Guides, history and buying advice for people who actually play games
Some classic games never come back because the rights are split between multiple companies who can’t agree, the original source code is lost or unusable, the music or likenesses inside it were only ever licensed for a limited time, or nobody currently holding the rights sees enough money in bringing it back. Why can’t a … Read more
Taking care of old game cartridges and discs mostly comes down to three things: keep them clean and dry, store them upright away from heat and sunlight, and handle the contacts or reading surface as little as possible. None of this requires special products — the biggest enemy is neglect, not age itself. Cartridges and … Read more
A CRT filter is a visual effect, usually applied in an emulator or on modern hardware, that makes a digital image look like it’s being displayed on an old cathode ray tube television. It adds things like scanlines, a soft glow around bright pixels, and slight color bleeding. People want one because many retro games … Read more
Old games look wrong on a modern television because they were designed for a completely different kind of screen. CRT televisions blended pixels together, added a soft glow, and used a shape and refresh style that modern flat panels don’t replicate. The result on a modern TV is harsh, blocky, or oddly proportioned images the … Read more
Emulation is software that makes one device pretend to be another. An emulator reads the original game code meant for old hardware — a console’s processor, memory and graphics chip — and translates it in real time so the game runs correctly on completely different hardware, like a modern PC or phone. What exactly does … Read more
Preserving old video games is difficult because they are not one artifact but several fragile, interlocking ones: physical media that decays, hardware that fails, software licenses that expire, and online components that vanish the moment a publisher turns off a server. Unlike a film reel or a vinyl record, a game often cannot be separated … Read more
You spot a fake retro cartridge by checking the screws, the label print quality, the circuit board inside, and how it behaves in a real console. Genuine cartridges from the original manufacturing era used specific screw types, precise label alignment, and internally consistent chips. Reproductions and counterfeits almost always slip up on at least one … Read more