Retro Gamer magazine contents index (in progress)

[bolda]

Does anyone have an index or some form of electronic record of the content of each issue of RG magazine? If so, I'd love to have a copy as I'd find this very handy... I have no idea which articles are in which issue, especially dating back to the Live publishing issues. So whenever I pick up a new game or system, I can't be sure if there is a relevant article in a past issue which I only skimmed over at the time.

Zipping my anorak up even further, I think it would be a handy thing to have as a sticky thread on here... maybe... just some sort of look-up table that lists all the articles in each issue (maybe going as far as what "type" of article it was, even what page it was on!?)

Right, I'm off to check my cds are all in alpahbetical order...

[CraigGrannell]

I have an Excel file that covers the first 25 or so issues. Maybe when I get a chance I'll update it and put it online for people to download. I won't have time for this until later in the summer, though.

[necronom]

A few weeks ago I started to do one myself. I got issues 2-22 done then my Brother came up from London to stay a while, so I haven't done any more since.

If you want mine too, I could save it in Excel format. I expect I'll do some more to it soon.

[Antiriad2097]

Perhaps if we all saw what existed already (hint hint Craig), we could each pick a later issue and do it in the same style so the results could all be compiled. Wouldn't take much effort divvied up like that.

[bolda]

Perhaps if we all saw what existed already (hint hint Craig), we could each pick a later issue and do it in the same style so the results could all be compiled. Wouldn't take much effort divvied up like that.

Yes, that's exactly what I had in mind. Even if we had to start from scratch and do the lot, if we had 20 volunteers we could do a couple of issues each. It sounds as though a large portion of the work is already done though.

I think the best format would be a sticky thread on here that could be updated once a month. That way, everyone could easily check what is in each issue - useful to refer to before people post things like "I'd like to see x game featured in RG"... it might also help people pick out back-issues they may wish to order.

You're right that it would all need to be in a standard format for each issue. It would also help if one of the mods could tidy up the thread to make sure everything's in the correct order (I don't know how easy this would be)

I'll see if one of those kind gents will send me their work-in-progress and we can take it from there...

[CraigGrannell]

My Excel spreadsheet has a lot of notes on it about various things, and so won't be made public without streamlining it some. However, I used the following columns:

Issue — the issue number
Page — the first page number
Topic — Advertising gallery/Arcade gaming/Back to the '80s/Boss rush/Chart/Cheap as chips/Collecting/Comics/Company overview/Conversions/Creating games/Desert Island Disks/Developer overview/Emulation nation/End game/Event/Game endings/Game overview/Global Gaming/Hardware overview/High score/Homebrew reviews/Import gaming/Interview/Magazines/Magic moments/Making-of/Misc/Movies/Music/Piracy/Platform overview/Playing games/Remakes/Retro reviews/Retro revival DPS/Series overview/Television/Whatever happened to...
Specific — the article title or game/series being discussed
Platform — the main platform. 'Various' used for multi-platform articles
Author — whoever wrote the piece
Notes — notes for additional info
Page count — the number of pages

Looking at the above, that covers most stuff, although I'd now make 'Specific' a means of drilling down from 'Topic' (i.e. Company overview > Palace Software), and add another column for the actual title of the piece.

[merman]

Old forumer "mel the bell" used to have a magazine index online.

It's a project I've thought about doing more than once, but just lacked the time...

[necronom]

Mine has Issue No., Title of article/feature, No. of pages and description.

I'll send it to you Bolda, and you can have a look.

It's unchecked, and might have typos etc, as I just typed it as I went along, and I haven't read anything I entered since then. I was trying to get as much done as possible in the time I had.

[bolda]

Thanks Necronom, I just received it - very speedy! I've given it a quick once-over and it looks like the kind of thing I was thinking of. I'll have a more thorough look tonight.

Thanks for the ideas too, Craig. A very thorough approach! I think we need something inbetween so that each entry gives a useful amount of detail but doesn't place too much burden on people doing the work (so more people are likely to volunteer to help!) Also the format is quite important as there is an obvious difference in styles between Live and Imagine issues - Imagine issues tend to keep to a well defined formula, moreso than the Live ones.

Hows about something like this...

Issue x
<Pages> : <Article Title> : <Author> : <Article Type> : <Platform> : <Description>

So taking an example from Necronom's index...

Issue 2
16-25 : Commodore Uncovered : Shaun Bebbington : Company Profile : Commodore : Covering the 8-bit Years
26-31 : Retro Remakes : Martyn Carroll : Developer Profile : Various Platforms : Featuring Retrospec and Ovine By Design
...

Each issue could be posted as an individual post to make it a bit easier to maintain the thread. Are there any more "criteria" that would be useful? "Author" would be nice but a lot of articles are not credited in the mag.

[CraigGrannell]

Hows about something like this...

Looks good to me. 'Page count' is in mine, because that's important from a research point of view, but I'm sure most readers won't give a monkey's about it not being there.

Each issue could be posted as an individual post to make it a bit easier to maintain the thread.

Makes sense; plus, there's a character limit on posts anyway.

"Author" would be nice but a lot of articles are not credited in the mag.

Use 'uncredited' for features and columns lacking an author. This can always be updated later anyway.

[bolda]

Ok, I'll start the ball rolling using Necronom's index as a basis. If anyone wants to join in and "do" an issue, post a message up here to "reserve" that issue and then edit your post once the issue is ready... many hands make light work, a problem shared is a problem halved, too many cooks spoil hmmm...

Ideally we'd keep all the issues in order but perhaps the order can be sorted out later?

Right, here goes...

[bolda]

Issue 1

8-15 : Sinclair Researched : John Southern : Hardware Profile : Sinclair : Features Sinclair machines from ZX80 to QL
18-23 : Return of the Rings : Martyn Carroll : Game Series Profile : Various Platforms : Explores retro "Lord of the Rings" games
24-29 : Hall of the Miner King : Martyn Carroll : Game Series Profile : Various Platforms : A look at all the Miner Willy games
30-52 : Top 100 Games : Various Authors : Charts : Various Platforms, including...
32-33 : Top 10 Atari 2600 games : Paul Loughrey
34-35 : Top 10 C64 games : Ben Alsip
36-37 : Top 10 Spectrum games : Martyn Carroll
38-39 : Top 10 Amstrad games : Steve McNally
40-41 : Top 10 BBC games : Dave Cusick
42-43 : Top 10 Sega Megadrive games : Aaron Birch
44-45 : Top 10 SNES games : Charles Brigden
46-47 : Top 10 Atari ST games : Anthony Howes
48-49 : Top 10 Amiga games : Anthony Buckley
50-51 : Top 10 Arcade games : Tom Sarent
52-59 : Mastertronic, a history : Anthony Guter : Company Profile : Various Platforms : Company overview and top-seller list
60-65 : Street Fighting Clan : Charles Brigden : Game Series Profile : Various Platforms : A look back at Street Fighter games
66-71 : Licence To Kill : Martyn Carroll : Various Game Profiles : Various Platforms : A look at the horror genre
73-83 : 1983 Advertising Gallery : Uncredited : Adverts : Various game adverts from 1983
84-91 : Emulation Nation : Martyn Carroll : Emulation Guide : PC : A guide to emulating various systems on the PC

[bolda]

Issue 2
16-25 : Commodore Uncovered : Shaun Bebbington : Company Profile : Commodore : Covering the 8-bit Years
26-31 : Retro Remakes : Martyn Carroll : Developer Profile : Various Platforms : Featuring Retrospec and Ovine By Design
32-43 : The Top 50 Retro Game Characters : Uncredited : Chart : Various Platforms : Run-down of top 50 characters of all time
46-51 : Inside Crash Towers : Matthew Uffindell : Company Profile : Various Platforms : Newsfield company history
52-57 : Play Another Day : Aaron Birch : Game Series Profile : Various Platforms : James Bond games look back
58-66 : Fantastic Dizzy : David Crookes : Game Series Profile : Various Platforms : The history of the Dizzy games
67-76 : Pieces of 8-bit : Richard Burton : Retro Collecting : Various Platforms : Collecting 8-bit hardware/software. Includes buyers' guides
78-85 : Retro Game Creator : Jason Darby : Game Development Tutorial : PC : Guide to game creation with Multimedia Fusion.
86-91 : Emulation Nation : Martyn Carroll : Emulation Guide : Various Platforms : Emulation on consoles
92-103: 1984 Advertising Gallery : Uncredited : Retro Adverts : Various Platforms : Llamasoft, The Birds and the Bees, Jet Set Willy, Crash Micro (Newsfield software), ZX Interface 2, Crystal Computing, Hewson Consultants, Knight Lore, Pitfall II, Battle Zone, Moon Patrol
114 : Endgame : Uncredited : End Game Sequence : Amiga/ST : The Secret of Monkey Island

[bolda]

Issue 3
14-21 : Acorn Archives : John Southern : Hardware Profile : Acorn Platforms : The Acorn range of computers
22-31 : Repton Retrospect : Richard Hallas : Game Series Profile : Various Platforms : Details of all the Repton games
32-49 : Retro Revival : Uncredited : Various Game Profiles : Various Platforms : A look at old games making a return: Space Invaders; Sabre Wulf; Altered Beast;Metal Gear; Ghosts 'n' Goblins; Doom; Prince of Persia; Spy Hunter; Mortal Kombat; NARC; Out Run; Shining Force; Shinobi; The Last Ninja; Castlevania; Contra; Ninja Gaiden; Met
50-54 : The Clone Wars : Anthony Buckley : Piracy Feature : Various Platforms : Piracy and the methods used to try to stop it
56-63 : Hero Worship : Dan Whitehead : Various Game Profiles : Various Platforms : Games based on Superheroes
64-69 : Cronosoft Chronicles : Martyn Carroll : Developer Profile : ZX Spectrum : Interviews with Cronosoft (Simon Ullyatt) and Jonathan Cauldwell
70-77 : Gaming on the Go : Kim Wild : Hardware Profile : Various Handheld Platforms : Handheld gaming. Includes a price guide.
78-85 : Arcade at Home : Uncredited : Arcade Collecting : Arcade : Collecting arcade machines. Includes a price guide.
88-97 : 1985 Advertising Gallery : Uncredited : Retro Adverts : Various Platforms : Rambo; Ocean; Yie Ar Kung-Fu; Monty on the Run; Amiga 1000; ZX Spectrum 128; Melbourne House; They Sold a Million
106-107: Ten of the Best : Uncredited : Chart : Various Platforms : Gremlin games. Part of the coverdisc section.
114 : Endgame : Uncredited : End Game Sequence : Sega Megadrive : Prince of Persia

[CraigGrannell]

FWIW, please now keep this thread clean of all replies other than those that have issue listings. Once it's done, I'll clean up the thread (removing non-listing posts) and pin it.