I Started A Website That Imitates 90's Gaming Mags

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I started a website that imitates 90's gaming mags
 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-10-16 23:24:56
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A few years ago, I won a writing contest on GamesBeat. After which, the editors told me I should keep writing, which I did. I started writing a wordpress blog, and eventually got invites to smaller media sites. I kept working the volunteer gigs offered to me, and the occasional for pay offers, until I started to think I'd never find more substantial work in the field.

Then during E3 2015, it happened: I got an invite from a smaller corporate website. The pay wasn't something I could live off of, but it could help my financial aid pay all of the bills.

I still write for the site, but I've always been fascinated by 90's gaming magazines. It's the only era where the games media was as exciting as the games they were covering. I can't even describe the rush I got from opening the latest copies of PSM and Nintendo Power. Writing for these old magazines was the most realistic job I ever wanted as a child.

Since I already had the Adobe suite for video editing and illustrator, I used indesign to start creating mockups of my reviews. The reception was pretty good from those that saw them, so I made up my mind that I wanted to try making a site dedicated to the idea.

I bought a domain, had a logo and watermark drawn up, obtained a professional email, and immediately disabled ads. From there I reached out to gamers that shared my disillusionment with most games media and liked the format I was pitching. So I'm going for it, I'm going to make a faux 90's gaming magazine, piecemeal.

Now, this whole post was just a build up to ask for feedback on my review format.

First

Most Recent

Do you think it captures the feel of the source material?I tried to put in a lot of little details, like the template and info-graphics. I even started downloading old game mags and asking people why things were certain ways, then incorporated it into the layout. For example, almost all of the reviews I post have a baby blue/pink background. Not because it looks cool, but because the color isn't white, shows black well, and was supposedly super cheap.
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 Phoenix.Gameesh
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By Phoenix.Gameesh 2016-10-17 03:25:12
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Looks really good! In an age of internet everywhere it's nice to see people remembering the time when (old-school) magazines were the only source of info for video games. (and lying kids in your neighborhood)
Keep up the great work =)
 Sylph.Shadowlina
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By Sylph.Shadowlina 2016-10-17 05:03:59
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I think it's nice, it's very clean, and easy to read. Visually, your Tombraider one is much easier to read than the Kirby one. It's much more catching. Much more professional looking and more fitting of the style.
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By Lillica 2016-10-17 07:06:43
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I don't admit to liking many things, but this.... I like this.

It really took me back to being a kid, back when I had "The Power".

I would love it if sites like Kotaku were more like this and less like a toilet blog.
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 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-10-17 13:32:46
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Thanks for the support guys. Some of the team members on the site are writing some features that I want to turn into pages, but I've only ever done reviews so I don't know how it's going to turn out.

Also, the next review I personally do will be World of Final Fantasy. I may be getting my hands on it early. Since this is a Final Fantasy community, some of you may be interested in that.

Also, I wanted to start having contests. I've reached out to some PR departments, and wanted to see about making an "envelope art" contest. Can any of you think of any other things that are thematically appropriate?
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 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-10-22 21:41:04
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Just posting here again for more feedback. I'm hammering out kinks for article types that aren't reviews, so what do you guys think?

https://csgmagazine.com/2016/10/22/csgs-halloween-playlist-2016/
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By Grumpy Cat 2016-10-22 21:53:48
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Do you happen to be a Super Best Friends fan? Shitting on David Cage makes me think so lol.

Again you really nail it with the nostalgia factor. The color scheme is great and this would seriously be ripped out of the magazine and stapled to 15 year-old-me's wall.
 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-10-22 22:02:55
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Well, someone linked one of the stylized review articles to a gaming reddit, and got in trouble for piracy via "magazine scans." I'm going to take that as flattery, but the mods could have at least looked at the website's name and the logo stuck on every page and avoided the issue altogether.

And yes, I like the Best Friends. I watch the shitstorm every year, but I've stopped watching their usual output and podcasts the past few months. I maintain that my disbelief in and disdain for David Cage's writing is my own though.
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By BlaTheTaru 2016-10-23 02:24:52
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I had a sub to EGM for I dont know how many years. Loved it.
 Asura.Neuman
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By Asura.Neuman 2016-10-25 11:20:05
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I love it. The Halloween article is great, I really look forward to more. Great job man.
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 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-10-29 07:54:48
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Thanks guys. After checking out the images on my phone, I've decided to increase the image quality and ppi. This should make it easier on the eyes for littler screens. The old ppi was 96, I bumped it to 150. I wanted to do 300, because it looks great, but then each image becomes too damn big data-wise to spread around easily.

Our Gears of War 4 review is going up as soon as Cannell wakes the f*%k up and posts it under his name. Kinda excited about it because it's the first time I've done a spread for a review. I'm also working on editing/formatting our Battlefield 1 review.

After that, the next review I be personally writing is Corpse Party (3DS) for Halloween and World of Final Fantasy because (spoilers) the game is awesome so far.

On a final note, we have two members off at MCM London Comic Con. Should be some pages with lots of pictures, cosplay, and interviews if they provide the material. Getting experience formatting new types of articles is nice, because it makes the whole process faster, and eventually I'm going to start collecting pages into an actual physical magazine, which would be sucktastic if we only had reviews.

That's a long ways off though. If any of you like the style and want to help out, could you spread some to your gamer friends?
 
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 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-10-29 10:29:57
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Gears of War 4 review has been posted. It's the first spread reviews I've tried to format.

https://csgmagazine.com/2016/10/29/review-gears-of-war-4/

Feedback is appreciated.
 Seraph.Jdeep
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By Seraph.Jdeep 2016-10-29 10:55:36
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I grew up in the 80's, and I find that "vibe" again, so hat's off, that's one fine design job.
As for the website itself, using "ajax zoom" lightboxes would make it less cumbersome (click/new tab/zoom/close tab/rince & repeat).
 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-10-29 11:13:27
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I'll ask one of the guys to look into that. I'm technologically impaired so I couldn't implement that if I knew what it was. Anything to get more eyes on it though, thanks.
 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-11-01 16:25:42
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Battlefield 1 review. Trying to experiment with background images. It didn't turn out nearly as cool as I had envisioned it, but some people like it.

https://csgmagazine.com/2016/11/01/review-battlefield-1/

We have a pair of interviews with smaller devs coming up, so that will be fun.
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 Remora.Brain
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By Remora.Brain 2016-11-11 13:53:10
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Dark Souls 3 DLC Ashes of Ariendel Review

https://csgmagazine.com/2016/11/11/review-dark-souls-iii-ashes-of-ariandel/

It's been a while since I put anything out. It's been a busy week or so for me. My former step father was found murdered in the woods around his house, I had to do extra work to make ends meet for the month, and I started having conversations about the merits of my faux magazine formats with advertisers. Nothing great came out of anything.

So I'm back, still playing with the backgrounds of my articles.