The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast) 490: "I Only Found Out My Game Was in a Magazine Years Later" Rob Smith, Retro Inventor - The Retro Hour EP490
Jul 25, 2025
01:31:06
This week’s guest is Rob Smith: the mad‑scientist of the retro scene. Rob takes us on a tour of his wild inventions—from a disco‑themed floppy‑disk cleaning workstation that actually plays tunes, to a full‑scale whack‑a‑mole game controlled by an Amiga via Arduino and AMOS, and his glowing levitating Boing Ball built with magnets and LEDs. He also talks about the Retro Directory, disc backup stations, and his journey from VIC 20 BASIC to making modern retro PD titles.
Rob Smith's website: https://robsmithdev.co.uk/
Contents:
00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories
47:48 - Dave Isherwood Interview
Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:
Sheffield Gaming Market: https://www.sheffieldgamingmarket.com/
Bitmap Books - https://www.bitmapbooks.com
Take your business to the next level today and enjoy 3 months of Shopify for £1/month: https://shopify.co.uk/retrohour
We need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you'd like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon:
https://theretrohour.com/support/
https://www.patreon.com/retrohour
Get your Retro Hour merchandise: https://bit.ly/33OWBKd
Join our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GQw8qp8
Website: http://theretrohour.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/
X: https://twitter.com/retrohouruk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retrohouruk/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theretrohour.com
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theretrohour
Show notes
Atari Classics in Volkswagen Vehicles: https://tinyurl.com/wfner8j2
Paprium Flash Cart Release: https://tinyurl.com/2ucerftm
Metro’s Top 20 Amiga Games: https://tinyurl.com/ftz5y86h
Grant Sinclair Gamercard: https://tinyurl.com/nzc9uuem
Atari x Pac-Man Collection – Limited Edition 2600+: https://tinyurl.com/47ar835w
Atari 50 Namco DLC: https://tinyurl.com/bd8xczzs
Modern SNES Handheld in Development: https://tinyurl.com/45c8u3jn
Rob Smith's website: https://robsmithdev.co.uk/
Contents:
00:00 - The Week's Retro News Stories
47:48 - Dave Isherwood Interview
Please visit our amazing sponsors and help to support the show:
Sheffield Gaming Market: https://www.sheffieldgamingmarket.com/
Bitmap Books - https://www.bitmapbooks.com
Take your business to the next level today and enjoy 3 months of Shopify for £1/month: https://shopify.co.uk/retrohour
We need your help to ensure the future of the podcast, if you'd like to help us with running costs, equipment and hosting, please consider supporting us on Patreon:
https://theretrohour.com/support/
https://www.patreon.com/retrohour
Get your Retro Hour merchandise: https://bit.ly/33OWBKd
Join our Discord channel: https://discord.gg/GQw8qp8
Website: http://theretrohour.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theretrohour/
X: https://twitter.com/retrohouruk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/retrohouruk/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theretrohour.com
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theretrohour
Show notes
Atari Classics in Volkswagen Vehicles: https://tinyurl.com/wfner8j2
Paprium Flash Cart Release: https://tinyurl.com/2ucerftm
Metro’s Top 20 Amiga Games: https://tinyurl.com/ftz5y86h
Grant Sinclair Gamercard: https://tinyurl.com/nzc9uuem
Atari x Pac-Man Collection – Limited Edition 2600+: https://tinyurl.com/47ar835w
Atari 50 Namco DLC: https://tinyurl.com/bd8xczzs
Modern SNES Handheld in Development: https://tinyurl.com/45c8u3jn