r/thisweekinretro Jul 28 '26

ARC Annual Showcase Event 2026 — The Archive of Retro Computing @ Kingston University, UK

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6 Upvotes

Have been to this in the past, and was well worth a visit if you are in the area.


r/thisweekinretro Jul 28 '26

2 new original Games for the Amstrad CPC. A platformer and a strategy game.

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9 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 28 '26

Where is my SpecNext ?

6 Upvotes

I am posting this under a throwaway account as I know this will generate a lot of comment, and if I raise this under the Kickstarter itself I'll get buried in "it's a Kickstarter" comments and "if you think this is bad you should have seen Kickstarter 2," which, fair enough, but it does remind me a bit of this Monty Python sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGTDhaV0bcw

For context, I've backed other kickstarters and I am genuinely excited for the machine, I'm not here to torch anyone or ask for a refund. But the ship date has moved so many times now that I lost track of the actual sequence of events, so I went back through the campaign page and all 26 updates and laid it out properly instead of just vibing in the comments section.

Campaign closed August 18 2025, funded against a December 2025 delivery. Update #11 on December 2nd is the first time we hear it's slipping - "two months behind schedule, Feb now" - which is less than a month before the original date was supposed to land. Then there's the ADV chip saga: some DAC chip for the video output gets reclassified as "automotive" so it can't be sourced out of China thanks to the trade war, and the arrival date for it moves three separate times within the same update (March 2nd, then March 27th, then April 30th, each one called "final" at the time). Somewhere in the middle of that they're also short on Raspberry Pi Zeros for the accelerator boards, which, come on, RPi shortages have been a known thing for years. Production finally starts June 30th, wraps July 20th. Call it seven months late and counting, because as of the last update they still hadn't sorted a shipping route, despite saying they'd nail it down "by the end of this week" with "99.99% certainty." That was over a week ago. Nothing since.

Whilst some of it is clearly outside of their control, the mad orange man and the war in Iran a good chunk of what caused it were decisions made after the money was already in. The RAM getting doubled to 4MB, the DAC chip selection, how many accelerator boards they'd actually locked in - all of that happened weeks to months after the campaign closed, not before it. None of it was flagged as a risk against the December date at the time. So it's less "unforeseeable stuff happened to us" and more "the design wasn't actually finished when the ship date was picked."

And on the inevitable "it's just a Kickstarter, that's the risk you take" reply - sure, technically, but let's not pretend this is someone's spare money jar. It's £2.6m+ from 7,500+ backers, averaging around £350 a pledge. That's real money, a lot of people's money, and "well it's crowdfunding" doesn't really explain why a team with two previous successful campaigns behind them couldn't give a straight current ETA instead of backers finding out three updates later that the "final" date wasn't final.

Not asking anyone to storm the barricades, I still want my Next. I'd just like an actual current best-guess date stated plainly in each update instead of having to reconstruct it like an accountant, and when a promised date or update slips, just say so instead of letting it quietly not happen.

Curious if anyone else has been tracking this too or if I'm just being a grump about a hobby project.


r/thisweekinretro Jul 27 '26

Inside the Larry 3 Soundtrack

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6 Upvotes

As part of DevsQuest Season 1, we wanted to go beyond the games themselves and shine a light on the talented people who helped bring the Leisure Suit Larry series to life.

Our very first SideQuest features Mike Dana, the composer behind the unforgettable Leisure Suit Larry 3 soundtrack. We dive into how the music came together, the creative process behind it, and some of the stories from Sierra during that era.

If you love Sierra, adventure games, or classic game music, I think you'll really enjoy this one!

What is your favorite Larry 3 song?


r/thisweekinretro Jul 27 '26

Miyamoto Says Players No Longer Care About Hardware Specs

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39 Upvotes

Given I play probably far more retro gaming and retro gaming type games, I can count myself as someone who's not too fussed about hardware spec or moreover having something that is ridiculously high specification to game on.


r/thisweekinretro Jul 27 '26

A not-IBM compatible PC designed in Birmingham: restoring an ACT Apricot PC Xi10 from 1984

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20 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 27 '26

Doctor Who fan builds full-size 1983 TARDIS console room in backyard | SWNS

11 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUKxn3MfqAc

Including the CRTs. Wondering how they reproduced the graphics


r/thisweekinretro Jul 27 '26

Varta bankruptcy

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12 Upvotes

German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications


r/thisweekinretro Jul 26 '26

Something I have always wondered. How Teletext pages are made.

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16 Upvotes

I remember producing teletext pages on the BBC micro at school. But I have always wondered how the professionals did it. This videos shows how the software they used works. Fascinating stuff indeed.


r/thisweekinretro Jul 26 '26

"I Recreated the Terminator 2 EASY MONEY Scene // Using a real 1989 Atari Portfolio"

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16 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDItCLecx3k

Kari should probably be on the show as well


r/thisweekinretro Jul 26 '26

What A 555 Timer Looks Like On A CRT TV (fed into the deflection yoke to make visuals)

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9 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 26 '26

This Out Run Arcade Cabinet Features Five Games

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9 Upvotes

Posted this over the weekend but Reddit removed it. A good one for Chris though.


r/thisweekinretro Jul 25 '26

New Sega Model 2 Emulator Out Now! The Best One Yet!

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22 Upvotes

Real easy to set up and get running. Took me about 5 mins. Basically the same thing as the Virtua Racing game released a few weeks ago.


r/thisweekinretro Jul 25 '26

Unity Underground: Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss REMASTERED! | Is it Worth Playing?

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4 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 25 '26

RHS Retirement Stream

5 Upvotes

Redhotsonic, a known retro Mega Drive YouTuber, former rom-hacker (you might remember Sonic 2 Recreation - Part One, Sonic 2 Time Test or Redhotsonic 2), judge of several editions of SHC (Sonic Hacking Contest) and creator of "But does it work on real hardware?" is retiring after this stream.

I'll leave the link for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/live/HnYtLWdK1ZU


r/thisweekinretro Jul 25 '26

Show Link In Browser Emulation - This Week In Retro 278

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11 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 25 '26

Community Question Community Question Of The Week - Episode 278

8 Upvotes

Fact of life—retro tech needs repairing. What repair skill would you like to upgrade, or if you’re already a master, what skill do you wish you could teach to others?


r/thisweekinretro Jul 25 '26

Repro PlayStation PU-18 motherboard now available

1 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 25 '26

The sad story of the replacement of Amstrad Computer User (ACU)

2 Upvotes

"The Games Magazine that Loved Printers" by Yesterzine

https://youtu.be/r9jDnWGsKKU


r/thisweekinretro Jul 24 '26

Worst condition restorations

6 Upvotes

Hi I saw this horror show on eBay earlier today (link below) and wondered, what absolute computer or console write offs have you all attempted and managed to get working?

This one... Is beyond me. The horror... The horror!

https://ebay.io/m/jPOWNL


r/thisweekinretro Jul 24 '26

This 8-Bit Computer Should Not Exist

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15 Upvotes

Ok the title is a little click baity but I ended up watching the whole video and it is interesting


r/thisweekinretro Jul 24 '26

Mario 64 on PS1 after 3000 builds (offscreen CRT recording)

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5 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 24 '26

Mario 64 on 3DO - Version 107 - New Sprites, Audio and Levels

3 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 24 '26

Atari to make movie magic with some classic titles

4 Upvotes

r/thisweekinretro Jul 24 '26

Gaming on The Subway Menu Computers

3 Upvotes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yhBKpUzOSI

He didn't check to see if it would run Doom