October 2014 update: Sega Saturn cover 12 page Saturn cover feature written by yours truly, including a two page Q&A with Tom Kalinske about the console's development, its botched American launch and his departure from Sega, plus a spread on essential imports. Also, if you've ever wondered why the Saturn version of Doom is so shit, your answer's in here. Cheers to Sega Retro for permission to use some images for a spread! Buy it physically here, or buy it digitally here. Original post follows: ------------------------ If you're not familiar with Retro Gamer magazine, it's a UK-based publication which has been covering classic video games since 2004 and is generally pretty awesome. The mag over 100 pages of editorial content per issue, most of which consists of features with an emphasis on developer interviews. Late last year I was lucky enough to become the magazine's staff writer, and I've just hit three months in the job. Anyhow, dear Sonic Retro forumites, I'd like your help! What I'd like is for you guys to tell me what Sega-related articles you want to see in Retro Gamer. The benefit for me is that I know you guys are an engaged and passionate audience, and the benefit for you is that we're able to secure excellent access to developers thanks to our status as a professional print magazine with an international readership. How about it, guys? Some guidelines to help make suggestions as useful as possible: - Popular products are more likely to get bigger features and even cover stories - The magazine operates a two-generation rule - Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox games are now eligible for coverage but don't feature too regularly yet - A game or console that has recently featured in the magazine is less likely to be covered - Low-status systems are less likely to be covered. For Sega, this primarily means the SG-1000, 32X and Pico/Beena - Japanese developer interviews are prized, but harder to arrange
The Lost Levels of Miner Willy Part 2 based on the SC-3000 Burglar Bill games [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbiDiWp8afw[/youtube]
There's a handful of Master System and Mega Drive games where we don't have useful credit lists, I.e. people are credited under pseudonyms... but nobody knows which pseudonym corresponds with which person. Altered Beast has a few - a "making of" is all well and good but it would be nice to know who actually made it. I suppose one of the other problems is that a lot of well-known Sega games are reasonably well documented, I.e. the more general questions Retro Gamer are likely to ask may have already been answered. Shame the 32X has been ruled out - there's a lot of strange stories about that one. Sega of America commissioned tons of games which were later scrapped - really messy time over there between 1992 and 1997-ish.
"Less likely" does not mean "never" - it just isn't a high priority due to low commercial appeal. This year is more likely than any until 2019, due to the system's 20th anniversary.
The history of Tec Toy and their Brazilian products (like their own exclusive games, translations, systems).
I wouldn't mind a making of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. I could never really get a sense of whether it was a tribute or a parody
I would love an article on pre-Oculus VR, specifically focusing on JagVR and SegaVR. I have resources necessary for such an article if you'd be interested in research - one of the two JagVR protos recently sold and I was speaking to Palmer Luckey about it the other day.
Something REZ related? Perhaps some insight into the history of it's making, the changed music etc- :3
It was based off of the movie, so I would categorize it as yet another movie adaptation, myself. :P Also, looking on their website it was covered fairly recently. Speaking of Michael, I wonder if it would be possible to do something about Space Channel 5 or that Scramble Training arcade game he was featured in. The latter might be too obscure, though... Trying to think of more ideas but my brain is stuck. Would it be possible to do a feature on the Dragon Force games for Sega Saturn? The second one was Japan only so I don't know how easy it would be to cover that one.
Japanese games shouldn't be a problem as a number of our freelancers are knowledgeable in the field. We even had a good article about Chinese RPGs recently, from a freelancer who used to write for my Dreamcast site back in the day, so it's really only the devs that are difficult on that front. As it goes, I'm hoping to get a Sakura Wars history article in at some point. "The biggest Sega series you've never played" could make for a pretty good cover line.
I know Kori-Maru would love that at least. I'd look forward to reading about the only one released in the West at least.
How do you guys intend to compete with "Retro" magazine? http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=112445 A subscription to that is far cheaper than subscribing to your UK one.
* Retro Gamer has been going far longer * Is a much better magazine * Has better writing staff Not too hard to grasp.
Over 12 issues, that's just over 4 bucks per issue more for a much better magazine that's got proven staying power, as well as what I already said. I don't think Retro Gamer has anything to worry about.
Price isn't really a worry at all because Retro Gamer puts out way more content than Retro. Here's how they stack up: Retro Gamer: 13 issues per year, each at 116 pages (annual total of 1508 pages). £51.90 ($86.97) annual domestic subscription. Retro: 6 issues per year, each at 68 pages (annual total of 408 pages). $32.99 (£19.69) annual domestic subscription. So yeah, a sub to Retro Gamer costs is 2.64 times the cost of a sub to Retro, but you get 3.7 times the content in terms of page count. I've not got my PDF of Retro to hand so I can't tell you what proportion of that publication is editorial content, but I can tell you that Retro Gamer's editorial content total is usually 100+ pages per issue. At any rate, Retro Gamer is a profitable magazine with a healthy, stable readership, a very strong content offering and a decade of reputation behind it. Besides, there are a number of reasons to believe that Retro is the publication with a far more questionable future.
If you do go down the Sakura Taisen route, don't forget to mention that the subtitle of the third one, "Sakura Taisen 3: Paris wa Moeteiru ka", when translated literally becomes "Sakura Wars 3: is Paris burning?". "is Paris burning?" is a quote by Hitler following the invasion of France in World War II. You don't get many games which quote Hitler
