I’ve been in a couple of magazines recently - so let’s talk about that!
So you might be familiar with my research on the cancelled Atari Panther console - I put
out a video a while back and I’ve also put together a pretty huge page on my website
with a load of first hand sources, just talking about the stories behind the console itself and
some of the games that were in development for it before it was canned. And I mention on that
page that I’m more than happy for people to use that research to put together their own
articles or videos or whatever just so long as they credit me like I did with my sources.
Now, it turns out that long term fan of the channel and indeed one of my patrons - Andrew
S - happens to write for a magazine called Amiga Addict - I’m sure you can guess what that one’s
about - and its spinoff Pixel Addict which is kind of the same thing but much broader in scope.
Amiga Addict is well established now, the first issue went out in 2020,
and it’s a real magazine available in shops and newsagents all over the UK and has a really
good team of industry veterans behind it which has helped it to become a pretty big success,
and that’s a really cool thing to achieve for a print magazine in this day and age.
Which means that when they launched Pixel Addict at the end of 2021
it really hit the ground running and I’ve been buying them since issue 1 and it’s great.
Anyway, Andrew contacted me asking if Pixel Addict could use that Panther research and
turn it into an article for the magazine. But I thought it would be fun if I could
try my hand at writing the article myself - I’ve never really had any aspirations of
being a journalist but I really enjoy the research and writing process,
and it’s a completely different style of writing to the howto articles and YouTube scripts that I
usually work on so I really fancied giving it a go, and as it happens they jumped at the chance.
So that’s how this came to be, and they accepted the full article without any real edits,
laid it out really nicely with the images I sent over and turned it into a 2 page spread
in issue 4 of the magazine, which is something I’m really proud of, in fact - and I admit this
is maybe a little bit sad - I bought an extra copy, pulled the pages out and framed them and,
yeah, my Panther article now has pride of place on our living room wall.
I’ve been asked to submit some more articles on obscure bits of Atari history in future
and I certainly have some ideas and bits of research so I’ll
hopefully be appearing in the magazine again soon.
So onto a magazine which probably needs no introduction - Retro Gamer. So I was
also approached by another long term supporter and patron of the channel who goes by the name of Woz,
and he happens to be the Group Art Director
for Future Publishing who publish Retro Gamer Magazine.
He’s also the one who very kindly sent me this original Atari STE
Discovery Xtra pack box which has had pride of place on my wall ever since
so he’s a pretty cool guy all round and of course Future also published ST Format magazine which I
read as a kid and have a complete collection of so it’s really cool that it has that connection too.
Anyway I sent some photos over and did a bit of an email interview,
and I think they had me down as a purely Atari guy and were a bit surprised when I
highlighted the Acorn Archimedes as one of my favourite things in my collection
and picked Doom as my favourite game of all time but hey, I like a bit of everything and
I wanted that to come across in the article and I think they did a really nice job of it.
I’ve had a digital subscription for a long time now but yet again, of course
I had to pick up some hard copies and I actually got them from a WH Smiths
on a recent trip to London. I was a bit worried I might get recognised but the
lady on the till wasn’t really interested in my autograph no matter how much I insisted.
So if you’re interested in either of these magazines I’ll put links down in the description,
they both do digital downloads as well as physical copies.
I can’t really share them as they’re copyrighted content but the Panther article I’m sure will be
making another appearance in some shape or form in the future and of course you
can read the extended version over on my website which I’ll also link down below.
So I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s supported my channel in the last
two and a half years by watching my videos, sharing them, liking, and commenting - it’s
really going from strength to strength and I couldn’t have done it without you,
and I know I haven’t really posted a personal update like this for a while but
I was pretty pleased with how these came out and I just wanted to share really.
Of course big thanks are also in order for my patrons and channel members,
their names are on screen as I speak, and I have a couple of other big projects in the works
including the conclusion to the IBM 5162 series - I’m sure you can see how I’m getting on
with the monitor - and those videos should be along shortly so I’ll hopefully see you then.