Retro Fusion Issue 1 in Gamestation soon...

[boyo]

Hi there,

Issue 1 of Retro Fusion will be hitting ALL Gamestation stores throughout the UK w/c 10th April 2006. Very shortly you will be able to pre-order your copy of the magazine on the website and in doing so ensuring you receive Retro Fusion before it hits the high streets.

It's been a great ride getting Issue 1 done and dusted and along the way we have acquired a number of highly recognised names onto the team.

First is Archer Maclean for Dropzone, International Karate, Jimmy White's Snooker, and more recently, Mercury fame. Archer has written a 3 page article on his restoration of an original Pacman cocktail cabinet.

Andrew Oliver has written a 4 page article on how it was like for him and his brother Philip developing the Dizzy games back in the 80's.

We also have a number of recognised Retro Gamer freelancers on board - Craig Vaughan, Spanner Spencer and Andrew Fisher.

Look forward to hearing your feedback on the forum - how about popping in and saying hello :-)

Regards,

Chris

www.retrofusion.co.uk

[knight_beat]

Wow! It looks so purty. Glad to see Horace is getting some retro love.

[Kaladron]

I'm not sure about the barcode in the middle of the page though. I like my covers to be unobstructed by such things...preferably on the back page.

[muse hunter]

*yawn* another predictable retro mag.

Archer maclean, dizzy, sonic, wow! its not like that has never been done before. Heres and idea how about a retro mag that DOESN'T focus on the 8 bit computers, you know this might sound a little too left field for some but give it a try, PLEASE!

[Kaladron]

*yawn* another predictable retro mag.

Archer maclean, dizzy, sonic, wow! its not like that has never been done before. Heres and idea how about a retro mag that DOESN'T focus on the 8 bit computers, you know this might sound a little too left field for some but give it a try, PLEASE!

Well the SAM Coupe doesn't get much coverage but I know what you mean. I'd love to see more left field stuff in the retro mags, which is why I enjoy watching Retro Core so much.

[boyo]

This is the first issue chaps so we will be covering lots of lesser systems in future issues. The Dizzy article was written by Andrew Oliver himself. And we are different in that we are covering all "Retro" stuff from the past such as TV, Comics, Toys etc

Give it a chance.

[Backdrifter]

Give it a chance.

That's pretty much what I'd say too. Being on 'the inside' I'm only too well aware that future issues will include the kinds of stuff you'd be hard pressed to see anywhere else. In fact, I'm currently working on a particular article, on the topic of a certain game that I reckon quite a fair few people will find pretty interesting. The subject certainly isnt a title that people mention too often. If at all.

[Yakumo]

Well the SAM Coupe doesn't get much coverage but I know what you mean. I'd love to see more left field stuff in the retro mags, which is why I enjoy watching Retro Core so much.

And that's why you won't see anything like Sonic, Mario or other "always talked about" games on Retro Core unless they are running on a less talked about platform such as Final Fight on the Sharp X68000.

I must say I love the A-Team van and Mr.T on the top though. Brings back memories of old CV&G mags before it went **** for some reason.

Yakumo

[Leon Retro]

*yawn* another predictable retro mag.

Archer maclean, dizzy, sonic, wow! its not like that has never been done before. Heres and idea how about a retro mag that DOESN'T focus on the 8 bit computers, you know this might sound a little too left field for some but give it a try, PLEASE!

We'll never get a magazine aimed at console gamers. Especially ones who grew-up playing Japanese import and arcade games.

For whatever reasons the Retro Scene in Britain is focused on 8bit computing. The people making the magazines are generally obsessed with that particular facet of retro.

Retro Magazines are a business, and they produce what they feel the market wants. Sadly.. their research must suggest that Dizzy, C64 and Spectrum are the most cherished retro products.

I personally grew-up playing Japanese made consoles and games. I'm not talking about obscure titles. Mario, Castlevania, Contra, Final Fantasy, Capcom arcade games, ' Shoot'em'ups ' etc... These are some of the titles I love and want to read about. I would also like articles on the more obscure stuff, a nice balance is needed to make things interesting.

Most people I know on this forum say they grew-up playing NES, MS, MD, SNES, PC-ENGINE etc... I hardly ever hear these people talking about 8bit computer games. Are we really a small insignificant minority???

I wish a fanzine like ' Electric Brain ' would come back. The internet is good, but a magazine also has it's nice points.

One thing that really gets to me is the lack of arcade game reviews and coverage. Surely all gamers have fond memories of visiting arcades and playing all the classic games. Why the hell don't retro magazines have sections dedicated to arcade reviews and features? All we get is people talking about their treasured Galaxian arcade machines... yawn!!!

[RetroRevival]

8 bit computing in the UK was cheap. We are talking pocket money games sold by the likes of Boots and the local corner shop. ?1.99 & ?2.99 games were commonplace. Its unsurprising that cassette based gaming was so popular back in the day when a Master System game would go for upwards of ?30. People just did not have the money back then to justify paying so much for a console game. Admittedly most of the budget cassette 8 Bit games were a pile of pap but there were a few gems dotted amoingst the masses of drivel. ?1.99 for a crap game is a better deal than ?30, and its this which propelled 8 Bit gaming within the UK, at least.

Its only natural that magazines dedicate their pages to the computers and games their target market will remember so fondly. You have to remember that its all about selling copies, not about what they want to write. You go commercial with a magazine and the future of it solely depends on wheter you can give the majority of the public what they want, hence the Sonic / Dizzy stuff seen just a month or so ago in Retro Gamer, albeit with a slightly different slant on the subject matter.

Yes it's *Yawn*, yes it samey, but you will never see the articles you want in a commercial magazine, there simply is not enough potential sales to make it justifiable. A black and white home printed fanzine is probably as close as you will get to the "NTSC-UK" style of magazine so many of you on here want to read.

The thing that gets me is that few people moan about the situation but no-one wants to change it.

Regards
Simon

[Kaladron]

One thing you I must point out is that most journalists working on retro games mags DO want to bring you in-depth articles on import and console games but detailed information and interviews are very hard to come by with Japanese sources. You can get interviews with the Japanese companies if your magazine has a large enough budget BUT that just isn't the case on the retro mags as their sales do not justify it.

[Yakumo]

Only two words to say that proves Japanese based game mags sell or did sell - Super Play ! Best SFC / SNES mag ever !

Yakumo

[Kaladron]

Only two words to say that proves Japanese based game mags sell or did sell - Super Play ! Best SFC / SNES mag ever !

Yakumo

The thing is that back then those games were fresh off the production line and readers were easger to hear anything about them. Now that plenty of time has passed those who are interested in console imports are looking for new, revealing information that can't come from just playing the game...and as I said, that info is very hard to come by if your sources are hundereds of miles away and speak another language.

There are ways of making this kind of feature work though. I'm currently researching information for a big Shining Force article. Camelot have been very uncommunicative so I've been left to improvise. I've had to hire the talents of a friend to translate interviews from Japanese and Korean in order to get some fresh, new info.

[Leon Retro]

I don't want to come across as being harsh towards retro journo's. It's obvious why 8bit computing dominates the magazines, and I fully understand!

Maybe we're not at a stage yet where the 90's generation are ready or want to buy retro magazines. Give it another 5years, and maybe the retro mags will be packed full of Neo Geo, Super Famicom, Megadrive, Saturn etc...

The people that were teens in the 80's are the main group making and reading retro mags. These people love the nostalgia of 8bit computers and games.

I am fond of certain old 8bit games(Arcade and console titles mostly!) Even though the NES and MS were popular, I hardly ever see articles and reviews about these classic systems.

As I said before, it seems very strange that arcade games don't get much coverage in retro mags. I have read enough about ancient 1980-82 machines, why don't we get features on all the other classic arcade titles from 85 onwards?

As much as I appreciate the need to focus on 8bit computing, it still seems strange that readers are supposedly content to constantly read about the same thing again and again. Do they really have little interest in the broader retro picture? Surely a more well rounded publication would still be acceptable to the majority and even attract new people.

Arcade and console gaming are the biggest most succesful part of gaming history, let's have more coverage!

[Mayhem]

What Kingston and Ash said... it's not that we don't want to write about them, or the interest and demand isn't there for people to read about it, but being able to research a lot of stuff, especially from source is bloody hard!

So obviously the people in the best place to write about 8-bit Japanese gaming are... funnily enough the Japanese. Which is why you see these great retrospective books out on various machines and games.

Btw I grew up playing on my C64 during the 80s, but I also played with the NES, Gameboy, Game Gear and such. They got sold because, as was pointed out, the games were far too expensive to buy (?40 for a NES title!) for someone on as little money as myself as a kid. There is also the fact I got C64 games for free when doing my Oracle Teletext stint