| This is our slowly evolving online magazine section. One day it will it includes features and articles about most old games machines of the past, and include updated pages from the ‘real paper’ retrogames magazine, with brand new in-depth features on the history of gaming. Hopefully, it’s not all going to come from us either, as we’re now looking for guest articles to publish along side our own.
Fancy writing a Feature for Retrogames?
We are currently looking for more features and articles to add to this part of the website. We often had guest features in our original magazine, and some of these writers went on to contribute to the glossy magazines on the shelves of WHSmith. If you have an article you’d like to write, about any facet of retrogaming, then do get in touch. Intelligent articles on machines or ingredients of retrogaming we haven’t covered before are preferred, but if you have any ideas, just email us and we’ll get back to you. There is no need to set the article out, a simple word or text document, along with any photos or captions you wish to add, will be fine. Unfortunately, you will not get paid for your contribution, but the Retrogames site does attract over two million hits per month, so accepted features will definitely be well read.
Not so regular Features...
Our regular features aren’t being updated as often as we’d like. The primary reason for this is the huge amount of time it takes to keep the stock listings updated, on top of handling all the email and orders the site generates. Jace’s Rant is definitely suffering because of the lack of time left to write it. Many regular readers have commented on the lack of ‘Rants’, which used to be a very popular part of the retrogames site. With this in mind, we’d be happy to publish Guest rants in this section, perhaps you have something which is niggling you about the games industry at the moment, or just want to get your point of view on gaming across. Here’s your chance to get your message out there to hundreds of thousands of fellow gamers.
Retrogames REAL Magazine The last issue of Retrogames magazine, number 23, came out in 2004, after a two year gap between issues. Like issue 22, it was a full colour issue, and was brought into being primarily because of the great excitement over our newly found Virtual Boy prototype, Faceball. But how could a homemade fanzine really compete with a glossy publication like Imagine's Retrogamer magazine. In truth it couldn't. Despite full page adverts in Edge and Retrogamer to publicise issue 23, it actually sold just 370 copies. With profit per magazine after postage and printing of just £1.07, and advertising costs incurred of over £2300, it made the biggest loss of any issue in our history. Of course, despite the losses, we don't regret creating any of the Retrogames issues. When it all began back in 1995, printing was cheap black and white photocopying. Advertising was small, and word of mouth was how we gained most of our readers. Even in the early days the magazine, it never really generated much of a profit, but the games listed at the back helped support the company moving forward. To be honest, I was almost proud that the magazine didn't make any money, and continued writing it as a personal passion. That passion for writing still burns, but Retrogames has grown so much as a company in recent years, that it is now more about organising staff, handling post collections, and day to day office work. The possibility of an issue 24 isn't extinguished completely. This site generates so much interest that if there are still interested customers, it wouldn't require expensive advertising to find them. Recently I was delighted to see a small collection of our old issues sell on ebay for considerably more than they originally sold for, The thought that I inadvertently created a retro collectible while writing about retro collectibles is quite heartwarming. Favourite Links While many sites have Link pages, retrogames has never really had one. That's not to say there aren't a lot of sites out there that I would recommend, i'm often amazed by the level of support and passion there is out there for a particular format or range of games. If you have a retro gaming related site and would like to be included in our forthcoming reciprocal links page, email us and let us know what your site is about. Retrogames is a site which does not feature any advertising - however much we're asked - so the only way to get your site linked to ours is by letting us know. |
