Skipping the Tutorial: What It Says About How You Learn
The skip-tutorial button is the most pressed in gaming. From cartridge manuals to Mario's World 1-1, here's what it …
Retro 7 posts
Information security in plain English: scams, hardening and privacy — plus retrogaming, games and geek culture.
Continue? 9, 8, 7... what one more token is worth in life
The Continue screen gave you ten seconds to decide whether to push on. From SNK's Fantasy (1981) to the corner arcade: …
Cutscene — The Moments in Life You Just Cannot Skip
Every game has that one cutscene you can't skip. Life has those same moments — where control leaves your hands and all …
Respawn — why trying again is gaming's most honest lesson
Respawn is the button you press without thinking. But coming back after death says something serious about failure, …
Windows ME: 26 years of the OS Microsoft wanted to forget
On 14 September 2000 Microsoft shipped Windows ME. Fourteen months later it was scrap. The story of the most hated OS — …
Checkpoint: why you wait for the game to save before moving on
In every game, the checkpoint exists so you can take risks with more courage. In real life, hunting for that safe point …
Quake turns 30: the FPS that invented everything in 1996
On 22 June 1996, John Romero uploaded Quake to the internet late at night. Thirty years on, we still play games carrying …