Original title: There should be a NesDev magazine (Poll)
You could subscribe and it would have advice and info. I don't know what else to say...
Progress: Example front cover made (attached)
I used
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/ ... -cartridge
Print media about NES programming? No.
A few retro magazines briefly mention upcoming homebrew releases. I like that.
What a front page could be:
NesDev
Which flashcart is right for you?
Asm6 programming tutorial
FREE homebrew games download!
Q&A
Hot topics from the forums
Complete guide to the PPU
£2.99
Hopefully that answers your questions.
I don't think there's enough going on weekly to warrant a magazine? Maybe if you include retro dev as a whole, but even then, I'm highly doubtful.
Every month or two? Well, I'm making one anyway
Who owns the site? I would need permission to call it something like "The official magazine of NesDev". I could always call it "The unofficial magazine of NesDev" but I would need permission to use the name and logo.
Do it if you want. But, I think you might be overestimating the size of the nesdev community.
I think you would do better with a monthly blog supported by ads.
And I highly suggest you use titles like "top 10 best" and "new homebrew games". There's a reason why I snuck the exact phrase "best graphics on the NES" on one of my blog pages.
This sounds like a great project/idea for something called... a website. Or a blog. I don't think it's feasible to distribute this on paper, especially considering how heavily international nesdev stuff is.
dougeff's thought process is similar to mine.
wordpress.com (the service) offers blogs for free, but there are many others. Use whatever you want. Or go with a hosting service and run whatever you want yourself (warning: WordPress is notoriously insecure, with issues coming out every month or so, ditto with PHP. This is why for WP, I tend to recommend just relying on wordpress.com because WP maintenance is a stupid nightmare).
That said:
Nobody is going to care about an ad-laden site, i.e. nobody is going to visit it if it's so ad-heavy (to pay for the service) since it destroys the experience. I assure you of this. My advice is to find a service (if not free) that is inexpensive and pay for it monthly out of pocket. Then there aren't ads involved, and people are more inclined to read it. I paid out of pocket for the entire Parodius service for its entire lifetime -- paying money for hobbies is part of hobbies.
Who is going to consistently write all articles? Who will be the editor? Paid or unpaid work? Don't overlook that.
I'm unclear to me whether you're suggesting that
you want to write an NesDev magazine, or that you're wishing for someone else to do it?
There are a few NES development related periodicals, though. Here's two I can think of off the top of my head:
I just thought it would be nice to put some NesDev things into a magazine and give it to a few people, maybe in print or PDF format. I could just try to make something in a a word processor.
Also, I can't pay anyone. I'm 13 and I don't get pocket money (but I have savings and I just ask for things I want). This will probably be really bad but I'll just make a sample issue.
Maybe make an NES ROM magazine.
There were a lot of cool
demodisk magazines over the years coming out of the demoscene.
Looks like magazines meant to be read in the machines themselves, rather than in printed form.
There isn't really a good reason to do that, and I don't have a real NES for testing but it could be both.
I suppose you could include homebrew games.
I like the idea. I'm not certain I'd want an actual printed copy, though. If it sounds like fun, go for it.
I founded the NESdev as a webpage on Geocities, but I wouldn't claim to own it. After moving to the Parodius server it became an actual website, it's been very much community owned and operated. The NESdev logo was made by Mankeli, I don't think he's been around for a while but it doesn't bother me if you use it, if it's clear that it's (un)official. About that.. if you want it make it official, I'm not sure how else to do it, but I'd propose that before you release it, send the final (or near-final) draft to me and I'll look it over and most likely approve it as official. Heck, if anything, you could post a draft on the forum and get some pre-release feedback, if you wanted to.
When I say it'd look it over I mean it'd be more of a sanity check rather than a quality-control thing. It can be both bad and official, haha, that's fine, it's just a first/sample issue.
I'm definitely partial to the idea that Rainwarrior brought up, about being in ROM format. Though it'd be cool to have on cart, it will be looked at by 100 times more people if it's just a ROM for emulator/flashcart use. Way back in 2005 when I released Garage Cart, that's why it was called Garage Cart #1, it was supposed to become a periodical release with games, music, and short articles. But after that first release I took a long break from NES stuff and never really got that project back on track.
If you formatted it for the NES screen you could probably get someone to help if needed, to get it displayed on NES. That would be something like, 30x28 text chars per page. Though it's also possible to do variable-width font rendering, upside is it makes longer text easier to read, downside is it looks less like traditional NES text.
What topics would people like to see?
orlaisadog wrote:
What topics would people like to see?
"How to programatically detect NTSC/PAL consoles: a tutorial"
Just write whatever you want and put together a "magazine" as a conceptual/layout draft. You're getting too far ahead of yourself without any work done on the actual mag.
Ok, so just with placeholder topics for now?
orlaisadog wrote:
Ok, so just with placeholder topics for now?
Not necessarily but it could help if you don't know what to write on it (you'd have a hard time convincing people to contribute to it, though...). Just write about themes you think are related to the magazine and put them together in a pdf with the envisioned layout/design of the eventual real first issue.
Should it be a white theme (
this logo) or black theme (
this logo)?
OK, I made a front cover. Attached as a PDF file. Also, I have renamed the topic. I used
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/ ... -cartridge
Memblers, can you have a look at this please? The topics (and probably the design will change though.
The cover is nice and all, but the thing that will distinguish success from failure is having content, and preparing new content repeatedly. Do you have writers or are you going to write it yourself? Do you have samples of the kind of content you expect to be in it? (not just headlines, but actual articles?)
Well, does anyone have a specialist subject they would like to write about? I thought I could also take content from the web, with permission.
Oops, I wrote Members instead of Memblers. Oh well, it still makes sense and I've fixed it now. Autocorrect did it, I think.
I think a good approach would be a online blog covering the yearly competition and a place to keep track of new and old homebrew releases, possibly not limited to NES only.
Maybe even childhood stories or experiences with particular games / systems.
I don't think a printed magazine would have a good audience or even be enough to cover it's costs.
PDF printed issues as a hobby would be nice too.
I was born way after the NES was discontinued so...
Also, blogs already exist. Personally I like the idea of a magazine.
Also it would be PDF but if anyone lives in the UK I could send a copy.
It's hard to say. 30 years ago everything was in print and as a kid it was the only way to get information. I remember waiting every month for Nintendo power, sharing EGM magazine at school and other popular one like, what was the name, gamepro I think? It's was the only way to get information about the latest games and we were all over it.
Fast forward today, those magazine don't exist anymore or are dying since now everything is available online and the need is not there. Even though in Japan Famitsu is still popular and is released weekly, I rarely buy one because the information is rarely worth it.
So if you do such a magazine, you have to keep in mind that you want to do it because you have a personal interest in making such a thing (that what hobbies are for, isn't it
). Maybe you will have a following, maybe not. It will depends on how much dedicated you are and how creative you will be.
The best thing is to just make a simple one, a few pages, keep it digital at first. If it becomes popular then you can think about printing it.
Does anyone have any suggestions for improvements though?
orlaisadog wrote:
Should it be a white theme (
this logo) or black theme (
this logo)?
I think for now the most important thing is not how thing look but what content you want to talk about.
For example, the president of BitFreaks, the guy that started pokemon, started is thing by making hand writent strategy guide for arcade game and look were he is today.
My point is, you are worring too much about the look than the actual content. If we did worried about that we woudn't still playing and making nes game today aren't we?
Just try, improvise, let your mind free. Don't worry about being perfect. Just try and you will learn from it. You are young so this is the perfect time to experiment.
Maybe you could try something similar to what the guys at
Warp zone did.
In the beginning they did editions with few pages talking about retro stuff, then started to find old people who had relationship with the gaming industry here in Brazil and did some interviews telling their stories.
The group had grown and now they do books and special edition magazines.
Just be sure to make good use of social networks, so you can get an idea of how much support you'll be getting from fans.
AFAIK, these guys are doing it for fun and nostalgia, and seem to be reaching their goals.
I think you can also contact them, maybe asking for advice or some other random questions.
I did in the past and they were pretty nice
But I just want to have a nice front cover to show people, and if I start writing something I want to know what layout and design to use. Besides, I'll probably get volunteers from the forum to write it.
Fisher wrote:
Maybe you could try something similar to what the guys at
Warp zone did.
In the beginning they did editions with few pages talking about retro stuff, then started to find old people who had relationship with the gaming industry here in Brazil and did some interviews telling their stories.
The group had grown and now they do books and special edition magazines.
Just be sure to make good use of social networks, so you can get an idea of how much support you'll be getting from fans.
AFAIK, these guys are doing it for fun and nostalgia, and seem to be reaching their goals.
I think you can also contact them, maybe asking for advice or some other random questions.
I did in the past and they were pretty nice
I'm not that serious about it. I'm only expecting a few readers.
Edit: The quote didn't work. Is that a bug?
[Unchecked "Disable BBCode" --MOD]
Any ideas for articles?
101st post
What are your favourite homebrew games? I could include some?
You could talk about NESmaker, which is due to be available in a few weeks.
Maybe ask Joe a few questions, interview style.
What about an article about Super Bat Puncher? I believe that was the first big scale nes homebrew.
If you can find anything new to say about it, then maybe that's a good idea. NESMaker is a good topic because it's recent, and there are a lot of expectations around it.
Quote:
NESmaker
I would but
Quote:
$36.00
You don't have to buy it to talk about it.
You can get images and details from their YouTube pages.
And you can ask Joe for details, or search this forum for his posts.
Well, I wanted to do a review.
Also what is "explicit bat punching"? I don't want to write about anything inappropriate.
That is meant literally.
You literally punch bats.
It's sort of a play on parental advisory warnings about violence. But with bats.
But if it's that violent even if it's a joke it's inappropriate for children sort of so I don't know.
What children? The ones that read NES development magazines?
In an interesting timing coincidence,
Lexington Alexander has published 1 issue of an NES developed magazine, and is working on a second:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G81P7PD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_V.qEBbPYFAX2V
I managed to get it on my phone, cost $1.05.
My kindle app had no results searching for "dev cart", but was able to find it searching for "Lexington Alexander"
Sorry to be rude but who is Lexington Alexander? ^^;; Is he a member on nesdev? I do not remember this name.
dougeff wrote:
I managed to get it on my phone, cost $1.05.
My kindle app had no results searching for "dev cart", but was able to find it searching for "Lexington Alexander"
how is it?
I can't wait for the upcoming mouser issue.
Quote:
who is Lexington Alexander
I guess he is a writer who is also making a NES game. He is on Twitter @thocolat
It talks about Lizard, Lucky Penguin, Little Medusa, Twin Dragons, Tailgate Party, and a few other things. So, I guess it mostly highlights new homebrew games.
I think in the next edition, hes going to talk about Cheril the Writer, Super Tilt Bros, Micro Mages, Nebs and Debs, and a little bit about 6502 ASM and using NES screen tool.