Official Feedback for Issue 29

[CraigGrannell]

I always thought the A–Z was good sidebar fodder, but I was rather surprised to see it get a DPS. Having flicked through the current issue, I'm not sad to see it gone, it has to be said.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Never let it be said that I don't listen to feedback.

[Duddyroar]

I flicked past the A to Z every time, so I'm glad it's been shown the door. Two more pages for retro gaming content!

[seanmcmanus]

Great issue, one of the strongest - lots of 8 bit and arcade coverage, which is what interests me. After buying GamesTM for its strong Spectrum feature this month, I was disappointed to see it turning up in RG a few weeks later, though. If this kind of thing is going to happen in future, perhaps the story could be co-branded so we can see if the story's likely to be republished in a magazine we already get. In any case, I thought that RG should have published it first, as the dedicated Retro title.

The A-Z was fun but I'm pleased to see it replaced with proper retro gaming content.

Perhaps Retro-Trader could remaster its disc so that the ROM images can be found easily without needing installation - that would enable people to more easily use their choice of emulators to legally play those ROMs. It sounds like they've done some great work clearing rights, so it's a shame the UI is letting it down.

[seanmcmanus]

Can someone tell me where the phone ads thread is please? I was going to comment that I think they're inappropriate, held off because Darran said there's a separate thread, and I can't find it now. Thanks.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

After buying GamesTM for its strong Spectrum feature this month, I was disappointed to see it turning up in RG a few weeks later, though. If this kind of thing is going to happen in future, perhaps the story could be co-branded so we can see if the story's likely to be republished in a magazine we already get. In any case, I thought that RG should have published it first, as the dedicated Retro title.

I did consider this, which is why I went to the extra effort of getting hold of many other people who didn't appear in the original article.
Matthew Smith, the Oliver Twins, David Jones and Chris Stamper are all exclusive to the Retro Gamer feature, and I think they are pretty big name's to justify having to read through it again.
Also, the article is now seven pages long, as oppossed to the four pager that originally appeared (I also think it looks a lot nicer, but that's probably me being biased).

The whole aim of the article was that it was going to be flagged in gamesTM along the lines of "read the full article in this month's RG", so that those gamesTM readers who liked it would possibly check out RG as well (A surprising number of people don't actually read both mags).

Rest assured though, if a similar thing happens in the future, there will be a much larger gap between the two magazines.

[RetroTrader.Com]

Hi Sean

That is actually an excellent idea , when the next lot go to be made , we will do a new master , which has a seperate folder with the files in not attached to the menu system , and whilst as per the thread on the Alten8 forum , we do not agree with the review in terms of all the issues it states on the review , this is a really good , simple idea which we can easily do , thanks for that feedback , feel free to pop over and discuss other ideas and suggestions on the alten8 forum , and say hello to some of the authors as well when you get a minute.

Thanks

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Hi Sean

That is actually an excellent idea , when the next lot go to be made , we will do a new master , which has a seperate folder with the files in not attached to the menu system , and whilst as per the thread on the Alten8 forum , we do not agree with the review in terms of all the issues it states on the review , this is a really good , simple idea which we can easily do , thanks for that feedback , feel free to pop over and discuss other ideas and suggestions on the alten8 forum , and say hello to some of the authors as well when you get a minute.

Thanks

Incidentally, are you saying that all the faults that Dudley lists on page one of this thread don't actually exist then? Because they are all valid points that would improve future compilations immeasurably. He gave you a lot of feedback there, but you've chosen to ignore it, just because a lot of it is negative. Interesting...

And yes, I'm fully aware that this contradicts what I initially said, but after Sean's post and your response, I think it does deserve an answer.

On the other hand, you've stated that this compilation is not geared towards people like ourselves, but to the more casual gamer. In that case, surely you just need to make a decent UI, becuase Joe Bloggs isn't necessarily going to be able to (or want to) use an emulator off the net anyway. They just want something that's easy to use, and surely in its current state, you must realise that your compilation doesn't actually offer that?

Feel free to post a reply and if need be we can move the comments to a new thread.

Kindest regards,
Darran

[paranoid marvin]

Never let it be said that I don't listen to feedback.

I don't think any regular member of this forum could disagree...

[Lentini2001]

Wow, looks like I'm the only one that liked the A to Z so therefore I'm in a minority of one.

I'll get me coat.

[jumpman]

Wow, looks like I'm the only one that liked the A to Z so therefore I'm in a minority of one.

I'll get me coat.

I still looked at it every month, but was getting nothing from it having studied it in earnest before.

Maybe it could run once a year or something...?

[NorthWay]

Never let it be said that I don't listen to feedback.

It had one interesting feature: The title.

Never seen a better admission of what is proper retro (and not all this PC and PSOne stuff)...

[kaiserpc]

It finally arrived yesterday (why later than most people?).

Anyway, things that are good;

loved the Samuari Warrior article (big fan of this back in the day)
- Also enjoying the GnG article (although would have like a comparison of the home computer versions in a boxout - always enjoy comparing the speccy/c64/cpc versions)
- Great Oli cover
- Codemasters look back is interesting

on the down side;

-more and more sex adverts
-bargain hunt still taking up valueable space
-I had hoped the dropping of the A-Z, would have meant that the lookback would have spread to 4 pages

Overall a really good issue (although, I've only read about half of it so far)

[RetroTrader.Com]

Hi Sean

That is actually an excellent idea , when the next lot go to be made , we will do a new master , which has a seperate folder with the files in not attached to the menu system , and whilst as per the thread on the Alten8 forum , we do not agree with the review in terms of all the issues it states on the review , this is a really good , simple idea which we can easily do , thanks for that feedback , feel free to pop over and discuss other ideas and suggestions on the alten8 forum , and say hello to some of the authors as well when you get a minute.

Thanks

Incidentally, are you saying that all the faults that Dudley lists on page one of this thread don't actually exist then? Because they are all valid points that would improve future compilations immeasurably. He gave you a lot of feedback there, but you've chosen to ignore it, just because a lot of it is negative. Interesting...

And yes, I'm fully aware that this contradicts what I initially said, but after Sean's post and your response, I think it does deserve an answer.

On the other hand, you've stated that this compilation is not geared towards people like ourselves, but to the more casual gamer. In that case, surely you just need to make a decent UI, becuase Joe Bloggs isn't necessarily going to be able to (or want to) use an emulator off the net anyway. They just want something that's easy to use, and surely in its current state, you must realise that your compilation doesn't actually offer that?

Feel free to post a reply and if need be we can move the comments to a new thread.

Kindest regards,
Darran

Sorry been at a meeting most of the day so only just read this - No - I have taken any comments onboard about the menu etc. and where we practically can we will make changes as we go along , in fact if changes are made we will make then even to V1 on the next pressing etc. my issue as you know was the implication we were trying to rip people off , which was not the case , Alten8 has always had the aim of fair deals to both authors and users.

All being well , someone very well known to all retro fans will be coming onboard the company soon , and they will be running and organising things / issues like QA , game dev , etc. which at this point , as all of Alten8 has been self funded , and run to a greater extent totally by me , things will change very soon , so whilst I cannot promise to be all things to all men overnight , watch this space , and all that sort of thing.

DS and Wii , retro games etc. from us will have a much much higher QA for example.

SAV1 is a product 'made' about a year ago in real terms , and things have moved on since then , and where real issues exist we will do what we can with them , the issues about the USB pad was that it was never done with anything but using a keyboard in its spec. in mind (having said that its seems some people can use a pad some cannot ?) . We had no choice but to have a product , made from scratch , with a tiny tiny budget (if you know anything of the history of Alten8 originally this and other games were supposed to come out through another 'bigger' publisher , who then changed their mind and pulled the plug on the whole thing , leaving me to personally fund the whole company and put my own money and neck on the line , we have no multi-million pound investment (and its not a dig , but even Imagine Publishing has this safety net of external funding - we do not) , that worked with a variety of types of games , self loaded as much as possible , and allowed us to pay the 50 authors and try to make a small profit , not forgetting on average , that after - the artists , the shops , the distributors , manufacturing costs , storage , VAT etc etc. comes out of £4.99 there is not a lot left. Like it or not these are the facts / choices we / I , had to make , its not perfect I admit , it works to a greater extent , it has to be a range of things to a range of people , and where it can be improved / revised it will be. These are not excuses , and I am sure you will say , yes but unless it was 100% you should not have released it etc. and in a perfect world I would agree , BUT the points I feel which were not covered was the fact -

* this is the first / only to my knowledge , legal , licensed game collection of this size (as in this era) of spectrum games , where the authors will get paid etc.

* this is not a pirate disc , like the ones which have been made / sold / floating around for the past few years

* it does have some top games on it , many number 1 games in their day

* yes it does have some faults / flaws , BUT it did not need to be shot down in flames , when it could have also mentioned a few more of the positive sides as well.

Hope that answers your questions better.
Regards

[The Last Ginja]

It finally arrived yesterday (why later than most people?).
Anyway, things that are good;

loved the Samuari Warrior article (big fan of this back in the day)
- Also enjoying the GnG article (although would have like a comparison of the home computer versions in a boxout - always enjoy comparing the speccy/c64/cpc versions)
- Great Oli cover
- Codemasters look back is interesting

on the down side;

-more and more sex adverts
-bargain hunt still taking up valueable space
-I had hoped the dropping of the A-Z, would have meant that the lookback would have spread to 4 pages

Overall a really good issue (although, I've only read about half of it so far)

Well, if you will live in Scotland....