Retro Titans - the giants of retro and indie gaming in conversation

In this episode of Retro Titans , we're joined once again by James Deighan, co-founder of indie game studio Mega Cat Studios. He returns to discuss the launch of Mega Cat Studios Collection 3 on Evercade and how the studio continues to create brand-new games for classic hardware. From its roots in the homebrew community to becoming one of modern retro gaming's most respected publishers, Mega Cat S...

In this episode of Retro Titans, we dive into the colourful world of one of gaming's most original creators: Jeff Minter. Joining us is filmmaker and C64 pixel artist Paul Docherty, whose new documentary Heart of Neon chronicles Minter's remarkable four-decade journey from the VIC-20 era to becoming one of the industry's most fiercely independent creative voices. Paul's own story is deeply intertw...

In this episode of Retro Titans, Phil sits down with coder, musician and game porter Ian "Hoffman" Ford — a veteran of the Amiga demoscene whose work has helped bring classic games to new audiences across modern retro platforms. From creating tracker music as a teenager during the UK home computer boom to porting iconic titles like Metal Gear, Shinobi, Golden Axe and Turrican, Ian has spent decade...

In this episode of Retro Titans, Phil sits down with Sam Dyer , founder of Bitmap Books — the publisher behind some of the most beautifully crafted retro gaming books ever produced. From the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum to the NeoGeo and N64, Bitmap Books has become synonymous with premium retro gaming preservation, celebrating the art, culture and history of the games we grew up with. But Sam's j...

In this episode of Retro Titans , Phil sits down with veteran game developer Carleton Handley to explore a career that spans the golden age of gaming right through to today's retro revival. Carleton started out as a self-taught bedroom coder on the C64, before going on to work across multiple generations of games — from 8-bit classics to console and mobile titles. But in recent years, he's returne...

In this episode of Retro Titans, Phil is joined once again by returning guest and Evercade expert Crazy Burger for a deep dive into one of the most talked-about retro gaming announcements of the year: the Evercade Nexus. Positioned as a premium handheld upgrade, the Nexus introduces a larger screen, dual analog sticks, and new features like local wireless multiplayer. But does it deliver what fans...

In this episode of Retro Titans, Phil kicks off Season 3 with a return to the world of Pico-8. It's a fantasy console with a growing reputation as one of the most exciting spaces in modern retro development. Joining the show is indie developer and educator Krystian Majewski, also known as Krystman. He is the creator of the popular Lazy Devs Academy YouTube channel and has helped thousands of aspir...

In this episode, we welcome back Crazy Burger , one of the most respected and entertaining voices in the Evercade community. Known for his in-depth reviews, thoughtful analysis, and trademark humour, Crazy Burger has become a go-to YouTuber for anyone following Blaze Entertainment's retro handheld journey. Together, Phil and Crazy Burger look back at a landmark year for Evercade with the first-eve...

In this episode of Retro Titans , Phil returns to the vibrant world of Pico-8 , the tiny virtual console with a massive creative heart. Following the success of our earlier chat with composer Chris Donnelly (aka Gruber), we're diving deeper into this pixel-perfect ecosystem with one of its most prolific creators, Johan Peitz . From Alpine Alpaca to Golf Sunday and Ascent , Johan's games capture th...

In this episode, we return to one of our favourite topics on Retro Titans: the wonderful world of Evercade . Joining Phil are Sean Cleaver (Head of Marketing) and Ryan Dekker (Head of Technology) for a special fan-led Q&A — the first of its kind on the podcast. Across a wide range of listener questions, Sean and Ryan discuss the future of Evercade's library and hardware, how they balance nostalgia...

Tony Warriner is a co-founder of Revolution Software — the team behind Lure of the Temptress , Beneath a Steel Sky , and Broken Sword . From his teenage coding experiments on the Amstrad CPC to shaping one of Britain's most iconic adventure studios, Tony's story is one of creativity, independence, and survival. In this episode, Tony joins me to talk about building Revolution from the ground up, th...

Chris Donnelly — better known in the Pico-8 community as Gruber — is a professional pianist, Steinway Artist, and former jazz player and tutor at the University of Toronto who's taken his love of music in an unexpected direction: composing soundtracks for tiny retro-styled games on the fantasy console Pico-8. His chiptune soundtracks have graced fan-favourite titles like Alpine Alpaca , Golf Sunda...

Badger Punch Games — the duo of Ricki Sickenger and Henning Ludvigsen — have been creating games together since their Amiga demo scene days in the early '90s. Their breakout title  Roguecraft first made waves on the Amiga in 2024, later winning the Debug award and quickly earning a devoted following. Now the game has been reimagined and released as  Roguecraft DX on Evercade, bringing their retro-...

Today's episode takes us back to the golden age of the arcade, courtesy of one of the true giants of the industry: TAITO. We are celebrating the launch of a new game collection of four classics, which have been re-released and upgraded for fans old and new. The collection includes stone-cold classic Operation Wolf, and it's sequel Operation Thunderbolt; plus two games less familiar to Western game...

This episode features Grant Sinclair, inventor of the IRIS eTrike and nephew to legendary innovator Sir Clive Sinclair. Following in the footsteps of his father and uncle, Grant Sinclair is a futurist and innovator who is making waves in the gaming market with the launch of a new handheld gaming device called the GamerCard. This interview covers life growing up in the Sinclair household during one...

In this episode we welcome back YouTuber and retro gaming aficionado, Crazy Burger. Although perhaps best known as an Evercade reviewer and content creator, Crazy Burger has a decent sized retro gaming handheld collection, and has tinkered with devices and explored the emulation gaming scene over the years.  Our objective in this episode is to answer the question: if you were to buy only one emula...

My guest today is Brandon Saltalamacchia, the founder and publisher of Retro Dodo – one of the most trusted and beloved destinations for retro gaming gadget reviews, news, and geek culture. Brandon joins me to share his deep love of retro gaming. We swap thoughts on Evercade, and dive into how he built Retro Dodo into one of the most successful retro gaming websites – only to see it hit hard by a...

This episode's guest's fingerprints are all over some of the most iconic games of the 80s, 90s and beyond - Simon Phipps, aka Simes.  From the 8-bit bedroom coding scene to the heights of AAA development, Simon's career has spanned hits from Rick Dangerous and Shadow Man, to the Harry Potter games for EA. In addition to finding out about his long career in computer and video games, we hear about h...

It's the five year anniversary of Evercade, the cart-based retro and indie gaming system, and we are celebrating with a special interview with the CEO and head of marketing of Blaze Entertainment - Andrew Byatt and Sean Cleaver respectively.  Following the latest Showcase announcement on 29th May 2025, we have a deep-dive interview covering all the cart releases, and of course the Taito Alpha! It'...

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, C...

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 Eve...

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 a...

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 inter...

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...

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 t...