Retro Gamer 23

[Goose]

Picked this up in town today. Here's what is inside...

Retroinspection - SNES

The Making of .... Worms, Bloodwych & M.U.L.E

Conversion Capers - Gauntlet

Company Profile - Palace Software

The story of Ocean Software

Retro Feature - God Games

Desert Island Disks - Malcolm "3D Monster Maze" Evans

Homebrew News, Emulation: SNES, Remake of the Month & Homebrew reviews.

Plus all the usual stuff like Retro Radar, Letters, Columns, etc etc.

Read and enjoy Archer's column this month about IK+. Halfway through the very good Ocean Software article. My only complaint is that I want more. I'd be happy for a 50 page Ocean article, same for US Gold last month. Otherwise, all good from where I am.

Any chance of a Desert Island Disks with Jonathin Joffa Smith?

[Vimster]

You'd have thought companies like Ocean and US Gold who have handled tons of games and each had more than their fair share of controversy would have merited a two- or evern three-part article. I for one would love to read stuff like that.

[sofasurfer]

Bought my copy from Bluewater yesterday and really enjoyed it this issue.

Great sub offer as well.£15 for six months by direct debit.

Half price Retrogamer you say?Im having that thank you very much.Phoned up and ordered this afternoon.

Damn sexy cover pic this issue as well.The SNES looks brand new.Unlike my yellowing one.

[strider]

You'd have thought companies like Ocean and US Gold who have handled tons of games and each had more than their fair share of controversy would have merited a two- or evern three-part article. I for one would love to read stuff like that.

Then only problem with articles spread over multiple issues is that you have to assume that the readers will buy every issue of the mag. Imagine you're new to the mag and dicover the third part of a feature, you'd be well pissed off...

[Vimster]

Then only problem with articles spread over multiple issues is that you have to assume that the readers will buy every issue of the mag. Imagine you're new to the mag and dicover the third part of a feature, you'd be well pissed off...

Well if it was a set of one-off articles about Ocean, say, spread over a few issues it wouldn't be so bad.

Plus I thought the idea of a serial article like that was people would give people extra incentive to buy the next couple of issues.

I guess this is why I'm not in publishing

Anyway, will pick this up tomorrow if Smiths have it.

[JPickford (retired mod)]

Then only problem with articles spread over multiple issues is that you have to assume that the readers will buy every issue of the mag. Imagine you're new to the mag and dicover the third part of a feature, you'd be well pissed off...

Put all the previous articles in REALLY small text. And put a magnifying glass on the cover as a free gift.

As you are a retro mag you should sell your back issues for a higher price than the cover price. Add 50p per month.

Send the consultancy fee to the usual address.

[roberthazelby]

Any chance of a Desert Island Disks with Jonathin Joffa Smith?

I'd certainly be interested in this, too.

Darran, did you ever manage to track him down in the end? My varied efforts seemed to get little results.

Nice to see it in the shops. No sign of my subs copy.

[Rev]

Great sub offer as well.£15 for six months by direct debit.

Just tried ordering online and it's not changed yet.

[Meh]

A SNES feature! Well, nobody knows anything about that, do they!

[Antiriad2097]

Picked this up in town today.

Where's my subs copy? Aren't we supposed to get them a day or two before it hits the shops?

[sofasurfer]

Where's my subs copy? Aren't we supposed to get them a day or two before it hits the shops?

Thats what I though too.The sub people usually get it well before Smiths so I was surprised to see it on Wednesday.Thought I must have missed the thread.

[Rygal - Reader of Threads]

I'd certainly be interested in this, too.

Darran, did you ever manage to track him down in the end? My varied efforts seemed to get little results.

Nice to see it in the shops. No sign of my subs copy.

Joffa Smith turned up on WoS Forum (and is still there although doesn't post very much) when there was all the stramash about his Wikipedia entry which WoS stopped from being deleted.

[masterhand]

Imagine you're new to the mag and dicover the third part of a feature, you'd be well pissed off...

Then they'll be intrested in ordering the back issues wouldn't they?

[Swainy]

Joffa Smith turned up on WoS Forum (and is still there although doesn't post very much) when there was all the stramash about his Wikipedia entry which WoS stopped from being deleted.

I spoke to him just over a year ago, he did offer to program the Speccy remake of Double Dragon for me at one stage. Nice bloke.

[strider]

A SNES feature! Well, nobody knows anything about that, do they!

Well, to be fair, this one takes a Japanese slant, so a lot of the info should be new to people. Still, I see where you're coming. And besides, it wouldn't be a good Retro Gamer thread without you moaning about at least one thing

As for Jonathan, I have him on record, so I'll drop him a line.

[MoFo2]

Just a few weeks until I can by this for £11 in Norway

Yes, will be getting a subscription soon.

[trickytree]

A SNES feature! Well, nobody knows anything about that, do they!

Oh do behave!

I think Darran's pointed out several times the balancing act that has to be made between popular and obscure.

You'll be looking for this month's 'Geek Gamer', full hardware schematics and type-in listings for the Phillips C7420, w00t!!

[Goose]

I'd still like to see a "Where are they now" feature with perhaps readers suggesting a few people from the heyday? It's nice to catch up with people via the Desert Island Disks/making ofs. More of the same please

Whatever happend to Steve Crow of Firelord/Starquake fame?

Or was it Jonathan Phillips? Did Nebulus and Scavenger IIRC. Might have got the name wrong.

Saying that, to completely negate my idea, It's often been sad when you do find out what the people have been up to, especially if they'd been pioneers in their day, to now be doing gameboy conversions or something similar. (no offence to people who do them, not knocking them - it'd just be like reading someone like Eugene Jarvis was now coding Megadrive TV games or something).

[strider]

Funny you should mention Eugene Goose

[Mr Do 71]

Funny you should mention Eugene Goose

And Pete Cooke, who gave us Tau Ceti, Academy, Earthlight (wonderful game - pic blelow) and Micronaut One to name a few

[Meh]

Oh do behave!

I think Darran's pointed out several times the balancing act that has to be made between popular and obscure.

You'll be looking for this month's 'Geek Gamer', full hardware schematics and type-in listings for the Phillips C7420, w00t!!

Yeah, but there's popular, and there's just the blatantly frigging lazy route.

Well, to be fair, this one takes a Japanese slant, so a lot of the info should be new to people. Still, I see where you're coming. And besides, it wouldn't be a good Retro Gamer thread without you moaning about at least one thing

Japanese slant, you say? So you'll spend a page writing about Super Mario World or something? Or *gasp* the Satellaview?

I really do miss the geeky-as-fuck version of Retro Gamer. (though the reviews they did towards the end were the worst thing of all time)

[McCoy]

Yeah, but there's popular, and there's just the blatantly frigging lazy route.

Japanese slant, you say? So you'll spend a page writing about Super Mario World or something? Or *gasp* the Satellaview?

I really do miss the geeky-as-fuck version of Retro Gamer. (though the reviews they did towards the end were the worst thing of all time)

TBH, I'm the exact opposite. I never bothered with the old Retro gamer becuase it was just far too geeky and incomprehensible to me. My first console was a Master System and when I read articles about the Amiga whatever and Commodore somethingorother I find them very interesting but don't really understand a lot of what's been said so I only get so much out of them. I've recently subbed to new look retro gamer becuase it seems of far more relevance to me - reviews and news of games coming out on the current consoles and features that don't have subject matter that date back to the 1960's or whatever.

So here's a vote for more modern stuff and please don't go back to the pure geeky-ness of the Old retro gamer, it really was quite incomprehensible to me as an under 20 year old whose gaming knowledge is restricted to the Master System and beyond. Features on the N64 and PSX would be ideal particular if you do as you have done with the SNES this month and put a different than usual spin on them.

Anyway, got my first subscription mag today and it looks great as usual so keep up the good work. As someone who subs and reads quite a few mags, I've found the Retro gamer issues since the re-launch are the ones I look forward to reading each month which is quite an achivement.

[213]

So here's a vote for more modern stuff and please don't go back to the pure geeky-ness of the Old retro gamer, it really was quite incomprehensible to me as an under 20 year old

and they say there's no dumbing down in schools nowadays.

Thank fuck proper magazines like classic rock don't take the dumbed down attitude, and their readership as well. Being introduced to machines and games you've never heard of and expanding your horizons, what the fuck is there to be afraid of?

I really do miss the geeky-as-fuck version of Retro Gamer. (though the reviews they did towards the end were the worst thing of all time)

The original one was dreadful to be honest, the production values were crap and the articles were mostly internet scribblings recycled.

[Meh]

and they say there's no dumbing down in schools nowadays.

Thank fuck proper magazines like classic rock don't take the dumbed down attitude, and their readership as well. Being introduced to machines and games you've never heard of and expanding your horizons, what the fuck is there to be afraid of?

The original one was dreadful to be honest, the production values were crap and the articles were mostly internet scribblings recycled.

Oh, I agree about the production values. It was really, really poorly laid out etc. but had a certain charm to it. There seemed to be a lot of passion in there, which I find to be lacking in the new ones.

No offence like, Strider, as I know you fucking wank over retro shit as much as I do, but a little less of the well-trodden ground, please?

Also, expand ZissyWizzy's foreign retro thing to four pages, dammit. It's always brilliant.

Also, do a HUGE feature on a game called Trio the Punch. If you don't wet yourself and die laughing first. In fact, do a feature on obscure, dreadful games every so often. Those things never get old.

[Anthony Taylor]

Where's my subs copy? Aren't we supposed to get them a day or two before it hits the shops?

mine came today

[McCoy]

and they say there's no dumbing down in schools nowadays.

Thank fuck proper magazines like classic rock don't take the dumbed down attitude, and their readership as well. Being introduced to machines and games you've never heard of and expanding your horizons, what the fuck is there to be afraid of?

I'm not saying get rid of all the old stuff, just lets have a lot of different stuff. I don't just want to read about stuff that was cool before I was even born, I want to read about lots of different things which seems to by where Strider has been succesful in making the mag appeal to everyone. You may just want to mag to go back to the state where anyone less than a 40 year old hardcore geek gamer had no clue what anyone was on about, but I prefer it the way it is now.

Plus I think the schools comment is a bit eroneous, but if it makes you feel any better then you'll be glad to know I was one of the brighter students

[Meh]

So nothing prior to 1994 then?

News just in, a baby has just been born today. Retro gamer shouldn't cover anything prior to today, anything earlier is irrelavant to this baby!

The clue is in the title, RETRO gamer, meaning that it is a magazine about old games. If they don't interest you, then you are reading the wrong magazine!

Exxxxxactly.

[213]

I'm not saying get rid of all the old stuff, just lets have a lot of different stuff. I don't just want to read about stuff that was cool before I was even born, I want to read about lots of different things which seems to by where Strider has been succesful in making the mag appeal to everyone. You may just want to mag to go back to the state where anyone less than a 40 year old hardcore geek gamer had no clue what anyone was on about, but I prefer it the way it is now.

Plus I think the schools comment is a bit eroneous, but if it makes you feel any better then you'll be glad to know I was one of the brighter students

Considering most of the articles were (and still are) round up's and histories of machines plus they are (were) all pitched at the level of a newcomer I really don't see hoe difficult they are to comprehend, especially given that any fool can goto google and find out the history of anything.

(That said, ask the forum and this folder seem to repeatedly prove that people are incapable of even the most rudimentory search).

The thing is, the mag was never ever pitched at that level, it layout was crap but the contents are pretty much the same then as now but then. Given that 1994 is little more than 12 years ago and that 1994-2002 was the best documented period of video gameing of all time I'd suggest that if you wanted matter to read on that period you could go and read Edge, Super play, N64, DC-UK, Arcade, Ultimate future games, PSW and other magazines that would offer a far better view than Retro Gamer probably could.

I have no problem covering all retro games in fact I've written for strider myself covering psone 2d games but unless you have an angle (and I suggest checking my posts on RG) there's little point.

[roberthazelby]

I think that before Darran tries to introduce more 'hardcore!!111!!!11' articles, his main battle at the moment is to get readership numbers up, and ensure the magazine is profitable.

Readers to RG (not us, but Joe Public on the street) are going to need to be eased into this sort of thing. Get a decent readership level, and then perhaps the mag can look at putting a few more obscure articles in. Remember, the point of the magazine is to make money!

I'm just pleased that there's a decent retro mag on the shelves and that it finally looks like a professional publication.

[McCoy]

So nothing prior to 1994 then?

News just in, a baby has just been born today. Retro gamer shouldn't cover anything prior to today, anything earlier is irrelavant to this baby!

The clue is in the title, RETRO gamer, meaning that it is a magazine about old games. If they don't interest you, then you are reading the wrong magazine!

Ooh... shocker we want different things from a magazine. Retro Gamer can cover what ever it wants, depending on what it covers will be the key factor to whether I will continue to buy it. At the moment it's covering exactly what I what it to cover. You want the obscure articles, fine, only problem is the mag seems to be heading in the direction I prefer rather than the direction you prefer. Deal. With. It.