Retro Gamer on NowGamer
Imagine’s answer to EuroGamer, NowGamer, went live recently. With the publisher having a dedicated retro magazine—the rather spiffy Retro Gamer—it should come as no surprise that NowGamer offers a dedicated retro section.
Most of the section appears to be reprint, but there’s some great stuff in there, including a slew of making-of articles, a smattering of company profiles and a couple of ‘def guides’ to videogame series. A fairly random selection of my own articles has been reprinted on the site, including The Making Of: Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, where I interviewed Steve Meretzky about his collaboration with Douglas Adams.
The game itself remains one of the meanest, toughest and funniest pieces of interactive fiction to date, and with the original article buried away in an old issue of Retro Gamer (and not making the cover nor even the contents pages), it’s great to see it get another airing, not least because Steve Meretzky was a wonderful interviewee. I hope that we can one day talk about the controversial Leather Goddesses of Phobos, which would make for a fun making-of in the mag.
Elsewhere, you can also read my making-ofs on seminal soccer title Sensible Soccer, ubiquitous action puzzler Tetris, US platformer Miner 2049er, fantasy/chess mash-up Archon, and overhead bouncing ball action game Bounder.
As for the magazine itself, Retro Gamer’s on the stands, priced £4.99, and can be bought from retrogamer.net. The current issue includes a making-of Space Invaders, Amiga and Mega Drive retrospectives, and my interview with Ed Rotberg and Andrew Burgess on their classic S.T.U.N. Runner.
It’s been awesome to read interviews with both “Mr Space Invaders” in this RG, and of course your interview with “Mr Pacman” in the previous issue.
Haven’t had a look at NowGamer yet, thus proving the “minimum frequency of 3” theory of advertising. (ie once I see it advertised in RG for the 3rd month in a row, I might get around to it)
Mind you, the “tick the platforms you give a toss about” feature sounds pretty cool. Possibly “web 3.0” to coin a phrase. (Hmm, better write a book & start a lecture tour while I’m still hot)
A couple more entries and Imagine would be able to put together a making-of title with the very best and most important arcade games of all time.
As for NowGamer, it’s not bad—well, at least now they’re actually crediting me for what I wrote.
When did RG go up in price?
That be a wee typo. I guess the fact every other mag seems to be £5.99 got my fingers to hit the wrong key. As of RG 62, it still remains a penny under a fiver. Thanks for the spot!