Jason Compton

Beware Dave's Directive 4! It's a celebration of the best and worst of RoboCop, including a live re-enactment of the heavily censored broadcast. All this and more on Saturday's penultimate-for-2025 episode of This Week in Retro!

You tiiiiink I haffant smelt you oooooouuuuuuut?

"Is Gremlins a Christmas movie?" discourse in this latest episode. (Yes, as its text adventure is a Christmas game!)

Save Christmas itself in A Spell Of Christmas Ice, and save our fair village from monster mayhem in Gremlins: The Adventure.
retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/34/

Happy December!
youtu.be/-rQgMEbLaZY
With guest Happy Coding ZX, we take on the origins of an iconic joystick, explore legendary unexplained computing phenomena, and contemplate the tradeoffs of retrobriting. All this, and your top retro plans for the end of 2025, and more in This Week in Retro 247!

Two birthday cakes for the SEGA Master System and the XBox 360, both celebrating significant milestones. Also: the implications of formally open-source Infocom titles and the loss of an industry giant, plus your top titles from 1995-6, in This Week in Retro episode 246!
youtu.be/01EXU-TMD-8

For our Patreon supporters, a new episode of 260 Weeks Ago in Retro is live, a look back at Episode 14 from November 2020. Stories include virtual pinball and the Raspberry Pi 400. Patreon's autocaptioning left untouched because it's hilarious.

www.patreon.com/posts/260-we...

Tonight on WORT FM Radio Literature, John Hendel is my guest to talk about the literary arts scene in Bristol, UK. Live at 7:30 PM on 89.9 FM locally or streaming worldwide at wortfm.org .

It's eXoWin9x launch day and eXo himself is here! youtu.be/bq256GWkJDo
In other news we look at the days of PowerPC and OS/2 hype, the excitement of cruising racetracks in underpowered commuter cars, and your answers to the latest Community Question of the Week.

WE SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE

opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/11...

Up-to-date news for out-of-date hype!
Some of the most heavily hyped innovations of the 1990s get worked over this Saturday, including commentary from our guest, retro collection curator eXo. All this, and the best of pre-Elite space sims, and more in Saturday's episode of This Week in Retro!

A chat with ultra-prolific IF reviewer and author Mathbrush in our latest episode.

retroadventurers.podbean.com/e/33/

Amstrad turn at Sonic: Dave covers that and other new games for the CPC. youtu.be/twOymB1LHOc
We get into heavy metal computing with minicomputers and mainframes, and a roundup of space shooters of the early 1980s. All this plus your preferred creative outlets, on This Week in Retro episode 244!

New episodes incoming!
Your Retro Adventurers have several episodes recorded. Things got a little busy this autumn and competed for our edit time, including the exciting news that Nick has joined the staff at @tnmoc.bsky.social !
He's pictured here putting the ICL 2966 to its ideal use.

Oh! Yes, sure, I've been part of that group for ages.
Connecting the dots!

Sound Blaster is back, this time with magnets.
youtu.be/i8BrBLmCrVQ
Is a MOD tracker story an Amiga story? And the Commodore 16 and Plus/4 get a new look thanks to a brand-new version of Green Beret for the former. Plus your pack-in selections for THEA1200 and more on This Week in Retro episode 243!

Latest review: "I'm going to Hell for enjoying this. And it's your fault."
See Women Beware Women, the wild, unsettling, tragic, touching, funny play.
Friday 7:30 PM
Saturday 5 PM.
bartelltheatre.org/2025/women-beware-women

Tonight on WORT FM Radio Literature, Chad Fifer of @strangestudies.bsky.social of Strange Stories is my guest for a discussion of all things creepy, podcasting, and creepy podcasting.
7:30 PM on 89.9 FM in Madison, streaming worldwide on wortfm.org .

I'm looking to speak with some #Librivox participants for a terrestrial radio and companion podcast interview. Can anybody out there help me make some connections?

Paging @visitthecave.bsky.social! youtu.be/6rm-IXPll98
So many hot topics, This Week in Retro called in special guest Neil Thomas. Look ahead to THEA1200, back at ZSNES + climb inside the computer on screen and film. Plus, the best immersive experiences, and more, on This Week in Retro episode 242!

Women Beware Women is what you'd get if you gave John Hughes and Quentin Tarantino the outline of Othello and told them to do whatever they wanted from there.
And it's at Madison's Bartell Theatre, for six performances only.
bartelltheatre.org/2025/women-beware-women

Women Beware Women, the greatest dark comedy of Shakespeare's age, opens Friday at the Bartell Theatre.
bartelltheatre.org/2025/women-beware-women

This month on our Patreon: Chris, Dave, and Jason present renewed up-to-date news for out-of-date tech, because the existing once-up-to-date news about that out-of-date tech is now itself out-of-date.
260 Weeks Ago in Retro for October 2025 is now live for subscribers at patreon.com/thisweekinretro.

A zombie console awakes! Strange experiments in life after death for this Halloween episode. youtu.be/hY6ARaYCPus
Atari reanimates Intellivision's corpse, and we test saying "Sega" repeatedly to cause oversized arcade cabinets to appear in a mirror. Plus your whiz kid memories on This Week in Retro!

Sega fans super-served: two hallmark concepts get the feature story treatment, along with the stealth candidate for best video game pitchman. Plus your iconic 1980s whiz kid memories and Amiga Format (!) news coming up in Episode 241 of This Week in Retro, Saturday on YouTube and podcast feeds.

Was Dave wrong about DOS gaming and has DOSBox Pure cured him?
youtu.be/VO_SZPhuCIU
Chris plans a fleet of computer museums, and Jason works hard to avoid the obvious chess reference in WarGames coverage. All this, and more, and your submissions for the best-ever free pack-ins on this week's show!

It's a long way to Western Australia. What had to travel all the way from Canada to Perth, and why, and can Chris be trusted with it?! All this including the end of DOS gatekeeping and retro museum dreams coming up in Episode 240 this Saturday!
CPE 1704 TKS

Missed us on Radio Literature? Apart from a spirited discussion of the merits of speaking Italian, you missed this sneak preview of Act 3 Scene 1 of the play featuring Giovanna Iosso as Bianca and Willy Jewer as Leantio.
Listen, then grab your tickets now!
bartelltheatre.org/2025/women-beware-women

It's not necessarily the last time such a panel will happen at a VCFMW. Someone-other-than-Jim would have to step up to organize it, that's all.

This week it's the high cost of (inflation-adjusted) 1980s computing, a spirited defense of the Amstrad CPC, and a look at legendary artist Roger Dean's video game work! youtu.be/gxzEHAm_Nz0
Plus the wedgetop computer preferences submitted by you, the viewers, to the TWiR subreddit!