It’s been a while since I “reprinted” any of ugvm. In Issue 07, the last under my editorship, we looked at multiplayer game etiquette, the CD32, the NeoGeo Pocket Colour, and about ten million game reviews. Including Knights of the Old Republic, a pre-cursor to Mass Effect – a game I’m currently enjoying very much.
Anyhoo – the magazine!
In what is perhaps the least impressive claim to fame ever (and it’s not even the first time it’s happened to me), my text message was read out on Radio 1 this morning. I had to put “Comedy” Dave right about his suggestion that the new millennium started in 2000, when it actually started in 2001. Oh, the hilarity.
That’s the text message I sent, and this is a clip from the Chris Moyles show. I’m about 2:05 in.
It’s been quite a while since I posted one of these up. Issue 06 was out “violence special”, with Vice City, Bloodrayne (they made a film out of that, dontchaknow), light guns and the massacre of the Vic 20. Good times.
There’s even a bit about how to get yourself a picture of Jim Taylor naked. God only knows why we stopped making this magazine with promises like that.
Since it was April when Issue 05 came out, we included an April Fool. Amazingly, some people actually fell for it. Idiots.
We also had an interview with Jon Ritman (of Head over Heels and Match Day fame)! Top celebrities all wanted to be in our little magazine, of course.
Time for another one of these, I think. There was a bit of fallout from the text adventures feature in issue 03, and the cover art was stepped up a notch. Reading it now, I’m reminded of a couple of great (but probably forgotten) gems – Doshin the Giant and Pac-Man Collection. Ah, fun times.
I think with Issue 03, our retro issue, we really hit the big time. The ugvm site got slashdotted, the bandwidth costs spiralled to £244 for just one weekend, and we were swamped with emails.
Mostly complaints about Tim saying interaction fiction was dead, which he didn’t quite say, but still – the publicity took us to over 10,000 subscribers. 10,000! Thats more than many print-based magazines!
EDIT: Oh, and look at my anti-prediction there on Page 2. “You wouldn’t see any high street magazines devoting a whole issue to old games, would you?”. Soon after, there was a Retro Edge, Retro GamesTM, and then Retro Gamer! We started it all, folks.
Here’s another issue of everyone’s favourite free downloadable gaming magazine that no longer exists!
Remember that magazine I used to edit? Years and years ago? Of course you don’t. You probably weren’t born then. Well, using the great online service Issuu, I’ve brought them back from the dead!
There aren’t any new issues, but you can “enjoy” reading all the old ones again, and shed a little tear for the time when we were at the forefront of online gaming magazine technology. Or something.
Behold: Issue 01!
No sooner had I said “I never win anything”, I then go and win something! Again!
This time I won a copy of the Xbox 360 game “Rise of the Argonauts”, as well as a matching Xbox 360 faceplate! Amazing!
I have no idea what the game is like, however, and my previous prize of “three Xbox versions of board games” was not exactly something to get excited about.
I won a competition today! I’m most impressed, as I never, ever, win anything. At all. Ever.
I had to come up with family friendly versions of “mature rated” games. In the end, I think I won through swamping them with entries. Anyway, my prizes? Not so amazing, unfortunately. I won copies of Xbox Live Arcade lemons Yahtzee, Connect 4 and Battleship. They’re not awful, but they’re not exactly the sort of thing I’d normally be after. Not least because they’re 800 points each. Even less so since I managed to get a free copy of Connect 4 earlier in the week anyway! Tch.
You want to know my submissions for the competition then, right? Right:
BoyoShock: Welsh quiz game where wrong answers mean harmless electric shocks from the special controller.
Ramble Roses XX: OCD botany adventure starring female wrestlers. Take country walks and pick flowers to dry and press.
Wake Alan: Puzzle game where you must assemble Wallace & Grommit style devices to break Alan’s slumber in time for school
Battlefield: Bed Company. It’s all out war as two rival bed manufacturers battle for Slumber Supremacy!
Head Space: Video game version of the hit Xbox 360 TV adverts. Fill your gormless avatar’s head with all the fun of the 360!
A Comb In The Dark: Against-the-clock hairdressing fun for all the family. Try to craft a coiffure before the light fades!
Left 4 Dodd: Road trip multiplayer adventure as 4 teenagers travel across the country trying to reach a Ken Dodd gig in time
50 Cent: Buddies on the Sand. Beach party game with 50 Cent and his G-Unit chums.
The GoatFarmer II. Breed goat allies and use them to ward off the rival SheepFarmer and CowFarmer gangs.
Hello Wars. Futuristic RTS in which two rival factions – one human, one alien – try to out-polite each other with greetings
Resident Orville. Cuddles has locked Orville up in Keith Harris’ mansion and you have to explore and solve puzzles to save him
Gaming Diary