Lace up your simulators and waggle your joystick for gold, from Mario racing Sonic in the 200m freestyle or pole vaulting on a PlayStation Over the past three weeks the Paris Olympics have provided some spectacular sporting moments, from incredible victories to heartbreaking defeats to Snoop Dogg standing about in full equestrian regalia. For most of us, such sporting brilliance is way beyond reach – unless, that is, you have access to video games. Although there was no official tie-in this year, there have been many well-loved Olympic-inspired games over the past four decades. If you have an old Commodore 64, PlayStation or Wii, or a suitable emulator on your PC, here’s how you can relive this summer’s immortal sporting memories in the safety of your own home. Continue reading...

My dreams of reliving the good old days of NHL 94 on the Sega Mega Drive were thwarted by the unexpected difficulty of getting online play to work I am very grateful for my dual nationality right now. The horror of Scotland’s dour Euro 2024 performance has been tempered by a swashbuckling Canada in their first ever Copa América, and a Canadian hockey team in a Stanley Cup final for only the third time in 18 years: the Edmonton Oilers, a team so utterly Canadian they have a fossil fuel as a name. Thank God for NHL 93 and 94 on the Mega Drive. Not only were they twin peaks of sports gaming perfection, they are also the reason why I can walk into any pub in Canada and bluff my way through conversations about Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Mark Messier. And make an argument as to why Jeremy Roenick is the most underrated hockey player of his generation based purely on the fact that he was all four horsemen of the apocalypse rolled into one in NHL94. He was up there with the likes of Barry Sanders in Madden, Kylian Mbappé in any Fifa and the Stockton/Malone Combo in NBA Jam – players so freakishly good that you can’t lose if they are on your team. Continue reading...