Reaching Out to anyone who really loves old games..

[Zach]

Hi guys,

I'm kind of unsure about "spamming" the Forum but I feel its relevant enough for Off Topic, and I'm clearly not registered just to promote the next best dick cream, or car wash soap.. so here goes..


As anyone who has looked at my Profile may know, I run a web site called Old Skool Games which is an electronic magazine (e-zine) strictly devoted to "Retro-Gaming". Basically covering anything from the earliest days (Pong/Atari) up to the mid 1990's before 3D got really big and took off. I like to say the cut-off point is Sega Saturn (included but nothing released after that system), so we do include the pseudo-3D stuff from the early days of DOOM and the clones that followed it.

But I like to say we're definitely more focused on the older systems, centered around the 80's to early 90's. And I say "we" just as a habbit, because it is and always has been a relatively tough 1 man production staff. I've gotten help here and there with people that actually wrote some game reviews, and I did an interview or two with some interesting people I happened to know to some degree..

But its been a dead project for a couple of years now.. I've kept it alive because I always intend to do what I can with it, and now I am trying to start up a big push, and renew the spirit, so to speak.. I really want to do some things like overhaul the web site design, the magazine design, hopefully get some more standardized stuff setup to make it easier on my end..

But the #1 thing that always plagued OSG was content. Thousands of people still download from the site every month, but no one ever contacts me to volunteer and help. Sometimes I have gotten help from contributors in the past, but then they do 1 or 2 things and disappear, or don't deliver anything at all even after lengthy discussions, etc..
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Is anyone here interested at all? I know some of you are busy professionals, or in school and things like that.. But I'm trying to tap all the resources I have, to find some good writers.
It doesn't have to be a permanent commitment or anything like that either. I'm just trying to find a couple of people who have the time to review between 1 and 2 games roughly every Month or so.. Of course if someone wants to submit more that also helps, but I'm really just looking for 1 or 2 reviews. Or if you have an interesting idea for an Article that fits within the format of the Magazine.

Finding just 2 or 3 people on the whole Internet to submit 1 or 2 pieces of work per month would help a lot, and OSG could probably publish 4 times a year or more. I try to have a minimum number of reviews/articles/etc before publishing, but I got real burned out trying to do it myself in the past.

OSG is a completely free publication, available to anyone who wants to download it. Obviously I can't pay people but this is less about money for me, and more about a labor of love, keeping the memory of your youth alive, remembering all the fun you had when you first got into PC and/or Console Games.

The only super strict requirement I have is that writers have a strong command of the English language. Use it properly, coherently, respectfully.

If you are interested in helping out, you can:
A)Reply here
B)PM Me
C)Go to the OSG Web Site and use the contact form

Whatever works for you. I'm really sorry if this comes off like spam. I'm just trying to get what I always envisioned as a community project, by the community and for the community, up and rolling again.

[Kuron]

This doesn't come off as spam. I share your passion for retro games. I even use various retro games as examples in the game programming class I teach. I look forward to downloading the back issues of your mag and giving them a read.

[Zach]

Cool man,

If you can ever find the time and are interested in doing any reviews, or articles on interesting topics, just let me know.
It's far from professional, but I'm really proud of the editing and design work I have done on the Magazine.

[Kuron]

I will keep that in mind. I have been working on a similar idea for a site over the past few years. I haven't had the time to take it live, yet. Hopefully, I can get it going early 2012.

[Zach]

Cool,

It can be tough work on your own, that I can tell you now. I think the lack of people willing to contribute although they seem to like the idea, is what frustrates me the most... I started back in 2002 with a web site format myself, went through half a dozen web hosts till I found Lunarpages and pretty much stuck with them from that point on.. I don't remember how I came up with the Magazine format (the first part of the past decade is a painkiller obscured haze for me) but I really like the feel of a Magazine better than a web site for some reason.. Of course it makes having to worry about standards compliance and browser rendering a null issue, but there is something about a Magazine layout that lends itself well to this area.

Although I'm not really keen on newer technologies w/ virtual page flipping etc.. Underground Gamer (closed/invite ROMs community) recently launched their own similar themed e-zone, which I found ironic since my stuff had been torrented there, and no one seemed interested in coming to me instead.

Oh well.

[Kuron]

I have managed to hold on to my domain name, other than a a year or two when somebody else snagged it when I didn't have the funds to renew it. I am not going the magazine route (even though I really like that format). If it happens, it will be more of a site with my reviews, memories, experiences and articles on retro gaming.

[Zach]

Sounds like a nice idea. Maybe we could have a syndication agreement where I say "Hey I really like that piece" and you give me permission to reprint it

I had domain troubles like you as well. It was a pain in the ass. I originally had www.oldskoolgames.com which I registered with a Registrar that later on went under.. And for whatever reason I was locked out and couldn't access and didn't have ownership of my domain anymore.. A new company bought (I guess) all their current registries but didn't manage them like the previous company, i.e I would have had to join them under a reseller account with all these hoops and hurdles, and such. I ended up registering a oldskoolgames.net and using that for a while.

I finally badgered them enough that I think they got sick of me, lol.. They charged me for some agreed upon amount and gave me access back to the dot-com, and then as soon as I could I transfered my registration over to GoDaddy. Been with them ever since as well, and they are pretty decent I guess. I recently renewed my domain registration for 2 years, along with a cheap privacy option which blocks my personal info from WHOIS (I used to get SEO companies calling me all the time, annoying bastards) and just recently decided to shell out for 2 years on web hosting as well..

I'd have gone with their 5 year plan if I could have afforded to, would have saved me $300 versus the plan I was on, for the same time period.
Lunarpages is a pretty respectable shared hosting solution (I think they offer dedicated or semi-dedicated servers now too) with Windows/Linux platforms and all those bells and whistles.

If you don't have a host but want to check them out, click the Lunarpages link on my site.... I get paid if you join and stay as a paying customer

[Thorium]

I am a big retro gamer and a game collector.
I play every system, i can get my hands on.

My game collection is about 700 games big right now and the main focus are role playing games, especialy the early ones. I do have a nice early RPG (1972-1982) collection.

This is my game collection, excluding the early RGB collection which has it's own showcase:


And here are my systems i regularly play with:

It's a older picture, i have switched the small monitor with a 32" LCD TV.

I am not a great writer and english isnt my native language, so i realy cant write quality reviews.
But i live in germany and i do know some major german game developers. Like people that worked for Blue Byte or Ascaron. If you need a contact for a interview with a german developer feel free to contact me, maybe i can help there.

[Zach]

Thorium,

In my opinion your English is very decent. Let's be honest, as the Editor it is also part of my job to clean up other peoples work and make it fit within the voice of the Magazine. I'm not an Editor by profession either, and I have no formal training, so I can't beat down on other people -too- hard.

I would really love to hear from someone from Ascaron one day. I really liked Sacred 2 (albeit it the story line was almost non-existant) and I really liked Darkstar One. I was sad to hear when they went into Administration and ultimately closed their doors.

But that is for another time perhaps. You are exactly the kind of person I am looking for.
If you can work with emulators, at least enough to get screenshots of games in the proper format (saves me from having to do it) that would be a big bonus.. For someone like you, playing on your own hardware is just fine, just so long as you can provide original screen captures made by yourself.

I would be very interested to see an audition from you I will contact you via PM with further details if you like.

[Thorium]

I would really love to hear from someone from Ascaron one day. I really liked Sacred 2 (albeit it the story line was almost non-existant) and I really liked Darkstar One.

That would be no problem at all. I personally know the lead designer of Sacred and Sacred 2. In my opinion Sacred 2 was a fail. I was a big fan of Sacred 1 and they didnt managed to create the same spirit with Sacred 2 and didnt made anything realy better. Sacred 2 could have been a awesome game but they havily cut out game mechanics. For example: Originaly a very good craftig system was planned, much like a item editor, just ingame and you would need special ingredients for special effects. With that system you could made any item you want if you had the needed ingredients and gold.

If you can work with emulators, at least enough to get screenshots of games in the proper format (saves me from having to do it) that would be a big bonus

I can do that. But i dont want to write reviews, well maybe but not many and not often. Providing you with screenshots is no problem.

[Zach]

That's cool if you don't want to write, guess I misunderstood a little.

But I will PM you some more focused questions later, to see how best you would be able to contribute.