Nostalgia, Gaming, and You!

I’m so happy that Centy made it. I see that it initially started as an action-RPG Shining Force project, which is one of my favorite Sega series. It would be so awesome if one day Sega releases a Saturn mini-console or there’s a Shining Force collection that includes the two Japanese-exclusive scenarios for the 3rd game. The only stinging omission are the Konami titles (would’ve loved Rocket Knight and Snatcher) and the Sega CD Lunar titles. I played the latter on PS1, but I’ve heard the O.G. releases are quite different.

Snatcher is on the TG-16 mini that I have but it’s only in Japanese.

Dave, I am genuinely happy for you, because I have never even heard of this game before. That seems insane to me. Usually these rare titles from that era I am familiar with, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the name before, and so that’s something new. So $700 is crazy money for a game that doesn’t even have the cult following of a Gunstar Heroes or something.

(I hope that this makes sense, I am camping and very very drunk right now. So if the above makes no grammatical or logical sense, well there you go)

Thanks! Drunk or not, I appreciate the sentiment. One thing I have done for most of my life is to not play something I couldn’t obtain legally. I always figure someday there will be an affordable way to play it and when that day comes, it will be completely fresh and new to me.

So far that’s worked very well and it’s meant I’ve had some serious revelations years after many consoles’ shelf lives are long over. It’s just a ton of fun to boot something for the first time acquired through legal means and not from some massive list of ROMs.

Sad to hear Oli Frey, artist of many Sprectrum magazine covers in the 80s, died.

image

I’ve been a big proponent of Retro Gamer magazine and have a large collection of issues going back years but recently and with the pandemic I missed some for a variety of reasons. Now that I have an iPad, I thought I should try the digital subscription which they offered for $21.99 for a year. Far cheaper than buying mags.

It’s not the same as paper, but it’s really damn good. I am happy with it and I’m just a huge old school magazine guy so that’s saying something. Nothing will ever beat paper IMO. I love the look of screenshots in print within cool mag layouts. It’s an art form all its own. Times are changing though, and money is tighter, so digital makes sense.

With all that said, Retro Gamer has a sale on til tomorrow in the app to get the ENTIRE run for $40.99 US. That’s like 250 issues of one of the best gaming mags of all time. I have lots of dupes now, but also can figure on letting some paper go eventually. I’m not getting any younger so the days of downsizing are coming, but I can still read all these awesome retro articles now. If you dig retro and mags like me, it’s a great deal.

I searched in the Google play store for Retro Gamer magazine but didn’t get any relevant hits. Is this a thing only on Apple devices?

Look for Future Publishing maybe?

I found their website online and they say they’re on the pixelmag app and Apple Newstand for their back issues. Since I don’t have Apple, I tried downloading the pixelmag app, and they have their back issues up to issue 168, but they’re all $3.99 each, no sale.

So maybe the sale is only on Apple Newsstand?

That may be. I definitely got the offer in their app though.

I loved Retro Gamer Magazine back in the day. I had no idea it was still a thing.

I missed Issue #1 when it came out, and started with Issue #2. Back then, I was getting them by going to Barnes & Noble and hoping they had the current issue on hand. I managed to grab most of the first 10 or 15 issues, but finally gave up when my local B&N apparently stopped carrying them. I think they all came with CDs in a nice DVD-style case as well, taped to the front of the mag.

IIRC, they were quite expensive then, and even more expensive by subscription, being shipped from overseas…I think?

Glad to know they’re still around, although I don’t think I could ever enjoy a mag like that digitally. It was a beautiful paper magazine, and highly collectible. And considering the subject matter, it’s the kind of thing I’d want on my shelves along with my game collections.

When you were getting the paper version, were you getting them via subscription, or going to the newsstand and getting them one by one like I was? If they’re still printing them, I might need to look into that, depending on price.

Newsstand. Barnes & Noble still carries it. The issue I’ve had since the pandemic is that some B&N’s are more consistent than others in the stocking of the UK mags. You should definitely be able to find it though. It’s $14.99 at the newsstand IIRC.

Don’t knock the tablet version until you’ve tried it! They give you a free preview. Maybe check it out first? At $21.99 for a year, it’s a definite value.

Here’s some screenshots…

It’s a very pretty magazine but I’d get more bang for my buck if it didn’t focus so much on devices like “Sinclair” which I’m pretty sure don’t even exist.

It’s a common confusion. “Sinclair” is British English for “truck”.

Cannon Dancer, aka the spiritual sequel to Strider, is finally getting a home console release in 2023 a quarter of a century after debuting in arcades.

Yeah, this is awesome news. Will buy without question unless it’s got lag issues of some kind, which many of these projects still struggle to avoid.

Oh what are gonna do with it? Play some games on it that seem better than their PC counterparts until you realize, to your disappointment, that the PC has surpassed it?

;)

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Wow, scharmers is HUGE.

Im gonna leave it in a corner, endlessly playing “Jesus on E’s” in a loop. Punk ass.