The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[Merzbow]

I played it, loved it but got the rage at an optional Super Meat Boy like area. It seems like a very solid modern 2D action game, as much as Streets Of Rage 4.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Any fans of The Game Chasers on here?

I have been watching their game and toy chasing videos on Youtube for over ten years now. Really coincided with a renewed interest in retro gaming for me. 

Sad news that Billy is in hospital with a brain tumour at the moment.

[TildeGuy~!]

2 hours ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

Any fans of The Game Chasers on here?

I have been watching their game and toy chasing videos on Youtube for over ten years now. Really coincided with a renewed interest in retro gaming for me. 

Sad news that Billy is in hospital with a brain tumour at the moment.

I used to watch them as there were pretty much the first of their kind to do high quality, comedy style for those sort of videos.

Over the last couple of years though they just seem to be really skint and go to these places just to film content with no intention of buying anything. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

2 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

I used to watch them as there were pretty much the first of their kind to do high quality, comedy style for those sort of videos.

Over the last couple of years though they just seem to be really skint and go to these places just to film content with no intention of buying anything. 

I think that's perhaps more to do with the utterly insane price increases on retro stuff. In the earlier days they were going to flea markets and getting tons of cartridges for a few dollars a pop. Seems like these deals just do not exist anymore. 

[TildeGuy~!]

I think they made a film, which practically made them both bankrupt.

Jay was due to open a Barcade too which never materialised.

[FLips]

Been going hard on the Game Boy stuff lately. Got a good few games over the last couple of weeks.

Kirby's Pinball Land
It's a pinball game, so you're always limited by that, but this one has enough Kirby flavour to stand out a little. 3 table options with hidden warp stars to change level mid-run is a nice touch, and each table has 3 screens and a boss so plenty to do. The Game Boy makes it limited to how many bells and whistles are on each table but it's a fine little time waster that's loyal to the source material.

Tetris Attack
Really good handheld version of the SNES puzzler, with some canny 8-bit renditions and remixes of the soundtrack. It's not one you'd play over the console version but for one you can take with you on the go, it's just as addictive and charming.

Mario Picross
The thinking man's Sodoku, it's a cracking puzzler with over 100 levels. It's essentially Sodoku X Minesweeper where you're given a 10x10 grid and each row/column tells you how many spaces need to be filled in. By the time you complete it, it creates a little pixel art solution. Love this, and it's available on Switch Online so I'd recommend it on there too.

Mario & Yoshi
Another puzzler (the Gameboy has loads of these as you'd expect) where you swap plates at the bottom of the screen as enemies and egg halves fall from the top. Match 2 enemies to pop them but the real aim is to get a bottom half of an egg, put loads of non-matching enemies between, then complete it with a top half egg and pop the lot. It feels basic at first but once you start taking big risks to get the egg combos, you'll find yourself panic swapping a load of plates looking for that big reward. Definitely a grower.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan
Konami action-platformer not too dissimilar to the NES Turtles game. The focus is less on the beat-em-up style and more on the side scrolling hacking and slashing, as each individual Turtle counts as a life. It's responsive, has nice big sprites and it's quick and fun to play. Nothing special but worth a go. Got a release in that recent Cowabunga Collection if you fancy it.

I was playing all of these on my Super Game Boy adapter on the SNES, but some of them, namely Picross, I wanted to play handheld settled in bed or during work. I dug the old Gameboy Colour out but jesus christ I don't remember that screen being so dark and unseeable. At one point I had a head lamp on just so I could see it. I used this as an excuse to go out and buy a Game Boy Advance SP this morning for the backlit screen. Got one in really good condition for a relatively low price but sadly nowhere in town had any games I was after so left empty handed in that regard. Looking forward to picking up some proper GBA stuff as I never owned one as a kid so missed out on a lot and have only experienced it emulated.

I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a Gameboy Player for the Gamecube to play them on the TV but they're insultingly expensive these days so doubt I'll bother unless I luck out. 

Edited September 13, 2025 by FLips

[MungoChutney]

I had a great Raspberry Pi device that was 3D printed to look like an old NES and had Super Nes style controllers. It was one of those with 10,000 games across MAME and the various consoles. Sadly it's died having not been used for ages. I can't seem to easily find anything similar on eBay, and wondered if anyone had an idea on the best place to pick something like this up? My brother in law got one from the TikTok shop but it's mainly Japanese ports so not as good or easy to use. 

[Devon Malcolm]

6 hours ago, FLips said:

Kirby's Pinball Land
It's a pinball game, so you're always limited by that, but this one has enough Kirby flavour to stand out a little. 3 table options with hidden warp stars to change level mid-run is a nice touch, and each table has 3 screens and a boss so plenty to do. The Game Boy makes it limited to how many bells and whistles are on each table but it's a fine little time waster that's loyal to the source material.

Played this to death back in the day. Not quite as good as Revenge of the Gator but not far off.

[Merzbow]

4 hours ago, MungoChutney said:

I had a great Raspberry Pi device that was 3D printed to look like an old NES and had Super Nes style controllers. It was one of those with 10,000 games across MAME and the various consoles. Sadly it's died having not been used for ages. I can't seem to easily find anything similar on eBay, and wondered if anyone had an idea on the best place to pick something like this up? My brother in law got one from the TikTok shop but it's mainly Japanese ports so not as good or easy to use. 

AliExpress is full of them but it's potluck with what games you get on them for the most part, I've read multiple times that the "Kinhank" branded ones are worth it, especially over the cheapo gamesticks. The X2 Pro seems like a good deal.

[Retro Red]

If you want to go a little bit more premium I recently bought the Retroid Pocket 5, shaped a bit more like a psp/vita in style but has a lot of power and a gorgeous screen. Plays all the retro console and arcade perfectly but also handles more modern emulation right up to switch, and it’s android based so able to do Xbox cloud gaming and limited windows emulation as well.

only advice is if you can, order a basic one from the manufacturer (or thinkgeek are a reputable third party stockist), get your own micro sd card (512gb is enough) and build the library yourself as there’s a good support network of guides, etc on YouTube and the web. You pay an extra £100 usually to get a prebuilt one which from what I’ve seen from reviews all use cheap micro sd cards which don’t last any time. Took me essentially a weekend to build up my library, once you have the systems all installed you can either transfer rom sets from your other devices or download directly on the device (again since it’s android based you have access to chrome or a.n.other browser, and a file manager).

Had mine a fortnight now and absolutely love it. Already sank almost 30hrs into Final Fantasy X and got lots waiting for next.

Also ordered their 2nd screen attachment which allows for more natural DS/3DS play, works fine on the standard screen but sharing 1 screen between 2 displays just means it feels a little squashed.

[Jazzy G]

I've had a lot going on recently, but some friends have brought their Pandora bartop around which has been keeping me amused. We've been getting a little competitive playing Frogger. I've also been playing the Konami Bucky O'Hare, and Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa. I am yet to play Wrestlefest and win the Royal Rumble as the Big Boss Man, and for some reason Sega Spider-Man runs terribly in it. 

[BigJag]

@Retro Red Hi. Do you have any more information on the RP5 second screen attachment?

@MungoChutney could you try a fresh install on your Pi? Your current software may require an update. The Pi itself may be a bit underpowered. However it should be able to run MAME quite well.

[SuperBacon]

Fun read through of all the 2D Mario games. 

https://www.ign.com/articles/best-2d-mario-games

And a fun watch through as well. 

I haven't played half of them, but I'd concur with that number one. I remember being blown away by just how crisp, clean and vibrant the SNES looked over the NES games. I really liked Mario 2 as well. IIRC I bought my copy from Tandys! (Whooooooo remembers?)

[Retro Red]

2 hours ago, BigJag said:

@Retro Red Hi. Do you have any more information on the RP5 second screen attachment?

@MungoChutney could you try a fresh install on your Pi? Your current software may require an update. The Pi itself may be a bit underpowered. However it should be able to run MAME quite well.

Not as yet, it’s currently en-route hopefully arriving some time this week. It comes with an attachment for the rp5 which sits it above the main screen and can fold down like a clamshell, plugs into the usb c slot for power but they’ve only just started shipping so there aren’t many reviews yet. Some positive reactions from the discord I’m in though.
 

 

[BigJag]

I had a scout around and found a few pictures of it. The overall construction of the RP5 looks to be quite impressive. The second screen addon is nice and hopefully the same construction ideals are carried over. It looks like they have a few ideas for it's utilisation. 

Retroid Dual Screen Add-on – Retroid Pocket