Issue 73 feedback

[the_hawk]

Well I know you guys can't please everyone all of the time, and I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who loved the issues and fair play to them, but for me it was lacking information on the systems I love best: Saturn, Neo Geo, PC Engine, SNES, PlayStation 1, Mega Drive, NES....

To be honest, I'm sick of reading about the Neo Geo in the mag.

An elitist overpriced machine, only owned by a handful of (mostly American) spoilt brats and full of nothing but boring sub street fighter button mashers. (Windjammers is fun, but that's about the height of it.)

But there you go, each to their own.

[Dunjohn]

Which leads to the question 'why'?

I like looking for Miner Willy. I also like looking for the "retrogamer" they usually insert into a screenshot somewhere, this month courtesy of the planet's worst Tetris performance. I found Willy in this issue too, though it took me a while because I thought he'd be monochrome.

[psj3809]

Well I went into the newsagent there the other day, picked up the latest retro gamer issue, had a flick through it, and left it back down again.

Why? Spectrum this, C64 that, 8-bit central basically And not the good 8-bit stuff either.....

Not the good 8 bit stuff ? Big article on Dan Dare, Ultimate, it wasnt like an 8 page feature on 'Booty'. Some months there'll be tons i like, other months tons of stuff i'm not keen on (Neo Geo) but i'll keep subscribing as i find a ton of the stuff interesting. Some articles where i think 'nahhh wont like that' i'm quite surprised after reading it and find it very good

[Megamixer]

Well I went into the newsagent there the other day, picked up the latest retro gamer issue, had a flick through it, and left it back down again.

Why? Spectrum this, C64 that, 8-bit central basically And not the good 8-bit stuff either.....

To be completely fair (and this is coming from a 16/32bit fellow gamer), the balance of RG does shift around a bit. Sometimes it feels full of 80's content, sometimes it's 90's stuff and sometimes it's spot-on. There have been a fair few recent issues that were pretty heavy on 90's machines/Japanese software. You just have to be prepared for the fact that there will be more coverage of certain eras in an issue than in others. Rough with the smooth and all that.

I'll admit that hime computers and the like don't really interest me that much but it's still fascinating to read about the classic devs and how they accidentally stumbled into writing games or their bizarre stories from years past.

[sirclive1]

Got mine today. Looking forward to reading 'The Unconverted' though a quick flick through reveals no Red Earth/Warzards or the CPS2 Alien Vs Predator - two major tragedies of the 'no home conversion' curse.

Hopefully there is a follow-up feature with these and many more unconverted titles.

Alien vs Predator had a close enough home version on the snes .

The SNES version was completely different - and terrible, to boot.

Ive played them both - i'd still say its a " home " version / conversion of the arcade game.

[sirclive1]

Well I went into the newsagent there the other day, picked up the latest retro gamer issue, had a flick through it, and left it back down again.

Why? Spectrum this, C64 that, 8-bit central basically And not the good 8-bit stuff either.....

Not the good 8 bit stuff ? Big article on Dan Dare, Ultimate, it wasnt like an 8 page feature on 'Booty'. Some months there'll be tons i like, other months tons of stuff i'm not keen on (Neo Geo) but i'll keep subscribing as i find a ton of the stuff interesting. Some articles where i think 'nahhh wont like that' i'm quite surprised after reading it and find it very good

I agree , i love the 8bit features far more than the 16bit and recent stuff , i actually hardly bother with the ps1 / dc articles but i might re read RG in a few years and enjoy those as well , even if the balance tipped further towards the 32bit / 64bit stuff i'd still buy it every month .

[Timothy Lumsden]

I agree, some issue are more 8 bit, some more 16/32 bit - but I'm far more interested in the article or game than in the CPU of the machinery running it. I think recent RGs have been excellent in uncovering stuff that I didnt really know much about.

[Ferret Oxide]

Which leads to the question 'why'?

I like looking for Miner Willy. I also like looking for the "retrogamer" they usually insert into a screenshot somewhere, this month courtesy of the planet's worst Tetris performance. I found Willy in this issue too, though it took me a while because I thought he'd be monochrome.

Yeah, spotted the Retrogamer, too. I'm not complaining about the inclusion of Willy, I just thought that there might be a purpose, or expected there to be a note early in the mag to look out for him. Now that I've thought about it a bit more, I guess the inclusion of an easter egg like that is quite appropriate.

[famicom69]

From what I have read so far, issue 73 is fantastic! I Can't wait to hunt down some of the games featured in the unconverted article. The ColecoVision/Donkey Kong account was absolute gold, such a fascinating insight into how Nintendo work. And to top it all off, John Cage gets a mention in the magazine. Great work guys!

[kiwimike]

It's quite amusing reading over the posts in this topic, and sums up how hard it is for the RG team to get a good balance over an issue to please the majority. Focus too much on one era, or console/computer, and the fans of the other complain loudly. Jeez, being on RG is kind of like the same hiding to nothing a ref gets...what ever you do they'll be someone that doesn't like it...

[kiwimike]

Well I know you guys can't please everyone all of the time, and I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who loved the issues and fair play to them, but for me it was lacking information on the systems I love best: Saturn, Neo Geo, PC Engine, SNES, PlayStation 1, Mega Drive, NES....

To be honest, I'm sick of reading about the Neo Geo in the mag.

An elitist overpriced machine, only owned by a handful of (mostly American) spoilt brats and full of nothing but boring sub street fighter button mashers. (Windjammers is fun, but that's about the height of it.)

But there you go, each to their own.

Exactly, one mans treasure and all that...Personally I agree about the Neo geo. Nice machine for snob value or if you're utterly crazy on your fighters&shmups, but not enough game variety for my liking. I'll keep my metal slug collection on the PS2!

[lanky316]

I found this month hard going for some reason. I'm going to assume just not feeling well so not "in the mood". I'll give it another read when feeling a bit better and rethink, I enjoyed all the articles but no real stand outs. That's not a complaint per se, as I said I think it's more ill health than the mag.

Nit pick of the month, in the piece on Prehistoric Isle there is mention of Brontosaurus. Brontosaurus never actually existed and was merely an administration error.

[Mr Vengeance]

not sure if your aware,there was an retro inspection done on them systems in the back issues,and of course the awesome neo geo

Yeah I've got a good few issues of Retro gamer, but its not a mag I just pick up and buy without opening it, like what I do with Edge and games tm - they always have interesting stuff, so I buy them by default.

With Retro Gamer however, I leaf through it to see if there's any stuff in it that suites my tastes before purchase. Two or three good features in it from the PC Engine onwards and I'll have the wallet out in no time.

I've seen a pattern though with Retro Gamer magazine - on a given month its theme running throughout can be of one particular era, and the next issue might be another. Issue 73 is very much all about the early 80's, and (hopefully) next issue might be all about the mid 90's, issue after might be the late eighties, etc.

I remember my first issue of Retro Gamer - it was the Christmas NiGTHS ish from a couple of years back - it had so much 32-bit goodness in there....Saturn Magazine feature and everything Anyway, next month I went in to the newsagents, picked up the new issue (Atari cover I think), paid for it and headed off to the car. Opened it up and leafed through it..... I was sooo disappointed with its running theme - all super old 8-bit stuff, non of which interested me I actually got out of the car, walked back into the newsie and got my money bak - and I've never done that before with a magazine, and I've been buying them for years.

Might actually be an idea to make official the magazine's underlying themes - perhaps have one month of very old stuff, and the next moth 90's games..... if you're reading this Darren, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this idea It would be a great way to please everyone.....

Well I know you guys can't please everyone all of the time, and I'm sure there are plenty of people on here who loved the issues and fair play to them, but for me it was lacking information on the systems I love best: Saturn, Neo Geo, PC Engine, SNES, PlayStation 1, Mega Drive, NES....

To be honest, I'm sick of reading about the Neo Geo in the mag.

An elitist overpriced machine, only owned by a handful of (mostly American) spoilt brats and full of nothing but boring sub street fighter button mashers. (Windjammers is fun, but that's about the height of it.)

But there you go, each to their own.

Boring sub par Street Fighter games? You seriously don't know what you're talking about mate! As “punishment” I suggest you go and play The Last Blade 2

[the_hawk]

Sorry, I was in a really obnoxious bad mood when I wrote that!

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

we aim to get a balanced issue every month, but it's not always possible. At one stage we were considering splitting the mag into different time periods but that wouldn't have worked either.

It's not always easy getting the balance right, but in general I think we do pretty well each month. I've been doing this for a while now and have a pretty good idea (most times) what people want. Having said that, RG is one of the most difficult mags I've ever been involved with, simply because every single reader appears to want the magazine filled with whatever most appeals to them.