Retro gaming blog · Surry Hills, Sydney

Press start on the pixels that built gaming.

Deep-dives on 16-bit classics, indie gems worth your weekend, and speedrun science — written by players who still blow into cartridges out of respect.

Join the newsletter Our story

Our timeline

From a shared cartridge to a citywide read.

PixelBattleOdyssey started as a zine passed around a Surry Hills share house. Today it's a full editorial desk publishing four days a week, still obsessed with the same question: what makes a game feel good to play?

2014
The photocopied zine

Twelve stapled pages of SNES reviews handed out at a Crown Street arcade night. Forty copies, gone in an hour.
2017
Going online

The blog launched with a weekly retro column and a growing comment section of pedantic, wonderful readers.
2020
The speedrun desk

We added frame-by-frame speedrun breakdowns and interviews with world-record holders across the Pacific.
2024
A proper editorial team

Six writers, one pixel-art critic and a research library of 900+ physical games in our Albion Street office.

How we write

Every review clears the same four checkpoints.

Play it all the way

No skimming. We finish the campaign — minimum 15 hours logged before a single line is written.

Test the hardware

Original console, emulator and handheld. Input lag and load times measured, not guessed.

Fact-check the lore

Release dates, dev studios and patch history verified against primary sources before publishing.

Score with honesty

A transparent rubric, no publisher pressure, and a plain-English verdict anyone can act on.

From the desk

Screens, setups and the stories behind them.

Boxed retro console collection — Our 900-cartridge reference wall, catalogued by console generation.

CRT test bench — The CRT bench where we measure input lag against modern panels.

Pixel art close up — Sprite breakdowns for our weekly pixel-art criticism column.

Speedrun timing setup — Frame-timing rig used for our speedrun science features.

Editorial desk — The Albion Street desk on a Thursday deadline afternoon.

Indie showcase — Local indie showcase night we host each quarter in Surry Hills.

Reader mail

What the community sends us.

"Your Chrono Trigger retrospective sent me back to a game I'd written off. Best 4,000 words on time travel I've read anywhere."

Marcus T. · Newtown, Sydney

"The speedrun breakdowns are unreal — they explained a frame-perfect trick so clearly I finally landed it after three years."

Priya R. · Melbourne, VIC

"I found three indie games through your weekend picks last month. The recommendations actually respect my time and my budget."

Daniel K. · Brisbane, QLD

Good questions

Frequently asked.

Is PixelBattleOdyssey free to read?

Every article, review and speedrun feature is free. We keep the lights on through a reader-supported membership that unlocks the archive, but nothing behind the paywall is required to enjoy the blog.

Do you accept sponsored reviews?

No. We never take payment for a score or a placement. Any review copy or hardware loaned by a publisher is clearly disclosed at the top of the piece, and our verdict is never negotiated.

Can I pitch an article?

Absolutely. We read every pitch sent through the contact form below. Retro deep-dives, local Australian dev profiles and technical breakdowns get priority — include a rough word count and why the story matters now.

When do you publish?

New pieces go live Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 9am AEST. The office is open for meetings by appointment Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, at our Surry Hills address.

Get in touch

Pitch a story or join the newsletter.

Drop into our Surry Hills desk, send a pitch, or subscribe for the week's best gaming reads. We reply to every genuine message.

Phone: +61 2 9387 4829
Email: [email protected]
Address: 57 Albion Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010

57 Albion Street

Surry Hills NSW 2010 · Sydney, Australia