Free Arcade dedicated ezine coming out New Years!

[Arcadereactor]

Hello all,

Trying to get something put together for the arcade community on New Years day.  It will be an updated, free, downloadable, bi-monthly ezine in PDF format. 

Stories, articles, interviews, product review, vendor ads ect.  Just about everything arcade.

Please bare with us, we are still working on both the website and first issue for the New Year.

[kelemvor]

Well stop one is getting a smaller logo.  Your web page doesn't fit on my screen.

[TheDriver]

This could be intresting, I will check it out in the new year.

[DaOld Man]

Sounds like a good idea.. Im definitely interested...

[Kajoq]

Kelemvor, quit running at 640x480! =x

Fits just fine on my screen!

[SirPeale]

Kelemvor, quit running at 640x480! =x

Fits just fine on my screen!

I'm @ 1024x768 and I have scrollbars.

I'm guessing it's not the logo, it's the  layout.  It's hardcoded dimensions instead of variable.

[kelemvor]

Kelemvor, quit running at 640x480! =x

Fits just fine on my screen!

I'm @ 1024x768 and I have scrollbars.

I'm guessing it's not the logo, it's the  layout.  It's hardcoded dimensions instead of variable.

Same resolution here.  And yep, not the logo.  Looks like someone hard coded the column sizes instead of using percentages

[DaveMMR]

Will next-gen consoles be the death of arcades? 

Wait, I can answer that.... "Yes". 

Outside of the cover story predicting something that already happened years ago, it still looks interesting and I think we should reserve judgment until it comes out (ahem.. PBjim).

EDIT: Well I can still kind of say, without seeing the inside, that the cover story teasers need a little work.  The whole "consoles vs. the arcade" scenario is like People Magazine running the headline "Princess Diana: Will She Die in a Car Crash?" in a 2007 issue.   And there have been more encoders that have come out since the iPac2.   Still... looks interesting.

[Spaced Ace]

LOL!  Tough guys...  Just one person doing the whole magazine though. 

[Fozzy The Bear]

Trying to get something put together for the arcade community on New Years day.  It will be an updated, free, downloadable, bi-monthly ezine in PDF format.

Good luck!! I hope it's a success for you.

But! Your lead story for the first issue is:
"Arcades Vs PS3 Death of the arcade machine??"
That's IMHO a completely lame non story.... There is no practical comparison to make between the PS3 and Arcade machines, they're two entirely different entities, built for different purposes and with different end uses and different markets. What's the point of comparing them. That's like saying, Fruit News: Bannana Vs Apple = Death of the Bannana??? Totally pointless and who cares anyway!

Your story might have had a point in the late 1980's and early 1990's but it's really not a valid question any more.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Jdurg]

I have to agree about the main story.  What WOULD be very interesting would be a somewhat retrospective story about how the arcades died out as home consoles got better and better.  More often than not, we see this story from the console perspective but we rarely see this from the arcade perspective.  I think the fact that the NAOMI system and the Neo-Geo system were just simple arcade versions of home consoles would be a neat thing to read about. 

[Magnet_Eye]

best of luckt yo you.

I hope you can find some help with the graphic design and website. I am sure if you ask around the board someone would be willing to help you along a bit.

You might want to consider using something like Joomla! or other CMS where you can find a nice template to use.

[Singapura]

The headline could be more something like "Will next gen consoles lead to the revival of arcade games?". This is actually more of a discussion topic then a magazine article. I would love to see retro reviews, in particular of hardware.

[Jdurg]

The headline could be more something like "Will next gen consoles lead to the revival of arcade games?". This is actually more of a discussion topic then a magazine article. I would love to see retro reviews, in particular of hardware.

Yeah, how sweet would that be to have a complete retro review of games like Frogger, Final Fight, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Mario Bros, etc. as though you were reviewing the actual arcade cabinet itself and not just the game.  This could inspire people to actually restore or re-create exact replicas of those cabinets down to the controls and parts themselves.

[Spaced Ace]

So Fozzy, what do you want to see in an arcade magazine? 

[Jdurg]

Here in the US, as a population we are inherently lazy.  Why go out to do something if you can do it here at home?  Why go out to dinner when you can order it and have it delivered, or pick it up at the restaurant and bring it home?

Back in the 1980's and early 1990's, arcades still offered something that you couldn't get here at home.  That was better graphics, great sound and huge sprites on the screen.  The SNES, NES, Genesis, etc. simply couldn't handle what the arcade was bringing out.  That all died when the Playstation came out.  Suddenly, there was a home console that could pretty much do what the best arcade cabinets out there could do.  Now, why the hell would you go out to an arcade and spend money on the arcade game when you could go and pop in your CD into your PS or PS2/XBOX/Dreamcast and play it at home?

When home consoles started to play exactly what the arcades were displaying, or at times playing better than what the arcades could play, the arcade here in the US died.  They still exist, but as side-sections of other buildings.  (Lobby areas of movie theaters or stores like Wal-Mart/Target, side sections of big restaurants like Dave & Busters, etc.)

Japanese manufacturers would LOVE to bring the arcade back to the USA and start making money there, but the populace as a whole doesn't want them anymore.  We'd rather play the more graphically intensive and aurally stunning games on our own 42" TVs or massive computer systems over the internet from our own home.  Those of us who would go to an arcade and spend some time are few and far between, and even then we would still be playing arcade games in our own house on our own cabinets.

The USA just isn't a society that would let arcades survive.  Those days have indeed died and I saw it happen with my own eyes. 

[Spaced Ace]

Bump, almost New Years....

[APFelon]

If you are interested in help (Writing, layout, whatnot) I have worked on the APoV and have written for Eurogamer. I also spent 16 years in the coin-op industry and there is nothing I like more than yakking away about those days. This has the potential to be an incredible asset to gamin' geeks (like me) and heck, it simply sounds like a fun project. PM me if you'd like a hand.

APf