Official Feedback FOR ISSUE 47

[witchfinder]

The cover don't work, I can see what you were trying to pull off but you missed the target by miles and now it looks like a cheap version of RG that couldn't afford a colour cover. To make it work you should have left the IP logo in blue, left the berzerk pic (top right) in colour and the Seni football bloke.

Although I didn't go into as much detail as this, this was pretty much my exact feelings about the cover!

6 wasted pages on fruit machines with very little writing and huge boring pictures AND another page wasted with Pinball machine adverts

This doesn't bother me at all. I feel that Pinball and Fruit machines were all part and parcel of the arcade experience in the 80s and 90s and are therefore deserving of a little coverage in RG.

The Bargin hunt section is a waste of space and is completely out of date

An old favourite this criticism, but a valid one. If nobody at the mag is willing to do the research to update some of these prices, I'd happily do it for free! Also the Auction Watch, while improved recently, still has occasional nonsense like "Usually sells for £1, ended at no sale"

Another Xboz live round up, great for those 360 owners not so great for everyone else, you do realise there are other consoles download sevices than just the 360 don't you..?

I think there is a fair round up of each console's download service every few months, so this criticsim is a little unfair. However I was suprised that reviews of the recent 'retro style' Nintendo releases (Geometry Wars and Nights) didn't appear.

[Opa-Opa]

I think doing one or the other download services each month means that those sections of the mag are of no use to people without that months machine, mix 'em up and that problems solved.

The Fruit machines were never a part of the arcade experiance, they killed the arcades as greedy owners all set their new cash guzzlers at 95% no win rate.. No skill, no game and no right being in a magazine about gaming when they were one of the major factors in the demise of a big part of our hobby..

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Nights: Journey of Dreams, Super Mario Galaxy, Ghost Squad, Geometry Wars Galaxies and Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games.

All appear in the next issue

[RocketRanger]

The Fruit machines were never a part of the arcade experiance, they killed the arcades as greedy owners all set their new cash guzzlers at 95% no win rate.. No skill, no game and no right being in a magazine about gaming when they were one of the major factors in the demise of a big part of our hobby..

If you read the article, it makes exactly this point. The feature was on how video-game IP is still used by fruit machine manufacturers despite how they have pushed video games out of the arcades.

[Antiriad2097]

You're not the first person to say this. There's been a few other comments on other forums that there's been far too much 8-bit coverage recently. I'll have to get the balance stick out again...

Just to even things out a little, I've been really enjoying the current bias. Yet to read much of this month's mag, but there are several interesting articles in there - certainly the lead Elite one, but also Berzerk, EA and Atari ones with a few of the smaller bits also catching my eye.

[mikeb]

I have to say, personally, content-wise this is one of best issues for me in a while. Cover-to-cover retro goodnesss.. yummy.

[CraigGrannell]

The reason that some people are finding nothing much of interest in this issue is because it's just full of rubbish that has nothing to do with Video Games

Avoiding the collecting/high-score and back-to stuff, we have in the current issue:

- eight pages on Elite
- two pages on Ristar
- four pages on Chip's Challenge
- two pages on T2
- six pages on EA
- six pages on Berzerk
- an interview with Will Wright (four pages)
- four pages on Magic Carpet
- eight pages on the A800XL
- ten pages on videogame racers
- and four RR spreads (Pokémon Snap, Oh Mummy, Rival Turf, Burning Force)

For 'non-gaming', we have Stu's pinball feature (which actually references videogaming anyway), standing copy, and a few bits of news.

While I understand that some people are narked about articles on related topics (although I personally almost always enjoy reading Stu's stuff), I find it impossible to argue that the current issue is "just full of rubbish that has nothing to do with Video Games"...

[Opa-Opa]

1 page of pinball flyers
1 page for a binder advert (why so much, whats wrong with half/quarter page?)
1 page for the RG DVD (could have been another half page advert)
1 page with a screen shot of SimFarm and quote from the article..? don't you think thats a bit much?
6 pages of fruit machines (enough said)
10 pages of racing games which has to said, is pretty lazy and boring. Show us 5 of the best racers ever and spread it over the 10 pages, detailing why they are so great. Not just try and squeeze as many racing games as you can think of in there to make it look like a massive article.
6 more wasted pages in the bargin hunt section, which as we have already said is next to useless as a price guide because it is so out of date.

I make that 26 wasted pages.
People have already stated that the issue has less content to keep them ocupied until next months, I was just pointing out some of the reasons why this maybe the case, not detailing the stuff which people don't seem to have a problem with like yourself.

[SirClive]

I disagree about at least 16 of those pages being wasted. 10 pages for the driving run down was good, even the fruit machines is good as it IS game related (unlike the pinball one).

The content this month is not as appealling to me (and probably hasn't been for the last few issues), but wasted pages is harsh.

[Opa-Opa]

I disagree about at least 16 of those pages being wasted. 10 pages for the driving run down was good, .

But could have been a lot better, Unirally.? Diddy Kong Racing.? not really the best that there is to offer in the "racing" department and lets not forget Chase HQ, which isn't a racing game at all, who are you racing against, where are you racing too..? It's a driving game, not a racing game. It's like these games are squeezed into little boxouts to bring the game count up this issue.

I'm not saying a 10 page feature on the best racing games would be a waste of pages, but I am thinking the way it's been done this time could have been a lot better and is therefore a wasted opportunity.
Some times Less is more

It's starting to sound like I don't like this issue, I do, and there are some very interesting articles and features, but I am just pointing out the bits I thought were not up to much, not the things I really like about the issue.

[bensonrad]

Dreamcast re-release game is mentioned in the news section, where do I get this from though, you can hint if you can't put up on here, only place I can find it is playasia, but that seems to be the original and is pretty pricey. Cheers

[LeeT]

1 page for a binder advert (why so much, whats wrong with half/quarter page?)
1 page for the RG DVD (could have been another half page advert)

They aren't really editorial though, so many pages are allocated for adverts each month, so if they weren't RG orientated they would have been for other Imagine mags or more pr0n (which would have resulted in more complaints from some members).

[CraigGrannell]

People have already stated that the issue has less content to keep them ocupied until next months, I was just pointing out some of the reasons why this maybe the case, not detailing the stuff which people don't seem to have a problem with like yourself.

That's fair enough. What I disagreed with was your point that the issue is "just full of rubbish that has nothing to do with Video Games". I was trying to point out that I don't think this is the case, based on page count. I guess when you list everything you hate about an issue (which is fine when you do so constructively, as in this thread), it might be good to balance it with stuff you think works, and tell us why.

Also, some of your examples probably need some feedback from a publishing standpoint, which may explain their inclusion:

1 page for a binder advert (why so much, whats wrong with half/quarter page?): Advertising pages are pretty much always defined on an equal basis per issue. Pages unsold are usually used for house advertising. Remove this advert and there would be no budget for what to replace it with.

1 page for the RG DVD (could have been another half page advert): See above.

1 page with a screen shot of SimFarm and quote from the article..? don't you think thats a bit much?: Personally, no, because Retro Gamer is a magazine, not a novel. All magazines use a lot of imagery within articles (often as leading pages), and Retro Gamer is no exception. In the case of videogames, I think it's good to have decent imagery at a good size. (Remember that people not so long ago were moaning that many of the ads were too small!) Again, from a budgetary standpoint, you wouldn't be getting more text if these kinds of images were removed—just fewer pages.

6 more wasted pages in the bargin hunt section: Standing copy is a fact of life in the magazine trade, especially when it comes to niche publications. Remove Bargain Hunt and it wouldn't be replaced, which would drop the page count, in turn reducing advertising rates, and therefore leading to a smaller per-page budget for the resulting magazine. I agree that it needs updating, however, and Darran's said this is on the to-do list.

[Ash]

Dreamcast re-release game is mentioned in the news section, where do I get this from though, you can hint if you can't put up on here, only place I can find it is playasia, but that seems to be the original and is pretty pricey. Cheers

It was re-released in just one chain of shops in Japan and is undoubtedly sold-out by now. It does mean that you might start to see a few more on eBay though, which should lead to a slight reduction in value.

[bensonrad]

Dreamcast re-release game is mentioned in the news section, where do I get this from though, you can hint if you can't put up on here, only place I can find it is playasia, but that seems to be the original and is pretty pricey. Cheers

Sorry just re-read that and released it was refering to coming out on the Wii not the DC. (or am I wrong again there?)