About this site

Scanlines covers modern retro games — brand-new games made today for retro platforms, from the Game Boy and NES to the Mega Drive, Amiga, and beyond.

It's a thriving scene. Homebrew developers, small studios, and established publishers are all still making new games for old hardware — and most of it never gets a serious review. We think it deserves one.

What we do

We play these games properly and review them honestly: what they are, how they play, who they're for, and whether they're worth your time and money. Every game is judged in its own context — a new Game Boy game is held to what a great Game Boy game can be, not to a modern blockbuster.

Why you can trust us

A review is only worth something if you can trust it. So:

• Our reviewers are paid a flat fee for their work — never for a positive score.
• Scores are never tied to sales, ad revenue, or a publisher's approval.
• Developers and publishers don't see or sign off on reviews before they run.
• When a review copy is provided, we say so.

Who writes for us

Scanlines is written by people who genuinely love this scene and know it inside out. Every reviewer keeps their own voice — what stays constant is the standard: honest, specific, and fair.

A note on independence

Scanlines is published with the support of Afterplay, a retro-gaming platform. Our reviews are editorially independent — held to the standards above, and never tied to what's in Afterplay's store.