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

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 pick...

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...

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...

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...

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 th...

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 foo...

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 throug...

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 l...

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 fightin...

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 A...

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...

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-Hohendor...

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...

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...

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 ab...

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.   🔗 Links: X / Twitter -  @andihero YouTube -  @andihamil...

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 fascinati...

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...

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 t...

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...

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 g...

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 Re...

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...

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...

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...