Is this really the best you can do?

[Mayhem]

Yeah, similar thought crossed my mind. The Amiga appeared to receive pretty much everything that the ST got, at either the same or better quality in general. If you showed me ten screenshots of ST/Amiga games and asked me to name which format of the two the screenshot was from, I think I'd struggle. Compared to telling the difference between games on other generation machines (Speccy/C64/Amstrad, NES/Master System, N64/PS1 etc).

[DreamcastRIP]

But there were some ST-exclusives so it'd be nice to see either a feature on them or articles on some of them individually. The ST of course had a decent demo scene which was part of gaming scene culture for many so reading an article about that would be of interest, imho. Given that we've had articles on the likes of board games and one that featured Simon then it doesn't seem unreasonable to hope for such a thing.

Caveat: I don't have every single issue of RG - I own all from the current publisher and a handful from the original publisher.

[The Laird]

This biggest problem with regards to the Atari ST is that it never gets mentioned at all.

Often when there is a feature on a game that appeared on both the ST and Amiga the poor old ST dosn't even get listed in the available formats!

Bit sad really when for a long time the ST was the best selling computer in the UK and vastly outsold other systems over here that get far more coverage like the prevously mentioned NES.

I myself am the lead writer for Atari User and and have always said that I would be more than willing to lend my knowledge to RG and contribute in any way I can.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

we don't tend to focus on the ST for the very reasons Mayhem mentioned.
That's not to say we shouldn't though. There's a retro revival on Oids in the next issue and we're looking at getting similar stuff in the mag. Maybe a top 25 Atari ST exclusives (although looking at the lists, that doesn't seem to offer a lot of choice

Emulation is also a real censored on it, another reason why we don't tend to do a lot of stuff in-house. Then there's the complete lack of pitched features about the machine. If we get pitches and they're interesting and well written I have absolutely no problem covering them. Just like with any subject that could appear in the magazine.

If I don't reply for the rest of the night, I'm not ignoring anyone, I'm just watching Predator 2.

[DreamcastRIP]

... There's a retro revival on Oids in the next issue and we're looking at getting similar stuff in the mag...

I spoke too soon! Great to hear.

[The Laird]

Maybe a top 25 Atari ST exclusives (although looking at the lists, that doesn't seem to offer a lot of choice

I don't think that would be hard to do at all, especially with all the early Atari Soft stuff. I could probably knock up something like that pretty easily if you are interested . . . . .

[jdanddiet]

Predator 2 f**king rocks!

[Fawltykog]

How about a feature on "ST Wars" a fairly good Battlestar Gal...opps...Star Wars type game that came out before?* the SW arcade game.

Hell even a paragraph or two and a pic would be nice

*I stand (and sit) to be corrected.

[CraigGrannell]

In fact, I'd like to look at some numbers, like how many magazines are sold within the UK and how many are sent abroad.

There's no way in hell any publisher that's not releasing ABCs is going to release sales figures, and especially ones broken down by market. However, with niche titles in general, overseas readership is generally a fairly small percentage. In the past, magazines I've worked on sold maybe ten per cent overseas, and up to about a third of copies as subscriptions. I've no idea if that tallies with Retro Gamer's figures or not (and I suspect its niche appeal might skew figures more towards subs and worldwide), but the fact remains any UK mag needs to continue to gel with its core market (UK sales) in order to survive. Growth elsewhere is usually considered a bonus (especially given how fickle overseas distributors can be). (Again, note I am NOT speaking for Retro Gamer here—just offering generic information based on my experience in publishing.)

Of course, digital is causing a massive upheaval in this area, and it's now much, much easier to get content worldwide, but it's still nonetheless hardly surprising Retro Gamer is 'biased' towards the UK in the same way that, say, Wired is 'biased' towards the US. (And I'm talking US Wired here, not UK Wired, which typically rather ham-fistedly welds UK boxouts to clearly US-originated articles.)

That's one of the problems I have with the magazine. Not the fact that they don't review emulated games, but the fact that they do. "The Unconverted" is a bit like those YouTube videos, where kids just play through random games they haven't seen before, and comment on what they see.

I see that as a light-hearted look at games people might not have heard about before, balancing out the weightier in-depth articles elsewhere. A lot of a magazine is about pacing. And while I agree that it would be lovely if every RG writer was armed with every system and a ton of arcade cabs, practicality gets in the way of that. Maybe I've been missing stuff in recent issues, but I don't really see a great deal of writing about emulation at all—articles are about the games, and emulation is mostly only referred to when it's interesting (such as when a game can't be emulated).

But from a writer's perspective, I can't see how, say, my piece next month on The Hobbit would have been improved at all if I'd played the game on a real Spectrum as opposed to on an emulator—and the same goes for the vast, vast majority of other articles I've written for the mag. It'd be interesting to hear what other writers think about this.

[Morden]

I've no idea if that tallies with Retro Gamer's figures or not (and I suspect its niche appeal might skew figures more towards subs and worldwide), but the fact remains any UK mag needs to continue to gel with its core market (UK sales) in order to survive.

The way you explain it almost makes me think of Retro Gamer as a struggling publication, while it's presence and general popularity would suggest otherwise, but impressions and reality can be two vastly different things, and I've seen more than one magazine disappear while they were seemingly doing just fine, or at least not bad. Still, too bad there's no way of obtaining those figures.

(...) But from a writer's perspective, I can't see how, say, my piece next month on The Hobbit would have been improved at all if I'd played the game on a real Spectrum as opposed to on an emulator—and the same goes for the vast, vast majority of other articles I've written for the mag. It'd be interesting to hear what other writers think about this.

To me it's not all about emulation accuracy, but, to a degree, about having respect for the medium and showing it proper appreciation. With that said, I think playing games on genuine hardware can and should impact the review, especially when controls are discussed. Playing a C64 game on a keyboard, or using a console controller connected to the computer differs greatly from a classic joystick, and moves that were once considered joystick breakers become simple button presses. That's just one example, and I don't even know what type of controllers people are using to play their emulated games. You can pretty much play anything with almost everything these days. I guess what I'm generally against is this mindset that all things old are free on the internet, and all of a sudden there's more emulator ninjas who know everything and have played everything, than there is people with genuine love for the oldies and actual life experience with them. Standing in front of an arcade cabinet, staring at the looped attract mode, wanting to play a game, but discovering we've already spent all of those loose coins is something completely different than running MAME and pressing a button for a free credit.

[CraigGrannell]

The way you explain it almost makes me think of Retro Gamer as a struggling publication, while it's presence and general popularity would suggest otherwise, but impressions and reality can be two vastly different things, and I've seen more than one magazine disappear while they were seemingly doing just fine, or at least not bad. Still, too bad there's no way of obtaining those figures.

By niche, I mean anything that isn't a mainstream publication. In the current UK market, that accounts for all videogame magazines, and quite a large number of titles to do with computing and design (versus the likes of fashion and lifestyle magazines, say) and much more besides. My main point was that any title released in country 'x' needs to gel with said country, because that's where most of its sales will be. I've seen Retro Gamer in the USA and Europe, but I'd be very surprised to hear that sales are anywhere near even in terms of UK/overseas.

It's also worth noting that, historically, the niche end of the UK market has been pretty resilient to market changes; and so when a title's selling under, say, 25,000 per month, it usually has a core, dedicated following that makes it less prone to problems than publications reliant on massive readership figures and advertising. (This is why you'll see niche UK publications celebrating when they sell around 25k, but similar US publications freaking out when sales fall under 100,000.)

To me it's not all about emulation accuracy, but, to a degree, about having respect for the medium and showing it proper appreciation. With that said, I think playing games on genuine hardware can and should impact the review, especially when controls are discussed.

The thing is, the vast majority of coverage in Retro Gamer isn't review-oriented. Most of the features are closer to historical documentation, and in such cases it's more about quizzing those behind the games than ensuring you have a genuine copy of certain hardware and software. I do agree that there's an element of entitlement online when it comes to media and gaming, but, as I said, I just don't see that in Retro Gamer. The publication barely mentions things like MAME and emulation; generally, it just talks about the games and how they were created.

[Greyfox]

This biggest problem with regards to the Atari ST is that it never gets mentioned at all.

Often when there is a feature on a game that appeared on both the ST and Amiga the poor old ST dosn't even get listed in the available formats!

Bit sad really when for a long time the ST was the best selling computer in the UK and vastly outsold other systems over here that get far more coverage like the prevously mentioned NES.

I myself am the lead writer for Atari User and and have always said that I would be more than willing to lend my knowledge to RG and contribute in any way I can.

I completely second this, THERE should be more Atari ST Coverage in retro Gamer, all of latery is c64, speccy, nintendo etc..Atari has mostly been ignored , as has the Atari 7800, Retro gamer magazine has been offered first hand help from someone who has adept knowledge base on these subjects and is been fobbed off..not good

Darran..i think you should of been a Politican

[joefish]

we don't tend to focus on the ST for the very reasons Mayhem mentioned.

Err - this seems to me to be a debate about why there's no ST coverage whilst the mag is overflowing with Amiga coverage - which it clearly isn't. Sameyness of games doesn't seem to have been sufficient reason for dropping coverage of 8-bit computer or 16-bit console titles, so I don't see how it works as a reason to ignore 16-bit computer games.

There may have been fractionally more Amiga coverage than ST thus far, but generally, I see b*gg*r all of either.

[Trickster]

I just can say that I feel a little bit like the threadstarter. I was underwhelmed by the content of issue 100 and I only started reading Retro Gamer since issue 70 (have the eMags 1 and 2 though, but didn't look much into them yet).

I am already very tired of the content covering the 80s, especially the Speccy, Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Elite, Robotron and so on although I started playing on the C64 and the master system myself (I also had enough Sonic after your great Sonic issue recently).

What's up with some special insight into the games of Bullfrog? Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park?
Or Origin and Looking Glass? Thief, Ultima Underworld? (Thief 4 coming, hopefully)
Blue Byte and the Settlers series or Ambermoon?
Maxis and the Sim games? (sim city 5 announced just now)
Adeline Software and Little Big Adventure? (rumors about HD remake)

I really liked the Julian Gollop feature - but I'd love a detailed feature about the Ufo series (maybe in fall when the new game comes out? ).


Regardless, I have to point out that you are doing an awesome job with your magazine in general and I believe it is a very hard task to balance things out so that everyone is satisfied. And finding an interview partner or specialist for every topic must not be easy as well, I guess.

But I for myself wish I would drool from nostalgia more often.

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

we don't tend to focus on the ST for the very reasons Mayhem mentioned.

Err - this seems to me to be a debate about why there's no ST coverage whilst the mag is overflowing with Amiga coverage - which it clearly isn't. Sameyness of games doesn't seem to have been sufficient reason for dropping coverage of 8-bit computer or 16-bit console titles, so I don't see how it works as a reason to ignore 16-bit computer games.

There may have been fractionally more Amiga coverage than ST thus far, but generally, I see b*gg*r all of either.

As I've pointed out on numerous times, when people pitch articles we'll cover them.
Ashley Day likes his amiga, I'll have a word with him. We're also planning a best exclusive ST games as well, and we'll hopefully have a Cinemaware article in either issue 102 or 103. This is why constructive feedback is useful to us, so keep it coming.