RVG_Steve

I've always loved the SNES port of SFII. My bro and I bought it back in '92 and played it for months on end until Turbo came out a year later. It's one of those games that is incredibly nostalgic to me. I know arcade perfect ports of SFII have been released since, but there is something comforting and appealing about playing SNES SF II on a SNES controller. I don't bust it out often these days, but whenever I do, I still have a grand ol' time with it. BTW, on a somewhat related note, is it just me or does anyone else prefer Super SF II over Turbo on the SNES? Growing up I always found SNES Turbo superior, but lately I'm feeling like my opinion of that is starting to flip flop. Super is a really amazing port and feels so much more expansive than Turbo. Turbo is still a great port but yeah.

I feel super fortunate. The SNES bug bit me over 12 years ago (January 2006) and I more or less finished my boxed SNES collection in 2012, so I've been "retired" for nearly 6 years now. I also lucked out in that when I got back into the SNES scene things were extremely affordable. I just recently started up a Switch collection (48 games and counting through 2 months). But between the SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, GBA SP 2, NES and now Switch... I think I'm set for life.

Let me preface this by saying I have not bought a game system in nearly 12 years. In fact, for the last 12 years I would say 95% of my game playing has been via the SNES. I don't hate "modern" games. I just never cared enough to buy the systems and thus, I missed out on most games released in the past 12-15 years. And honestly, I never thought I would ever buy another system ever again. The Nintendo Switch recently changed all of that. I've had it for two weeks now and have devoted around 15 hours into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I am freaking blown away. I've only played it portable thus far and it's the only Switch game I've allowed myself to play so far. But I have also bought six other Switch games in the past two weeks. The Sinister Six being: 1. Doom ($53) 2. Rayman Legends ($25) 3. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 ($40) 4. Lego City Undercover ($20) 5. Resident Evil Revelations Collection ($30) 6. Axiom Verge ($27) My first game, Breath of the Wild, was an early Christmas gift given by my brother, and my girlfriend is getting me Super Mario Odyssey for Christmas. And I haven't even explored the eShop yet, but I know I want to eventually buy titles such as The Mummy Demastered, Golf Story, Stardew Valley, Slain: Back From Hell, the Metal Slug trilogy, all those other Neo Geo classics, Blaster Master Zero, Sonic Mania and the list goes on and on. God damn, not enough time and not enough money. I haven't been this excited about game playing and collecting in a long time. I still love my SNES but the Switch is fast moving into second place for favorite consoles, knocking the Sega Saturn off its perch. With 2018 looking very promising and depending on how the following years go, it's even possible that the Switch may bump the SNES to #2. I love the portability of the thing. It's allowed me to do simple things like playing in bed while the GF reads a book. It's just different from both of you doing the same activities on the couch. It doesn't have the same feel or zest. Kind of hard/weird to explain, but I'm sure you get my drift. I plan to travel more next year and can definitely see where playing this on the plane or back at the hotel at the end of a long exhausting day would be extremely appealing. Honestly, if the Switch were SOLELY a "play it on the TV" kind of console, I might not have been so keen on picking one up. As I get older, life gets busier and busier and I find it harder to plop myself down in front of a TV to play video games for a good length of time. The Switch somehow makes me WANT to play. I can jump right back in with the Sleep Mode and play a Breath of the Wild in bed for 15 minutes before sleeping. It's so convenient and Nintendo has truly outdone themselves this time. Anyway, I could keep rambling on but Hyrule calls. For anyone who wants to read my way too long Switch story, you can check it out here: http://rvgfanatic.com/wordpress/index.php/switch/ If anyone has recently "made the switch" (sorry) over to the Switch as well, I'd love to read about your own experience! Also, I'd like to hear from those who still don't have a Switch or those on the fence. What's stopping you from getting one? Do you plan to get one eventually? Take it from a stubborn "one system man" of nearly 12 years, the Switch is more than cheat-worthy

I hope this is OK to share here! (If it isn't, my apologies). I recently published two lengthy articles on my fansite (RVGFanatic) in honor of celebrating 10 years. One article features my boxed North American SNES collection and has gaming commentary and pictures galore. Rather than just show pictures, I applied categories to each shelf which highlights such things as guilty pleasures, "lesser known gems" and so forth. I felt this would make it more fun to write and subsequently read. The next article is a list of my top 50 favorite "obscure" Super Famicom games. I hope both articles provide some entertainment as well as possibly some information. Whether you're a SNES diehard or casual, I hope you may be inspired to replay an old favorite or possibly even try a new one for the first time ever. http://rvgfanatic.com/wordpress/index.php/my-snes-collection/ http://rvgfanatic.com/wordpress/index.php/top-50/ Cheers!

I would not financially support anything he spearheads, but I don't wish him ill will either. Whole saga has been a train wreck on top of a train wreck. While he's burned all his good karma, I hope he takes care of himself and finds peace in his life. A suicide report for example would make me feel real sad. You might not respect him but no need to take it any further than that. Retro issue #11 either comes out summer 2016 or never I bet. What a downfall for Mike.

Hey AtariAge, I've long been a huge Super Nintendo fan. In January 2007 I launched an ambitious one man pet project to document and chronicle my SNES experience. My fansite enjoyed a great nearly NINE year run and was most well known for its obscure Super Famicom mini reviews. Unfortunately, last September I could no longer update the site due to issues outside of my control. Thankfully, the original site (RVGFanatic.com) remains up and running. The good news is, after a lengthy hiatus, I recently launched the rebirth of RVGFanatic. Got an article and two new reviews penned. Feel free to check it out. http://rvgfanatic.com/wordpress I hope you enjoy the site

Hey everyone, I just wanted to bump this thread for Rob and for all of AtariAge to get a second look at. If you have never pulled the trigger on buying this book, but you were on the fence, I highly recommend that you do. And I'm not saying that because I consider Rob the author an "online buddy" or even because I have 5 stories of my own in the book... I'm saying it because I think it's a quality product worth investing in. And quite frankly, there aren't many like it in this niche genre of "video game nostalgia" books. It's nice to hold a thick book and be transported to the '80s and '90s with all these old school video gaming tales from the "golden age" of gaming. A really fun read and I have a lot of nostalgia already for it. Summer 2014 wasn't all that long ago, but already it feels like another lifetime, heh. I think I blew through the 472 pages in like a week. The bite-sized stories move fast and it's great reading perspectives from 20 different gamers of varying generations. The interviews with industry insiders tucked in at the end of the book are a nice bonus, too. It's basically Chicken Soup for the Retro Gamer

Sorry if this link was already posted, but following up on that Youtube screen grab I posted of David G. leaving as editing manager of RETRO... http://www.polygon.com/2016/3/5/11166982/coleco-chameleon-controversy-kickstarter-indiegogo-toy-fair

The fallout continues to take place. Was browsing Gamester81's Youtube video last night and scrolling through the comments section look what I found: It's sad to witness this whole thing. Mike really can't blame anyone other than himself. If only he were more honest and open from the very start, and more humbled to assemble a team of capable people in respective fields to do their jobs. He went into this without a strong blueprint and it's evident that he may never recover from this as far as being a "personality" within the retro gaming community. I've said it before and I'll say it again... I backed Retro two years and they're not getting a third from me. The magazine has been horribly disappointing and suffers from long delays. Issue 10 just came out when Mike promised to catch up and have issue 12 out by December 2015. It's already March 2016 and I'd be shocked if issue 12 gets here before summer. Hell, I could see the magazine quietly dying right here, at issue 10. Sadly, none of this would surprise me in the least.

Have you read the last few issues? They took 3-4 months each, and are (arguably) far worse than their earlier issues. It's a matter of opinion but if you poke around you'll find folks saying they are very disappointed with the overall execution of the magazine. The delays are just the icing on the cake. And granted, yes, it takes time to produce a quality magazine. But if you're going to advertise yourself as a bi-monthly magazine, then live up to your word. Or change your word and let the fans know. Doing as you please, keeping folks in the dark and going against your own word is only a bad look for your own brand. And it causes subscribers, such as myself, to lose interest and faith in the product. Which leads to people leaving, and leads to a quick demise of that brand. At this point, honestly, I'd be shocked if they make it to a 30th issue. I could see them quietly disbanding at some point in 2016.

*gasp* I'm stunned. Issue #10 is finally going to come out? December-ish? Wow, someone stop the presses! Sorry if I can't get excited for this, but Retro has left a sour taste in my mouth. They promised us they would catch up and release issue 12 by the end of this year. When they said this earlier this year I mostly doubted it, but part of me wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Now I see why I doubted them. This has been one grossly mishandled project that has, by and large, flopped. When I first saw the kickstarter for the magazine in 2013, I was all excited as hell. I quickly jumped on board and obviously there were growing pains in the publication's first year that I was willing to overlook. After all, it took even EGM a while to hit its stride back in the early '90s. Then the delays started happening. We're talking 3-4 month delays. Empty promises. Tons of customers never receiving back issues as promised. And the content itself? Sub-par at best. Disappointing. It doesn't even feel like a retro gaming mag. If you're going to take upwards to 4 months to produce a single issue, it better be God-like. I get these issues in the mail, blow through them in about 10 minutes and I'm left feeling a little cheated, to be honest. You have one job: release a quality product every other month. If you can't even do that then you're just shooting yourself in the foot. I was once a big supporter of Retro but now I have to say if they go for a year 3, they ain't getting my money. Fool me once, shame on you (year 1). Fool me twice, shame on me (year 2). Worst of all, these guys have had next to zero communication. What's up with the horrendous delays? No words from them keeping subscriber up to date. The whole operation reeks of shadiness. I'm just disappointed. Talk about a massive misstep in what could have been a pretty good thing. I guess I'll stick to flipping through my old EGMs and GameFans for my retro gaming magazine fix.

I've been following this fascinating thread for some time now as a lurker. Back on page 85 (a whopping 6 days ago lol) I saw someone actually quote my post from Neo-Geo.com. I decided it was time to finally sign up and share a few thoughts. First of all, I want to say I wish Mike Kennedy and his team well. I certainly wish no ill will toward Mike, who before this I've always considered to be a nice, stand-up kind of guy. It was obvious to any outside party member though that Mike was in over his head. I'm glad they decided to pull the plug, but am disappointed at the lack of an apology. I'm also not sure if the damage has already been done. I backed his project RETRO Magazine for years 1 and 2. I have to say it started out a bit rocky but saw some decent improvements around issues 5-6-7. However, the last two issues have been quite disappointing, and that's generally how I feel about the magazine. I feel a little duped, a little cheated and at this point, I doubt I'd back a year 3 (if there even is one). To summarize my NG.com post on RETRO Magazine: 1. It's not really retro. It focuses on modern games with a retro spirit. That's fine and dandy if that's a small part of the magazine but instead it's the main focus. I was expecting tons of 8, 16 and 32 bit retrospectives and such. Really, haven't gotten much of that. 2. The lay-outs are horribly bland. I mean, I wasn't expecting early-mid '90s GameFan, but when you take 2-3 months to make one issue, I expect a little bit more pizzazz. Too many pages have a white or black background and gives off a really dull look. 3. The big one... ever since summer 2014 they fell off the wagon in terms of releasing an issue every other month. They've fallen way behind and it's a case of fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. To put it into perspective: They used to label the date of each issue. They stopped that because it'd look bad to point out something they don't want pointed out (i.e. the delay). Issue 10 is the next issue up, and I haven't heard a PEEP of it yet. Mike Kennedy promised to fulfill his duty of having the 12th issue out by December 2015. Um, it's almost October and issue 10 isn't even out yet. So RETRO would have to go issue 10 October, issue 11 November and issue 12 December. Yeah, I seriously doubt that's going to happen. What baffles me is they have a team of 20+ professional writers and 2 months to crank out a 72-page issue. What's the cause for such lengthy delays? It's simply head-scratching other than... there's a lack of vision, direction and passion toward the project. It's like once it got funded the writers went "oh crap, now we actually have to work on a printed magazine?" I've tried to be supportive, but the last few issues have totally been bleh and forgettable. The covers are awesome but everything else about the magazine is so bleh. Mike Kennedy was nice enough to give my little fansite (RVGFanatic) a shout out on a Twitch broadcast in late 2013. I've also made Letter of the Month two different times for RETRO. I have a bit of a "connection" to Retro in that regard, but I've been so massively disappointed in the product. Simply put, it's not what I signed up for... and ironically, it seems to be the theme for the Retro VGS and how that morphed from one idea to something completely different (and far less appealing). Had the Retro VGS magically got funded, I really doubt it would have satisfied people based on how I've seen Mike Kennedy handle Retro. From paying customers not geting their issues to the lengthy delays between issues... it's absolutely head-scratching! I hate to sound like I'm piling on the guy especially when he's down, but the truth is, he seems to jump from one project to the next. Which is fine and dandy when you leave the previous project in a good spot... but RETRO Magazine is far from being in a 'good spot." It's kind of been a mess to be frank. It could use a TON of improvement, and I hope Mike would see to it that it gets better before he dives headlong into yet another project, much less the launch of a VIDEO GAME SYSTEM. Letter of the Month #1 Letter of the Month #2