Panel and interview deep dives on video game history, from Shiny Entertainment to Sonic hacks.
Retronauts treats video game history as a lived-in conversation, not a museum tour. Episodes move from Shiny Entertainment texture limits to dial-up fan fiction, Sonic fangames, Game Boy Advance audio quirks, and informal interviews without sanding off the tangents.
PRESS PLAY
Retronauts is an interview- and panel-format show about video game history, with episodes hosted or co-hosted by Stuart Jipp, Nadia Oxford, Bob Mackie, and John Linneman depending on the topic. Panel episodes bring multiple hosts together to unpack a single studio or genre in depth, such as a retrospective tracing Shiny Entertainment's run from Cool Spot and the Genesis Aladdin through Earthworm Jim, MDK, Savage, and Messiah. Other episodes are direct interviews with the people who made the games under discussion, including indie developer Mike Hommel of Hamumu Games, discussing Dr. Lunatic Supreme with Cheese, Growtopia, and Kid Mystic, and Mark Pierce, creator of the classic Mac game Dark Castle and its sequel Return to Dark Castle. A two-part series interviews Sonic fan-game and hacking-scene figures Ryan Langley and Lewis Clark about how community tools like SONED and hacks like Knuckles in Sonic 1 fed into Sonic Mania and later official ports. The show also turns to game-adjacent culture, including an episode built around host Nadia Oxford's own experience of 1990s Mega Man fan fiction and BBS-era online fandom. Recurring subject matter includes studio and engine technical detail, ROM hacking and fan-game preservation, indie development stories, and the history of online fan communities. Some full-length episodes are exclusive to Patreon subscribers at the $5 tier, with the public RSS feed sometimes carrying only a short preview and subscription pitch rather than the complete discussion. The tone is educational and conversational, with hosts citing specific technical details (sprite tricks, hardware limitations, tooling) alongside personal anecdotes from guests. Listeners drawn to detailed studio and franchise retrospectives, developer interviews, or fan-driven modding and hacking scenes are the core audience, more than listeners looking for new-release reviews or news.
Made for: Longtime video game enthusiasts interested in detailed studio and franchise histories, ROM-hacking and fan-game communities, and interviews with the developers and fans who built them.
What sets it apart: Rather than covering new releases or news, the show pairs multi-host panel retrospectives on specific studios and technical eras with direct interviews of the original developers and fan-community figures involved.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Retronauts makes gaming history legible through hardware detail, design analysis, fan culture and firsthand accounts from creators.
Retronauts follows old games beyond nostalgia, tracing the hardware, fan communities and design choices that shaped them. Stuart Jipp and Nadia Oxford lead conversations that move easily between technical explanation and personal memory, with enough dry humor to keep specialist…
A Z80 chip gets the giant treatment, if your nostalgia comes with footnotes and frame rates.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A precise Retronauts look at MDK, where Shiny's PC leap made the game's oddness feel engineered, not accidental.
Retronauts uses MDK to catch Shiny Entertainment at the point where Genesis-era ingenuity met Pentium-era room to move. The hosts are less interested in tidy company biography than in how that extra power changed the feel of play: smoother 3D, stranger spaces, and a studio…
A genial Retronauts trip through early web fandom, where secrecy, links, and modem noise did half the world-building.
Retronauts turns dial-up fandom into a warm little time capsule, all modem squeal, secret writing, and links passed from site to site before the big fanfic archives made everything easier to find.
A warm, practical Retronauts episode on Dark Castle, Hamumu Games, and the small economies that kept web-era indies moving.
Retronauts takes an easy, lightly scruffy approach to two very particular corners of game history: Mike Hommel's Hamumu Games and Mark Pierce's Dark Castle. Stuart Jipp frames both as informal conversations rather than polished interviews, which suits the material.
A loose, affectionate Sonic fangame chat that argues the series is better when it takes weird swings.
Retronauts returns to Sonic fangames with Stuart Gipp hosting, and the episode is at its best when it treats the scene as a place where Sonic can misbehave.
A chip-level retro-gaming history lesson with enough banter to keep the circuitry feeling human.
Retronauts opens its years-in-review run with 1976 and 1986, then settles into the machinery under a lot of late-70s and late-80s gaming. The Z80 gets the spotlight here as a cheap, humble workhorse: the panel rattles through its presence in the MSX, ColecoVision, Game Boy,…
Three comedians riff on new releases and revisit terrible old games on Get Played Remastered.
Giant Bomb's weekly panel on new releases, industry news, and Game of the Year debates.
Rob Zacny and Patrick interview indie game developers and unpack the industry's rough patches.
Game Informer's editors review new releases and debrief hands-on previews from events like Summer Game Fest.
Retronauts hosts Nadia Oxford and David Oxford examine how dreams shape video games, focusing on Super Mario Bros.
Retronauts centers on Shiny Entertainment, the studio David Perry built after earlier work on Global Gladiators, Cool Spot, and the Genesis version of Aladdin.
Dial-up fandom gets a soft little love song.
Spring is here, awkward plane and all.
This release is a free preview for a Retronauts Patreon-exclusive episode covering Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach, the 1986 Japanese anime film.
Retronauts’ "Sonic Fangames Pt.
This episode of Retronauts explores the sound capabilities and music of the Game Boy Advance, featuring a panel discussion with guests like Victor Hunter.
This episode of Retronauts features a presentation from MAGFest about 55 years of the Star Trek fan game and discusses the Sega R360 arcade cabinet.
This preview episode discusses SimAnt, a spinoff of SimCity, exploring its whimsical gameplay and scientific foundations based on biologist E.O.
The hosts discuss the Legend of Zelda and celebrate episode 750 of their retro gaming podcast.
This episode of Retronauts discusses the 1996 first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D, exploring its innovation, personality, and legacy in retro gaming.
This episode of Retronauts features a discussion on Final Fantasy Tactics with guests Kay Ross and John Learned, focusing on retro gaming insights and collaborative analysis.
This preview episode discusses the history and development of the Earthworm Jim video games, focusing on the first two titles by Shiny Entertainment and the background of creator David Perry.
This episode explores the origins of the BASIC programming language and the Dartmouth timesharing system, discussing their impact on public computer usage and gaming with expert guests.
The hosts discuss the game Sonic CD and its quirks, with humorous banter about the show's theme song.
Episode 749 opens with a dumb little math bit, then lets the years-in-review format do what Retronauts does best: wander.
A free preview of a Retronauts exclusive episode discussing video game console sales figures, specifically comparing Xbox 360 and PS3.
The hosts discuss and pay tribute to deceased video game developers and their lasting impact on the gaming world.
The hosts discuss the retro-inspired game Shadow Labyrinth and its arcade roots.
A discussion about the state of animation and movies in the early 2000s, focusing on Disney and Pixar.
The hosts discuss various video games based on The Flintstones, sharing their experiences and opinions on the quality of these retro titles.
Host Nadia Oxford and guests discuss the rock band Proto Man and their recent album announcement, blending retro gaming and music fandom.
A promotional segment for Shopify, highlighting its features for starting and growing an online business.
This episode of RetroNuts features a spontaneous interview with Jimmy Cooney, a game store owner and collector, discussing Hudson and the TurboGrafx-16 at RetroWorldExpo.
A podcast episode discussing retro video games, with hosts introducing themselves and setting up the show.
A roundtable discussion about the video game Mega Man X4, with humorous banter among fans.
The hosts banter about a Michael Barrymore rap reference and introduce themselves in a retro gaming podcast.
A roundtable discussion tracing the history and rise of the Monster Hunter video game franchise.
The hosts of Retronauts introduce themselves and begin a discussion about the Nintendo Switch 2, with humorous banter and personal anecdotes.
A free preview of a Retronauts exclusive episode discussing the Back to the Future video game, with references to previous episodes on the film series.
This episode of Retronauts discusses the history and creativity of Sonic fan games, featuring guest Lewis Clark (Sonic Yoda) from Sega.com.
The hosts celebrate EarthBound's 30th anniversary with guests from Fangamer, discussing the game's legacy and their personal connections.
The hosts discuss the unreleased-in-English Game Boy game 'The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls' and its fan translation.
A free preview of a Retronauts exclusive episode discussing early video game translations and how fans accessed them before official releases.