Oct 17, 2007

Retro Gamer eMag Review

Retro Gamer eMag Oliver FreySo, uhm, what's an eMag, eh? Simple really, as it apparently is a collection of digitized magazines in PDF on a disk, which obviously means that a Retro Gamer eMag is a selection of digitized Retro Gamer magazines, or to be more precise 30 issues/3000+ pages of Retro Gamer in PDF on a disk. To be even more precise this particular eMag I'm currently reviewing features the first 30 (now out of print and pretty expensive) issues of said mag and a variety of extras, complete with full search capabilities via an excellent and lovingly animated retro themed interface.

What's more, searching/exploring the brilliant and rich content available can be done in three ways. First of all you can very virtually grab each one of the issues as a whole and read the PDF from -so to say- cover to cover, even though admittedly the PDF quality isn't that great, as all the images (not the text) are too low-res to enjoy. Then, you can search for individual top/printable quality high-definition articles through smartly indexed predefined categories (unfortunately not every single article has been included, which is quite annoying) and finally you can search the PDF documents themselves for any silly keyword you could come up with. All in all, finding what you are looking for or simply browsing is easy and intuitive and, considering the quality of what's on offer, my only true gripe is that I can't seem to find quality scans of the magazines' covers.

Now, for those of you that haven't even heard of Retro Gamer, suffice to say it's my favorite video gaming mag ever. I even prefer it to the early issues of PC Zone. Besides, it covers everything from 8-bit computers and consoles to arcades, game making ofs, retro-remakes, long gone developers, handhelds and even Jeff Minter's ship obsessions. As a prime example of what to generally expect from RG, please do read this excellent Sega MegaDrive Genesis retroinspection, one of the rare RG articles to make it to the web for free, though neither with all it usual bells and whistles nor in its 100% complete form. Oh, and here's Imagine's official Retro Gamer website.

Retro Gamer scanRetro Gamer eMag interfaceAs an added bonus, and probably as an incentive to buy the compilation regardless of the number of RG issues in your possession, Imagine threw in some lovely little extras. These include wallpapers (1024x768 and 1280x1024, 40 each), a couple of rather pointless files to help you create your own RG cover, 6 never before published pages on the magazine's history and impressively all 257 PDF pages of Retro - Micro Games Action, featuring the best retro articles from 24 issues of games TM. This PDF might not be of the highest resolution, but it's easily readable, and one could argue it's enough a reason (besides the obvious collector's obsession) for regular RG readers to grab this eMag, which incidentally is available here.

That's a (nine) out of (ten).

Related @ Gnome's Lair: Wii retro gaming guide, free CPC games, The Lurking Horror by Infocom

24 comments:

  1. I've been reading Retro Gamer for about a year now, and I've acquired the really weird habit of only reading the previous issue after I've bought the latest one.

    Who knows what would happen if I got 30 at once?!

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  2. That look very like an Oliver Frey cover form the good old days of Crash and ZZap64 - i spoke to him last year and he apparently has a book collecting his artwork coming out at some point..

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  3. Ok, Pacian, don't panick. Simply send me each new issue and I'll mail you a random one back. Think it'll work. Then you can try the DVD and fry your brain... Oh, and congrats on PM again!

    Petesk, that is indeed an Oliver Frey piece, and if I'm not mistaken he's also created a special RG cover too... Besides, you'll be glad to know the book is already out!

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  4. I love the magazine, although here in the states it runs about 12.99 per issue. Still, I happily drop the cash since it's the best in classic gaming.

    and p.s... any of the faithful readers here wish to test out the new beta of Encounter Zone (Dreamcast, PC, Mac)? Drop me a line at fusekigames@briandeuel.com. It should be ready for testing in the next couple of days.

    (Sorry if this is spamming, gnome :( )

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  5. Spamming? Are you kidding me Brian? Of course you are not and obviously you're most welcome to post anything (well, almost) you feel like.

    Besides I'd like to have a look at the new beta too... Care to share again?

    Oh, and I'm buying Retro Gamer for a bit under 10 euros, so don't feel bad about yourself :)

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  6. I'll definitely have to pick this up myself. Thanks for pointing it out to me.

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  7. God Gnome, your like the Father Christmas of gaming. Retro Gamer is indeed a fine magazine. I have issue one and two and stil buy the occasional issue of the magazine.

    This is a wonderful resource! thank you!

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  8. 30 issues/3000+ pages....

    ...THUD!

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  9. I've set up a blog right here on blogger.com for updates on my dev efforts and other dreck i care to post. AND I've linked a bunch of you guys. You can return the favor if you want :)

    Check it out at briandeuel.com!

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  10. Oh yeah - Oli's book is here http://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Art-Oliver-Frey/dp/1902886062/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4926532-7523206?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192697905&sr=8-1

    Its going on my xmas list i think :)

    Did anyone used to read either crash or zzap64 ??

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  11. Ontologicalzombie (love the name) thanks for ..uh.. the thanks. Excellent new blog you got there mate... A link's coming yourway asap!

    Father, you know that issues 1 and 2 are highly sought after by a weird rag-tag bunch of mag collectors, don't you?

    Now, please help me lift Elderly and bring him to the harem...

    Excellent news brian! Linking back asap!

    Think I'll be grabbing one too petesk. Oh, and I've been an odd ZZap reader. Unfortunately my mother threw most of my old mags away years ago... pah!

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  12. I have the first issue... I should just buy this collection and sell all my early issues, free up the space!

    Personally, I think the quality of the magazine has dropped the last year... I stopped buying it.

    Also my buddy who used to work there left, so I don't even have to buy it to support him anymore!

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  13. Well Anonymous dear, you'll be freeing space, but missing on the fun of retro reading in the toilet... Or on the train... Wouldn't agree on the quality thing, but frankly that's highly subjective. Now, who was your friend? Come on, you can tell me... nobody 's listening....

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  14. The first final proto of Encounter Zone (sans new graphics) is up at http://www.briandeuel.com. Give it a whirl!!

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  15. Excellent! And you got the demo ready too... I'll download it asap.

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  16. haaareeeeemmm... yes, don't tell me you don't remember...

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  17. Anyone have a copy of this collection they want to get rid of? I forgot to pick it up and now it's sold out.

    I actually mainly want it to free up space... I have quite a lot of early RG magazines and I simply no longer have room for them.

    Though I am worried about your complaints of the quality... I wish I could get a sample to see if it was acceptable by my standards.

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  18. Oh, and the second collection is out now!

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  19. Well, Captain Handsome, I'm afraid I only have one copy of the thing, but I'm pretty sure you could do better at eBay. Rumours have it that those satanic torrent sites might be handy for sampling purposes too...

    As for the second collection I thnk I might be picking one up soon.

    Cheers!

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  20. So the Retro Gamer DVD is DVD of .pdfs? Is there a .pdf per issue? How is it laid out? Just wondering if I could read them on an iPad easily. Thanks!

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  21. Yes, it essentially is a DVD of PDFs. There are both PDfs of each article and of each issue. Also everything is searchable and well indexed.

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  23. Here is a link to Retro Gamer scans by Bytemaniacos. Issues 56 onwards are of somewhat better quality than issues 1-55: http://scans.bytemaniacos.com/en/retro_gamer/. Here is also a link to Retro Gamer issue rar downloads: http://uploaded.net/f/nueeuu

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