Is Retro Gaming bigger in Europe than in the US?

[pocketmego]

Solely based on the fact that Europe has an actual magazine based on the hobby of Retro Gaming and numerous store fronts dedicated to it, it appears to be massive there. Especially in the UK. Where as in the US, it took me a while to find stuff even on the web when I went looking, of course this site changed a lot of that and has lead me to a lot of stuff.

 

But, am I wrong in this assesment?

 

Will it ever get big enough in the US to merit its own publication, because I gotta say that current game Magazines in the States, suck.

 

-Ray

Edited July 25, 2006 by pocketmego

[Pixelboy]

Retro gaming has a different "flavor" in the UK because it has a wealth of local material to draw upon, like the ZX Spectrum, the CPC range, the BBC Micro, the Dragon, and others which most people in North America have never heard of. It's no wonder then that the UK should have a thriving magazine, which also caters to an international readership by also covering US retro gaming, and even japanese gaming to a smaller extent.

 

If a US magazine publisher tried to do a retro-only mag, it would very likely crash and burn, mostly because most people who would buy such a magazine already buy Retro Gamer and these people would see this new magazine as mostly redundant.

 

On the other hand, I would personally gladly buy a US-based retro mag that gives better coverage to US consoles and computers, most notably the Atari 2600, the ColecoVision, the Intellivision, the NES, and all those US systems and computers that Retro Gamer doesn't cover all that well. If I was in charge of producing such a US retro mag, I would make it a limited series, like four of five issues, and if there is a genuine level of public interest, I would add a few extra issues to this series. One thing Retro Gamer doesn't do is maps and strategy guides that dwelve deeper into a particular game (RG always keeps an "overview" approach that doesn't go beyond a couple of pages for a single game), so that's the angle I would take, aside from having articles about hardware and interviews with key players in US and Japan gaming history.

 

In short, I think there's room for another retro-devoted magazine in the US (especially a less expensive one, because RG is very expensive in North America), but it needs to distinguish itself from Retro Gamer significantly, and I think there's definately enough material available to make it possible.

[Lord Helmet]

I would imagine it's pretty even betweek the US and Europe. Hell, with the internet, I see us all as a big happy family

[keilbaca]

I would imagine it's pretty even betweek the US and Europe. Hell, with the internet, I see us all as a big happy family

 

*gives the retro family a hug*

[christianscott27]

Personally I've always wondered why there wasnt a bigger Japanese retro-gaming scene, but then again I cant read their websites. Europe is full of divisions that didnt apply here, lanuguage, TV types, national issues, retail schemes etc. In the US it was fairly easy to roll out Atari from coast to coast via Sears, its a homogeneous country, not so for Europe. When you start looking at the euro scene its full of obscure consoles and quasi pongs, our market is much flatter. Europeans also seem to have stuck with the primitive home computer scene a lot longer, then there the whole Master System thing... As a side note I'd assume that the UK and Euro scene are really two different things.

[Video]

Wow, is it possible for someone like me (living in the US) to get a subscription to a British Retro Game Magazine? It would probably be quiet expensive, probably double the normal subscription price, but for that type of thing, I'd still be interested.

 

What's the name of the Magazine/s?

 

As an answer to the question, While I live in the US, and can't truthfully say, from a collector/retro gamer standpoint. I'd have to still say Yes, the Scene is lots bigger in Europe. One of the biggest reasons for that answer, is a lot of the stuff that the US tends to abandone after a few years, still gets lots of developement and production in Europe. I loved Commodore, for instance, and the scene went on for years in europe, after it died in the US. 3.5 drives, and Hard Drives are a couple of the things that were never to my knowledge available in the US market, but were made in europes market.

[candiru]

Personally I've always wondered why there wasnt a bigger Japanese retro-gaming scene, but then again I cant read their websites.

 

Maybe it's a space issue.

 

Pardon me if my ignorant uninformed American is showing, but I always got the impression that the average Japanese household is fairly cramped by our standards. Maybe keeping lots of old hardware and software around simply isn't feasible due to space?

[ArcadeAction]

I thought Japan is *the* country for retro gaming lovers?

Games for several 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, as well as more modern consoles like the Saturn, etc. are easily obtainable, as far as I know (never been there as of yet, unfortunately).

 

I often visit the site of Chris Covell (author of several homebrew demos and games for various platforms), who is living in Japan, click here for an impression

Edited July 25, 2006 by ArcadeAction

[AussieAtari]

My guess is that with all of the "retro" compilations available for the latest hardware in Japan, and their love of new technology, retro gaming is alive and very well in Japan, just slightly in a different format - more software based than hardware.

 

The magazine is called Retro Gamer and you can get subscriptions to the USA and Canada.

 

The retro scene in Australia is interesting, pretty much everyone had a console and computer in their house (we are a nation of early adopters) and yet not much is available second hand. Either heaps was simply thrown away or is being hoarded and waiting to be unearthed. I hope it is the latter. Prices on eBay.com.au certainly are heading to the sky indicating that the retro collecting scene here is happening.

 

There are active user groups for a lot of the 8 bit computers in Oz and we were spoilt for choice as we had the whole range of UK and USA products, plus some interesting domestic units (Microbee and Dick Smith computers) and Australia and Japan only released units (Sega SC-3000).

 

Retro Gamer is a good magazine and it would be great if it expanded into the games as suggested (strategy, maps etc) or another magazine picked up that task for the retro games.

Edited July 25, 2006 by AussieAtari

[MacbthPSW]

I'd have to still say Yes, the Scene is lots bigger in Europe. One of the biggest reasons for that answer, is a lot of the stuff that the US tends to abandone after a few years, still gets lots of developement and production in Europe. I loved Commodore, for instance, and the scene went on for years in europe, after it died in the US. 3.5 drives, and Hard Drives are a couple of the things that were never to my knowledge available in the US market, but were made in europes market.

You've actually got it entirely backwards While the commercial games market for the C64 lasted a couple years longer in Europe (particularly in the UK and Germany) almost all new hardware was being developed in the USA by a company called CMD. Commodore itself produced a DD 3.5", but CMD went on to make hard drives, HD and ED 3.5" drives, a 20Mhz accelerator (with up to 16MB RAM), RAM-based drives, high-speed serial port carts and more. I own a lot of this stuff, all purchased brand new between 1996 and 2000.

 

Also, a US-based C64 disk magazine called Loadstar is *still* going, though it has a tiny subscriber base now, compared to how well it was doing in the mid and late 90's. At that time they could still afford to spend thousands of dollars every month (every issue) for new C-64 software. Pretty cool.

 

The one aspect where Europe has been clearly ahead of NTSC-land is the coding/demo scene.

[pocketmego]

My guess is that with all of the "retro" compilations available for the latest hardware in Japan, and their love of new technology, retro gaming is alive and very well in Japan, just slightly in a different format - more software based than hardware.

 

The magazine is called Retro Gamer and you can get subscriptions to the USA and Canada.

 

The retro scene in Australia is interesting, pretty much everyone had a console and computer in their house (we are a nation of early adopters) and yet not much is available second hand. Either heaps was simply thrown away or is being hoarded and waiting to be unearthed. I hope it is the latter. Prices on eBay.com.au certainly are heading to the sky indicating that the retro collecting scene here is happening.

 

There are active user groups for a lot of the 8 bit computers in Oz and we were spoilt for choice as we had the whole range of UK and USA products, plus some interesting domestic units (Microbee and Dick Smith computers) and Australia and Japan only released units (Sega SC-3000).

 

Retro Gamer is a good magazine and it would be great if it expanded into the games as suggested (strategy, maps etc) or another magazine picked up that task for the retro games.

 

 

The problem is a year subscription to Retro Gamer is like 100 US. That is a lot of money to pay all at once. However, scarcity of the magazine is going to force my hand before it's over.

 

-Ray

[Flojomojo]

Retro Gamer is available every month at Tower Records and Barnes+Noble, like EDGE and Games TM. Unlike those magazines, it costs about the same to subscribe as buy it in the store, so it's a good deal if you don't want to miss any issues. The only real risk is if the publisher goes out of business before your subscription period expires -- like what happened with the last publisher of Retro Gamer!

 

I don't think the "scene" is any bigger in Europe. I think UK magazines are a bit more common -- especially quality, niche pubs like RG -- because distribution is so much simpler when your whole nation is a relatively small island, not a sprawling continent like N. America.

 

I have no way of supporting this, but I would suspect that in terms of actual numbers of retro fans, we have more in the USA because we're a bigger country. Just a guess, though.

 

Side note: what *is* it with the Spectrum fetish over there? I just don't get it!

[MacbthPSW]

Side note: what *is* it with the Spectrum fetish over there? I just don't get it!

It was cheaper than the other alternatives, so it sold well, so a lot of people grew up with it. Because the market was large enough, it was well supported by games developers, despite not being particularly suited to gaming. Good programming and good design means that there were a lot of fun classics, despite the hardware

[Pixelboy]

It was cheaper than the other alternatives, so it sold well, so a lot of people grew up with it. Because the market was large enough, it was well supported by games developers, despite not being particularly suited to gaming. Good programming and good design means that there were a lot of fun classics, despite the hardware

One of these days, I'm gonna have to try some of those Spectrum classics, such as Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Head over Heels, etc., just to see what all the fuss is about... It's on my long-term to-do list.

[Flojomojo]

I sometimes feel like I missed something important ... of course, it's just someone else's nostalgia (have you SEEN those screenshots? Ecch!) and it's probably best left to their memories.

[ZylonBane]

Because the market was large enough, it was well supported by games developers, despite not being particularly suited to gaming. Good programming and good design means that there were a lot of fun classics, despite the hardware

Pretty much like the Apple II then.

 

(ick)

[Video]

Cool, I'll definately look into seeing about getting a few Retro Gamer mags. If I like it, I'd be willing to pop the $100, sounds like they are shipping it close to, or at full price, rather than giving you a huge discount for buying a subscription as opposed to monthly purchases.

 

Hey MacbthPSW, I wasn't aware Commodore mad any of that stuff in the US. Iv'e always seen it in auctions, but almost exclusively in Au and Eu Auctions. It always pissed me off due to excessive shipping to get stuff from there.

 

I'd definately see about getting that stuff if I could. And if LoadStar is still around, I might see about getting that too. I'll definately see about picking up the backissues online or whatever, if available. Who would I see aobut that? Loadstar .com/ or something?

[MacbthPSW]

Hey MacbthPSW, I wasn't aware Commodore mad any of that stuff in the US.

You can read up on a history of it here: http://cmdrkey.com/cbm/misc/history.html

More good information (fan site) here: http://www.cmdweb.de/index.htm

 

CMD stopped making new stuff in 2001, and sold (or licensed) production rights to Maurice Randall, owner of Click Here Software. I have to stress that while I've ordered from him periodically over the last 10 years or so, and have never had problems - in fact, I've even met him in person a few times at some Commodore EXPOs that are held around the USA - some people have experienced very long delays when ordering from him, and have been quite upset about it. He has a family and an auto-repair shop that take priority, and I guess he just can't handle it all sometimes.

 

So, I simply recommend not paying him up-front (like, with Paypal) and instead just order and he'll charge your credit card when it's ready to ship. And be patient His store is here: http://store.cmdrkey.com/agora.cgi

 

I'd definately see about getting that stuff if I could. And if LoadStar is still around, I might see about getting that too. I'll definately see about picking up the backissues online or whatever, if available. Who would I see aobut that? Loadstar .com/ or something?

Ordering information is here: http://revdave6.dyndns.info/pctower/loadstar.html

 

A trial issue, and more information can be found here: http://www.eskimo.com/~areed/loadstar.htm

[Video]

Cool, thanks for the links.