Magazines, and retro
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[blog]
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[video games]
My family and I have a history with magazines. I've thrown away and cut up more than I could ever count, and often regretted it. They are a permanent reminder of times past - the few computer gaming magazines I have kept still shock me with 60GBP prices on a Street Fighter 2 cartridge for the Super Nintendo (that's right, gaming could be very expensive back in the 90s!). Other favourites are advertisements and reviews for hardware or games which subsequently flopped - reliving the brash claims and fervour (all for nought) is a fascinating study in what succeeds, what fails, and why. I wish I had kept more of those magazines.
For better or worse, the magazine industry is somewhat dead - especially in the technology market. No-one wants 1 month old technology news (or even FURTHER out of date for those in more remote locations), when the internet has up-to-the-second feeds and preview videos. But news alone did not make a magazine; Reliable reviews, interesting feature articles, other 'in-style' content (comics etc), and reader mail/submissions added a lot to the worth of the publication. A lot of those have disappeared with the shift towards 'internet journalism'. Some sites do exhibit good journalism, and if you look hard enough you can even find sites with some of the irreverent tone as was displayed in magazines such as PC Zone or PC Accelerator, but the majority of sites are trending towards very lazy reporting and uninspired articles. There's not a lot of impetus to produce anything really special.
Happily, there is certainly a place for magazines, or magazine-style publications, even on the internet. One such area is retro - since it's not news, the internet can't beat a retrospective publication to the punch. The past can, and usually has, been researched quite thoroughly, and very comprehensive articles can be written. Often the passage of time allows people to speak up about projects they were involved in, when such liberty was not available earlier. There is a lot of scope for honest-to-goodness decent journalism.
So here is where RETRO magazine steps in. Currently running a Kickstarter campaign to generate the funds necessary for a printed publication, RETRO, with a staff of many revered journalists from magazines of old manning the quills, will primarily focus on retro video games, but will still cover pertinent current-gen news. While the UK has had a very good print publication in the form of RetroGamer for many years, no such title exists to cater to the US audience (which typically doesn't take so kindly to UK exports). The price is fantastically affordable, digital versions will be available, and the shipping rates are very reasonable. Anyone who (like me) looks back at the magazine era fondly should certainly check out their kickstarter at RETRO magazine kickstarter.
Help bring back some permanence and zing to the gaming journalism landscape!