Preservation
Legal Ways to Play Classic Games Today: Collections, Mini Consoles and Re-Releases
Mini consoles, Nintendo Switch Online, publisher compilations, DRM-free stores and original hardware: the official ways to play classic games as of 2026.
Martin Calloway
Martin Calloway is the pen name of the small independent editorial team behind The Front Page Wire.
Collecting
How to Clean and Care for Retro Game Cartridges, Discs and Consoles
Safe, widely accepted ways to clean cartridge contacts and game discs, why blowing into carts hurts, and how to store a retro collection.
Landmark Games
The Tetris Story: From a Soviet Computer Lab to Global Phenomenon
How Alexey Pajitnov's Soviet puzzle game became a worldwide hit, and how a tangle of licenses ended with Nintendo, the Game Boy and The Tetris Company.
Landmark Games
The Legend of Zelda (1986): Why the Original Still Matters
From the Famicom Disk System to the gold NES cartridge, how the 1986 Legend of Zelda pioneered open exploration and battery saves.
Collecting
How to Connect Retro Consoles to a Modern TV: RF, Composite, S-Video, RGB and Upscalers
RF, composite, S-Video, RGB, component and upscalers explained: how to get the best picture from a classic console on a flat-panel TV.
Console History
The Game Boy Story: How Nintendo’s Handheld Dominated Portable Gaming
How Gunpei Yokoi's "withered technology" philosophy, Tetris and long battery life turned Nintendo's 1989 Game Boy into a handheld giant.
Console History
The Original PlayStation: How Sony Entered and Reshaped the Console Market
How a broken Nintendo deal, Ken Kutaragi's persistence and cheap CD-ROMs turned Sony's first console into the first to pass 100 million units.
Arcade Era
Pac-Man (1980): The History of Namco’s Arcade Icon
The story of Pac-Man: Toru Iwatani's design goals, the Puck-Man name change, the four ghosts, level 256, Pac-Man Fever, Ms. Pac-Man and the Guinness record.
Arcade Era
Space Invaders (1978): How Taito’s Shooter Launched the Arcade Boom
How Tomohiro Nishikado built Space Invaders, why the aliens speed up, the yen-coin shortage myth, Midway's US release and the Atari 2600 port that sold consoles.
Preservation
Why Video Game Preservation Matters and Why So Many Classic Games Are Disappearing
Why classic games are disappearing: decaying media, closed storefronts and servers, lost source code, and what the 2023 study finding 87% out of print means.