Old fanzine written by Rachel Ryan?

[MrBungle]

Not sure if this is the place to ask, but I was thinking about a fantastic fanzine I used to get written by Rachel Ryan and Simon Dominguez (the same one who contributes/contributed to this site?)

For the life of me I can't think what the fanzine was called and I have done some googling but most hits for Rachel Ryan seem to be for a porn star in the U.S. Did anyone else ever subscribe to it at all? I always like the feeling of being part of a unique club getting my RPG fix that way. There was no internet for looking up information, you had to wait for people to put those things together on a shoestring and share their passion for games.

Anyway, if anyone knows what the fanzine was called and what Rachel does these days, I'd be grateful for any info. I do wonder if she got a job in the industry she seemed so passionate about. Cheers

[Fastware]

Google says;( "Rachel Ryan" fanzine rpg) it's called Role call.

[Wil]

It was, indeed, Role Call. I've still got most of the issues lurking about as well as the Team Rocket one she and Simon briefly did. Anything they were involved in were guaranteed good reads. She did some articles for Future (NGC I think which gives you an rough idea of the date - early 2000s) but I haven't heard from her in years now.

[Duddyroar]

I miss fanzines.

[MrBungle]

Ahh yeah, Role Call, thanks very much. I did try my best searching google but I didn't know about adding any kind of punctuation etc.

I miss fanzines as well. They seemed to have a passion that rarely comes across on websites. The nearest I can think of web-wise was Andrew Vestals Final Fantasy website that he did. That was awesome. Cheers

edit: the one downside to fanzines of course - no archives for them

I do recall another fanzine around the same time period called Journeys End I think? I bought a few of those but they didn't seem to be as regular as the Role Call ones. Can't for the life of me think of the girls name who wrote that one.

[Wil]

Weirdly enough I just happen to have an issue of Journey's End on my shelf here. Issue 17 with stuff on Lunar Star Story, Xenogears, Magic Knight RayEarth and Tales of Destiny amongst others. It was by Ann Simpson but I never met her as I did Rachel and Simon. Another good RPG fanzine you might remember was a US one called Shining Forth. The same b/w A5 format as JE and really well written.

Was Andrew Vestal's FF site Illucia? Basically a whole FF-esque town that you could walk around? I also remember him moving onto doing an airship/spaceship? one that was never completed. Both amazing sites, though. I wrote to him once and said so!

Edit - Tatsushi Nakao was responsible for the town of Illucia.

[MrBungle]

Ah yeah, Ann Simpson. I wish you could easily find information online about what they are all up to now. I did speak to Ann a couple of times on the phone but never met her. I've got some Journeys End fanzines lying around here as well somewhere.

A mate of mine has a shop in chinatown that used to do import games - I saw Rachel and Simon in their one day. I didn't know who they were, but my mate mentioned that they made a magazine. I don't know why, but I felt stupid going up and speaking, so I stayed quiet and left them be. I should have told them what a cracking fanzine they made.

I used Andrew Vestals site when I think it was just the unofficial squaresoft page. I was using it daily as I had just gained net access and was playing Final Fantasy 3 (6) and it was amazing seeing all these hints and secrets. I'd never seen anything like it before. The closest had been the back page stuff Superplay did every month covering a different character in the game. Good times! gaming doesn't quite have that feel for me anymore. I still enjoy it, but there was something special about it back then.

[Wil]

Good times! gaming doesn't quite have that feel for me anymore. I still enjoy it, but there was something special about it back then.

I feel the same way but I'll put it down to it being newer then and that the internet didn't immediately put everything at your fingertips.

I've re-ingnited a bit of my love for games by finally realising what made me excited about console gaming back then. It was the thrill of getting weird and wonderful Japanese games that a lot of time I couldn't understand and, often more than the games themselves, all the emphemra that surrounded them - the boxes, artwork, books and stuff like fanzines. After years of gradually moving over to getting western releases and *shudder* PAL titles I'm now only buying Japanese stuff, and then only the odd titles. It's not quite the same as before but it's better.

[thebuddahman]

I used to write a fanzine, back in the N64 days! I got featured in N64 Magazine TWICE - back then writing a fanzine (before the internet got huge) was my favourite thing ever. Aaah the memories!

[MrBungle]

I used to write a fanzine, back in the N64 days! I got featured in N64 Magazine TWICE - back then writing a fanzine (before the internet got huge) was my favourite thing ever. Aaah the memories!

I know it won't matter now, but give it a plug dude I still have all my old Superplay and N64 mags, I'll look it up!

Wil: I think what did it for me in the old days, was reading bits about a game and then trying to find somewhere here that imported and waiting for it to pop through the letterbox. My best memories were getting Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy 3. I didn't have much of a clue what they were about and had never played an RPG before. So it was, as you say, all new.

Nowadays I know pretty much everything there is to know about a game before I have bought it. I try to avoid as many spoilers as possible. But the net means you still get bombarded with screenshots and general information.

[Sketcz]

Resurrecting this thread....

She sells MD cables and other stuff on eBay.

I was looking for an RGB SCART for my modded MD1, and found that she mentioned writing for games mags. Curious to see if I'd read anything, I did a google and found this thread.

[Wil]

I might do a bit of scanning at some point and get a few old games fanzines (like Role Call) up online. If nothing else it might fire up the nostalgia glands for a few folk.

[Sketcz]

I bought a homemade Goldeneye guide/fanzine which was featured in N64 mag - it was ace. The guy had made detailed maps and explanations for everything, which was damned handy prior to my getting the internet and discovering GameFAQs.

Ahh, fanzines. I suppose all such budding creative types have gone online with websites and blogs.

[kincl4]

Not all Modnar!
Our new fanzine HyperPlay RPG will be print-only. It's all about retro RPGs, plus a bit of Nintendo magic too.

Please email [email protected] if you (or anyone else reading this) is interested in finding out more.

All the best.