p.s. Lee! What are you doing over there? I found the site through a referrer link to this site, but what excuse do you have?!
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Moderator: Lloyd Mangram
I mentioned the question in that forum; what will you do if they refuse permission and someone answered along the lines of "We will turn it into (insert name of lesser known Amstrad rag)" - Surely the whole point of these projects is doing it for the love of the original product? (hence the tribute to ZZAP!). It would have been like someone suggesting doing one for CCI... So I think they need to get that sorted.CraigGrannell wrote:Well, fair play to them. I only hope they ensure the production values are high, otherwise what's the point?
I also worry that by asking for permission, they're going to derail the project before it even begins. Reading the forum thread, it seems they think that fewer pages will make Future more likely to say "yes". I very much doubt that will be the case. Whether Future will say "yes" hinges on whether the company believes the IP of the magazine is still worth something to it, and whether such a fan-made production would enhance or detract from said value. It would actually be useful to know whether Retro Gamer paid Future for the Speccy mag tribute—if so, it'll be far harder for this lot to get permission. Lee's right, though, that Steve would have been the best person to contact.
If you ever get chatting to her and her name is Rachel, it could well be the daughter of the bloke who set-up New Generation Software - she works on the reception, apparently! (Amazing how I pick up these useless facts from message boards!).Also, I'm not sure why they're getting an answering machine—every time I phone Future, I get the nice girl on the switchboard.
I always thought AMTIX was a weird hybrid between CRASH and ZZAP! - It never seemed to settle on a design or theme - The staff seemed to move across mags more so than ZZAP! Plus they suffered from having too many rehashed features and interviews from those mags - I remember a few interviews by Sean Masterson that cropped up in the two or three mags.Perhaps they should do Amtix instead! No problems there!
AMTIX wasn't created because there was a specific appetite for an Amstrad magazine. It appeared at the time that it did purely because Amstrad Action came along from Chris. Had that not happened then AMTIX may possibly never have happened. Jeremy Spencer was the only person originally involved with Amtix that was particularly keen on the Amstrad. For everyone else it was a bit of a chore to work on as their "main" magazine was either Zzap or Crash. Amtix did get its own staff later but they never hung around on the mag for very long. The whole thing was a bit of an after thought and I don't think it was ever particularly loved at Newsfield.LeeT wrote:I always thought AMTIX was a weird hybrid between CRASH and ZZAP! - It never seemed to settle on a design or theme - The staff seemed to move across mags more so than ZZAP! Plus they suffered from having too many rehashed features and interviews from those mags - I remember a few interviews by Sean Masterson that cropped up in the two or three mags.
I was still quite surprised when they pulled the plug - When it merged with 'Computing With The Amstrad' (a boring techhie Database Publications title), none of the AMTIX! staff joined and the AMTIX! name was just for the games reviews section. I suppose AA must have had the highest readership by far, out of all the 'Arnold' mags.[/i]
The trouble is - One guy was in charge to start off with and then suddenly announced "I don't have time, I've got a fanzine to produce" when people asked what was happening (the same guy who used to heavily criticise RG on their own forums then got upset when the staff hit back at him).Mr.Zzapback wrote:By the look of the threads that project is going nowhere, IMO.
They have no clue what they are actually starting or doing.
You have to set the standards high, nobody's waiting for a word-exported-pdf file. I even think it could do harm, if 'everybody' starts doing a tribute mag, without vision. Ex-staff might be put off by all attention and emails and requests. How would they know when a project is serious and worth the hassle?
So is Issue 108 going ahead now?Unless some mag or team of persons picks a project like that up commercially, Zzap! will continue to be the only mag (and rightfully so) having two professional 'tribute' fanmags, and a third one in the pipeline.![]()
1: I know who, well his 'fanzine' isn't bad at all, it could use an art director though.LeeT wrote:
1:The trouble is - One guy was in charge to start off with and then suddenly announced "I don't have time, I've got a fanzine to produce" when people asked what was happening (the same guy who used to heavily criticise RG on their own forums then got upset when the staff hit back at him).
2:maybe you should be an 'Executive Editorial Consultant' for them, Rob?
3:
So is Issue 108 going ahead now?
Good grief—they're not seriously suggesting producing the thing in Word, are they?You have to set the standards high, nobody's waiting for a word-exported-pdf file.
Hmmm... very "professional". Mind you, I got slagged off on that forum a while back by one of the RG team members, despite never even posting there, so that was nice.(the same guy who used to heavily criticise RG on their own forums then got upset when the staff hit back at him).
Frankly, it's not terribly likely, but you never know (and Rob's DEF Tribute did spark something in me)—"never" is a long time, as the saying goes.So is Issue 108 going ahead now?