∞ Vince ∞

Ah right ok. Thank you. Yeah and 50 does not sound like enough to sustain people's interest, to me. If there's not a dozen you like you've wasted your money. How much are they ? True and it is very expensive. However, haven't kids moved on from SS by now ? They sacked all the actors apparently. Sounds like crap. Card games are tedious without good well coded AI.

Yeah... Trying to catch all the apples will only give you a headache especially when they land on your head. What is the point of having Dyna Blaster if it ISN'T a Retro System. It is, It is a Modern Retro System like the SpeccyNext and C65.

Shivers. Wow so are Emoji Charades, Evel Knievel fans the same type of gamers ? Classic, but on every system ever and a wonderful 'clone' version on the Mighty CBM64. Seem odd choices for a retro console ? Dyna Blaster isn't a Bomberman clone, It IS Bomberman.* If it's official.

I've got no axe to grind, personally. I have no history with Amico so... I probably won't get the console unless it has a 'killer' game I can't get somewhere else. That is not to say I don't wish the project the best of luck. I am the same with the C65 commodore project and the Spectrum Next. I wasn't into the 'New Amigas' either and I adore Commodore. Look, my point was that the vast majority of mobile games are very different to console games and would probably get 'lost in translation', especially controls wise. Now I think we can all agree on that, no ? In theory a good game can work on any platform, but as someone who knows from experience, that just isn't the case. Graphic adventures are an uneasy fit for consoles. Heavy strategy games don't fly too well either in console land. Platformers on the PC are still not as good as playing on a console. 'Flappy Birds' would be slated had it came out on the C64 in 1986. 'Crossy Road' no ones paying $40 for 'Blocky Frogger'. I'm not saying you couldn't have a nice puzzler, say, straddle the divide, but that's going to be rare. Your problem is, you don't want to end up with tons of ' shovelware ' games no-one wants just to bulk the numbers. Better to have fewer games but have them be quality games. Make it easy to be a verified developer. Get the 'home brew' one man bedroom coders on board and you'd up your number of releases exponentially. It's aright having a few dozen games at launch, but you need to create an ecosystem and keep development of new games moving. I don't think keeping the specs under wraps is a good idea in that regard. Maybe having a development virtual machine would be a good idea ? Because the money isn't there, to be made, for mobile, other than the big boys like King, developers resort to basic puzzlers and the hardcore teams (with real funding) work on depth for PC. You can make an awful lot of dosh cash money if you create a great pc strategy game even if it cost you a bomb but mobile games is a very difficult volatile market.

Alright, thanks for the clarification guys. I've watched the video. For my two pence (read cents if you like) I don't think 'mobile' and 'console' games are interchangeable and neither are the audiences. What I mean is, I've never played a mobile game I thought could be ported straight to a console. That I thought would work as a console game. Mobile games tend to be very low on dynamics and simple simple controls - Flappy Bird gravity type things - Console games even Retro Games have much more complexity in design, controls and objectives. The quick five minuters and the I'll play this until I've unlocked everything hardcore gamers. Does sound a bit like: People behind the project: But I want all the coins! TLDR: Trying to catch every customer can be a dangerous strategy because you risk the possibility of falling between stalls and then no-one's happy!

I've read the title of this thread a few times. I don't understand what you mean by it?

Yes, that is right, Seedy, they did, and it fitted the target platform (and the speccy like hardware too) - Game Boy - perfectly. I don't know, you would need to ask Eli, but usually, if you had the rights at the time you developed your version of something, even if you sold them on, you still have the rights to sell your version irrespective of any deal made. It all depends on the terms of the deal. Or, more likely, perhaps they got a licence to do a Spectrum Next version specifically, a whole different thing to buying the full IP rights. .

That's not to say HoH did not inspire other games. I think it did. The thing with HoH is, it was a massive technical achievement on the base system it appeared on, the Spectrum. Jon Ritman & Bernie Drummond had made a game similar previous to this, Batman ('86), which was a wonderful take on the licence rather than the routine platformers Ocean used to pump out.

Originated on the Spectrum. Um... Well. Head Over Heels was a great game and innovative in some ways but I think it is fair to say that it, and others, owe a bit of a debt to Knight Lore from Tim and Chris Stamper. From 1984. Nice one! I'll check it out. Have you played Equinox (Solstice 2) ? It came out on the Super NES. It's by the Pickford Brothers rather than the original developer however.

Impossamole is one of my favourite games ever. I loved it on the '64. The Amiga version was a good laugh as well. Never played the ST version, which I am assuming this is, with bells. Personally think the slatings it got first time out were mainly unjustified and as a result of people's love for the first four Monty games. Irony is, I enjoyed this more than the other Monties. 😊

Well, at least we have an opportunity to give feedback and I am fairly confident they will reach out themselves after the results come in to see what can be done, fingers crossed. I used to have more faith. Infact ironically Future who now own RG were 100% spot on with Subs BITD as they ran all the major computer / console mags here. When one of my mags was shut down, they gave me a whole year of another one for free. I only had 2 months remaining I think it was. Of course this global situation has not helped, but on the other hand, one of the few groups of people who were excluded / out and about working during Lockdown was the post office workers. ________________ I personally am working on a retro themed magazine. I hoped to have the preview mini issue ready for download by now, but that got delayed for obvious reasons that you may have gathered, but when I launch it proper I am going to have someone / a contact in the USA making sure the physical issues are printed and distributed locally. I think for a big market like the US, that is a 'no-brainer' as we say here. Also you can put the words ' Printed in the USA ' on them.

Just been asked to complete a survey. I didn't hold back.

Wrong. You're way off the mark, but nevermind. You can't go clumping every configuration of Apple ][ into the same group. +Educational games don't even count. You won't convince me any different. Feel free to keep replying and I will do the same but that's likely to derail the thread and I'd prefer we stick to the topic, how Retro Gamer has nosedived. Thanks

Retro Gamer @RetroGamer_Mag If you are overseas and are having issues with deliveries please contact [email protected] The editorial team doesn't have access to subs information

205 was that the one where they were facing the Megadrive off against the Super Nes. Good issue. I tried joining the RG Forum so I could flag this issue and maybe get some kind of answer for you guys but they haven't sent me a confirmation email yet. This is the current issue... Mine hasn't turned up yet, and I am in the UK.

not sure about the 'plastic bags' bit, usually they were in plastic cassette tape cases. but I got the rest and agree- very underground, DIY. to begin with thousands of people making games from home and selling them in mags in little ads. * then bang became a massive industry... Until the mid 90s when Infogrames Atari Pacmann'd the fucking lot. We're getting back though... * some joker on AA tried to say the A][ had more games than the C64 but he didn't take into account any of this of course.

Actually, I don't know why they don't just get it printed in the states and have it distributed internally. The nature of digital files now would make this kind of thing a breeze and a number of major print houses deal with dispatch too ?

I'm really disappointed to hear this. A UK magazine that when it is good is bloody good, and I was hoping that for all you who paid through the nose to get it in The States would be treated better than this, though the damage has to be put down mainly to the US? Post service. On the Subs front. I got an email telling me they were taking over (Future) distribution of the mags, so. They might pull it together and sort you all out. Fingers crossed. As much as I may be annoyed by it, I still love it. When it is good it is brilliant. I'll stick with it, because before RG there were no mags like this, so I think maybe they have earned a bit of slack (from me at least). 100%. I used to have a Speccy before my c64 and I can only stand so much Speccy myself, too. I am a Commodore fan mainly. There are some great Speccy games but they do seem a bit fixated sometimes. One of my problems is, as a subscriber, they give you the 'no text' cover version which makes this kind of thing difficult because aside from the one hint you have no idea to the rest of the contents in that issue!

Yeah so... This month's Retro Gamer. 98 pages. 64 pages if you exclude ads and filler. Hmmm. As a subscriber I don't like these no text covers. I am assuming they think they are doing something creative and arty, but it just comes across as pretentious. So in a couple of years when I want to take out my old RGs and have a good read, like I do with my The Ones, C&VGs and Zapp64s I have to just guess what is in the fucking magazine. Marvellous! I think they want us all to go out and buy a second copy. I'd prefer a copy like the punter in the street has. They are better designed. Now I come to think, they probably do this as it buys time just to bang a one image down over the logo. This month's cover star is a disassembled SNES in all its blueprint 'glory'. Which seems very familiar as they have done that before. Maybe a Megadrive? Bloody pretentiousness. No TMR (Jason Kelk). My favourite section (by far). Home Brew / Public Domain. Well put together and every page packed. Even manages to feature profiles of the developers, jam competitions and all sorts. Sadly TMR has been very sick. Get well Jason! Thankfully rather than just bung in some old bollocks about the Amstrad winning the 8bit war as they did the first month, they have not put anything there. I miss TMR. I miss him answering my bloody dumb coding questions and I miss his brilliant contribution to this ailing mag. For some reason some time ago Jason got demoted from the 'Loading...' page wall of sketch images. Maybe he told Darran what a cushy number he is on. No wonder he looks so smug. Too many two page filler screenshots with Darran Jones' boat staring out at me. Don't get me wrong, I don't not like him. He might be a nice man. A very nice man. A very very nice man. I've never met him, but I tell you this! after 170+ mags and 15+ years of seeing him gazing glassily out at me from the pages of his magazine, I could probably recognise him in any crowd. One issue had so many pictures of him, his family (I assume) and assorted mates and colleagues I thought I had not bought a copy of Retro Gamer magazine at all, but one of his family's photo albums by mistake. Bloody Ian Lee. I hate him. I don't know why. It is irrational. I have never met or spoken to him. Got an air of the 'bluffer' / 'chancer' about him. Annoying tv rent-a-nodding-dog. Nick Thorpe seems to still be doing the business. I've not read his SNES piece yet, but I have always enjoyed his stuff in the past. No contribution from Graeme Mason this month, so there is that at least. The man who thought Mayhem in Monsterland was a home-brew. Lure of the Temptress is one I will get stuck into but outside of that and the aforementioned SNES section... ? Also going to read the section on Joe Blade 4. JB was one of my favourites. I know it is very simple but I enjoy it none-the-less. David Jones's Knight Tyme gets a feature. I spoke to him once about his work, seems like a very nice bloke so I'll be devouring that section. Magazine just seems to be drifting... This month there is some stuff for me (4 bits). Last couple of months very little. I don't read them cover to cover like I used to. None of the sections have not been featured in other magazines. I suppose there is nothing more retro than recycling features from old magazines and I don't have a problem with that, but occasionally it feels like they're just 'phoning it in.' I've been a subscriber for many years, on and off, and I got every issue of the original magazine, before it was rebooted, with better layout and better quality paper, granted, so I've earnt my right to say my bit, but maybe I will stop now. Subscribing that is. I don't know. They had that clown Kizza/The Laird/* Insert all known socks here * working on the mag for years. He was getting paid by them. He knows nothing. How can I trust a magazine that published anything that arsehole put together ? Is this a rant ? Am I wrong ? What do others think of Retro Gamer these days?

Wow! As a first game goes you've gone all in ambitious. First game should be: Guy at top of a wall dropping bombs. You at the bottom must move left or right to avoid them (my first ever game). Something like that. It works like this. Read a lot of coding books. Design your game out on paper. Make it simple. Write your game. Finish it. Then write a better version. Then work on a relatively bigger game but stay small. Eventually you will have the skills and experience to work on such an ambitious game. But don't try to do more than you are capable of, you will just get frustrated and give up. Imagine you wanted to be a painter. How much time, effort and work do you think that takes ?

To clarify. I have never been, wanted to be, or wish to be, under any circumstances a friend of one Kieren William Hawken (sorry I can't fit all your aliases here. Though people should know JS is just my profile name for my Amazon account and Rang3rs is my Ebay handle. Nothing sinister despite what he is trying to imply. I suppose I should use my full name for those ?) In a message exchange, a while ago, with Kieren (who is not my friend, please know that. Please!) I expressed that I did not like one or more of the users on this thread. I have expressed the same sentiments to those said people directly in messages. After my message exchange, I wrongly had a go at someone because I took his bate. I apologised and I went on to then say that I found that person boring and verbose. I have also had fallings out with the other couple mentioned. On this tread and in messages, so those people know. I have nothing to hide. I am an open person with my feelings and let people know if I don't like them. That does not gain friends in this world but that's why I am a marmite person. Unlike when Kieren who divulged his murky past. Good luck with that documentary Kieren. I hope they make it. Investigative journalists are your immediate problem, not me. Ps. Not long ago one of Kieren's other Twitter accounts kept telling me how right I was on here. Over and over. Do you remember that, go look! I am VERY HAPPY he has returned to not liking me. Useless, talentless, middle-class cushy upbringing, short-arse ginger weasel. FYI I don't have any friends on this thread. I respect a handful of them for their talents but outside of that none of us are mates. As yet, though I would happily buy most of them a pint. We were thrown together in this whirlwind celebration of the life and times of Keiro the Zero. You know I am not on farcebook , twatter, instagran so you put this up behind my back. Typical MO of a NPD person. He's most upset that I told him straight he doesn't have autism, but as someone who knows a few people who are autistic I can say that with confidence. He's not a high functioning aspie, he's got Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I've got nothing else to say, for I have better things to do. Stay safe people

Bloody talented guy. Saw him live once at an event with that TDK chap. Seems like he was a much loved, lovely bloke. I was very sad when I heard.

He's not in Spain. He's at home in Luton, shouting at the sky. I remember the last place I was without access to internet. The 1980s. Here he is, the Ginger, No Bread man.

He said he never rated the guy, then when he died he did a 'sincere' 'tribute' video just to boost his views / try to get some subscribers. I know it doesn't fall into the financial cash-in category, but it's wrong and it's fucking twisted.

Brett Weiss's sickeningly sweet ode to old Lard himself. 'All round good egg' apparently... Never met the guy, but, feels he can say that. Just shows the lack of integrity to Brett Unwise Words. http://www.brettweisswords.com/2019/02/snes-omnibus-writer-spotlight-42-kieren.html