Retro gamer 95... did you get yours?

[T]

I live in the U.S.

I have not recieved issue 95 with bubble bobble on the cover

have any of you in the US received your copy?

[Richter Belmount]

Nope!

[Bojay1997]

I live in the U.S.

I have not recieved issue 95 with bubble bobble on the cover

have any of you in the US received your copy?

I got mine on Friday of last week. I live in California.

[gameofyou]

I got mine just today. It showed up much later than normal. Not sure what the reason for the delay was. I thought maybe it was lost in the mail. I was expecting it to arrive in tatters when I finally got it, but it was in good shape.

[Skullkid]

It showed up at Barnes and Noble yesterday.

[RJ]

Got mine 2-3 wks ago, in fact Im looking forward to #96. Im in Minnesota. #94 took longer than usual to get here, I was about to buy it from B&N & it showed up, then #95 came less than a week later.

Funny B&N has #95 already, I usually have the next issue before they get the current one.

[soloman]

Got mine 2-3 wks ago, in fact Im looking forward to #96. Im in Minnesota. #94 took longer than usual to get here, I was about to buy it from B&N & it showed up, then #95 came less than a week later.

Funny B&N has #95 already, I usually have the next issue before they get the current one.

I got mine 3 weeks ago and live in VA. I don't know what their distribution is.

[Wraith Storm]

Got mine 2-3 wks ago, in fact Im looking forward to #96. Im in Minnesota. #94 took longer than usual to get here, I was about to buy it from B&N & it showed up, then #95 came less than a week later.

Funny B&N has #95 already, I usually have the next issue before they get the current one.

This is what happened to me as well. The wait between 93 and 94 was quite a while, but once 94 arrived in my mailbox it wasn't but a week or two later that 95 arrived as well.

And yes, if you subscribe you get all the issues as they are released overseas. For whatever reason Brick and Mortar stores are a month behind.

[marlowe221]

Question from a new guy...

I googled this magazine after reading this thread and it looks pretty cool. It also looks pretty expensive for the USA crowd.

So... worth it or not?

[RJ]

Short answer...yes.

#96 arrived yesterday in MN. FF7 on the cover. BTW in that top 25 C64 games, lots are also on Atati 8bits too. The Mastertronic disks I had were 2-sided w/ each vers. on either side, & IIRC, NINJA had both vers. on 1 side.

[T]

Got 95

now waiting for 96

I missed a couple of issues over the years and
it's a pain to get them replaced

[InsaneDavid]

The regular bookstores around here didn't have load 95 in last weekend but Fry's had just put it out. I usually stop by every other payday but since I saw here some people had already seen it on shelves I tried to pick it up early.

In other words, shipping to retail as usual here in the bay.

[icbrkr]

Got 95 and 96 within the same week. There must have been some sort of holdup within shipping to the states.

Is it expensive? Yep. Is it worth it? Yep, I've been a subscriber since issue 5.

[Damaramu]

Man, too bad we don't have magazines like this with staying power here in North America.

While I'm sure it's a great magazine, and no offense to our UK forum members, I just don't care about the retro scene from the UK perspective.

I suppose I'll just have to stick with websites like Digital Press or Hardcore Gaming 101.

[tom]

Same here.
Although I lived in the UK during the 80s and 90s, I used my A8 and C128 for US gaming, US games were readily available in England, but most Brits had Spectrums and had to put up with lousy written games from UK programming houses delivered on tape during the 80s.

Same with UK C64 owners, most didn't even own a fdd. Unbelievable but true. Some member here on DP mentioned that in the UK fdds were more expensive than the computer, but that was the case everywhere, fdds for Apple ][, A8 cost more than the computer, but it was no big deal.

UK gaming mags like ZZAP always had two page ads from SSI, Electronic Arts, Lucasfilm, Origin, but disk based only, no good for the average C64 owner in the UK. And average price of GBP 30.00 + for a US game, when a UK made game cost GBP 15.99 or less. Quality or cheap, UKers went for cheap.

Mind you the British programming scene was flourishing and it gave you later games like Tomb Raider, Donkey Kong Country and so on.

I'd love the see the C64 Top 25 in issue 96, any US classics in there?

[Mayhem]

The published 25 as per issue #96 is...

1) Paradroid
2) Wizball
3) IK+
4) Uridium
5) Impossible Mission
6) Armalyte
7) Bubble Bobble
8 ) Thrust
9) Bruce Lee
10) Kick Start 2
11) Last Ninja
12) Elite
13) Turrican 2
14) Buggy Boy
15) Last Ninja 2
16) Maniac Mansion
17) Delta
18) Myth
19) Way of the Exploding Fist
20) Leaderboard
21) California Games
22) Barbarian
23) Boulderdash
24) The Sentinel
25) Stunt Car Racer


While I'm sure it's a great magazine, and no offense to our UK forum members, I just don't care about the retro scene from the UK perspective.
There is quite a bit of American and Japanese coverage, but usually from the 16 bits onwards. Neither of the main 8 bit consoles were that huge here.

[98PaceCar]

Man, too bad we don't have magazines like this with staying power here in North America.

While I'm sure it's a great magazine, and no offense to our UK forum members, I just don't care about the retro scene from the UK perspective.

I suppose I'll just have to stick with websites like Digital Press or Hardcore Gaming 101.

Pick up an issue and try it before you dimiss it. Magazines in the UK actually have readable, well thought out articles where US magazines are largely ads with a few reviews and gamefaqs inspired articles. Once I got into Retro Gamer and saw the quality, I started picking up its sister magazine GamesTM to handle my modern gaming needs. I let every US subscription lapse once I got a stceady source for these two and other than being a month behind, I couldn't be happier with the overage.

These are easily the best gaming mags I've read since the mid 80s.

[tom]

The published 25 as per issue #96 is...

1) Paradroid
2) Wizball
3) IK+
4) Uridium
5) Impossible Mission
6) Armalyte
7) Bubble Bobble
8 ) Thrust
9) Bruce Lee
10) Kick Start 2
11) Last Ninja
12) Elite
13) Turrican 2
14) Buggy Boy
15) Last Ninja 2
16) Maniac Mansion
17) Delta
18) Myth
19) Way of the Exploding Fist
20) Leaderboard
21) California Games
22) Barbarian
23) Boulderdash
24) The Sentinel
25) Stunt Car Racer


There is quite a bit of American and Japanese coverage, but usually from the 16 bits onwards. Neither of the main 8 bit consoles were that huge here.

Wow, only 6 US games....where's LCP, Alter Ego, Ultima IV, Wizards Crown, Raid over Moscow, The Castle of Dr Creep, The Halley project, Buck Rogers or a Gold box or Phantasie or Questron, Tigers in the Snow, Portal, Beamrider, Hacker, Tass Times..., Bards Tale III, MULE, 7 Cities of Gold, Project Firestart, A Infocom game, Lode Runner, Deja Vu/ Uninvited....phew big fail
Although I have to admit, there's 7 very good British games in that list.

[Bojay1997]

Wow, only 6 US games....where's LCP, Alter Ego, Ultima IV, Wizards Crown, Raid over Moscow, The Castle of Dr Creep, The Halley project, Buck Rogers or a Gold box or Phantasie or Questron, Tigers in the Snow, Portal, Beamrider, Hacker, Tass Times..., Bards Tale III, MULE, 7 Cities of Gold, Project Firestart, A Infocom game, Lode Runner, Deja Vu/ Uninvited....phew big fail
Although I have to admit, there's 7 very good British games in that list.

Most of what you listed and frankly a number of those on the list are not what some people would consider "Commodore 64" games, they are multi-platform games developed on other systems and ported to the C64. For example, Mule was originally developed and intended for the Atari 800 and the C64 port is great, but lacks four player joystick control which is how the game was intended to be played. Similarly, Bard's Tale III was originally developed on the Apple II and ported to Commodore 64, Amiga and several others. Seven Cities of Gold was another Atari 800 game that received a C64 port. Deja Vu/Uninvited were Mac monochrome games that got pretty good C64, NES and Amiga ports. It goes on and on. I guess it's tough to come up with a good list of the best games for a system without featuring multi-platform games, but in some cases the C64 version on their list wasn't even the best version.

[icbrkr]

I think the list was more of a 'reader's choice' and since most of the readers are in Europe, well, that's what you're seeing.

I also can see who actually bought games as opposed to who didn't. Me, for example, didn't know some of those games were European and some were US games because... well... they all came down the same modem for me.

[slapdash]

While I'm sure it's a great magazine, and no offense to our UK forum members, I just don't care about the retro scene from the UK perspective.

Good news: Retro Gaming Monthly, a US mag, will start arriving in 2012.
Bad news: Inside buzz says it will mostly be reprints of old Die Hard Game Fan articles.

[Damaramu]

Well that's cool. I've got a small stack of minty Gamefan mags that I bought back in the 90's.

[tom]

Most of what you listed and frankly a number of those on the list are not what some people would consider "Commodore 64" games, they are multi-platform games developed on other systems and ported to the C64. For example, Mule was originally developed and intended for the Atari 800 and the C64 port is great, but lacks four player joystick control which is how the game was intended to be played. Similarly, Bard's Tale III was originally developed on the Apple II and ported to Commodore 64, Amiga and several others. Seven Cities of Gold was another Atari 800 game that received a C64 port. Deja Vu/Uninvited were Mac monochrome games that got pretty good C64, NES and Amiga ports. It goes on and on. I guess it's tough to come up with a good list of the best games for a system without featuring multi-platform games, but in some cases the C64 version on their list wasn't even the best version.

Computers thrived with conversions, many SSI classics originated on Apple ][ but they are A8 classics as well. LCP, Bards Tale, Gold boxes, all A2 orginals, shined on C64, as did Defender of the Crown, an Amiga original.

Of course, it's different with A8 orginals, they are always best on A8 and inferior copies on C64.

90% of the British list above is multi-platform, and Speccy users claim their version's always the classic.

Just because a game originated on one platform first it doesn't mean they can be good or better on another.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Good news: Retro Gaming Monthly, a US mag, will start arriving in 2012.
Bad news: Inside buzz says it will mostly be reprints of old Die Hard Game Fan articles.

Any links? I tried to find some info and I can't find any on the new mag.

[fahlim003]

Got 95 and 96 within the same week. There must have been some sort of holdup within shipping to the states.

Is it expensive? Yep. Is it worth it? Yep, I've been a subscriber since issue 5.
I'm with you, I got 95 and 96 within a week of eachother as well. Definitely some sort of hold-up. I've been a subscriber but not as long, since issue 40. Definitely worth it and much cheaper than buying in store, at least it's gotten cheaper.

[Mayhem]

Computers thrived with conversions, many SSI classics originated on Apple ][ but they are A8 classics as well. LCP, Bards Tale, Gold boxes, all A2 orginals, shined on C64, as did Defender of the Crown, an Amiga original.
Huh? I'll give you Bard's Tale, but LCP was developed on the C64, the A2 version is a port.

[gameofyou]

If anyone from the USA is thinking about subscribing to Retrogamer, use the promo code YOUTUBE and the subscription will be much cheaper.

[RJ]

Yes, some issues SEEM almost UK-centric when they feature a glut of UK items, but the mag is so good it's worth it. I for one have absolutely no interest in their computers like the Speccy or the Dragon, but I just skip the article. & when I go back later to re-read the issues (I always do), maybe I'll decide to read it then.

[tom]

Huh? I'll give you Bard's Tale, but LCP was developed on the C64, the A2 version is a port.

Even better, a classic which belongs in any C64 Top 10.

[T]

Now i am waiting on issue 96

anyone else waiting for this issue?

[RPG_Fanatic]

B & N has it here. Final Fantasy VII is on the cover.

[RJ]

This is my 3rd or 4th annual renewal & my wife (renewed it in October thru Amazon as always) says the total was $138.10 ($10.62/issue). This seems high to me but she maintains it's cheaper than it used to be.

Any US subscribers paying less than this? Just doesnt sound right to me.

[Mayhem]

That sounds like the proper price, without the discount that was active a year or two back. And trust me, half that price is the shipping.

[Cryog]

Any links? I tried to find some info and I can't find any on the new mag.

http://s7mg.freeforums.org/retro-gaming-monthly-f4.html

[fahlim003]

This is my 3rd or 4th annual renewal & my wife (renewed it in October thru Amazon as always) says the total was $138.10 ($10.62/issue). This seems high to me but she maintains it's cheaper than it used to be.

Any US subscribers paying less than this? Just doesnt sound right to me.
I'm in Canada and I'm paying £50 or $77 USD. This deal applies to both Canada and US and has been mentioned on this site before. The code is YOUTUBE and from what I know only works via the Imagine Publishing website. https://imagine.subscribeonline.co.uk/all-titles/retro-gamer

I used to pay over $100 but not anymore, so long as this promo stick around.

[gameofyou]

This is my 3rd or 4th annual renewal & my wife (renewed it in October thru Amazon as always) says the total was $138.10 ($10.62/issue). This seems high to me but she maintains it's cheaper than it used to be.

Any US subscribers paying less than this? Just doesnt sound right to me.

I just re-subscribed (using the YOUTUBE promo code) for 13 issues, and the price works out to $6 each, after conversion to USA currency.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Cryog here's a link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO8MWE-sPyo

[gameofyou]

Anyone in the USA get issue #100 yet?

[InsaneDavid]

Anyone in the USA get issue #100 yet?

99 was the last issue I saw on newsstand. Fry's will probably have 100 out at the end of this week.