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

More info in pinned

❤️ : https://ko-fi.com/retrobytes
❤️ : patreon.com/SashasRetroBytes
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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
I was today, years old when I learned there was a little fad around 2000-2001 for 'digital trading cards': narrow card-like CDs that you just put in your drive, and they span around as usual.

One set of them is for Buffy for the Vampire Slayer, with per character multimedia stuff.
November 10, 2025 at 4:25 PM
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Stage 1 (After Burner II, Arcade-MegaDrive-PC Engine-ZX Spectrum-Commodore 64-Amstrad CPC-MSX-Amiga-Atari ST-DOS-FM Towns-Sharp X68000-Saturn-PS2, Sega-AM2, 1987)
November 10, 2025 at 1:33 PM
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New blog post! Breaking out the Tandy Color Computer 2 for the first time in years, in order to give it a desperately-needed composite video upgrade. Why does this model get neglected in many composite mods? Take a look! nicole.express/2025/cuckoo-...
Composite Mod on the CoCo 2: The UVD Board
Since at least March of 2019, the Tandy Color Computer 2 has sat there, teasing me. It has a Motorola 6847, the tragically disappointing graphics chip, paire...
nicole.express
November 9, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Guidelines for PCE CD-ROM2 Life Harmony:

1) Read more puppygirl x masc lesbian light novels
2) Point out how cute your CD-ROM is as often as possible
3) Do not disturb your CD-ROM if they are pleasantly dreaming
4) Do not vibe too hard with the beat - only sufficiently.
November 10, 2025 at 2:44 PM
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This is the latest build of my DOS game jam game. It’s currently 208kb, single executable, and that’s with a bunch of standard C libraries still linked in. Plays well, too IMHO :D
November 9, 2025 at 3:29 AM
"When evil screams throughout the world, when all three suns converge, when all that's fair and fine seems lost... a hero will emerge!"

Aimed at younger players with a more forgiving parser and puzzles.

📺: The Dark Crystal (Hi-Res Adventure #6), Sierra On-Lline, 1983 (Apple II version.)
November 10, 2025 at 1:18 PM
One of the early female protags in video/computer games: Kim Kimberly from Level 9's Snowball. (1983)
November 10, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Every vote is a zed head re-buried and a free sandwich on your plate.
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
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Megan - whipping hard drives into full submission since 1997.

📖: BYTE Magazine, July 1997
May 9, 2025 at 1:33 PM
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"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should!"

10 PRINT "CLEVER GIRL"

📖: BYTE January 1986
September 10, 2025 at 10:23 AM
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📖 Bytes of Game Ads 📺

"At times like these, bullets are a girl's best friend..."

From the team that brought you GoldenEye for N64: PERFECT DARK 🔥
July 6, 2025 at 6:27 PM
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What else but otakumail would an anime fan of the late 90s have for their email address provider?

Sending you love through the timestream for your Martian Successor Nadesico shrine, Sage042.
September 1, 2025 at 11:44 PM
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200 years after the space-time collapse, advanced mecha are discovered on a world now with a 1920s level of technology...

Orguss 02 has been one of those OVAs that's stuck with me ever since I first saw it on the UK Sci-fi channel in the late 90s.

📺: Orguss O2, J.C Staff, 1993-1995
October 30, 2025 at 8:16 PM
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So there's this YouTube channel that exclusively posts shorts featuring cats at your typical Japanese arcade

I present to you: "Sound Voltex at Round1 on a Weekday Night"

This is honestly pretty accurate to what you'll see at the SDVX cabs on a normal Wednesday

www.youtube.com/shorts/1CQPj...
平日夜のラウンドワンのサウンドボルテックス
YouTube video by ゲームセンターのある日常
www.youtube.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:46 PM
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I am unreasonably proud of using various Varia suit parts edited together to make the SA-X into a Saxophone.
Say what you will about the SA-X, but it sure was scary.
November 9, 2025 at 1:59 PM
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Played LSD, and now I can't stop having unimaginably esoteric dreams

Who is Linen and what does it want from me? Is there an end to all of this?

Is this reality..? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#ScanlineSunday
November 9, 2025 at 9:39 PM
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Midnight on the Firing Line...

Digging into an old Win 3.1 Babylon 5 Entertainment Pack of sounds, wallpapers, and video clips.

It's an immensely special show to me, the first sci-fi series I followed religiously. Even more so now since mine and Kit's first walkthrough together years ago.
November 8, 2025 at 11:56 PM
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"Central Park Media - Your Japanimation Source!"

CPM with heavy-hitters of Action Packed, Sexy, and Intriguing!

📖: Manga Newswatch, 1992
November 9, 2025 at 8:31 PM
Breep-breep! Sizzle-sizzle! The sounds of a CODEC call coming from a red-hot hype issue of PLAY magazine from August 1998. Metal Gear Solid leading large, plus Spyro is bouncing into action!
November 9, 2025 at 7:28 PM
For this week's #ScanlineSunday entry from me: a vampire hunter's preparation and frantic journey as the call to action is sounded! ⚔️

📺: Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, (PCE on Wii VC @240p), Toshiba VTW2187.
November 9, 2025 at 6:48 PM
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Anyone with ties to translation services maybe able to help Ruaa get in touch with people that are willing to support her? Arabic is obviously her forte.

Or you know, help her family out?

Please. Donate only if you can. Spread the word if you cannot. #GazaAid 🍉
chuffed.org/project/help...
November 9, 2025 at 5:31 PM
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Objects of desire...

The Divers 2000 CX-1 Dreamcast + TV combi, with network capabilities and DreamEye digital camera.

Co-developed by Sega, CSK, and Fuji, it had a tiny production run, numbering just two hundred. The remote is essential as it's the only way to switch it into DC mode.
September 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM
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The miracle port that never was - Baldur's Gate for PS1.

On PC, the minimum system requirement for Black Isle's AD&D RPG was for a Pentium 166mhz with 16MB of RAM; this would have to be squeezed down onto a console with a 33mhz processor with 2MB RAM - and no hard drive.

🧵
March 23, 2024 at 11:47 AM
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Look how cute the cover of this Japanese Mac HyperCard dungeon-crawling RPG is!

Released in 1993 and titled a 'Stack RPG'.
June 9, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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Sometimes I think about how we got absolutely awful translations of games back when I was growing up and yet they still managed to resonate with people and become their favorite stories.
November 9, 2025 at 1:47 PM