520: The Graphics of Core Design - The Retro Hour EP520
The Retro Hour (Retro Gaming Podcast)
The Retro Hour
4.9 • 558 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2026
⏱️ 104 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we’re joined by Core Design artist and animator Billy Allison, whose incredible career spans hand-drawn children’s TV classics like SuperTed and The Forgotten Toys through to iconic 16-bit games including Chuck Rock, Wonder Dog, Bubba 'n' Stix and more. Billy shares how he went from experimenting with animation on a ZX Spectrum and Deluxe Paint to pushing early 3D on Shadow Man and revisiting Alien Breed years later. From sneaking into film school rostrum rooms to pioneering full-screen Amiga cutscenes.
Contents:
00:00 – The Week’s Retro News Stories
51:34 – Billy Allison Core Design Interview
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Show notes
N64 & PS2 Mario Co-Op Mod: https://youtu.be/gCza2KrstxE
Amiga Mario Kart Clone: https://tinyurl.com/2s4y92d4
Minecraft On Sega Saturn: https://tinyurl.com/fwcr2d3d
Best Way To Play Fan Translations: https://tinyurl.com/378jn4r2
Castlevania Silent Planet: https://tinyurl.com/bdhdn5z3
New bsnes Build Adds Multitap: https://tinyurl.com/yt4nwvj4
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Coming up on this week's show, a Mario Kart clone comes to the Amiga. |
| 0:05.2 | Minecraft lands on the Sega Saturn. |
| 0:07.4 | And we chat core design with Billy Allison. |
| 0:19.6 | And the Retro Hour podcast is brought to you every week with our sponsor and our good mates are Bitmap Books. |
| 0:24.9 | Now, of course, today going inside the world of core design, who of course did some incredible games on the Amiga back in the day. |
| 0:31.8 | And actually, one of my favorite books that they've ever made. |
| 0:34.6 | From Bitmap Books, Common or Amiga, a visual compendium. Now, this |
| 0:39.1 | incredible title goes through the early days of the Amiga, stuff like Defender of the Crown, |
| 0:44.5 | barbarians in there as well, marble madness, and going through all the titles we'll remember |
| 0:48.4 | on that platform, stuff like Cannon Fulter, Speedball, Worms, plenty of core design games in here as |
| 0:53.8 | well, and weighing in at 420 pages and covering more than a hundred hundred and cannon fodder, speedball, worms, plenty of core design games in here as well. |
| 1:01.0 | And weighing in at 420 pages and covering more than 140 of the games that defined the Commodore Amiga. |
| 1:05.3 | You can check it out in the rest of their retrogaming collection right now at bitmapbooks.com. |
| 1:10.7 | Hello and welcome to the Retro Hour podcast episode number 520, your weekly dose of retro gaming and technology news with me, Dan Wood. |
| 1:14.9 | Me Ravi Abbott and me Joe Fox. |
| 1:17.5 | And a very warm welcome to this week's podcast. |
| 1:19.6 | Every single Friday, this podcast lands. |
| 1:22.1 | Let's you know what's happening in the world of retro gaming and technology. |
| 1:25.2 | I will say one thing about this show, though, even though we are obviously very nostalgic doing retro gaming. |
| 1:29.7 | Not a show that stuck in the past, though, is it? |
| 1:31.8 | New stuff happening at all the time. Yeah. That's a thing. It's like, my brother said that to me. Like, you know, I don't think he meant to be offensive. Probably was being my younger brother. But he said, don't get tired about talking about the same stuff that happened 30, 40 years ago, every week on your show. |
| 1:43.8 | I know, you got that all wrong, mate. |
... |
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