Not too long ago I discovered a magazine online called Retro Gamer - it is a magazine published in the UK that is, as the name would suggest, dedicated to retro gaming. I wandered around their website (http://www.retrogamer.net/) for a while and they have some interesting stuff on there if you like old-school games like I do. I even found a few of the older issues online in PDF format so I downloaded them and checked them out to see what the magazine proper looked like and I liked it, but I'm the kind of guy that really needs the real magazine or book in my hand to enjoy it.
Well, last weekend I was in Fry's Electronics and as I was approaching the checkout line something caught my eye - a real copy of Retro Gamer Magazine! I was rather excited to see it in the real world so I bought a copy and checked it out. The main feature of this issue was a retrospective of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider games (and I thought she was hot back in the day on the PS1 - just look at her now!)
It also had tons of retro game reviews, an interesting article on the Atari 7800, a feature on the making of the classic Dreamcast game Shenmue, an interview with Atari legend game developer Ed Logg who created Asteroids, Centipede, Gauntlet, Millipede, etc on the making of the arcade game Xybots (which I hadn't ever even played before but now I see is listed as one of the games at the upcoming Houston Area Arcade Expo). Anyway - I could go on but the bottom line is I think it is a cool magazine that offers unique content you won't see in other gaming magazines. And it is very well made and professionally done. It looks as good or better than any other gaming magazine like Game Informer or Playstation: the Official Magazine.
Being a British publication the magazine is a bit more focused on UK-centric things like the ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC computers - neither of which I know much at all about, but they do plenty of material on the games more familiar to the US too. Plus, I found the new perspective (new to me) interesting. This issue introduced me to a British adventure game company called Magnetic Scrolls - I'd never heard of them but apparently they were quite popular in England and competed with Infocom over there. The universe keeps pulling me into adventure games lately for some reason.
The only drawback to buying it is the reason I probably won't be buying it regularly - the high price. It cost $10. $10! I really enjoyed the magazine but $10 just seems like way too much. Looks like you can buy them from their website for closer to $7.50 but I don't know what they charge for shipping it across the pond.
So check out the website and if you are in a Fry's - or possibly a Barnes and Noble - pick up a copy and give it a once over. You might just like it. I did.
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