The Era of Bootleg Cartridges: How Steepler, Dendy, and Gray Imports Brought Us Video Games
Discover how Steepler, Dendy, bootleg cartridges, and ’90s television brought video games to a generation across the post-Soviet world.
Search Archive — Checkpoint Retro
Discover deep dives, news, and history across vintage video games. Full-text search through Checkpoint Retro archive.
Resident Evil (1996) Development History: The Engineering Triumph of Shinji Mikami
How strict hardware limitations of the Sony PlayStation, a classic Famicom legacy, and B-movie inspiration helped Capcom change gaming history.
The Dual-Processor Labyrinth: How Sega Saturn's Complex Architecture Doomed the Console
Eight specialized processors, square polygons instead of triangles, and a 90s programmer's nightmare. Why Sega's engineering masterpiece proved insurmountable.
Nintendo PlayStation: Secret Chronicle of the Lost Nintendo & Sony Alliance
Sony's public humiliation at CES 1991, a lone working prototype rescued from an attic, and the birth of Nintendo's fiercest corporate rival.
Why Dreamcast was ahead of its time
Bold ideas, built-in modem, VMU interactive memory cards, and timeless classics. Why Sega's swan song was a vision of future gaming.
Undiscovered SNES Prototype Cartridge Unveiled
Game archivists discovered an unreleased developmental build of a 1993 Super Nintendo platformer.
