With a passion for print and a history of handheld gaming, Paul Murphy has gone from magazines like Vitamag and Switch Player to creating the retro-focussed GameBook and GameBook Color (which, for full disclosure, our own Nick Thorpe contributed to). We took the time to catch up and find out more about his work so far, as well as what's next for his independent publishing house.
How did you start off with The Vita Lounge and Vitamag, Paul?
I left school and didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, so I ended up working at McDonald's. Fifteen years later, being a store manager, I was going mad-| was getting good money for it, but I had no quality of life. We'd started fostering and me and my wife had a conversation, and I left, so I was a stay-at-home dad to a degree. I couldn't command a monopoly on the TV, but I could sit with my family and play a handheld so I bought myself a Vita. I started looking around for games to buy, news and stuff like that and there wasn't anything. So I created The Vita Lounge as a hobby, and very quickly the site started amassing quite an amount of traffic because nobody else was covering it. I've always had a love for magazines, so I kind of transformed what we did on the web into a magazine. A lot of people bought into the idea of it, but obviously our budget was incredibly tiny, the print costs and the shipping costs amounted to around about 75% of the entire budget.
Why did you make the change to Switch Player in 2017?
Bu hikaye Retro Gamer dergisinin Issue 261 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Retro Gamer dergisinin Issue 261 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
EVERCADE EXPANDS
We go hands-on with Blaze’s upcoming releases
Rock Band Unplugged
WHO NEEDS PLASTIC PERIPHERALS?
Super Woden GP II
In a world where additional extras are often hidden behind microtransactions and downloadable content it’s rather refreshing to find a game that comes loaded with an obscene amount of extras.
THE MAKING OF MICKEY MANIA
THERE WERE SEVERAL GAMES ON THE MEGA DRIVE FEATURING THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS MOUSE, SOME VERY GOOD (CASTLE OF ILLUSION), SOME VERY BAD (FANTASIA). AND THEN THERE WAS MICKEY MANIA, AN IMPRESSIVE TECHNICAL SHOWCASE FROM TRAVELLER'S TALES
PARKER BROS
BY USING ITS CONTACTS IN THE ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR AND FORMIDABLE MARKETING CLOUT, PARKER BROTHERS BROUGHT TITLES LIKE STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, SPIDER-MAN AND FROGGER TO THE ATARI 2600 AND ITS RIVALS. RETRO GAMER HIGHLIGHTS THE FIRM’S BEST RELEASES
SNATCHER
AS HIDEO KOJIMA HAS BECOME A RARE CELEBRITY IN THE GAMING WORLD, SO HIS OLDER WORKS ARE INCREASINGLY REVISITED. BUT HIS 1988 CYBERPUNK ADVENTURE SNATCHER IS ALMOST UNPLAYABLE TODAY, LEGALLY, AND ONLY RECEIVED ONE ENGLISH PORT – WHICH HAS ONLY INCREASED ITS CULT APPEAL, AND COST
ULTIMATE GUIDE TARGET:RENEGADE
THE CITY STREETS ARE NEVER SAFE FOR LONG, ESPECIALLY IN THE DELIGHTFUL-SOUNDING SCUMVILLE, WHERE IT'S KILL OR BE KILLED. JOIN US AS WE REVEAL HOW WITH TARGET: RENEGADE, OCEAN SOFTWARE RETOLD THE STORY OF A VENGEFUL VIGILANTE AND CREATED ONE OF THE BEST EVER 8-BIT BRAWLERS
THE MAKING OF Trivial Pursuit
IN 1986, A SMALL SOFTWARE HOUSE ON THE VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY LICENSED THE WORLD’S BIGGEST BOARD GAME FOR HOME COMPUTERS. IT CHANGED DOMARK – AND THE UK GAMES INDUSTRY – FOREVER
Donkey Kong
ABRIDGED TOO FAR?
THE SPECTRUM
IT’S ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC HOME COMPUTERS EVER MADE, AND IT’S BACK IN PLUG-AND-PLAY FORM. WE SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE BEHIND IT TO FIND OUT WHY IT’S TAKEN SO LONG, AND GET A CHANCE TO GIVE OUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS AHEAD OF LAUNCH