Retro Gamer DM Article

[Des]

Issue 10 of Retro Gamer magazine has a 10-page article on DM, CSB and DM2. About time

see http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/retro10.shtml

It is written by Richard Hewison with contributions from ChristopheF.

[iUSTINE]

Some very first issues are sold out Anybody has them scanned ? Just asking ;]

[Gambit37]

Woo hoo - better get my copy tomorrow then! Well done Christophe!

[Gambit37]

Just bought it and had a quick read through my lunch break; will read it more in depth tonight.

First thoughts: I'd better rewrite my intro to The DM Codex!! Both mine and this article are practically the same (though seeing as we must have both nabbed it from Bruce Webster's site, it's tricky not to be....!)

[ChristopheF]

Richard Hewison asked my permission for using my web site's content for his article, which I accepted of course. Could you scan the article and send it to me? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

Richard used to work at Mirrorsoft and was the helpdesk support for DM & CSB.

[Gambit37]

I've just finished reading the article, and am relieved that it is still worth me continuing with the Codex (I had nearly decided to give it up completely). It's probably very interesting to players who don't know the history of the games, but there's nothing really new in there for us longterm fans. There is a mention about Mirrorsoft and a named employee, and I was curious where the writer got that information as he had clearly not spoken to anyone from FTL -- you've cleared that up, thanks!

I found the article a bit lacklustre though. It didn't really capture the mood of the games or the fanbase, or why people were so obsessed with DM. There are also a few minor mistakes and some of the context in the history of computer games could have been better elaborated on. It's a shame too that the writer didn't get any input from FTL -- the Edge articles that ran a couple of years ago, while shorter, were much better in this regard.

One thing that was inexcusable was not printing the URL to your site Christophe! At the very least, I would have expected that. And maybe even links to these forums -- the writer talks a little about the online communities but offers no insight on where to find them.

On the whole though it's good to see DM getting more recognition that it rightly deserves!

I'll try and scan it at some point Christophe.

[ChristopheF]

Perhaps he didn't put the URL to my site because you can download the games there, which is not strictly legal.
However, people wanting to find the online community just have to type "dungeon master" in google to find my site, and the forums are linked from there.
About the minor mistakes, the author should have posted his text here, we would have corrected them
Would you be kind enough to scan the edge article too for comparison?

Also, please do not give up on your DM Codex project! Or at least, publish all the raw interviews that you made. We've been waiting for so long to see them, I would be very disappointed if you stop everything now. Your sample site is so nice, I really hope to see it finished someday.

[Gambit37]

I'm not sure about the worth of the Codex now. I've simply left it too late -- you're own site continues to grow and a lot of the unique stuff that I originally had you now have too -- there seems little point in duplicating effort.

Having said that, I am annoyed with myself for starting this and then not finishing it. I've certainly let Doug Bell down as he was very keen to see it happen. Hmmm.... there are still plenty of things to ask the FTL people and I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. I'll think about it.....

BTW, I can't publish the 'raw' interviews without some editing -- there's personal stuff in there that I promised I'd edit out, so at the very least anything I publish won't be *exactly* what was said.

[ChristopheF]

Then perhaps we can join our efforts to publish that unique content you have? If you decide to abandon your web site project, you could just edit the interviews and I'll take care of publishing them online? I let you decide what you want to do, but I really would not like to see the work you have already done to be lost, and I would surely be happy to help in any way I can.

[rainbird rich]

As author of the article in question, maybe I should respond?

The article was written to try and interest both DM players and retro fans who might have heard of the game, but never played it. It's a tricky balance to achieve, and it's never going to satisfy everyone.

I tried to get hold of various FTL people, but none were forthcoming other than Dave Darrow. Maybe they're just tired of being asked about DM? Some of the info they revealed in The Edge article wasn't very enlightening either to be honest.

I worked for Mirrorsoft when we were distributing DM and CSB in Europe. I was the helpline support for both games. There were a few things I felt best to leave out of the article, including a story about a developer who got very drunk at a UK Trade show, and had a go about FTL without realising that one of them was standing next to him at the bar! However, there were a few snippets of information in the article that I'd not seen anywhere else, even if they were only from the distributor's point-of-view.

At the end of the day, the article was written to remind joe public that there was a great series of games from FTL that started a whole new game genre. From that perspective, I think the article achieved what I set out to achieve.

Out of interest, what were the 'minor mistakes' you mention? I can fix those in case they ever reprint the article.

The magazine never seems to print URLs. I've had a number of articles published so far, and each time they have removed them from the final edit.

Thanks,

I've just finished reading the article, and am relieved that it is still worth me continuing with the Codex (I had nearly decided to give it up completely). It's probably very interesting to players who don't know the history of the games, but there's nothing really new in there for us longterm fans. There is a mention about Mirrorsoft and a named employee, and I was curious where the writer got that information as he had clearly not spoken to anyone from FTL -- you've cleared that up, thanks!

I found the article a bit lacklustre though. It didn't really capture the mood of the games or the fanbase, or why people were so obsessed with DM. There are also a few minor mistakes and some of the context in the history of computer games could have been better elaborated on. It's a shame too that the writer didn't get any input from FTL -- the Edge articles that ran a couple of years ago, while shorter, were much better in this regard.

One thing that was inexcusable was not printing the URL to your site Christophe! At the very least, I would have expected that. And maybe even links to these forums -- the writer talks a little about the online communities but offers no insight on where to find them.

On the whole though it's good to see DM getting more recognition that it rightly deserves!

I'll try and scan it at some point Christophe.

[cowsmanaut]

You are probably correct Richard that they are tired of hearing from the fan base. Apreciation is nice sometimes but I think that being pulled both directions by the fans no one ever being really satisfied can be disheartening. Seems to me Wayne went in a completly different direction and is happy with that. As far as I know though he and others keep a close eye on us. So in that it's not that they have lost all interest.. the just don't want to be hassled.

For me my main interests has been the artists. I've already spoken to David Darrow whome was a great inspiration to me when I was learning to draw. However, even he is very busy and only has time for short comments.

At any rate.. you needn't worry about Gambit.. he gets as much as he gives in critique himself. So I'm sure he's apreciated the article and as glad as I that you've come to visit and talk about it with us.

anyway.. that's my schpeil.

[Gambit37]

Welcome Rainbird Rich. Thanks for taking the time to post. I certainly did not mean to disparage your article -- and in fact I really think I didn't. I was merely trying to point out that it didn't offer much new material to those of us who've been living and breathing this game for 17 odd years. I do believe that it is a great article for the audience that you described, and I really am pleased that such a large amount of magazine space has been devoted to such an old -- but obviously worthy game. The extra Mirrorsoft info you wrote about *was* interesting as I'd never heard that before.

I've had contact with many FTLers over the last three years -- I intervied many of them for my web site which has still yet to see the light of day. Some of them *are* in fact happy to talk about stuff, and at great length -- I have pages of info from Doug Bell and Andy Jaros in particular.

As for mistakes, I'll have to read the article again; I think there was something minor about release dates. Nothing to worry about!

[purple1]

Oh my gosh! Infocom! I remember those games! I have the original Zork Trilogy and their Fantasy Collection! Man, those were the times, huh? Back when there were NO graphics and your processor speed was unimportant....

[Gambit37]

There's a new DM article in this month's Retro Gamer, which interviews some of the team! I am amazed they finally managed to get Wayne out of hiding!
I've bought the digital edition (which is just medium quality JPGs sadly), so I'll cobble together some 'scans' of it so you can read the article. This won't be until next week though as I'm now away for a long weekend.

[Jan]

Cool, thanks, I'm looking forward to it. I especially hope they'll shed some light on the "Grynix" scroll because otherwise I won't sleep properly for the rest of my days.

[Gambit37]

Nope, nothing like that, it's a fairly brief article. Buy some valium!

[Gambit37]

As promised, here's the latest Retro gamer article: an interview with some of FTL!
http://matthill.co/f/dm/Retro-Gamer-105 ... erview.pdf

[Jan]

Thanks, Gambit. I hope we'll manage to smuggle a file to you (baked in a Screamer slice so that the guard wouldn't dare to check it) when you get imprisoned for violating the copyright laws.

"Only a really small team can do a really good job." - nice quote, I'll remember that one.

LOL to the comparison with Tetris.

And, wow, so DM was Indiana-Jones-inspired!

[Gambit37]

Your welcome It does feel a bit truncated though, the interview doesn't really finish properly if you know what I mean? I wonder if there should have been more stuff to round it off but they just didn't have the space...

[Sasha]

Thanks, that made my day ! Really interesting article, although it ends somehow abruptly - they did not mention CSB (was it the exact same team ? ) . I'd have liked to read their toughts about the still-enthusiastic community, and the whole "clones, custom dungeons, etc." thing.
As the article mentions other games, it made me think about a specific game that i wanted to talk about, but it's off-topic, i'll create a new one.