German Retro Gamer issue 2

[kleinemaus]

Out now.
Again, like issue 1 a compilation of previous RG issues, well packed together and worth getting.

[kleinemaus]

already for sale on ebay:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/retro-GAMER-Heft ... 27d0693241

One thing bugs me from the cover: Made in Germany, somehow I don't think so.

[kiwimike]

We need one manufactured down under. An Australian one would sell well and cater to the Pacific, saving a fortune in freight costs. And can have some Hong Kong and Australasian specific features too!

[kleinemaus]

Got the mag today, Made in Germany is about German software companies. Looks a good magazine gonna read it at work today.

[kleinemaus]

Started to read it at work, it's like Issue 1 of the German Retro Gamer, a compilation of previous RG articles, translated into German language, but....including the mistakes Retro Gamer made in the original English issues:

One article about piracy/copy protection mentioned Alternate Reality The City as a game for C64, Atari ST and Amiga (and converted to other platforms.
Again, a huge error, AR The City was an Atari 8-bit original and later converted to machines like C64 and others. Why oh why can't Retro gamer get this right about A8 computers? This is so annoying. So unprofessional.

[psj3809]

Its not a show stopper though is it ?

Of course it'll be the same as the english one but just translated, they wont go through the mag with a fine toothcomb to find any 'issues' before translation

Dont get me wrong i want articles to be correct but issues will happen (same as in the 80's) and to me theyre not huge mistakes which ruin my enjoyment of the mag. Did that article which mentioned Alternate Reality The City really ruin it for you ?

[SirClive]

But if you are re-printing and making changes (like a complete translation!) surely you would expect inaccuracies to be corrected (if they have been made aware of them that is). I assume the issue here though is that they have only been mentioned in the forum, which I assume their QA department don't frequent.

[kleinemaus]

Its not a show stopper though is it ?

Of course it'll be the same as the english one but just translated, they wont go through the mag with a fine toothcomb to find any 'issues' before translation

Dont get me wrong i want articles to be correct but issues will happen (same as in the 80's) and to me theyre not huge mistakes which ruin my enjoyment of the mag. Did that article which mentioned Alternate Reality The City really ruin it for you ?

I'm sorry but to me they are (huge mistakes). I mean Philip Price and Gary Gilbertson were top programmers on A8, this is world known knowledge, Tail of Beta Lyrare, AR 1 and 2. They're like Richard Garriot, he's the most famous British programmer, known world wide for his creation of the Ultima universe.

If it happens once or twice, sure, can happen, but so many times?

I recently had it out with Darren about the wrong short article of Pengo in a previous issue of RG, the computer version was first on Atari 8 bit on cartridge, why did RG do just mention C64, 2600, 5200 and Game Gear. Why? Because it was cut and pasted wrongly from Wikipedia, obviously done without any research whatsoever (now corrected on Wikipedia)
Many more times the A8 was not mentioned, where it's needed. As I said before, it's like saying Jet Set Willy was on C16, C64 and MSX, not mentioning Spectrum. You just wouldn't do it.

[jimmyjimjim]

Might it just be that the Atari 8-bits weren't really that big or relevant in Europe and for most people so they sometimes get overlooked? It's a bit like Boulder Dash was apparently a game released first for on old Apple computer (or was that also an Atari 8 bit?), but I'm sure most people would see it as being a C64 game?

[psj3809]

Mistakes big or small i just cant see RG getting someone to go through with a fine toothcomb before getting it translated to another market. In an ideal world they would but i 'presume' because of time/money/budget they cant

Many of the 'mistakes' people spot i never notice and it doesnt affect my reading of the article. Mistakes will creep into the mag just as they did famously in the 80's mags (Thats why they had the Trainspotter Awards).

Like SIrClive says i doubt the QA department check the forum. But if say RG sells 15,000 copies in the UK, i cant believe they would bother to check for any inaccuracies for the german version which might sell 3000 etc.

[CraigGrannell]

Might it just be that the Atari 8-bits weren't really that big or relevant in Europe and for most people so they sometimes get overlooked? It's a bit like Boulder Dash was apparently a game released first for on old Apple computer (or was that also an Atari 8 bit?), but I'm sure most people would see it as being a C64 game?

Boulder Dash was A8 first, and when I did the Retro Gamer making-of, way back, people moaned at the time because of the lack of C64 shots. You can't please everyone, regardless of what you do.

psj3809's on the money with his comment. In terms of this particular production, no-one should be under any illusions as to what happens. These are reprint, pure and simple. They are designed to exploit (or, using kinder terminology, make more use of) existing content. When bookazines are done in the UK and for that market, there's still essentially naff-all budget, beyond perhaps a quick template-oriented redesign. With this German edition, I imagine someone was paid to do a quick and direct translation and design massaged accordingly (given that English-to-German translation often significantly expands the area required for copy). There certainly wouldn't have been the funds to fact-check the entire thing nor to rewrite much or even anything.

If more budget was available, I'm sure you'd see more changes, but that's just not reality in the niche magazine industry. For the recent Atari bookazine, for example, I'd have loved the lead images I filed at the time being used, rather than the bizarre choices by the then-designer, who used stuff I'd filed as 'spare' rather than the shots I'd spent hours shooting. But the truth is, these publications are purely there to maximise income from existing material. Hell, the contributors don't even get a copy when their work makes up a fifth or more of the publication as has happened to me on a number of occasions (not just for RG, but also elsewhere).

[hydr0x]

You should have done a fact check really. The German edition is completely revised. They even went so far as to alter the occasional UK-biased praise of certain games and systems. Several features have additional info boxes and the like focusing on the German market. On the other hand, they dropped parts of features (like the collector's guide checklists). The mag also has a few newly written pieces. So it is definitely more than a cheap translation.

[The Laird]

You should have done a fact check really. The German edition is completely revised. They even went so far as to alter the occasional UK-biased praise of certain games and systems. Several features have additional info boxes and the like focusing on the German market. On the other hand, they dropped parts of features (like the collector's guide checklists). The mag also has a few newly written pieces. So it is definitely more than a cheap translation.

That's very interesting and nice to hear, that they localised it in this way. You certainly would expect mistakes to be fixed if they are doing this.

Have they printed the NES Collectors Guide in the German edition yet? I bet they wouldn't know where to start correcting the mistakes in that article

[psj3809]

You should have done a fact check really. The German edition is completely revised. They even went so far as to alter the occasional UK-biased praise of certain games and systems. Several features have additional info boxes and the like focusing on the German market. On the other hand, they dropped parts of features (like the collector's guide checklists). The mag also has a few newly written pieces. So it is definitely more than a cheap translation.

Fair enough i stand corrected ! Thought it was just a standard translation job.

So yeah in this instance perhaps major mistakes should be corrected 'but' there is a level of mistake. Many people probably dont spot some of these mistakes or think 'i know this is wrong but its nothing major, i'll just carry on reading rather than join a forum to go on about any issues'. Again, they dont seem to be show stoppers.

I see the odd screenshot which is the wrong one when you read the text underneath it, but again it doesnt wind me up enough. Same for if they list a game and the formats its on, if i read 20 lines about all the 30 different platforms the game was on i would be bored rigid, just name a few and then say 'and others.' No need to list every single one.

Was anyone else here upset by the 'mistake' about Alternate Reality the Game ?

[Kai]

Nothing beats the original RETRO GAMER.
Period.