Atari is like the cool grandparent of the gaming world—back in its prime, it threw the wildest Pong parties and made “joystick” a household word. Founded in 1972, this trailblazer brought us classics like Asteroids and Centipede, proving that all you needed for fun were blocky graphics and a good imagination.
Sure, Atari had its awkward phases (cough the E.T. game burial cough), but let’s be honest: who hasn’t made a few questionable life choices? Despite the ups and downs, it’s the brand that planted the pixelated seeds for the gaming empire we know today. Long live the 8-bit legend!
Kiki Wong is a versatile guitarist, songwriter, and musician known for her work in the rock and metal genres. Kiki has gained recognition on platforms like YouTube and Instagram, where she shares guitar tutorials, covers, and lifestyle content, often blending humor with her musical expertise. Now she has joined the Smashing Pumpkins as a touring guitarist and she’s kicking ass in the role!
The “top” Smashing Pumpkins songs can vary depending on personal taste, but here are five fan favorites and critically acclaimed tracks that consistently stand out:
1979 (from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 1995)
A dreamy, nostalgic anthem that captures the essence of youth and change with its mellow groove and heartfelt lyrics.
Tonight, Tonight (from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 1995)
Grandiose and orchestral, this song combines hope and resilience, paired with one of the most iconic music videos ever.
Bullet with Butterfly Wings (from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 1995)
Famous for the lyric “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage,” this powerful track epitomizes 90s alt-rock angst.
Cherub Rock (from Siamese Dream, 1993)
A classic grunge-era anthem with soaring guitars and a rebellious, anthemic vibe.
Disarm (from Siamese Dream, 1993)
A hauntingly beautiful ballad featuring orchestral arrangements and deeply personal lyrics that tug at the heartstrings.
When you think of iconic 80s video game consoles, the Vectrex might not be the first to come to mind—but it absolutely should be. This little beauty was the first (and only) vector-based console, proving that you didn’t need pixels to have personality. It was like the Mona Lisa of gaming hardware—artful, mysterious, and still turning heads in 1983. Spoiler alert: it’s just as fun now, and it won’t judge you for your high scores… or lack thereof.
Ah, the early Chevy Chevelle – the car that looked like it spent weekends pumping iron and guzzling gasoline by the gallon, because who needs fuel efficiency when you’ve got muscle? Imagine a car that gets parked in front of a diner and instantly becomes the coolest thing on the block, leaving every other vehicle’s headlights green with envy.
The first Chevelle, born in 1964, was Chevrolet’s response to the muscle-car craze. It had the subtlety of a brass knuckle in a velvet glove. It came in various flavors: mild, spicy, and “don’t-try-to-drag-race-this-beast.” By the time the SS 396 rolled out in 1965, it had enough horsepower to launch a modest-sized boat… or at least enough to let everyone in a five-mile radius know it was nearby.
This was a car with a “don’t mess with me” front grille and a roar that said, “I may be going straight for now, but corners are for weaklings.” The steering had a mind of its own, and driving one was like arm-wrestling a bear on a caffeine high. But boy, did it look good while it did it. The Chevelle was ruggedly handsome with chrome for days and a stance that said, “I may be mid-sized, but I’ve got big ambitions.”
And yes, the early Chevelle wasn’t built to handle like a European sports car or win any eco-friendly awards, but if you were looking to have a blast at the stoplight and wake up the entire neighborhood on a Sunday morning, the Chevelle was your ticket to horsepower heaven.
My review of the Chromatic by ModRetro: a premium handheld for Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges, featuring a custom display and magnesium alloy shell. But at $200, is it worth it, or are there better & cheaper options?
Here are five lesser-known Game Boy Color (GBC) games that are often considered hidden gems by retro gaming enthusiasts:
1. Shantae
Developer/Publisher: WayForward
Year: 2002
Why it’s a gem: Released late in the GBC’s lifespan, Shantae is a colorful action-platformer with Metroidvania elements. Its vibrant graphics, catchy music, and unique gameplay (Shantae transforms into animals to solve puzzles) make it a standout title.
Fun Fact: Due to its low print run, physical copies are rare and highly sought after.
Why it’s a gem: Often overshadowed by Pokémon, this monster-raising RPG offers deep gameplay, a robust breeding system, and expansive worlds to explore. The level of customization in building your team is immense.
Fun Fact: It allows players to breed unique monsters with specific abilities, making each playthrough different.
3. Wendy: Every Witch Way
Developer/Publisher: WayForward
Year: 2001
Why it’s a gem: This gravity-defying platformer is simple but highly polished. Players control Wendy, the Good Little Witch, using her powers to flip gravity and solve clever puzzles.
Fun Fact: It’s one of the earliest games by WayForward, who would later become famous for Shantae.
4. Survival Kids
Developer/Publisher: Konami
Year: 1999
Why it’s a gem: A survival adventure game where players must navigate a deserted island, gather resources, and find a way to escape. It features multiple endings and a focus on crafting and exploration.
Fun Fact: This game is considered the precursor to the Lost in Blue series on the Nintendo DS.
5. Bionic Commando: Elite Forces
Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 2000
Why it’s a gem: A unique spin-off of the Bionic Commando series, this game combines action-platforming with a grappling hook mechanic for puzzle-solving. It’s challenging and offers satisfying gameplay.
Fun Fact: The grappling mechanic remains a defining feature of the Bionic Commando series.
These games showcase the GBC’s impressive library beyond its most famous titles. Have you tried any of these, or are you looking for something similar?
Since the start of 2024 I tracked every Dreamcast listing from pricecharting.com to see if the prices went up, down or stay the same. I identified 25 games that increased the most, decreased the most and tracked 28 games from my subscribers as well.
The Sega Dreamcast is like that friend who’s a little too ahead of their time—amazing to be around, but destined to fall flat in a world that just wasn’t ready. Released in 1999, it came loaded with wild features: internet connectivity, a visual memory unit (aka a mini Game Boy in your controller), and graphics that made the PlayStation look like it had some catching up to do. It had some of the weirdest and best games, too—like Seaman, where you raise a talking fish with the voice of Leonard Nimoy, and Crazy Taxi, which teaches you that the best way to drive is with complete disregard for traffic laws. The Dreamcast was quirky and full of promise, but it was the kid who wore neon at a black-tie event; everyone stared but didn’t quite get it.
Unfortunately, the Dreamcast had the lifespan of a fruit fly. Sega threw everything into it, but the PlayStation 2 was waiting in the wings, ready to bulldoze anything in its path. The Dreamcast didn’t stand a chance and ended up as the world’s most charming console ghost, haunting gaming memories with wistful “what ifs.” Ask any Dreamcast fan today, and they’ll get misty-eyed talking about the sheer potential of that little white box. It may have gone out with a whimper, but the Dreamcast left an indelible mark on gaming—a brief, shining moment where Sega was just a bit too cool for the mainstream to handle.
Game Sack – They’re still releasing new titles for these 30+ year-old consoles. Many of them are incredibly professional. Isn’t it fantastic!
Game Sack is like that buddy who knows way too much about old video games and isn’t afraid to tell you, with an infectious enthusiasm for consoles that most people forgot about (or never knew existed). Hosted by Joe, with the occasional cameo from his longtime friend Dave, it’s a retro gaming show that dives into obscure game consoles and asks hard-hitting questions like, “Why did anyone buy the Sega 32X?” and “How many obscure Japanese exclusives can we fit into one episode?”
Joe’s humor is dry, sarcastic, and somehow perfectly timed to counterbalance the sheer nerdery of the show’s deep dives. Every episode is packed with crisp editing, skits featuring props from your uncle’s garage, and gameplay footage that’ll make you nostalgic for the days when games came on cartridges the size of bricks. Joe’s critiques of retro hardware and his impressions of Dave (who, rumor has it, may still live on as a disembodied spirit haunting Game Sack) are worth the watch alone. Whether you’re in it for forgotten consoles, bizarre peripherals, or just to hear Joe roast the Virtual Boy yet again, Game Sack has enough retro gaming gold to keep you glued to the screen, wondering, “How does he even know all this?”
Brendon Snyder – Not all albums can be the best, that’s for sure. But sometimes the sound and direction is such a misstep that for me I can’t stand even having it in my music collection. However, I’m a completist and at times still want to try these “hated” albums and see if my opinion has changed. So join me as I run through some hated albums from my music collection.
*St. Anger* is Metallica’s version of a mid-life crisis—complete with a new snare drum that sounds like it fell out of a toolbox. This album has all the angst of a band trying to reconnect with their roots, but somehow ended up with a sound that’s, well, divisive, to put it politely. The production feels like they recorded it in an empty warehouse, left the reverb on max, and decided “Hey, what if we make Lars’s snare sound like he’s banging on a trash can?” It’s a bold move, for sure, and one that has since been lovingly referred to as the “ping of doom.”
The lyrics are like a mix of therapy session notes and heavy metal fortune cookies, with lines that range from “I’m madly in anger with you!” to “My lifestyle determines my deathstyle.” James Hetfield is trying to exorcise some serious demons, and you can tell he’s really feeling it—even if he’s not sure what “deathstyle” actually means. And while *St. Anger* lacks guitar solos, Kirk Hammett’s here for moral support, probably wondering where his chance to shred went. Love it or hate it, the album is like a car crash you can’t look away from—noisy, chaotic, and oddly fascinating.
We’re heading to Columbus, Ohio, for TORG, the Ohio Retro Gamer Expo! In this video, I’ll focus on deals you can find at these events. I’ll ask vendors—who buy and sell games daily—what they think are the best deals today. I’m also working on my Sony PSP collection, and I’ll show you everything I picked up at the end.
The Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) is the cool kid who showed up at the party with the swagger of a console and the size of a big smartphone (back when phones weren’t that smart yet). It’s like the Swiss Army knife of gaming, trying to be your gaming console, your MP3 player, and even your Netflix (though streaming wasn’t quite ready to party yet).
The PSP flexed its muscles with a gorgeous 4.3-inch screen, boasting graphics that made you say, “Wait, this is portable?!” It had Wi-Fi so you could school your friends in multiplayer—if you could convince them to lug their PSPs around. And let’s not forget the UMD discs, those quirky little Frisbees that carried your games and movies. They looked futuristic but were basically mini-CDs with trust issues.
Sony even tried to make the PSP your entire life: it had a web browser (sort of), a photo viewer (but no camera), and music playback (for when your iPod forgot its place). The battery life was decent—unless you were watching UMD movies, in which case it gave up faster than a kid in a math test.
The PSP was like that overachiever friend who insists on doing everything, and honestly, it nailed a lot of it. Sure, the controls felt a little cramped, and the proprietary memory cards were pricier than gourmet coffee, but the PSP brought portable gaming into the spotlight, and it did it with style. Plus, it gave us Monster Hunter marathons and the ability to watch Spider-Man 2 on the go—what more could you want? (Except maybe fewer smudges on that glorious screen.)
