History
The first 18 issues of the magazine came with a coverdisk. It usually contained freeware remakes of retro video games and emulators, but also videos and free commercial PC software such as ''The Games Factory'' and ''The Elder Scrolls: Arena''. Some issues had themed CDs containing the entire back catalogue of a publisher such as Durell Software, Durell, Llamasoft and Gremlin Graphics. On 27 September 2005, the magazine's original publishing company, Live Publishing, went into bankruptcy. The magazine's official online Internet forum, forums described the magazine as "finished" shortly before issue #19 was due for release. However, rights to ''Retro Gamer'' were purchased by Imagine Publishing in October 2005 and the magazine was re-launched on 8 December 2005. ''Retro Survival'' is a commercial CD retro games magazine put together by the freelance writers of ''Retro Gamer'' when Live Publishing collapsed. The CD was published in November 2005 and contains articles that would have appeared in Issue 19 of ''Retro Gamer'', as well as several extras including a foreword by celebrity games journalist Mr Biffo. In June 2004, a tribute to ''Zzap!64'' was included, "The DEF Tribute to ''Zzap!64''", celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Commodore 64 focused magazine. Includes interviews with leading 80s and 90s programmers such as David Crane (programmer), David Crane, Matthew Smith (games programmer), Matthew Smith and Archer Maclean. Regular columns also feature such as Back to the 80s and 90s, Desert Island Disks (what games would a gaming celebrity take to a desert island) and From the Archives (a profile of a particular game developer or publisher). The 'Making Of's' is a recurring feature in which well-known developers are interviewed about the creation and design process behind their games. Classic titles covered in past issues have included ''Breakout (video game), Breakout'' (Steve Wozniak), ''Dungeon Master (video game), Dungeon Master'' (Doug Bell (game designer), Doug Bell), ''Smash TV'' (Eugene Jarvis), ''Starfox (1987 video game), Starfox'' (Jez San), ''Rescue on Fractalus!'' (David Fox (game designer), David Fox/Charlie Kellner), ''Prince of Persia (1989 video game), Prince of Persia'' (Jordan Mechner), ''Berzerk (video game), Berzerk'' (Alan McNeil), ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (video game), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (Steve Meretzky), ''Crystal Castles (video game), Crystal Castles'' (Franz X. Lanzinger), ''Tetris'' (Alexey Pajitnov), ''Sheep in Space'' (Jeff Minter) ''Out Run'' (Yu Suzuki) and ''Splat! (video game), Splat!'' (Ian Andrew). Issue 48 (February 2008) contained an exclusive interview with ''Manic Miner'' creator Matthew Smith, written by freelancer Paul Drury after a visit to Smith's family home in Liverpool. March 2010 (issue 75) saw John Romero collaborating with ''Retro Gamer'', taking on the role of 'Guest Editor', taking charge of the magazine's editorial and splashing his own unique style to a number of his favorite articles and subjects throughout the magazine. The magazine celebrated its 150th issue in January 2016 and as of November 2016, the staff consists of Editor Darran Jones, Production Editor Drew Sleep, Senior Staff Writer Nick Thorpe and Designer Sam Ribbits. The magazine posts its own issue preview videos on its YouTube channel, featuring editor Darran Jones and Production Editor Drew Sleep as hosts.Digital version
Three DVDs with 25 to 30 issues each have been released over the years: * ''Retro Gamer eMag Load 1'' (containing issues #1 to #30) * ''Retro Gamer eMag Load 2'' (containing issues #31 to #55) * ''Retro Gamer eMag Load 3''Awards
Retro Gamer won Best Magazine at the 2010 Games Media Awards.References
External links