RETRO GAMER MAGAZINE from the UK and their collection issues are AMAZING!

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RETRO GAMER MAGAZINE from the UK and their collection issues are AMAZING!

Just thought I would share some info about these 'Bookazines' I discovered in Hong Kong a few weeks ago. They are called RETRO COLLECTION and RETRO VOL. x and they're put out by RETRO GAMER MAG in the UK (the monthly mag is also great but I love these special issues especially!) They are "bookazines" as they call them and they're crazy thick, beautifully made, and have tons, and I mean TONS of developer interviews, game reviews, TONS of images, etc. and they're all and only about classic console and arcade gaming. I think they are the best magazines I have ever read. They're that good!

They are UK magazines so they do cover some classic console stuff that we didn't have over here. But not tons of it.

Check it out:

http://www.retrogamer.net/

These are the special bookazine issues (these are the best!!!):

https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/bookazines/retro-gamer-collection-vol-5.html

https://www.imagineshop.co.uk/bookazines/retro-volume-3.html

They are pricey but absolutely some of the best reading around. They are FABULOUS. And HUGE. Good quality product. AMAZING stuff.

You can find the other ones from this series on ebay.

This is the cover for the most recent bookazine issue:

Retro-Gamer-Collection.jpg


And here is one of the "VOLUME" issues
retro_vol03_aa6eue37u.jpg
 
I second this! Retro Gamer is an expensive mag stateside but it is totally worth the cost. Each issue has around a dozen arcade related articles as well as dozens of other articles about everything from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Gamecube.

This is the only place I have found consistent articles interviewing gaming creators. In fact, issue 93 had a detailed article on Computer Space including interviews with Nolan Bushnell, Steve Baristow, Al Alcorn, and Ted Dabney. Other arcade games covered in this issue included Galaga (again, with creator interviews), Shock Troopers, Taz Mania, Power Drve, Mad Motor, Rastan (complete with restored cab), as well as a few others.
 
Yes, I agree. Barnes and Noble sell these in the magazine section of their stores, so they are relatively easy to find. A recently released one had TONS of Colecovision stuff. You will also find a lot of European-specific hardware that was never released here in the US...

Lee
 
The collection books are very cool, but cost about $25-30! They consist of select articles from previous issues of the past year.

A bit more cost effective is to get the eMag DVDs, which have 25-30 back issues in PDF format with a searchable menu.
 
They recently contacted me for a story they are working on about Track & Field. They said they had contact with the game creators for the story as well. They let me ask a couple of questions specifically for the creators. I dont know if this ever happened and I dont subscribe but if anyone does I would like to know how the column comes out.

Hector
 
issue 93 had a detailed article on Computer Space including interviews with Nolan Bushnell, Steve Baristow, Al Alcorn, and Ted Dabney.

They also mentioned my website in that article. Any magazine that inflates my ego gets a big thumbs up from me!

(also having Chun-li on their Retro Collection cover earns them a special place in my heart)
 
The magazine is great generally, although a bit much focussed on popular systmes in the UK now and then (Spectrum, Amstrad). Some issues contain little arcade related stuff, but those who do are great. I got a couple of printed issues, and now three on my iPad, Their APP for reading them is a piece of sh....though especially after the switch to iOS5. Crashes very often for no reason, sometimes I have black pages in between good pages and I cant zoom in as far as I want (release it and it zooms back out a bit...)
However its still a lot cheaper than getting a printed issue and a lot faster too, even here in The Netherlands and I think thats only more true for the US.
 
:D
How much do you guys in the States pay for an issue?
They cost $15.40 here in Australia, worth every cent though!

I first saw it on the stands here in the U.S. several years ago and at the time they were $14.99, so I never bought them. This past summer I was in the Barnes & Noble store in my neighborhood because my parents were visiting and my mom wanted to go there. (I never go there normally.) Issue #89 was on the stands at the time and B&N wanted $9.99 so I picked it up. That was the Commodore 64 issue and I was a C64 geek as a kid, so it was worth the money to me.

I'd love to get all the back issues but most are out of print and unavailable. I know they have the PDF archives but they just aren't the same. I like physical magazines.
 
Yep, buys that to!, it´s a really cool mag!, especially like the article about Asteroids!! love the "hacked" Lunar Lander PCB picture!, yes - they where wiz´s!!!!!

(Sorry for the HUGE image - but it ROCKS!)
interview_howard_delman_23.jpg
 
SanTe said:
I'd love to get all the back issues but most are out of print and unavailable.


I started buying the magazine with issue 26.....all the previous issues that I didn't have I got from ebay (UK is best to source from)

Just beware that the first 18 issues come with cover CD's







john

.
 
I am totally diappointe by the Frogger article in the latest issue though.

after reading the piece of junk they called "the history of Frogger" I STILL know ZERO about the history of the game.

They BARELY touch the original arcade version.There is not even a NAME of the guy(s) behind this game !!
NOTHING is told about the process of designing the original, no interviews with the programmer/developper. For Christs sake, there isnt even a picture of the arcade machine !!!!!!

After about 2 colums reading we get a souped up list of raunchy follow up games which are either totally uninteresting or plain trash. Frogger is Frogger and he shouldnt be walking straight up or in fact do anything else than crossing that road and pont !!!

DEEPLY disappointed by this article, it seems like it was written bij a 20 year old who thinks a Playstation2 is a classic system.....

Definitly not on par like articles about Asteroids. *:( :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Bumping an old thread. The current issue has a couple of cool articles about the making of Ms. Pac and Missile Command. They have it at my local Barnes & Noble newsstand.

Sorry for the small pics. Just showing what the article spreads look like.

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Again....no picture of the cab...nothing but boring MAME screenshots....at least they seem to have talked with the designers of Krazy Otto this time...

Yes, it's weird they left out cabinet photography, but the articles are good. They focus mainly on the history and development behind the games. Interview the developers. There are sketches from the Crazy Otto development in the first spread.
 
Yes, it's weird they left out cabinet photography, but the articles are good. They focus mainly on the history and development behind the games. Interview the developers. There are sketches from the Crazy Otto development in the first spread.

That's good to hear. I have the one with the Asteroids article and that was great too. The one on Frogger was a huge disappointment for me though (see above). The article about the Lynx in the same issue was great again...so bit of mixed feelings.

I understand it's hard to find a good picture of a Ms.Pac cab that they can use and you could argue that there actually "was" not cab for Crazy Otto in this case....but at least show some artwork pics or something...
 
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