Created by Andy Davidson and launched all the way back in 1995, the Worms series is one of the most recognisable video game brands to emerge from the UK in decades.

Now, a new talk in Team17's native Wakefield aims to shed light on three remarkable decades of Worms, and it's being hosted by former games journalist Ashley Day, who has not only contributed to this very site but is also employed by Team17 as Head of Developer Relations.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Back in August, we brought you the sad news that the Halifax, UK-based arcade Blast From The Past would be shutting its doors at the end of the month, due to "rising costs", "a dramatic drop in footfall", and "difficult operating conditions".

However, since then, it seems that there has been a rather exciting new development for fans of the beloved UK arcade, as spotted by the Halifax Courier, with the Halifax small business owner and arcade enthusiast Ryan Pearson (the brain behind the operation) having found a way to temporarily revive his creation by teaming up with the local Halifax comic book store Pages N' Pixels.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

As you may (or may not) be aware, Time Extension parent company Hookshot Media is based in the English East Midlands, close to the histroric city of Leicester – famous for The Elephant Man, Daniel Lambert, Showaddywaddy, Kasabian, 5000-to-1 Premier League winners Leicester City and – last but not least – the superb Leicester Vintage & Old Toy Shop, which we've previously highlighted as part of our Retail Therapy series.

The proprietor of the shop, Joseph Hand, has announced that a second store will soon be opening in the city, focusing on Japan-made goods and items – and that includes video games.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

We recently reported on the news that Sega used the British Police to recover a selection of dev kits and consoles it had "negligently disposed of" from a business owner who has a legitimate claim to those items.

Since we published that story, we've seen a huge reaction online from the retro gaming and game preservation communities.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

A British amusement arcade is reopening this weekend in a last-ditch attempt to secure its future.

Highest Score Arcade, located in Salisbury, Wiltshire, opened last August. However, it recently closed its doors and posted "Game Over" messages on social media, leading many to assume it was gone for good (thanks, Salisbury Journal).

Read the full article on timeextension.com

The arcade business is in a funny spot right now. While the glory days of the '80s and '90s are a distant memory, independent arcade operators are still plying their trade all over the world.

Sure, we've had plenty of sad closures recently – not to mention financial struggles – but there's still an impressive number of locations running which attract plenty of support, and thanks to Time Extension reader Paul Jones, we've just been made aware of another one.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

The owner of the Halifax arcade, Blast From The Past, has announced on Facebook that the location will close at the end of this month, following a number of issues that has left him with no choice but to close up, including "rising costs", "a dramatic drop in footfall", and "difficult operating conditions".

Located in the Halifax's iconic Piece Hall, Blast From The Past was the brainchild of avid arcade fan Ryan Pearson, who set up the business in 2022, and was designed to be unlike other much larger arcades, situated in the UK, offering a more unique and personal experience.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Rare has been making headlines for less than positive reasons recently, but the company remains one of the most important and influential in the history of British game development thanks to a string of hits that goes all the way back to the 1980s.

Rare actually began life as Ashby Computers & Graphics in 1982, which would morph into Ultimate Play The Game. Based out of a small building in the sleepy market town of Ashby de la Zouch, Ultimate was founded by Tim and Chris Stamper, who would eventually sell the brand to US Gold and shift focus from home computers to consoles under the name Rare.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

If you've ever attended a retro gaming event in the UK, there's an excellent chance you'll have seen Marc Jowett hosting a stand under his SegaMags banner.

While SegaMags began as a means of celebrating classic magazines online, Jowett branched out into reselling these same publications at events, and has more recently taken on selling items from publishers like Bitmap Books.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

The Norwich-based arcade bar run by retro gaming YouTube Peter "Nostalgia Nerd" Leigh has closed, it has been confirmed.

Barcadia launched in 2023 via a crowdfunding campaign, aiming to offer a range of "nostalgia provoking machines", "delicious" cocktails and "retro snack baskets", according to the venue's official site. "There is no entry cost, we’re just a bar with games and cool sh*t." The campaign raised £27,781 from 381 backers.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

A new Resident Evil game has just been released, but there's a catch — it currently only seems to be playable at a single Namco Funscape arcade in the English town of Romford.

Resident Evil 2: Dead Shot is a new light gun shooter based on the 2019 Resident Evil 2 Remake from Capcom, and is the result of a partnership Bandai Namco and Capcom.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

It has been revealed that a UK-based freeplay arcade packed with vintage coin-ops will close at the end of this month.

As reported by the Dorset Echo, Mike Saxton, the owner of the Portland-based FreePlay Gaming Arcade, has decided to shutter the arcade after just six months of business.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Since 2004, the friendly face of Sonic the Hedgehog has gazed down on the M4 motorway in Brentford, West London, thanks to the fact that it's attached to the building that has served as Sega Europe's home for over two decades.

While the company has occupied several sites in the United Kingdom, 27 Great West Road has to rank as one of the most iconic. It has been Sega Europe's office pretty much since Sega became a third-party publisher at the turn of the millennium, and several members of the Hookshot Media team have fond memories of attending preview events in the building.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

If you're in the UK, you'll be aware that many areas have been impacted by floods, and Leicestershire – where both Time Extension and the Retro Computer Museum are located – has been hit especially hard.

We're sad to report that the latter has been impacted quite dramatically by flooding, with around four inches of water in the main museum, which houses a wide range of computers and consoles – including the prototype "Playboy" handheld donated by Rare, which is also based locally. Around ten inches of water is reported in the museum's separate arcade building.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Following the success of the Nottingham Video Game Expo earlier this year, the team behind the event is expanding and launching a new show in the British city of Bristol.

The show will feature vendors, new games, food, drink and a host of guest speakers – the first to be confirmed is Worms creator Andy Davidson. Davidson is currently hard at work updating the legendary Director's Cut of the game for the Amiga.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Earlier this year, former Rare artist and BAFTA-winner Brett Jones sadly passed away.

Jones worked at Rare between the years 1994 and 2002 and was involved with titles such as Perfect Dark and GoldenEye 007 as an artist and modeller. His tenure with the company – which was closely allied with Nintendo at one point but is now owned by Microsoft – would result in two BAFTAs and an Interactive Arts Award.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

When you're discussing video game TV shows with anyone British who is over the age of 30, then names like GamesMaster, Bits and Thumb Bandits are likely to crop up.

However, games actually came to TV in the UK almost a decade before the likes of GamesMaster and Bad Influence arrived and tore up the rulebook. As highlighted to us by Larry Bundy Jr, Magic Micro Mission was broadcast way back in 1983 and, in some respects, was way ahead of its time.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Bandai's Tamagotchi virtual pet is seeing another rise in popularity, with its first UK store opening up in London's fashionable Camden market.

The brand became one of the hottest-selling items of the '90s and was relaunched in 2019. The BBC reports that global sales more than doubled between 2022 and 2023.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

We might be slightly biased here as we're based in the heart of England, but we often feel that this part of the country doesn't get enough credit for its amazing contribution to the world of gaming.

While many people will default to places like London, Manchester and Guilford when asked what they consider to be the UK's most significant place when it comes to video game development, the midlands is (or was) the home to the likes of Rare, Core Design, Blitz Games, Playground Games, Codemasters, Ultimate: Play the Game, Playtonic, Free Radical Design and many, many other companies – which gives us enough reason to think of it as the nation's "Silicon Valley", at least in terms of video game production.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

It is with a heavy heart that we bring you the news that '90s games journalism legend Andy Dyer has passed away.

Dyer will be famous to anyone in the UK who read video game magazines in the '90s; he began his career on Commodore Format as a staff writer before helping Steve Jarratt launch Total!, the UK's first magazine devoted to covering all of Nintendo's systems.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

A super-rare Hulk-themed Xbox console potentially worth thousands of dollars has been donated to a charity shop in the UK (thanks, Eurogamer).

The lurid green Xbox console comes from 2003, and was created to promote the Hulk movie released in the same year. It is apparently one of only fifty in existence and could be worth up to £9,000 / $11,000 USD.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

One of the History of Games 2024 conference talks, by Jaroslav Švelch, was on British game developer and journalist Mel Croucher. As Švelch describes it, he has become Croucher's biographer, interviewing him in his home and having access to his large archive of materials.

Croucher is perhaps best known for the games Pimania (1982), Groucho (1983), and Deus Ex Machina (1984) - the last one included an audio tape to be played alongside the game. In later years, Croucher moved into journalism and activism, writing for Crash magazine. Švelch's talk included archive photography, gameplay video, and detailed how Croucher was opposed to censorship but advocated self-regulation, was for nuclear disarmament, and, in many ways, was an outlier in the British games industry and press.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

The following event was ignored by the press, apart from Time Extension – so if you enjoy games history, please speak up.

Between Wednesday, 22 May, and Friday, 24 May, Birmingham City University played host to the fifth History of Games conference, the first taking place in Montreal in 2013.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Computer Space holds a special place in video game history. It was the first arcade video game ever released, launching in 1971. It was also the first commercially available video game of all time and is responsible for starting Nolan Bushnell on the path to Atari, one of the most influential companies in the history of the industry.

However, despite all of this, it was not a success when it first launched. The complex gameplay (based on the 1962 computer title Spacewar!) and unusual controls put people off, and as a result, only a few units were ever produced – and that means they're incredibly expensive today.

Read the full article on timeextension.com

Back in March 1997, Nintendo was preparing to launch its N64 console in the United Kingdom.

Trailing the 1995 UK releases of the PS1 and Saturn – and coming almost a year after the Japanese launch of the N64 in 1996 – Nintendo was nonetheless in bullish mood, as it was confident its machine was the most powerful on offer.

Read the full article on timeextension.com