It’s been a while so I thought I would post a little about why the show stopped.

Jeromy and I work almost completely opposite shifts now and both of us have basically moved on to our own thing. We still talk rather often but not during a time when recording a show would be possible. Jeromy Started a new site called playonscripts.com and is also doing some freelance coding work. I decided to re-create spoocher.com in to my personal blog. I know a few of you (our fans) have started a podcast over at http://www.theRetroLeague.com and I encourage everyone to check it out.

I can’t say that there will never be another retrocast but at this point I can say that it will be a long way off if ever. If anyone would like to keep this site going Just drop me a line in the comments or check out my blog(shameless plug) and contact me there.  Thank you all for being fans!

Thanks to Eric Ruth and his PixelForce NES “de-make” of Left 4 Dead, we now have an idea of what the zombie apocalypse simulator would have been like had it released in the ’80s. Valve is apparently aware of the project and finds the concept “hilarious.” Ruth reveals that he plans to release the full game as a free download in early January 2010 for PC. It features all the campaigns from the original game, including 8-bit incarnations of the special infected, for two players to play through — it is a NES game after all, fancy four-player didn’t exist.

via 8-bit Left 4 Dead leaves modernity behind.

The Nintendo 64 was Nintendo’s third home console and featured one of the most baffling controllers of all time.

via Nintendo 64 | Cracked.com.

Have you always wished that you could develop games for the Super Nintendo but couldn’t because you were only 4 years old when it was released in 1990? Here’s a second chance.

via Make your own SNES games with developer cartridge – Hack a Day.

We’ve seen NES mods that incorporate a screen and controls into a cartridge in the past, but this example from Airz in BenHeck’s forums is just so clean and well-polished that we had to give it some love. Inside Airz says it’s just a generic Chinese media player that can play NES, Gameboy, and Gameboy Color ROMs, along with the relevant controller bits, a 2.8-inch LCD, 4GB of storage, and a rechargeable battery. Oh, and if you’re feeling particularly retro, you can hook it up over TV-out and play on the big screen. Not bad — and it’s for sale

via Portable NES modded into a cartridge, hearts modded into love.

Senile Team and redspotgames will bring this old school 2D racing game in October 2009 to the shelves as a world wide simultaneous release. We are looking forward to offer you this game also at various online retrailers, Amazon.com, eBay and even several videogame stores near you.

via Rush Rush Rally Racing: Official annoucement.

Welcome to another edition of VGC Top Ten. Today, we’ll cover one of those things a gamer never wants to see. No, we’re not talking about frame drops, random encounters or a broken camera. We’re talking about the dreaded Game Over screens.

via VGC Top Ten – Best Game Over Screens on VGChartz.com.

Going Going Gone links

• 435 Super Nintendo SNES game lot some in box / complete

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Sometimes mods go to such lengths that words like ‘homebrewed’ and ‘DIY’ no longer do them justice. Presenting the Nintendo SNES Portable. Not the first, and probably not the last of its kind, this bad boy mobilizes Nintendo’s venerable console with a few buttons from a PSOne controller and a ridiculously detailed skinning job — yes, even the packaging gets a makeover.

via Portable SNES mod is slick enough to hit retail.

Video game systems may be toys of a sort, but they’re also complicated machines. They require precision engineering, specialized hardware design, and careful industrial design to successfully achieve what seems like a simple goal: to play games on a television set. Throughout the history of home game consoles, each generation of machines has brought new opportunities to innovate. Along the way, companies have often slipped up and made mistakes that came back to haunt them later–some of which were so serious that they helped to destroy platforms and even entire corporations.

via Fifteen Classic Game Console Design Mistakes | Technologizer.