Retro Gamer Magazine

[VideoGameCritic]

One of my best Christmas presents was a subscription to Retro Gamer Magazine. I got my first issue the other day, and reading it took me back to the glory days of video game magazines. You remember, when the magazines with big and colorful, with beautiful screenshots and articles that didn't take themselves too seriously.

This magazine covers them all... Dreamcast... Genesis... SNES...Atari 2600... you name it. There's even a fun mailbag section.
Since it's a UK magazine, there's definitely a soft spot for systems like the ZX Spectrum and Amiga which didn't get much attention in the states.

Here are some features for this month's issue:
- The Latest News From January 2001 (with sales charts too!)
- The 30 all-time greatest game systems.
- Reviews: Rocket Knight Adventure Venture, Earthworm Jim, Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse
- Retro Supercade review

I'm discovering all kinds of old games I've never heard of, like Super Skidmarks! That's hilarious.

With 114 big pages, I couldn't get over all the content in here. If you like my site, you'll love this magazine. Check it out. And no, I'm not getting paid to plug this! I just love video game magazines - the way they USED to be!

[jon]

The best time ever was 1995 right before the PS1 came out, because there was a sense of anything's possible. And video game fans were promised the moon at the time.

[Retro STrife]

Sounds like I may have to finally bite the bullet and subscribe to this.. Barnes & Noble sometimes gets a copy or two of these each month, and they sell for $15 per individual issue. I bought an issue of it several years ago, and thought it had a very slick presentation and really great features. On the negative side, it lacked the simple "pick up and read" ability that I generally look for in a gaming mag, so I ended up not reading most of it. Do you feel the same way Critic, or have they improved on that?

- The 30 all-time greatest game systems.

This sounds really interesting. Can you post the names of their top 5 or 10 systems for us? Very curious what they rank as #1... we've polled that question here on the forums, in terms of what we thought was objectively the best console, and the PS2 was the winner. I wonder where they rank it.

[VideoGameCritic]

I was thinking about your "pick up and read" comment, and that might be because the text is kind of small. The articles pack a lot of information. For example, there's an article about Venture where the developer discusses the AI in the game. Still, the general format reminds me of the old Dreamcast magazine, which a whole lot of little charts, graphics, and tidbits tucked into each page. I found the reviews have a conversational tone similar in tone to mine. The Rocket Knight article is actually one of those Christmas morning stories.

As for the top 5 consoles:
5. PS2
4. Dreamcast
3. PS1
2. Genesis/Megadrive
1. SNES

[matmico399]

$15 for a magazine? But I am intrigued. May have to go to Barnes and Noble and check it out to see if it’s worth the price. But it seems right up my alley.

[jon]

I miss reading through video game magazines. I used to love to go to Barnes and Noble to do that. Also, I loved going to Best Buy to check out the pictures and text on the back of the game. 1994 is the goat time for this.

[ESauce]

$15 for a magazine? But I am intrigued. May have to go to Barnes and Noble and check it out to see if it’s worth the price. But it seems right up my alley.

Subscriptions for most magazines can be found for dirt cheap but on the newsstand $15 really isn’t that far from the norm.

Unfortunately subscriptions for this one are pretty expensive since it’s not based in America. A good gift you got there Critic. I’ve beeon interested in thus magazine for a while but can’t bring myself to pay so much for a subscription.

[Retro STrife]

As for the top 5 consoles:
5. PS2
4. Dreamcast
3. PS1
2. Genesis/Megadrive
1. SNES

Interesting, and a bit of a surprise there. I really like the Dreamcast, but I don't know how it's near the top 5, let alone in it. I think the SNES is a fair choice for #1. I'm surprised by the Genesis at #2 though.. but I think it shows that 16-bit nostalgia is still peaking right now, and plus this is a UK magazine, where Sega had a stronger hold during the 80s/90s than it did in the US. However, I noticed on the cover of this issue that the list came from polling readers.. so I guess I can't hold the choices against the magazine itself, when it's due to the nostalgic biases of readers.

$15 for a magazine? But I am intrigued. May have to go to Barnes and Noble and check it out to see if it’s worth the price. But it seems right up my alley.

This is a UK magazine with limited production numbers and a niche market, so that's the cause of the mark-up. That's also why Barnes & Noble usually only carries 1 or 2 issues per month (to be honest, not even sure if they still carry it, as I haven't checked in years). The newsstand price in the UK is probably around half that price. According to the magazine's website, a 1-year subscription costs: $64 in the UK, $87 for the rest of Europe, and $93 for the US. (All those figures are in US dollars.) I assume the increase for the US is due to shipping costs.