iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

40 years ago, Amstrad's new PC/Speccy +2 were delayed, more ST models were touted, and Boots were being dicks. That Pergamon story is interesting tho'. An inaugural CD-ROM transfer service that helped pave the way for what would become the most successful media format of the 90s.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Taito's weird and wonderful Golden Age of Arcades classic Qix (pronounced kicks) is celebrating its 45th anniversary. This highly original playfield-filling game was and still is an extremely unusual and interesting concept. Super-tense and tricky to play, but also very fun!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Here’s where you can buy my book if you’re down under.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This 1981 Bally Midway flyer explains why arcade games seemed to be appearing everywhere at this point in time. Coin-ops were generating huge revenue and everyone wanted in on the action. Malls, stores, and sometimes even your local corner shop or fast food joint had them!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

35 years ago, I was astounded by the sheer quality of Master System Kick Off. This football-game-for-the-super-skilled was extremely fun - assuming you were able to master its challenging, but highly rewarding gameplay. A decent aftermarket joystick is very much recommended!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

45 years ago, the Golden Age of Arcades was in full swing with classics like Namco's Galaga wowing gamers across the globe. This shooter has a special place in my heart 'cos I won a coin-op in the 1983 UK Arcade Championships, and man did I absolutely play it to death! Fab game!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

45 years ago, Frogger hit the arcades. Created by Konami and published by Sega, this simple-but-fun road-crossing game was a breath of non-violent fresh air as players guided the awesome amphibian to his home at the top of the screen. A fabulous game that I played a ton!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

40 years ago, ol' Sir Barrow Boy Sugar was peddlin' his wares: the delayed Speccy Plus 2 and his cheapo PC. Meanwhile Commodore was prepping its Sidecar Amiga PC emulator and Apple launched its new IIGS computer that was, of course, stupidly expensive (£3,082 in today's money).

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

45 years ago, this Atari coin-op classic was creeping into the arcades. When people say they don't make 'em like they used to, this is a good one to point to. A trackball-controlled shoot 'em up featuring mushrooms and spiders - and of course the eponymous centipede. Bonkers.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

40 years ago I was having fun with this Gauntlet variant, which featured a two-player mode in which one player takes the role of the hero while the other is their golem minder. Very entertaining, despite the actual playing area being the size of a postage stamp.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Pretty good example of how a game's box art and video game magazine covers can differ in terms of quality. I mean, there's nothing especially wrong with this box art per se, but Oli Frey's interpretation of the game is a far more effective attention-grabber.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

40 years ago, ZZAP! featured this super-gory Beyond the Forbidden Forest cover, a game that we rated 91%. Other top reviews: Druid 88%, Powerplay 95%, Parallax 93%, Hacker II 88%, Iridis Alpha 95%, and Super Cycle 95%. A pretty amazing month with something for everyone!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

40 years ago, US Gold launched its Americana budget label. It was the very definition of "mixed bag." All-time-great shoot 'em up classic Dropzone and Go for the Gold (HES Games) lead the way, but watch out for whiffy stinkers like Conan, Ole Toro, and Dizasterblaster.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

40 years ago PCW's headline was remarkably prescient. While the NES and SMS took another year to arrive, inexpensive consoles certainly did become fashionable. The big surprise-to-come was import gaming. Nobody saw that coming - and it totally changed the face of European gaming.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

35 years ago, Mean Machines featured one of my all-time favorite covers. Top reviews: NES SMB 3 98% and Galaxy 5000 91%, SNES Goeman Warrior 92% and Super Tennis 93%, Game Boy Caesar's Palace 91%, and Mega Drive Thunder Force 3 86% and Flicky 92%. An incredible month for games!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

35 years ago, The Simpsons had quickly become a global phenomenon. Licensed products appeared shortly thereafter, including video games such as Escape From Camp Deadly, a fun Game Boy release that even had sampled speech.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Here's the box art for this game, which is quite different from other Mega Drive games of the era. EA also call out lead developer Will Harvey, which is really cool. Fat chance of them doing that these days.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

35 years ago, I was playing this long-forgotten Mega Drive release. It effectively combined classic Rare-style isometric arcade adventuring, very gory close-up combat sequences, enjoyable puzzles, and early Diablo-style gameplay to deliver a really entertaining dungeon-crawler.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

35 years ago, with the Mega Drive now out for a year in Europe, Sega began to dial up its marketing ahead of Xmas 91. Ads became more adult-focused/aspirational and their design became cooler and more upmarket - and it clearly worked as the Mega Drive sold gangbusters that year!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

40 years ago, Amstrad's PC1512 was seen at the PCW show, as were two Atari "supermicros" - the 2080ST and 4160ST, which were STs with loads of memory for professional multimedia use. The Spectrum +2, BBC Compact Master, and Einstein 256 were also shown.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

35 years ago, I was playing this. SNES Super G+G was effin' fabulous and also, of course, super-effin'-rock-freakin'-hard. Did we whine? No. We just played the tits off it and had great fun. We saved the whining for 35 years later 'cos our fingers are now all arthritic n' stuff.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

To me, the most interesting thing on these charts is this. It's 10th on the C64 list and was essentially the first ever DLC. You needed to own the original Mercenary game to play it, and when you loaded it (as a save game), it added new content and gameplay challenges. Very cool!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

40 years ago, these were the top-selling games. Interesting seeing just how many Atari (8-bit) games there were considering many assume the platform was dead at this point - and the Speccy and C64 charts are loaded with some absolutely marvelous full-price and budget classics.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

35 years ago, I reviewed this weird, wonderful, but very Marmite-y game. Despite being easy to finish (not a bad thing these days), it was great fun to play, had decent speech, and excellent tunes you could make the characters dance to. I really liked it. Your mileage might vary.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

40 years ago, I was playing this C64 classic. It looks terrible in the screenshots, but this gory progenitor survival horror game was super atmospheric, and its day/night cycle and soundtrack were seriously cool. This game was trying things many others didn't do for decades.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

By the way. Those Neo Geo prices in today's money are £831 for the system, and games starting at the equivalent of £237 apiece. And that's starting at. For the not-very-good-ones. The really good ones cost even more!😂

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

40 years ago, Ocean was peddling its Highlander game-of-the-movie. Here's a DIY review kit. Just rearrange the following words to make your very own critique: Festering, shambling, game, bag o' shite, sluggish, mockery, half-assed, overpriced, knobcheese, crap-looking.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

35 years ago, import SNES systems were beginning to arrive in Europe in large numbers sporting a variety of mods -including an all-singing, all-dancing SCART option. This ad from popular importers Shekhana is a fabulous snapshot of what you could buy back then! I used to visit this place a lot!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Here's the US arcade flyer for this game. Which, let's face it, is absolute freakin' pants compared to the Japanese original. Just total knob.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

35 years ago, Mean Machines published these Road Rash tips, written by maestro @digitalfoundry.bsky.social himself. It includes some pretty handy hints, including how to amass tons o' cash so you can buy all the best bikes.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

40 years ago, Konami's Salamander AKA Life Force slithered into European arcades. This sequel to Nemesis/Gradius upped the shoot 'em up ante with improved audiovisuals, simultaneous two-player action, and an even more impressive array of power-ups. A bona fide arcade classic.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

35 years ago, we reviewed Mega Drive Out Run, which was decent, but not great. These were the olden days when 69% was considered "a pretty good game that should still appeal to fans of the genre." Just a bit too easy and felt somewhat dated vs some of the newer Mega Drive racers.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

35 years ago, I was playing NES Marble Madness, which was excellent and played surprisingly well with the D-pad. It was a little easy to finish and had no extras over the arcade game, but its two-player mode and overall quality made it a great addition to your NES collection.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

40 years ago, the Spectrum Plus 2 was about to launch, as was a range of proper Amstrad PC compatibles. Meanwhile, Commodore was mulling a cut-down, cut-price Amiga and Acorn announced its Master Compact specs, but not its price, which turned out to be prohibitively expensive.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

35 years ago, reviewing import games could be a real challenge. No internet or in-office person to translate the instructions or game text. We just figured it all out by trial and error. Which could be a lot of fun when a game was as wild 'n wacky as this awesome SNES gem was.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Streets of Rage tips. Get yer Streets of Rage tips right here. The game where more monkey asses get dusted than any other, apparently, and after reading these tips, your dusting-to-monkey-ass ratio will be magnitudes greater. Guaranteed!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

40 years ago, budget game quality was all over the shop. Jet Strike Mission was "premium budget" at £5, but a total bag o' shite. Video Poker was less than half the price and more than twice as good according to its score, but still utterly awful. So many better games than these!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

40 years ago, I was enjoying this entertaining C64 move-blocks-to-make-a-picture puzzle game. The pics included politicians (Ronnie and Maggie), business leaders (Sirs Sugar and Sinclair), and two well-damn-this-aged-badly royals (Nonce Andrew and wife Fergie)! Lol.😬

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

35 years ago, US Gold was still flying the Master System flag with some terrific games. Sure, it was very late in the system's life cycle, but these titles weren't end-of-generation garbage. All three were very entertaining and well worth buying.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

35 years ago, I was earning a bit o' extra cash creating Action Station, a freebie magazine for Woolworths. It featured mini reviews based on our Mean Machines and CVG content and - most important of all - money off coupons for all your game-discounting needs.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

40 years ago, Mastertronic was addressing its terrible rep for low development payments (they really were low in its early days). Meanwhile, the Cambridge Z88 was delayed again, retailers were whining about Amstrad's new PC compatible, and Apple was about to launch the new IIx.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

35 years ago, we reviewed the greatest NES game yet. Even though we'd already played Super Mario World (thanks to Nintendo's shite delayed Euro release policy), we still thought SMB3 was an absolutely essential purchase. Perhaps the greatest 8-bit platformer ever? Utterly superb!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

35 years ago, SNES Super Tennis arrived on a boat from Japan and we instantly fell in love with it. Top class gameplay, nicely detailed graphics, and sampled speech all made it a winner - but its superb two-player action really pushed it over the top. Utter all-time tennis great!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

35 years ago, Mean Machines featured 94%-rated UN Squadron/Area 88 in its cover. Other top reviews: Mega Drive Road Rash 91%, Starflight 94%, Streets of Rage 90%, and Spider-Man 90%, Game Boy Choplifter II 90%, and SNES Super R-Type 90%. A massive month for 16-bit console games!

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

35 years ago, we posted this fine example of why our Overall rating wasn't an average of all the other scores. If it was, then Flicky would have been rated terribly, when it was, in fact, a supremely fun game that just happened to have crummy audiovisuals. A Mega Drive gem-ola.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Back in ye olden days, we took our reviewing very seriously. Here's the Mean Machines rating system guide, which shows just how wide review scores could vary (and also explains the fact that a game scoring 50% was average, not crap).

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

40 years ago, it was snooze news. Amstrad PCWs were selling slowly in the US (no, really?). Another C64 variant nobody wanted was vaguely announced, sort of, kind of, maybe. Atari were planning a Unix ST. And the C128D was getting Total Office. Wow. Just awesomely thrilling. I need to sit down.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

35 years ago, I played this highly entertaining Game Boy gem on a trip to back and forth to Chicago. It certainly whiled away the hours and was a refreshing change from the usual Game Boy fare of the era.

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Julian "Jaz" Rignall @jazrignall.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

US vs. Japan box art. Not much difference between the two. Both are quite eye-catching, but could also be improved with a little decluttering.

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