Retro Gamer

• 1. Introduction

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  Retro Gamer launched in January 2004 as the first commercial magazine devoted entirely to retro video games. Britain had no shortage of gaming publications at the time, but this one carved out territory nobody else had staked: the past. Its premise was simple and its ambition larger than it first appeared. Could a magazine survive by covering games that were already old? What kind of readers would seek out a publication dedicated to the machines and titles of their childhoods? And what would happen if the publisher went bankrupt before the magazine found its footing? Those questions all came to bear within its first two years, making Retro Gamer's early history as dramatic as any of the games it covered.

• 2. A Shaky Start

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  On the 27th of September 2005, Live Publishing went into bankruptcy. The collapse came after a general decline in gaming and computer magazine readership across the industry. At the moment of crisis, Retro Gamer's official online forums declared the magazine "finished" - this was posted shortly before issue 19 was due for release. The staff did not simply walk away. Freelance writers from the magazine assembled a commercial CD publication called Retro Survival, released in November 2005. It contained articles that would have appeared in the missing issue 19, plus a foreword written by celebrity games journalist Mr Biffo. Imagine Publishing purchased the rights to Retro Gamer in October 2005, and the magazine relaunched on the 8th of December 2005. Future plc then acquired Imagine Publishing and took over Retro Gamer on the 21st of October 2016, giving the title its third owner in just over a decade.

• 3. The Coverdisk Years

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  During its first 18 issues, Retro Gamer shipped with a coverdisk - a physical disc that came bundled with each copy. These discs carried freeware remakes of classic games and emulators, but they also included unexpected extras: commercial PC software such as The Games Factory and The Elder Scrolls: Arena appeared on some editions. Certain issues went further, featuring themed CDs that held the entire back catalogue of a single publisher. Durell, Llamasoft, and Gremlin Graphics each received this treatment, giving readers a comprehensive archive of each company's output on a single disc. The coverdisk era ended after issue 18, but it established the magazine's curatorial instinct: not just coverage of retro games, but immersive access to them.

• 4. Making Of and Interviews

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  At the core of Retro Gamer's editorial identity is a recurring feature called "The Making Of's", in which well-known developers describe the creation of a specific game. The list of developers interviewed runs through some of the most recognized names in gaming history: Steve Wozniak on Breakout, Alexey Pajitnov on Tetris, Jordan Mechner on Prince of Persia, Eugene Jarvis on Smash TV, and Yu Suzuki on Out Run, among others. Doug Bell discussed Dungeon Master, Jez San explained Starfox, and Alan McNeil recalled Berzerk. The magazine also runs regular columns including Back to the 80s and 90s, Desert Island Disks - in which a gaming personality selects the games they would take to a desert island - and From the Archives, profiling individual game developers or publishers. In June 2004, the magazine published "The DEF Tribute to Zzap!64", celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Commodore 64 focused magazine. Issue 48, dated February 2008, carried an exclusive interview with Manic Miner creator Matthew Smith, written by freelancer Paul Drury after a visit to Smith's family home in Liverpool.

• 5. Guest Editors and Milestones

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  March 2010, issue 75, brought an unusual editorial experiment: John Romero took on the role of Guest Editor. He shaped the magazine's editorial direction for that issue, applying his own style to a selection of his preferred articles and subjects. The milestone of 200 issues arrived in October 2019. As of March 2026, the editorial staff consists of Editor Darran Jones, Production Editor Tim Empey, and Art Editor Andy Salter. Jones and Production Editor Drew Sleep appear as hosts on the magazine's YouTube channel, where issue preview videos are posted. Retro Gamer won Best Magazine at the 2010 Games Media Awards, a recognition that arrived five years after the near-collapse that almost ended the publication permanently.

• 6. Digital Reach

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  Three DVD collections extended the magazine's archive into a physical digital format, each carrying between 25 and 30 issues. Retro Gamer eMag Load 1 compiled issues 1 through 30, Load 2 covered issues 31 through 55, and Load 3 ran from issue 56 to issue 80. The magazine is also available as an iOS app, downloadable onto iPhone and iPad. Published worldwide from its British origins, Retro Gamer found an international readership for its particular brand of historical gaming coverage - a reach that the founders of a small quarterly in January 2004 could hardly have anticipated when they put together the first issue with its coverdisk full of freeware remakes.