NB: Since this article was originally written, Retro Gamer
itself has been picked up by a new publisher and is back in
commission again. This article celebrates the magic of what were
the first 18 issues of an intelligent magazine, long may it
continue and be in the same vein with the new publishers. Issue
19 is due to be released in early December 2005.
DEAD CELEBRITIES SPECIAL - RETRO GAMER (sadly)
==============================================
We had a stirring in the magazine sector here in UK a couple of
years or so ago. After the furore over retro gaming back in
1999, when most of the sites dealing in MAME ROMs seemed to be
going under with crazy regularity, a soon to be regular column
started to appear in another weekly magazine called Micro Mart.
That column was called 'Retro Corner' and was written and edited
by a guy called Shaun Bebbington, for a few years.
I had, honestly, become sick and tired of the computer magazine
market that was around at retail level in the UK. So many
magazines, upon reading them, seemed, in my opinion at least, to
treat their readers with disdain, making them feel bad if they
didn't have this hardware or that monitor / modem / joystick /
top game etc. It was the same all over, with non-computing
magazines like Zoo, FHM and GQ, almost telling all guys that
they should treat women badly and look up to so-called
'celebrities' like those who happened to feature in the 'Big
Brother' house or something like that.
So, it was with a breath of fresh air that this new magazine,
Retro Gamer, appeared on the market. While I didn't buy the
first 2 or 3 issues, I certainly made a point of nosing through
them in the store and started to purchase issues from no 4 or no
5 onwards.
Retro Gamer was the UK's first monthly magazine dedicated to the
pure retro freak. Over the months that it was published, a lot
of articles were interestingly perused. Articles that were very
well written and researched, that actually had intelligence for
a change and didn't expect their readers to be a total chav.
Although I wasn't familiar with some of the hardware and games
that were described in articles in the magazine, I certainly
followed the extensive interview and other articles relating to
Matthew Smith, the guy who wrote the classic Sinclair Spectrum
games, Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. JSW being the first game I
ever bought commercially for my Spectrum all those years ago, it
was great to hear what Matthew had been up to over the years
since both games were released.
Our very own RiCH Davey, yes, he of 'Falcon Owners Group' fame,
also wrote an excellent article that appeared in issue 8,
relating to our favourite computer system, the Atari series.
In later issues, articles appeared from fans of the Sega Master
System and Megadrive, also one or two relating to the Dreamcast
console, also by Sega. These and others were interesting, even
though I hadn't personally owned the hardware they were, once
again, well written.
One particular issue grabbed me and that contained an article
relating to another classic Spectrum game called Skool Daze. RG
themselves had managed to get hold of one of the original
authors of the game, to ask what they were doing now. What came
out was very interesting and very in-depth, more like what we
might see on non-UK press produced magazines on the 'net. We
also had an excellent article from an issue beforehand about
just what happened to the fabled Konix Multisystem, a console
based system that was supposed to make it to the shops, with
hardware ready etc. Due to financial failures within Konix
themselves, they went under. Remember that this was also back in
1989, the start of the UK recession (that still hasn't lifted in
some parts of this country), when things were rather more
precarious economically.
Live Publishing, the owners of Retro Gamer magazine, had
announced that they were in trouble about four weeks or so after
issue 19 of RG was produced. They'd had a small stable of other
magazines alongside RG, some of which were not making any profit
at all and others that were just so-so. Then we heard a bit
later on that the magazine was going back to its original bi-
monthly status, which it had been when it first started, until
sales made them realise a monthly issue release schedule.
Finally, all hope was lost at the beginning of September when
Live Publishing closed their doors for the final time. Retro
Gamer, along with other magazines that Live published,
disappeared from the shelves - and this was a disappointment.
Hopefully, there is a light cloud on the horizon. A new magazine
called 'Retro: Bytes' may be starting publication from the
beginning of November and will be worth checking out as the
writing will mostly be from the same team behind Retro Gamer. RG
itself turned out to be a very profitable title over the months
that it was published.
Felice for Alive,2005-11-09
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