Bookazines or lack of.

[SpecTrePaul]

Hi there, I first discovered Retro Gamer at issue 100 and have been a subscriber ever since. During this time I have bought as many of the bookazines and back issues as I can that were still in print or via Ebay so have a good collection.
Recently I note there hasn't been a decent bookazine to purchase and this seems to be since moving to Future Publishing. (Correct me if I am wrong?)

The other day I was looking through listings on Ebay for back issues and noticed both Retro Gamer Anthology 1 and 2 so purchased them. They arrived through the post today and are great issues coving many of the old issue articles which I don't have.
These are proving to be a great read and so my question is, do you have any further bookazines planned? and also would you consider a Retro Gamer annual maybe twice a year maybe covering a lot of the older stuff with some extras thrown in?

Another thing which I guess would be difficult is if it would be possible to put back issues back into print? Starting from issue 1.
I know you can get them online but I really like having the paper version in my hand to read, all things being retro and all

[psj3809]

Yeah i've been disappointed by the lack of bookazines. I dont buy GamesTM (I would want just the Retro section) so the Retro compilations they brought out before were great

Hasnt been one for ages. Since Future took over the lack of bookazines has been terrible

[thegamesnotoveryet]

Well, in my experience, most of the Bookazines have stayed pretty much the same for the last several years. The annuals & other books just pretty much reprint past info about a topic from past issues of Retro Gamer(Amiga, Annuals, SNES, Atari, Playstation, etc). I own all of those and then several times a year, many of those just get revisions, which I personally stopped buying. As most issues would just get some slight info updated, or the like, and wasn't worth paying full price for a second or third time.

Of course for new subscribers, those past bookazines may cover issue info they don't have access to(due to being OOP), so certain issues may be a good buy. I would for sure like to maybe see some actual "new" books, with info or subjects that haven't been covered in the past. But in recent times, there just seems to be not so much "new", and plenty of "revisions", which for sure needs to change, at least IMO.

[spacedmonkeys]

I have pretty much all of the bookazines since the original first issue ... I've never bothered with the revised editions, there's usually only a couple of pages of new stuff.
I have them all on a shelf and it is obvious looking at them how thin they have got as time has gone on. The originals were 250 pages or so.
Things went a bit weird with Classic Gaming Volume 1, 2 and 3 which I guess were the Future publishing answer to Retro Gamer Collection and the Retro Gamer Annual / Retro, both of which are also now a bit confused .. I have issues of "Retro", "Retro Gamer Collection" and now "Retro Gamer Annual". It would be nice if one "brand" could continue... perhaps get rid of them completely and just continue along the Classic Gaming branding?
I always found it strange too how the bookazines were never advertised in GamesTM, and had to randomly stumble upon them in WHSmith to even know they were out. I missed a few this way and had to order online.

Some sort of clarity/direction for the bookazines would be nice, as well as some new ones as per the original post...

[SpecTrePaul]

Yes the re-prints with small updates I have stopped buying, eg the Videogames Hardware as I don't see the price warrants a couple of articles difference.

The Retro bookazine was great with past articles from Games as I don't buy the Games magazine as only wanted to read the retro sections but have not seen one of these for a while and currently have volumes 1, 4, 6, 8 and 9. Not been able to source the others.

I would also like to see another PC Gamer one on Indie Games as they have only done 1 and I am an Indie Developer too.
I would even subscribe to a magazine on Indie Games to be honest.

My wish for bookazines would be past issue releases, starting at issue 1 of Retro Gamer. So how I would see it work would be bookazines called Retro Gamer Rewind with volume 1 having issues 1, 2 and 3 in it one after the other as a straight print, volume 2 with issues 4, 5, 6 and so on.
I think this would be pretty straight forward for Future Publishing to reprint in this way and would give people like me a chance to have back issues in print as I am sure there are many people who didn't start from issue 1. This could be done 2 to 3 times a year and would allow Future Publishing to create more revenue for some years to come with little to no effort as it would only need a new cover.

I sit wishing

[kiwimike]

I do like the Bookazines, they are great way to keep good features of your favourite consoles/games in the bookcase without taking up the massive space stacks of mags take, which I had to cut back to save room.

It is overdue for a new decent bookazine of some description

[knight_beat]

I'm starting to feel paranoid that this thread is a clever marketing ploy!

https://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/ ... e-you-die/

[SpecTrePaul]

Well unbelievable, I will have a look in WHS for that one. I don't work for them, honest.

I would still like to see the back issue idea

[psj3809]

Well unbelievable, I will have a look in WHS for that one. I don't work for them, honest.

I would still like to see the back issue idea

Ha ha funny this has just appeared. Cant see it yet on the GamesTM app, once theres a digital version i'll buy it

[kiwimike]

I'm starting to feel paranoid that this thread is a clever marketing ploy!

Never thought of that. Perhaps it is... The new bookazine is a little pricier than the others I noticed too

[The Laird]

There are 3 new bookazines out now - The Ultimate 80s Collection, The Ultimate 90s Collection and 100 Games to Play Before You Die.

[psj3809]

There are 3 new bookazines out now - The Ultimate 80s Collection, The Ultimate 90s Collection and 100 Games to Play Before You Die.

Yeah the 100 games one sounds great but at the mo no option to buy digitally. The other two sound interesting but just really interested in gaming. Miss the small digits issues they used to do which were quite cool (Ocean one etc)

[spacedmonkeys]

Is there actually any new content in the "100 games" one I wonder? Also the price has skyrocketed.. £15.99 inc delivery. It's also as I said above a deviation from any sort of "branding" again. And I can envisage a yearly "revised edition" to take in to account new games. Not sure on this one.

[kiwimike]

Is there actually any new content in the "100 games" one I wonder? Also the price has skyrocketed.. £15.99 inc delivery. It's also as I said above a deviation from any sort of "branding" again. And I can envisage a yearly "revised edition" to take in to account new games. Not sure on this one.

Agreed. Price has gone from $20-$22 US to around $26-$27 for international customers on the site. That's quite a leap.

[bensonrad]

I did buy all the bookazines to start with, but a year back I just got fed up of spending money on what was just reprinted info from RG. I do/did keep collecting the Retro bookazines, thing is those always end up reduced or in a sale on the website, I was missing Volume 10 and it was 30% off last week, but found a guy on ebay with 3 (new) copies at £6.50 posted each. So completed my set there.