Frank Cifaldi
frankcifaldi.bsky.social
Frank Cifaldi
@frankcifaldi.bsky.social
I made GameHistory.org and you can too
There is a YA fiction book about meeting Honus Wagner, a baseball player who is only known today because his baseball card is worth a lot of money. I hope I live long enough to see the film adaptation of Stadium Events.
December 28, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Having a video go viral is a chilling reminder that there are humans out there just choosing to stumble through life with zero curiosity and a lot of anger. I'm really thankful to have found (and/or founded!) communities that try and leave the world in better condition than we found it.
December 27, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
And on that night, Ebenezer Sega, CEO of Sega, was visited by three spirits:
1. The Ghost of Christmas in America, who recommended they make the 32X
2. The Ghost of Christmas Japan, who recommended they make the Sega Saturn
3. The Ghost of Christmas Brazil, who just wanted more Master System
December 26, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Christmas gift to myself was a nice high end dedicated audio player! I'm getting rid of all subscription services and focusing on offline media, this is full of FLACs of cool 2025 albums I bought directly from the artists.
December 26, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
Merry Christmas! If you'd like to spend 45 minutes celebrating video game history with me, we're about to debut The Untold Story of the Nintendo Entertainment System. I worked on his ALL YEAR, and I genuinely think it will reshape how we all think about the system. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJvp...
The Untold Story of the Nintendo Entertainment System
YouTube video by The Video Game History Foundation
www.youtube.com
December 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
And Tiny Sim, who DID die
December 24, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Four minute warning! Come hang out!
Merry Christmas! If you'd like to spend 45 minutes celebrating video game history with me, we're about to debut The Untold Story of the Nintendo Entertainment System. I worked on his ALL YEAR, and I genuinely think it will reshape how we all think about the system. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJvp...
The Untold Story of the Nintendo Entertainment System
YouTube video by The Video Game History Foundation
www.youtube.com
December 25, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Merry Christmas! If you'd like to spend 45 minutes celebrating video game history with me, we're about to debut The Untold Story of the Nintendo Entertainment System. I worked on his ALL YEAR, and I genuinely think it will reshape how we all think about the system. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJvp...
The Untold Story of the Nintendo Entertainment System
YouTube video by The Video Game History Foundation
www.youtube.com
December 25, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Miles Morales is a great Christmas game btw. If you've played it before you can blast through the main story in 8-9 hours and there's decorations and snow through the whole thing. Also it's really sweet, it's about loving and protecting your community.
December 25, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Is holiday dumps another name for seasonal affective disorder
December 23, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
In war, there is often no winner.
December 23, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Calling all 6502/NES programmers!

We recently preserved and shared a source code snapshot of the lost Police Academy game! Which is great, except it's in a pretty bad state.

I'm hoping there's enough to "revert" back to its trade show demo. Any interest in helping?

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pgm4m...
December 22, 2025 at 10:53 PM
the in-development snapshot of the unfinished Pit Fighter for the NES has some pretty incredible programmer art
This is cool, so much easier to work with! Gives us a clean look at the background for Pitfighter on NES, from the Atari collection at The Strong.
December 22, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
December 22, 2025 at 3:01 AM
I mostly keep up a professional demeanor but I become Beavis and Butt-Head whenever I hear Elton John sing the line "losing everything is like the sun going down on me"
December 21, 2025 at 9:21 PM
All Tengen games are cousin games, but these ones never came out, so they're the ultimate cousin games. The forbidden family. The dark web relatives from another timeline. If you go to their house you stop existing.
December 21, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
I deeply want some games journo deep-diver to figure out what the absolute hell is going on with Cookie's Bustle. I want a full exposé on whatever freak is doing this. I'm sensing drama on Tallarico levels here
Great to see @romhack.ing back on Bluesky after getting hit by the Cookie's Bustle troll

For those new to this deeply weird story, some weirdo (nobody knows who, maybe a collector trying to bump the game's value) has been shutting down anything to even MENTION obscure 1999 adventure Cookie's Bustle
The Quest To Save Cookie's Bustle From Obscurity
"This game is a work of art and it should be preserved"
www.timeextension.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
If you wanna be one of the last 30 people to sign up for @readonlymemo.com before I do a giveaway to celebrate hitting 3,000 subscribers, now's the time 👀👀 readonlymemo.com#/portal/sign...
Read Only Memo
Videogame emulation news and exclusive interviews, from the aesthetics of razor sharp scanlines to the wild technical challenges of making yesterday's games run on tomorrow's hardware.
readonlymemo.com
December 20, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Ah, the Mexican prototype forger returns! This is the latest in a series of similar forgeries that rip off game collectors around Mexico City. The scammer peels labels off retail games to make them kinda look like prototypes to the untrained eye. www.reddit.com/r/retrogamin...
December 20, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
Who coined "Metroidvania"? It wasn't @jparish.bsky.social, and he'll be the first to tell you. Besides, there are far more interesting questions, like: How did it spread? Evolve? And what's it got to do with rickrolling?

Watch til the end for a post-credits sting.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8set...
The History Of The Word "Metroidvania" And How It Spread
YouTube video by Critical Kate (of A Critical Hit!)
www.youtube.com
December 20, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Finally did a silly little digital preservation bucket list item: scanned the actual CMYK plates used to print a video game box using an oversized film scanner, and combined them in Photoshop to make a "perfect" digital version.
December 20, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Reposted by Frank Cifaldi
the retro game community is basically divided into two factions: those who are into obscurities or arty indie games, and the ones who just want to relive childhood and have youtube channels where they stand in front of their game collections and complain. this is obviously directed at the latter
December 19, 2025 at 4:54 PM
I say this with zero irony: if you are even tangentially a part of a retro video game community, it is your civic duty to push back against this company and shun anyone who doesn't. This is fascism tapping gently at the door and as soon as you let it in, it's going to invite its friends.
December 19, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Gosh whatever happened to the Horny Sweeper franchise
Horny Sweeper 2 // Mugen // PC-98
December 19, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Hey! Are you gifted in piecing together game data? I'm going to need help during this live stream today! I'm putting raw EPROMs in a public folder, but need help piecing them together. Systems are NES, GEN, SNES, GB, GG, Jag. There are new unreleased games here! www.youtube.com/live/RJwR8jX...
Let's Dump Mystery Prototype ROMs - Again!
YouTube video by The Video Game History Foundation
www.youtube.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:37 PM