This month’s RetroGamer* magazine (issue #71) features my six page article on the history of DOS (PC) gaming, my second article for that magazine. Hopefully this is the beginning of a productive relationship between the mag and myself.

I don’t have  a copy of the article myself as I don’t yet have a subscription to RetroGamer. Subscribers should have it by the weekend and it should be on the high street by the middle of next week. However, for an early look at the issue, check out Darren Jones’ Youtube video in which he flicks through it while giving some background info. My article appears at about 3:00. The feedback thread for the issue is here.  Hopefully, by tomorrow night, there should be some feedback on my article. Why do I get the feeling that I’m going to get savaged over my choice of eight important DOS games?

In my research I found loads of interesting early games such as Atarisoft conversions of Defender and Digdug that they did back in 1983. I also managed to get a few words with the founders of SSI and Apogee in order to beef up the article. You never know what editors are going to cut out but it looks like they’ve inlcuded:

• Main essay: history of DOS gaming 1981 to around 1997
• Soundcards
• graphics standards (CGA, EGA, VGA)
• 8 important DOS games side feature

Even if I didn’t have an article in this issue, I’d have to say it looks like a good one. I’m particularly interested in looking at the SID (Commodore 64 music) article and the Peter Molyneux and Jeff Minter interviews. Personally, I would have made the Playstation feature the cover feature as I’m not much of a fan of Afterburner.

If you do see the mag, note the photos of my boxed copy of Elite+ and my Soundblaster Pro 2 and Gravis Ultrasound sound cards. The cards were in the bottom of a drawer in anti-static bags as I don’t currently have a vintage PC to put them in.

Also, if you’re in the US and baulk at the high cost of the mag, search around the RetroGamer site for a deal on subscriptions that they’re running at the moment.

More updates when I have a copy myself…

*for fellow language nerds, check out Thom Holwerda’s article on camel case in technology proper nouns on OS News.