''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' soon became a monthly. In 2005, a general decline in gaming and computer magazine readership led to the closure of its publishers, Live Publishing, and the rights to the magazine were later purchased by Imagine Publishing. It was taken over by

Future plc Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...

on 21 October 2016, following Future's acquisition of Imagine Publishing.

History

The first 18 issues of the magazine came with a coverdisk. It usually contained freeware remakes of retro

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s and

emulators In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

, but also

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

s and free commercial PC software such as ''

The Games Factory Clickteam is a French software development company based in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. Founded by Francis Poulain, François Lionet and Yves Lamoureux, Clickteam is best known for the creation of Clickteam Fusion, a script-free progra ...

'' and '' The Elder Scrolls: Arena''. Some issues had themed CDs containing the entire back catalogue of a publisher such as Durell, Llamasoft and

Gremlin Graphics Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in ...

. On 27 September 2005, the magazine's original publishing company, Live Publishing, went into bankruptcy. The magazine's official online 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 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

'' 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, 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'' ( Steve Wozniak), '' Dungeon Master'' ( Doug Bell), ''

Smash TV ''Smash TV'' is a 1990 arcade video game created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams Electronics Games. It is a dual-stick shooter (one for moving and the other for firing) in the same vein as 1982's ''Robotron: 2084'' (co-created b ...

'' (

Eugene Jarvis Eugene Peyton Jarvis is an American game designer and video game programmer, known for producing pinball machines for Atari and video games for Williams Electronics. Most notable among his works are the seminal arcade video games '' Defender'' ...

), '' Starfox'' (

Jez San Jeremy Elliott "Jez" San OBE (born 29 March 1966) is an English game programmer and entrepreneur who founded Argonaut Software as a teenager in the 1980s. He is best known for the 1986 Atari ST game ''Starglider'' and helping to design the Supe ...

), ''

Rescue on Fractalus! ''Rescue On Fractalus!'' is a 1985 first-person shooter computer game created by Lucasfilm Games. It was originally released for the Atari 8-bit family and the Atari 5200 games console. It was also ported to other popular platforms of the day, ...

'' ( David Fox/Charlie Kellner), '' Prince of Persia'' (

Jordan Mechner Jordan Mechner (born June 4, 1964) is an American video game designer, author, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He is best known for designing and programming the Broderbund Apple II games ''Karateka'' and '' Prince of Persia'' in the 1980s, the la ...

), '' Berzerk'' (Alan McNeil), ''

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (sometimes referred to as ''HG2G'', ''HHGTTG'', ''H2G2'', or ''tHGttG'') is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it ...

'' ( Steve Meretzky), ''

Crystal Castles Crystal Castles was a Canadian electronic music group formed in 2006 in Toronto, Ontario, formed by songwriter-producer Ethan Kath and singer-songwriter Alice Glass, who later left and was replaced by Edith Frances. Crystal Castles were know ...

'' (Franz X. Lanzinger), ''

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...

'' (

Alexey Pajitnov Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov. (born 16 April 1955) is a Russian-born American computer engineer and video game designer. He is best-known for designing and developing ''Tetris'' in 1984 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the ...

), '' Sheep in Space'' (

Jeff Minter Jeff Minter (born 22 April 1962) is an independent English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 19 ...

) ''

Out Run (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi (comp ...

'' (

Yu Suzuki is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimen ...

) and ''

Splat! SPLAT! (short for an RF Signal Propagation, Loss, And Terrain analysis tool) is a GNU GPL-licensed terrestrial radio propagation model application initially written for Linux but has since been ported for Windows and OS X. SPLAT! can use the Lon ...

'' (Ian Andrew). Issue 48 (February 2008) contained an exclusive interview with ''

Manic Miner ''Manic Miner'' is a platform video game originally written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith and released by Bug-Byte in 1983 (later re-released by Software Projects). It is the first game in the Miner Willy series and among the early titl ...

'' 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 John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

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''''Retro Gamer eMag Load 3''
at imagineshop.co.uk (containing issues #56 to #80) ''Retro Gamer'' is now available as an iOS app and can be downloaded onto iPhone and iPad.

Awards

Retro Gamer won Best Magazine at the 2010 Games Media Awards.

References

External links

Official website

* Archived Retro Gamer Magazines (issues #1 to #11) on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Video Game Critics 2004 establishments in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 2004 Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Video game magazines published in the United Kingdom