15 replies to this topic

[triverse]

Hey everyone, my name is Carl Williams, co-founder of Retro Gaming Magazine. I figured we are close enough to launch, January 2012, that it is time to start promoting it more to others that may be interested in knowing about it.

Retro Gaming Magazine is a new gaming magazine that, well, focuses on retro gaming that many of us grew up with. We have preview pages available at the link below for anyone interested in the direction we are going with art style, writing and general magazine attributes (the preview is only 4 pages).

http://videogamecowb...e-zero-edit.pdf

We plan on launching in January 2012 with a magazine that is a minimum of 40 pages and available in print and digital, DRM free, PDF format.

Our art director is Martin Alessi, many old school gamers may recognize him as the first art director for Electronic Gaming Monthly from 1989 to about 1994 and creator of the upcoming Retro Player mobile App. We have a support staff of nearly 11 writers, 4 people handling layouts, several dedicated artists handling covers and a public relations/promotion staff of 5 members getting word out about the mag. We also have brought on Michael Thomasson of Good Deal Games to help with our covers.

Some things that you can depend on NOT seeing in RGM include reviews of titles that you are tired of reading about (Mario 3, Sonic games, Street Fighter series, etc), rehashes of old gaming ads (why waste precious paper to reprint old ads when we can focus on more original content?) and we will not be wasting pages on news items (we are covering old games after all).

We welcome everyone to our forums at s7mg.freeforums.org where we do our best to post articles such as Today in History, which covers staple games on the day they were released, news items of interest (see, not in the mag) and various interesting things from other members.

[KiwiArcader]

Good luck with the magazine Carl.

It's quite different to OoPA when it comes to creating new rather than just preserving existing content so I hope you and your staff do well in your new venture. Remember, it's just as much about having fun creating it with a good group of like minded people as it is about the sales numbers.

[triverse]

I agree, Kiwi, this is a completely different venture than that of OoPA (and a separate one at that). For me, it is something I wanted to do for years but never got around to it. With the passing of Bill and our many talks about doing this exact thing and how different things are from when he did it with Electronic Games, I was brought back to the interest in doing the mag. When he passed, I decided I couldn't let the dream go so easily.

The sales numbers will be what they are, I can guarantee though, our staff will be paid for their work (after working with two national gaming magazines, both having come back from the dead, I have learned that this is not always the case- something we are determined to change). While we do hope for high sales numbers, they are not the only thing we are looking at with RGM.

We have several stores that have agreed to carry the print edition locally across the United States and many online stores that will carry both the PDF and print editions so availability is not going to be an issue for anyone (sorry for the lazy pun there).

The team is all like minded and dedicated, believe me, there are days that they are motivating me to work (like during the recent floods we experienced, the staff continued on without me and made me realize, this is going to happen no matter what). It is a fun, challenging, endeavor and I think with our staff and the key additions we have yet to announce, RGM is in the right hands and will flourish.

[TrekMD]

Cool. Will you have subscriptions available?

[triverse]

Subscriptions for both digital and print editions are in the works. We have secured a couple of advertisers already and plan to add more in the very near future, enough to guarantee subscriptions for those interested.

The digital edition is going to be extremely low priced (think iOS pricing).

[TrekMD]

triverse, on Wed Dec 7, 2011 9:04 AM, said:

Subscriptions for both digital and print editions are in the works. We have secured a couple of advertisers already and plan to add more in the very near future, enough to guarantee subscriptions for those interested.

The digital edition is going to be extremely low priced (think iOS pricing).

Very good, thanks! I just ordered a tablet, so I think I'll start going with digital subscriptions for magazines moving forward. No clutter and just as easy to read!

[triverse]

Trek, what tablet did you order? We are very big on how the magazine is viewed and tweaking it for various tablets to be the best it can be across many displays (each tablet shows things differently). If you are interested, and have a tablet we don't have in the beta team already, we may have a spot available for you.

We like the digital idea too. It is our main focus for the most part but we are still going with print for fans of physical product. We have to be in print honestly, we love it too much to let it go without a fight and as long as we can get it printed and there are enough fans wanting print, RGM will be available in print.

[TrekMD]

I pre-ordered the Asus Transformer Prime (Android). It is supposed to be out Dec 18/19, so I'm hoping to receive it before Christmas. I'm really liking the idea of using it to read electronic magazines because I've been printing PDF files in order to enjoy them. Since my tablet isn't out yet, chances are you don't have it in your beta team either, so I'd love to be part of the beta team if you are interesting in having me. Thanks!

[triverse]

Let me discuss it with my business partner, Nick from The Retro League. I am sure he will be cool with you coming onboard to help with beta testing the mag on your new tablet.

Have you checked out Oldgamemags.com (great source for PDF's of great gaming mags of the past) or Out-of-Print Archive (great source of legal releases of old gaming mags)? Those two sources should keep you flush with electronic mags to read for awhile in between beta test requests.

Just a disclaimer here. I am friends with KiwiArcader- owner of Oldgamemags.com and I am one of the curators/co-owners of Out-of-Print. Just wanted to put that out there for anyone wondering.

[TrekMD]

Great, thanks! And thanks for those links! I was not aware of those sites! Let me know what you guys decide.

[StoneAgeGamer]

I think you e-mailed us about carrying it, we did reply, but heard nothing back. You have probably been busy.

[triverse]

Sorry Stoneagegamer, I remember you e-mailing back it was the week we had to leave due to flooding and I haven't had time to get caught up on the backlog of e-mails that came in since. My apologies. I will reply soon though.

[Atari Smeghead]

Carl,

I just clicked on the link above, and I guess your 4-page preview is gone now, or the link is broken. It goes to Video Game Cowboys, but gives a Page Not Found error. (I was able to find it via the Scenic 7 forum link.)

By the way, do you accept freelance articles? I have one I wrote that might fit your magazine's needs.

Cheers,
Randy

[triverse]

We are in the process of taking the preview down (I made it available on a couple of sites) since it is out of date and no longer represents the direction of the magazine (what Martin has created BLOWS my layouts away).

Yes, we accept freelance submissions (and I have read your PM and plan on responding soon). If you have time and are interested in joining the staff of RGM please join our forums at http://s7mg.freeforums.org and I can upgrade your account to access the staff section. We have various discussions going on with the staff and direction of the mag right now.

[Atari Smeghead]

Done and done!

[triverse]

We have a new site setup, right now it is just a splash page advertising the coming mag but is still pretty cool:

http://www.retrogamingmagazine.com/