Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
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sharkabytes.bsky.social
Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
@sharkabytes.bsky.social
23K followers 4K following 27K posts
Freelance Writer│Magazine Editor│UK VG & Anime Historian│🦈 fur │Transfem she/her│AuDHD │❤️ : @kitnibbles.bsky.social │Business Enq: [email protected]

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❤️ : https://ko-fi.com/retrobytes
❤️ : patreon.com/SashasRetroBytes
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sharkabytes.bsky.social
Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️ @sharkabytes.bsky.social · Oct 17
New pinned post and info sheet!

I'm curious and passionate about a whole bunch of nerdy and cool stuff! I also publish a fortnightly retro gaming and anime 'zine and write on several blogs:

Scanlines zine: betweenthescanlines.itch.io
Main blog: scanlineartifacts.wordpress.com
A pixel campfire themed info sheet giving an introduction about how I'm a self-employed freelance writer, a zine publisher, a collector and enthusiast of older games and computer/console hardware and also run a racing competition, and very much into 90s and 2000s anime! Passionate about PS1, Amiga, Wii, and Mega Drive in particular!
sharkabytes.bsky.social
After yesterday's post about arcade 1986 OutRun Flagman, I now have a new piece of useless information to share after timing it: If you wait 16 seconds after the light goes green and don't drive off, something you would never normally do, he'll stop waving his flag and turn his back to you and sulk.
m4rina.bsky.social maɾina • vgd @m4rina.bsky.social · Jul 4
i was going through my X archives and found this by @superpodsaga.com, which I qrt'd at some point years ago

so, let me bring the question back: what is the most useless piece of video game knowledge you know?
2023 tweet screencap: the person asks "what is the most useless piece of video game knowledge you know?"
November 25, 2025 at 6:00 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
Wisdom Tree's biblical edition of Psychic Force, where opposing forces who have learned of the impending flood plot to steal the ark all for themselves...
November 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
“Fear not, Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier and Acrobat!”

I like how this 1984 VHS release describes it as a Marvel 'Video Comic'. How delightfully zeerusty, to use a TVtrope.
A photo of our copy of Dungeons & Dragons The Night of No Tomorrow, the first episodes of the early 90s cartoon. It has pretty cool artwork of the party posed for action.
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
Just had to support @sam-animeherald.bsky.social and the other lovely folks at Anime Herald with their mag launch. Shipping for the physical version was a bit prohibitive to the UK due to *gestures about*, but I got an order in for the digi version, which I'm eagerly digging into.

Check it out!
A screencap of anime herald issue one opened up in Adobe PDF.
November 25, 2025 at 1:27 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
The gorgeous case and disc artwork of JPN Ace Combat 4.
A photo of JPN Ace Combat 04 with its artwork of a cloudy blue sky and illustration a vertically plunging F-22 A photo of the disc with its blue and silver design and silvery chevrons
November 25, 2025 at 11:38 AM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
The urge to open this up and check if it was used as an impromptu fallout shelter and I'll either discover a charred skeleton, bottlecaps, and some pre-war junk,or a fedora and whip.
A photo of an old fridge freezer lying on its back in some curbside undergrowth
November 25, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
brandon.insertcredit.com
And the hidden message says "please may this sell"
hellojed.bsky.social hellojed @hellojed.bsky.social · 9h
Once I decided to rip a bunch of models out of N64 racing games and found a hidden message in unused texture data which hadn't been read by anyone else on earth tcrf.net/AeroGauge
November 25, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sharkabytes.bsky.social
A screenshot of arcade OutRun with the flagman having turned his back sulkily and refusing to wave his flag any more if you hang around at the start line too long. A sprite of Sonic from the arcade version of Sonic the Hedgehog has been edited into the corner doing his idle animation of staring at you expectantly. "You gonna move or what? Flagman waved his damn flag for you; now he won't even look at you."
November 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
No aspirations of becoming chicken feed, but no chance of smoothing ruffled feathers, either.

To battle! ⚔️

Still some of the loveliest pixel artwork on DS 💜

📺: Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift, Square-Enix, 2007 (NDS)
A photo of our DSI XL's screen with the isometric opening battle in a leafy forest against a giant rotund chicken-like creature that'll soon call allies, but not before someone gets portal fantasied in to aid them.
November 25, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sharkabytes.bsky.social
The Original PS2 - PS/2! IBM's attempt in '87 to regain the initiative in the PC market with the Personal System 2. Priced at $2000, it pioneered VGA graphics as standard and the port that gave it its name.

Its greatest legacy is how those features filtered out to IBM clones and compatibles.
"Don't look now, but there's something moving on your desk." A full-page ad with a beige horizontal PC and monitor on top surrounded by columns of text detailing its features and promoting it for creators and home users. A cheetah is running on the screen. "How're you going to do it? PS/2 it!"
January 17, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sharkabytes.bsky.social
📖 Bytes of Game Ads 📺

"No pain, No Gain."

Hillsfar was the first AD&D game from Westwood Associates, aka Westwood Studios. Though it reviewed poorly, it's an interesting chimera of a game, essentially a collection of arcade and puzzle mini-games with the veneer of being an RPG.
A full-page magazine ad for the SSI published and Westwood developed Hillstar, C64 and IBM PC version. It has a cool use of a gameplay screenie above rather than an illustration, showing the arena fighting section with the player battling against a minotaur.
June 25, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
letelyre.bsky.social
In the original Phantasy Star, there is, bizarrely, a cake shop located in the middle of the Naula Cave dungeon.

This cake shop is referenced in Phantasy Star Online 2, but is so ridiculously rare that it can take hundreds of hours for its event to ever occur.

As in PS1, the shop sells Shortcake.
The futuristic food truck labeled NAURA CAKE SHOP in PSO2's sci-fi fantasy script. The NPC tags show the three Naura Sisters: Youngest, Middle, and Eldest. In this screenshot, the shop is stopped on the tropical beach planet Wopal and features art of refreshing ice cream and shaved ice. The Naura Cake Shop Shortcake. Flavor text reads: "An old favorite handmade by the Naura sisters. This deluxe shortcake has a strawberry on top. Eating this will energize you from head to toe." The item is indeed edible, as indicated by an Effect Duration of 30 minutes.
November 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
You love to see it. 💜

All the writing and zine work I do has been and always will be GenAI/ChatGPT free. Seeing the casual use of it in some retro gaming/tech circles has only added to my dislike for it.
November 24, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sharkabytes.bsky.social
"Uncle Owen! Aunt Beru!"

"Luke? What's wrong?"

"I had a scary dream... I was holding this glowing stick and fighting someone dressed in black armour, and I hit him with it, and he turned into a sand scorpion!"

"Now, Luke, it's just a dream. Here, have some blue milk and go back to sleep."
November 24, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
animewink.bsky.social
From NewType USA, May 2004: one of the darlings of the Boys Love craze and one of the first BL series yaoi fans outside of Japan would have watched/read (including me!): Gravitation.
A photo of a Newtype USA ad for Gravitation on DVD, available on 29/0604 (Vol 1). It has two main characters, Shuichi and Eiri, the latter with his arm around the shorter Shuichi. "Shuichi Shindo always wanted to be a ROCKSTAR... it just required the right inspiration!"
November 24, 2025 at 8:59 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
"The Ultimate Weapon is Back on LD!"

Slayers Return! Blazing a hot trail onto the futuristic format of the 80s to mid-90s: Laser Disc.

Handily, NewType has some recommended players if you wanted to shell out for one alongside Slayers Return.

📖: NewType, May 1997.
A photo of a page from our copy of the Newtype issue, with an illustration of Lina Inverse alongside promo text about Slayers Return on LD, alongside photos of two players, one a wider and more premium model with widescreen adjustment for 72,000 yen in '97 yen (about $450 in 1997 dollars, same buying power as approx $1000 now), and another more compact one with fewer features for 49,800 yen.
November 24, 2025 at 8:35 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
A screenshot of arcade OutRun with the flagman having turned his back sulkily and refusing to wave his flag any more if you hang around at the start line too long. A sprite of Sonic from the arcade version of Sonic the Hedgehog has been edited into the corner doing his idle animation of staring at you expectantly. "You gonna move or what? Flagman waved his damn flag for you; now he won't even look at you."
November 24, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sharkabytes.bsky.social
Surreal French sci-fi and puppetry combined in 1994 into a mind-boggling experience through space and time.

The sequel to 1988's Captain Blood. A third game, Big Bug Bang: Le Retour de Commander Blood, was released only in French.

Rock on, Commander! 🎶

📺: Commander Blood, Cryo, 1994 (DOS PC)
March 24, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sinclairresearch.bsky.social
In the UK? This is a total steal.
Smyths Toys have The Spectrum on offer
November 24, 2025 at 3:56 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
Wizardry? Non! Sorcellerie! 🐉

In the manual for the French localization of Sir-Tech's Wizardry, there's something I always love to see: previous owners writing their names or gameplay notes in them that now serve as little timepieces.
A scan of the manual with the Wizardry dragon on it and Sorcellerie with a sword through it above it in fancy script. On the table es materies, someone has written their name in red felt and a date. Souvannnavong Janvier 1885, The rest of the name above is only partly readable as it's half cut off at the top.
November 24, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sharkabytes.bsky.social
Original music to wriggle to the wriggler - Romantic Robot.
The cover for the game Wriggler for the ZX Spectrum shows a red cartoonish worm looking a bit zoned out, curling out of a hole with a cup of coffee next to it. A fuzzy bee looks on concerned, and a little green worm looks puzzled in the distance next to a red mushroom. This is the kind of thing you have to type out with early 80s British computer games.
August 8, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sickcombos.bsky.social
Psst, hey! It's a late night on #ScanlineSunday when a stranger on the street calls you over. Without a word, they hand you a disc labeled Bootleg Sampler for Sega Saturn 🪐

This demo disc came with the console and included Sega Rally, World Series Baseball, Clockwork Knight 2, and later on Bug!
title screen with a defiled loose leave sheet of paper taped to a crumpled cardboard background // Bootleg Sampler for Sega Saturn, photography on CRT TV funky MPEG2 video plays as the intro like someone's rad skate video the title screen for Sega Rally is just as crispy as ever. the title screen for World Series Baseball appears before fracturing into infinite pieces
November 24, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com
GIRLS' NIGHT OUT ✨
GIRLS' NIGHT OUT 💅
A screenshot from Power Dolls 2 Plus Dash (PC). This is a mech loadout screen, showing a heavily armoured bipedal mech smothered in shoulder mounted rocket launchers and carrying multiple heavy guns.
November 24, 2025 at 12:51 PM
sharkabytes.bsky.social
"Welcome to Snowball, an adventure with 7K rooms."

"What now?"

Cue typing in a rude word to see what happens.
A photo of black text on white text adventure Snowball running on a crt TV with a tiny bit of the Spectrum+2 it's running on in the photo ,as is one white round button of a PowerPlay Cruiser joystick
November 24, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Sasha's Retrobytes 🏳️‍⚧️
sharkabytes.bsky.social
One of the early female protags in video/computer games: Kim Kimberly from Level 9's Snowball. (1983)
A scan of a yellow background paper cover with a black ink/pen illustration of a slim woman with black hair (described as fair in her bio) in a sci-fish bodysuit with lots of gear and pockets and a distinct lack of fan service, wearing a transparent pulp scifi-ish bubble helmet, with her arm draped over and leaning against a robot. Techie readouts and displays can also be seen along with the game tittle in calculator font.
November 10, 2025 at 12:16 PM