro Gaming Revival YouTube channel and a regular presenter on the Total Evercade livestream. He shares his love of Evercade, his strange affection for Foxyland, and what Blaze needs to do next to keep the fanbase happy and ensure it continues to grow. As a grassroots football club chairman, we talk about the absence of decent football games on Evercade, Sensible Soccer aside, and what he'd like to see brought to the platform. Blunners is also a big Nintendo fan and talks about his collection, including his museum piece Virtual Boy, which he claims was ahead of its time.   

Boulder Dash was released in 1984 - yes, that means it's 40 years old - and to celebrate we caught up with the game's designer and developer, Peter Liepa. Boulder Dash was included on the Evercade C64 Collection 3 release this year and, despite its age, still plays like a dream. Peter explains the origins of the game, what it was like making games in the 80s and the creative process he went through to bring this classic to our computer screens. This is a must-listen for fans of the toe-tapping cave digger, Rockford.   

Goodboy Galaxy is widely regarded as one of the best games on Evercade, so having the chance to speak to one half of the development team, Rik Nicol, was a too good an opportunity to pass up on. In this episode we find out how Goodboy Galaxy was conceived, why it was developed on Game Boy Advance, the biggest challenges in making the game, and what it was like working with Blaze Entertainment on launch.  Rik also tells us about his Desert Island Carts and which piece of gaming music he would like to take with him to a desert island.  If you enjoyed Goodboy Galaxy, you'll love this deepdive into the game. And if you haven't played it before, you'll be wanting to buy the cart after listening to Rik!  

Remember Sky TV's Games World from the 90s? In this episode, we meet one of the early finalists and the youngest competitive video gamer of the era, Dean Kennedy - aka Mean Machine Dean. A relative newcomer to Evercade, Dean talks through his early experiences on the platform and what attracted him to it in the first place.  As well as his love of Street Fighter, Dean has a passion for all fighting games and would love to see Tekken brought to Evercade - "never say never". Dean also talks about his Twitch channel, inspirations in the world of gaming and his new side-hustle making custom shells for classic gaming consoles.   

Earlier this month, Retro Titans was invited to a special media day for journalists, influencers and creators, to get a rare opportunity to meet the people who run Blaze Entertainment and try out the new devices and games. We were under embargo until the end of the month, so this interview recorded with Crazy Burger reveals the highlights of the day and our revised take on new launches, like the Alpha, Tomb Raider and Bitmap Brothers 2.  Crazy Burger also gives us his take on all the releases and announcements so far in 2024, playing a game of 'Hit, Miss or Maybe'.   

In 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. 

Talk to any Evercade fan and it won't be long before Duke Nukem 1 & 2 Remastered comes up in conversation. And for good reason: it's an example of a classic game, made better for the Evercade platform, without tinkering with it too much. So, this episode goes into the background of how and why the games got (re)made, trying to uncover what makes them so special.  Out guest, Nikolai Wuttke-Hohendorf - aka Lethal Guitar - was the lead developer of the Duke Nukem remasters, and he explains exactly how they brought the Duke back from the dead and the lengths they went to to preserve all the iconic features, whilst also making a number of gameplay improvements.   

Whether you're a veteran Evercade collector or new to the world of collecting retro gaming carts, you'll enjoy this interview with Matt Upton. We discuss what it means to be an Evercade collector, whether you need to collect the full set, and hacks for acquiring hard-to-get Legacy carts.  Matt is a keen collector himself and was game enough to play our Evercade 'Price Is Right' game - can you beat him guessing the correct price for popular Evercade classics?  As always, we have our Desert Island Carts feature, where Matt shares his choices of carts and device to take to a desert island.   

We caught up with Sean Cleaver, Blaze Entertainment's spokesperson and head of marketing, to find out more about Evercade's plans for the future and answer questions about the upcoming Alpha mini arcade and what's been going on in the world of Evercade. We cover the Alpha launch in detail, including how the Evercade mini arcade came about, as questions about specification, game line-up and whether we'll see more mini arcades in future. Sean also answers listener questions, including dealing with bricked carts and whether we'll ever see a Spectrum carts. We also pose the idea of a real-life Evercade event (EverCon?)  As always, we have Sean's Desert Island Carts and find out the games and device one of the heads of Blaze Entertaintment would take, if stranded on a desert island.   

In the second of our ALPHA reaction episodes, we catch up with previous Retro Titans guests Crazy Burger, Vaughan Anscombe and Nik Tyrrell to find out what they think about Blaze's first mini arcade cabinet launch. As well as finding out whether Evercade have got a hit on their hands and if they will be buying one, we also discuss the future of Blaze Entertainment and what they are most excited about for the rest of 2024.   

In this first of two reaction minisodes to the launch of Evercade ALPHA, the new mini arcade bar top machine from Blaze Entertainment, we catch up with journalist and gaming streamer Andi Hamilton. Here we get Andi's initial take and his thoughts on where this fits into the Evercade ecosystem, following the big reveal on Thursday 30th May.  

If you're serious about retro gaming and can recall all your devices from days gone by, you'll love this episode with retro gaming journalist and author, Mike Diver. Publisher of three books on retro gaming, with another in the works, Mike has an encyclopedic knowledge of arcades, consoles and computer games. Here we delve into his latest book and talk about why retro gaming holds such a fascination for many of us.  As always we get our guest's take on what's happening at Blaze Entertainment and in the Evercade universe, plus our regular Desert Island Carts feature. Turns out Mike is also a big music fan, so we cover that too.   

In a packed episode, we talk to IT lecturer and media commentator Andy Caomhanach about his love of retro gaming, which goes back to his Commodore 64 days and the Light Fantastic Pack. He describes how is love of computing and gaming led to the discovery of the Evercade platform and what makes it so special.  We also tackle the thorny issue of cart failures, which has come up on various groups and forums, in an attempt to get to the bottom of why they might be happening, whether we should be worried and what gamers can do about it.  Finally, as always, we have the Desert Island Carts feature and Andy explains his love of retro gaming music, especially from Richard Joseph.   

Witch n' Wiz is one of my all-time favourite games on Evercade, so I've been chomping at the bit to speak to the game's developer Matt Hughson. It was everything I hoped and more. We discussed how he came up with the idea for Witch n' Wiz and developed it into the game we all love. He explained his process for devising the levels and gets the difficulty level just right, before moving on to tell the story of his involvement with Evercade.  Matt, who is based in Vancouver and works as a developer in his day job too, is also a fierce supporter of the homebrew developer scene and he explains why the community is so supportive, and tells us about some of his own favourite games.  As always, we covered his top choices of a device and carts to take away for the Desert Island Carts feature.  If you enjoyed Witch n' Wiz or have any interest in how games actually get made, this episode is for you.   

The Evercade Facebook groups have been lit up in the past few weeks discussing collecting and selling carts. As a non-collector myself, I am intrigued by the desire to own the whole collection and equally curious about the prices some of these carts can command. So, to understand more about the art of collecting on Evercade, I spoke to reviewer, collector and all-round retro gaming fan Connor (aka Connor The Braixen) from Seafoam Gaming.  We also have time to discuss licensing, why some carts go legacy and which ones could be up for deletion next. Connor has an extensive knowledge of Evercade and retro gaming in general, and his enthusiasm is infectious.  As always, we have time to discuss Connor's desert island carts and play out with one of his favourite retro gaming tunes.   

The Mega Cat Studios Collections (I & II) are firm fan favourites amongst the Evercade community, so having the opportunity to talk to the company's founder James Deighan and cinematic director Andrew Marsh was a real treat. This episode covers a lot of ground, from the origin story of Mega Cat Studios and how they started working with Blaze Entertainment, through to the business of making indie games and defining success in a hit-led industry. If you have any interest in developing your own game or you'd like to peep behind the curtain of a successful game studio, this episode is for you! It also happens to have a banging tune to play out at the end.  

Fresh from a mid-season break, we talk to gaming journalist and YouTuber Andi Hamilton and get his take on the latest Evarcade news, the growth of retro gaming and his love for Duke Nukem, Street Fighter and Sensible Soccer.  As usual we have the Desert Island Carts feature, where Andi tells us his choice of device, carts and music to take away on a desert Island.  Do make sure you subscribe to Retro Titans to never miss an episode and give us a review, if you have a moment to spare.   

We catch up with Nik Tyrrell, a retro gaming YouTuber, Evercade collector and fan of the 8-bit era. As well as providing his thoughts on all things Evercade, Nik gives us his perspectives on the golden era of gaming, what the appeal of collecting cartridges is and his hidden gems in the Evercade library, amongst other things.  We also play an Evercade game, 'Evercade Family Fortunes', which you're welcome to join in at home or on the move. All you need is a pen and paper before you start listening.  Do make sure you subscribe to Retro Titans to never miss an episode and give us a review, if you have a moment to spare.   

In our sixth epsiode, we catch up with three of the team behind Evercade Evolution, a fan magazine devoted to the world of Evercade. We find out why the magazine was created and hear some of the highlights so far - from a chance encounter with OutOfTheBit, which led to first Evercade single cart release, to how the magazine runs as a non-profit and raises money for charity.  Liam, Mark and Vaughan also give their thoughts about the world of retro and indie gaming on Evercade, why they'd like to see a Spectrum cart and make their predictions on games and hardward for the year ahead.   

So, what happens when you discover Evercade? You want to share your experiences and ask questions of like-minded people, of course. Thankfully there are plenty of options to choose from, including the Evercade Hangout on Facebook. This week, we catch up with Ryan Andrews, head admin of the Evercade Hangout, which promotes itself as 'the only Evercade group that allows all opinions whether they're good or bad.' We find out what goes into running a successful Facebook Group, how the sister channel, the Total Evercade YouTube livestream works, and Ryan's personal take on all things Evercade.   

In this episode we catch up with three of the team behind the futuristic, dystopian Evercade classic, Full Void. The game's developer Out Of The Bit is a small independent studio based in Wimbledon London and was founded in 2008 by Ali Motisi. Ali and two of his team Tom Cullen and Leo Halwart explain how the pandemic was the inspiration for Full Void and some of the decisions they made, from the choice of music to the style of pixel art.  We also get find out how it got picked up by Evercade to become Blaze Entertainment's first single-game cartridge and how it felt to pick the Debug independent gaming Subscriber's Choice award. If you are interested in indie gaming or the Evercade platform, this is a must-listen episode.   

In this episode of Retro Titans, we talk to Ally Low, the founder and owner of game studio Lowtek Games and a prominent figure on dyslexia in gaming. Ally explains the progress around dyslexia, but why it's still coming up short and what he'd like to see happen next. We also discuss his process for creating amazing, addictive games like Flea and Tapeworm Disco Party, and then promoting them with Blaze Entertainment. Ally provides budding games developers with his top tips for getting into gaming and creating the next Evercade classic.   In the final part of the show, Ally also shares the top three carts and device he would take with him to a desert island, as part of our Desert Island Carts feature. Make sure you hang around for his music choice at the end of the show.  Whether you are new to Evercade or a seasoned gamer on the platform, you'll love this deep-dive into all things Evercade.

For our second episode of Retro Titans, we talk to one of the leading lights in the world of Evercade, Sir_Top_&_Hat. We find out how he discovered Evercade and played a role in the development of the platform, including gaining those early licenses and promoting the Evercade community. He also shares the top three carts and device he would take with him to a desert island, as part of our Desert Island Carts feature.  Whether you are new to Evercade or a seasoned gamer on the platform, you'll love this deep-dive into all things Evercade.

We kick off Retro Titans with an interview with one of the leading retro gaming YouTubers, Crazy Burger. We discuss his accidental success as a YouTuber, the early days of Evercade, the Super Pocket success, predictions for the future, and his Desert Island Carts + much more!  Whether you are new to Evercade or a seasoned gamer on the platform, you'll love this deep-dive into all things Evercade.