Retro Gamer 84 Official Feedback Thread: The Christmas Issue

[RichL]

Yay! Finally it has arrived - with a ripped cover

[filecore]

Still waiting for mine. I'll give it till Friday then phone subs to send us a new one.

[Denny Haynes]

Still waiting here too.

Getting rather annoyed now, surely the snow didn't effect things this bad!

[NeilT]

And me still waiting, what has happened to all the West Midlands copies?

[Megamixer]

Bought this issue from the shops just as #83 popped through the letterbox after being forced to order it from the Imagineshop (West Midlands distribution problems). Yes, it took me ages to get a move on and order #83 online but I now have two brand-new issues to read!

Particularly looking forward to reading about the CPS Changer - a nice surprise article

[Graham Humphrey]

Still waiting for mine, too...

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, it seems - guess what was waiting for me when I got home from my first day at work!

[Mayhem]

It's probably the same delays on the mag that has made two parcels that were mailed about 10 days ago not turn up yet either...

[Rory Milne]

Stand out features for me this month were:

The Cover - one of the best RG covers to date, Oli Frey always did the best Christmas covers back in the day and this one is every bit as good.

Machina Obscura - really lived up to it's name this time round, had never even heard about the Capcom Power System CHANGER so this made for a great read.

Classic Game & Cheap as Chips - somehow missed out on playing Stunt Car Racer and Seymour Goes to Hollywood when they came out but after reading about them I might just have to give them a go.

The Unconverted - this is just such a great feature, Tecmo Knight being the little-heard-of highlight this month. Unconverted almost seems like a sister feature to Machina Obscura, keep the name though, Venatus Obscura would likely be one Latin named two-page-spread too many.

Making of Banshee - really interesting for me this, partly because of my Amiga related knowledge gap but equally because the crazy guys who came up with the game made it such an entertaining piece.

Best non-LucasArts Point and Clicks - never played a point and click title in my puff but I really enjoyed this, possibly because it took an overview of the genre rather than an in depth look at each game.

Desert Island Disks with Steve Woita - probably enjoyed reading this more than any other bit of the mag this month, full of fascinating anecdotes and interesting asides. The comment about Quadrun not getting a proper release because a bunch of small girls didn't think it was anything like Ms. Pac-Man was priceless.

A Moment with Richard Leinfellner - short but sweet, "A moment with" always makes for a nice little feature.

The Rare fest - similar to someone else who commented on this earlier I got to the end of this without realising it had been 16 pages long, so a definite success. And if a stronger RG-Rare relationship results from the interview that then leads on to a future no-holds-barred-reveal-all-interview with Mark Betteridge about his early days with ACG and Ultimate then that's fine by me.

So another really great isssue to make 12 really great issues this year, at this rate the mag will be getting an award or something!

<subliminal>More Import Only. More Import Only. More Import Only.</subliminal>

[mission1973]

Still waiting for mine too
Walsall , westmidlands here

[Joey]

Mine turned up this morning.

Be patient my children...

[ipmarks]

Hooray mine came today!
Sadly I'd already given in to temptation and bought a copy at the weekend.

So if anyone wants a pristine copy of RG 84 then PM me and I'll post it out to you gratis.

After the wait it couldn't really live up to expectations really... and it isn't my favourite issue of late to be honest. It's still well written, but the games/machines featured just weren't ones I have an interest in.The cover is brilliant though.

I did like the Rare feature, the regular back to 80's 90's were good, as was the adventure games article. I really enjoyed the C&VG mans column too (which I often don't), Iain Lee I've warmed to of late, but thought his column was a bit weak this month (and I'm sorry I really don't like the art style that illustrates those pages). Really enjoyed the obscure machine bit - think this could have been extended to more pages - would really like to see more of this type of feature. If I'm being really picky I think Shadow of the Colossus feels too recent (I can still remember the Edge and Games TM reviews) to be in the magazine... even as a future classic. And the Spectrum Untouchables screenshot is really confusing blown up, as all you can see is blue with a bit of black in it. I said it was picky.

I've read the rest, and it was good stuff, but as I said not always to my taste - but that's my problem, not the magazines.

Again if anyone wants/needs a free magazine then PM me.

[Timothy Lumsden]

thought the balance was a little too PC this month (IBM PC, not the politcal correctness PC).

I think that is an astounding comment, considering how rarely we get any PC coverage whatsoever. It was nice to actually have a bit of balance for once.

I'm proud - my first astounding!

You may well be right, that over the course of 12 issues maybe PC didnt get enough - but with 2 articles and the point and click (which is PC-ish), just pointing out that it made the issue feel a little PC heavy.

[mikeb]

Nice little behind-the-scenes on creating the new cover art by Oli Frey. Top stuff.

http://www.oliverfreyart.com/#/retroxmas/4546317670

[RichL]

WOW! Thats a lot of work that has gone in to the cover.

Do you think MS paid for the advertising on the cover this time?

[rainbird rich]

Huh... I thought the C64 version was a port from the 16 bit titles, but it was actually the lead development format? Learn something new...

Yes, the C64 came first in the development schedule. We didn't even see the 16-bit versions until the C64 was pretty much already done and dusted.