Retro Luvin’ Goodness

Although I’m a bit slow on the trigger, I’d like to pass along the news that the talented folks over at Retroaction Magazine have put together their inaugural issue of RETROACTION. If you are at all familiar with the fantastic print mag “Retro Gamer”, you’ll find Retroaction a comparable mag with the extra dosage of love that comes with a free publication wrought from the keyboards and minds of dedicated retro gaming fans.

According to the authors (one of which is our very own gnome of The Gnome’s Lair!), Retroaction will be issued one per season; four times a year. The first issue is roughly separated into four parts – a main feature on The Legend of Wukong (a new Sega MD/Genesis title), pretty darned in-depth coverage of the 2008 Retro Remakes Competition, a small feature on the UK-based television show “GamesMaster”, and a wonderful assortment of articles that focus on games for (mostly European) systems like the ZX ‘Speccy’ Spectrum, BBC ‘Beeb’ Micro, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, etc. Like any good retro gaming publication, the types of articles vary so much that I think anyone should find something they like in it.

Interested yet? Head on over to Retroaction and download the first issue (in Adobe PDF format). If you like what these dedicated authors and publishers have done, be sure to drop them a line over at their forums and let them know!

If you’re interested in what I think about Issue #1, read onwards…

After bemoaning the state of video game journalism a couple of weeks ago, I was very pleasantly surprised to see something new on the horizon for us battleworn gamers. Sure, Retroaction isn’t (meant to be) a deep investigation into the sociology and psychology of gaming – but it does two things that I think are absolutely vital for meaningful writing: 1. It brings back the excitement and pleasure of computer and video game history in bright, expressive colours; 2. It manages to show off the wonder of retro gaming without becoming a bunch of egocentric statements about how games make the authors feel. Those two aspects of the magazine, taken together, manage to evoke the past in the present and make me care about retro gaming.

First – the layout. It is the work of a gifted graphic designer that knows how text and images can flow together to create a coherent and beautiful page. The bright text on dark pages – often with several layers of background images – gives the magazine a real sense of depth. In fact, I enjoy this layout more than I did the layout of the original The Escapist magazine. Why? Because it’s great to finally see someone making proper use of hyperlinks in a publication! And (in case you’re wondering) it loaded up just fine on my iPod Touch (which has become my magazine reading device on the train).

In terms of writing, I like it. It’s informal, quirky, and chock full of information. As I said, it’s not going to win any Pulitzers for cultural and emotional depth, but the sheer genuineness of a fan-loved piece of work won me over. This is what I want to read when I sit down at the table in the morning and sip at my first ‘americano’ of the day.

Content. Jeez, I don’t know how they managed to put out a 62-page magazine on their first go. I’m guessing that future issues might be a wee bit shorter – I can’t imagine how much time this took to put together. I thought that the Retro Remakes section was well covered, and I appreciated the amount of detail several of the reviews went in to (however I must admit that I skimmed through the games that I didn’t find particularly interesting). The mix of content on television, video games, computer games, and printed publications was impressive. It’s not too broad, and just narrow enough I think. However, if you’re a console fan, the pickins’ are a bit thin. Personally, I don’t miss the lean selection of console games to be honest – I think consoles have been covered to death in the media, and it’s nice seeing the ‘Speccy’ and ‘Beeb’ get their due. As a Canadian, I am skewed a bit towards the Commodore 64 and IBM PC – so hopefully those will get a bit more pagespace in future issues. But I have no complaints to be honest – I had a great laugh reading their review of Sensible Software’s Sensible Train-spotting, which was news to me.

Altogether, I’m pretty stunned by their achievement. Makes me wish that I wrote articles for them instead! 

And if this were a printed magazine – you bet I’d buy it.