309 episodes listed below
Retro games, remembered and still played.
Retro Asylum treats old games as living culture rather than sealed museum pieces. Its rotating conversations move from Game Boy Advance link cables and Spectrum Next hardware to arcade score challenges, film projects, and the pleasures of replaying difficult classics.
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Retro Asylum is a UK retro gaming podcast with the feel of friends comparing notes after years spent around the same machines, cartridges, cables, cabinets, and half-remembered projects. It is relaxed. Episodes often begin with jokes, late-recording apologies, or someone catching up after time away, then settle into detailed conversation about games and hardware that still have a pull. The show is not only about replaying old favourites. It follows retro culture as it keeps moving. Modern Game Boy games, the Vectrex Mini Kickstarter, Spectrum Next, Evercade's Toaplan Arcade 1 cartridge, and Switch Online all appear alongside older touchstones such as Game Boy Advance link play, Xbox 360 memories, Chip's Challenge, Resident Evil 2, and arcade high-score tables. The pacing is conversational and sometimes messy in a human way. A story about college computers can sit beside a careful explanation of why Four Swords worked so well with linked handhelds. A discussion of puzzle-game scoring can turn into the feeling of entering a focused, almost meditative state. Interviews broaden the scope, especially when the Caulfields talk about films focused on video games and computer technology, or when David Agia explains the Vectrex Mini campaign. The show also makes room for the community around the hobby, including Discord challenges and meetup plans. Its strength is the combination of memory and use. These are not distant artifacts. They are games people still play, machines people still restore or reimagine, and shared rituals that remain enjoyable because the details matter. Retro Asylum suits listeners who like UK retro gaming chat with deep recall, light irreverence, and enough technical curiosity to care about why the old setups worked.
Made for: For retro gaming fans who enjoy UK pub-table conversation, hardware tangents, arcade challenges, and affectionate arguments about old systems. It especially suits listeners who still play, collect, restore, or follow modern projects inspired by classic machines.
What sets it apart: Retro Asylum combines long-running community history with hands-on detail: link cables, cartridges, score tables, Kickstarter hardware, film makers, and the lived habits of replaying old games. Its rotating voices make the show feel less like a lecture and more like a shared archive in motion.
The UK's No.1 Retro Gaming Podcast. Curating gaming culture for future generations. 'World's Best Podcast' - NME Award 2016.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Retro Asylum connects remembered games with the hardware, preservation work and new projects keeping older systems in use.
Retro Asylum treats old games as things to be played, handled and argued over, rather than sealed behind glass. Jim Middleton, Chris O'Regan, Chris Worthington and Mads appear in changing combinations, pairing friendly group conversations with interviews.
Four linked Game Boys are enough to make your dormant nostalgia start scheduling meetups.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Four Swords session and a fond case for the GBA library shape this Retro Asylum chat.
Jim Middleton and two guests revisit the Game Boy Advance on Retro Asylum, talking through games they would still enjoy today. The warmest memory is of four people playing Four Swords together over a cable.
The Caulfields talk Jack Tramiel, Commodore and what they learned while making their films.
Retro Asylum's conversation with the Caulfields starts casually: a co-host changed at the last minute, and the presenter prefers to ask questions without preparing them.
Mass and Jim explain July's four-game challenge and the basics of Teki Paki.
Mass and Jim lay out July's high score challenge on the Evercade Toaplan Arcade 1 cartridge. The Discord community will play four games, one each week, and Jim is preparing an overall table alongside the four game tables.
Evercade's fifth birthday brings its makers to Retro Asylum for memories of the original handheld and retro games.
For Evercade's fifth birthday, Blaze Entertainment CEO Andrew Byatt and head of marketing Sean Cleaver join Jim Middleton and Chris O'Regan on Retro Asylum. Jim remembers the original white handheld for its sturdy D-pad and responsive buttons.
Dean and Christopher discuss game selection and rights checks behind retro collections.
Retro Asylum's Dean and Christopher talk through how games were chosen for earlier collections and how they checked the rights to use them. They explain why games released under the real-time 3D brand were grouped together, then get into the work behind the sets: contacting…
A horror gaming documentary leads to a story of sudden success and competing ambitions behind *The 7th Guest*.
Retro Asylum welcomes Creative VC's Richard Moss and Connor O'Keen to discuss their five-part documentary, Terabyte: The Evolution of Horror Gaming. The hosts begin with what the series covers, then give their guests room to talk about the people behind the games.
Retro Asylum episode 366 pairs Jim Middleton, Chris O'Regan, and Chris Worthington with a long retro-gaming catch-up that moves from a 1998 computer-crash joke to a debate over whether 2010's Minecraft counts as retro.
Chris and Mads reunite on the Retro Asylum podcast after years apart, reminiscing about past interviews and projects.
["Retro Asylum episode 363 focuses on Nicola and Anthony Caulfield\u2019s documentary work about the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Amiga 500.", "They say the Commodore 64 film already has roughly 750 pre-launch sign-ups, but they want closer to 2,000 before moving ahead.", "Archive licensing is the main constraint, with Getty Images, CBS, NBC, and CNN pushing the budget toward \u00a3100,000 before editing is even finished.", "The interview also covers the A600, CDTV, Paradroid, Parallax, and Jack Tramiel, including the argument that the A600 was sold as an upgrade when it undercut the A500 line."]
An interview with David Oghia about the Vectrex Mini Kickstarter campaign on the Retro Asylum podcast.
The hosts of The Retro Asylum podcast discuss the Xbox 360's legacy and their personal experiences with the console.
The hosts of Retro Asylum return after a long hiatus to discuss retro gaming topics and apologize for the delay.
Dean and Chris discuss their retro gaming activities before an interview with the creators of the ZX Spectrum Next.
Zero Wing's tractor beam lets you capture enemies and use them as shields or weapons.
Retro Asylum hosts Jim Middleton and Chris O’Regan speak with Blaze Entertainment CEO Andrew Byatt and head of marketing Sean Cleaver about Evercade’s five-year run.
Paul describes Pixel Jockey as a way to re-release ZX Spectrum games on original media, with cassette box sets, mugs, badges, posters, and T-shirts.
Retro Asylum hosts Chris Worthington and Jim Middleton interview Richard Moss and Connor O'Keen about Terabyte: The Evolution of Horror Gaming, a five-part documentary covering survival horror, licensed games, FMV, indie games, and controversial titles.
An interview with representatives from Good Old Games about game preservation.
Dean Swain and Paul Higgins introduce themselves and discuss their love for arcade games and the Vectrex on the Retro Asylum podcast.
Richard Moss discusses his new book 'A Tale of Two Halves' on the Retro Asylum podcast.