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Kickstarter campaign launched for new Amstrad CPC fanzine

Started by Skunkfish, 19:55, 31 July 16

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For future issues of Colour Personal Computing, would you rather have...

A black & white fanzine for £3
2 (16.7%)
A colour fanzine for £4
10 (83.3%)

Total Members Voted: 12

Voting closed: 17:18, 26 February 17

Zoe Robinson


Skunkfish

Quote from: mark_htfc on 19:21, 17 January 17
Brilliant, hopefully it will not take too long for it to arrive in the post. When I have read it in full I will let you know my thoughts on it  :)

Yes, please do!
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

Skunkfish

Quote from: mr_lou on 19:49, 17 January 17
When is issue 2 coming out?  ;D

Thursday, 13th April with any luck (and yes, I mean 2017!). I'm determined not to be let it be as late as this first one!
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

mr_lou

Quote from: Skunkfish on 23:54, 17 January 17
Thursday, 13th April with any luck (and yes, I mean 2017!). I'm determined not to be let it be as late as this first one!

Hm, well....
My advice is to not focus that much on dates, but let it take the time it needs.
It's easy to see and feel when things have been rushed. Then I'd rather wait a bit longer and get a higher quality.

seanb

I noticed in the next time section you mention street fighter 2.
Wouldn't be pulling an AA now would you  ;D
Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

kawickboy

I've just discovered the project. That looks great. I've ordered issue 1 + the 4 next ones.

seanb

For those of us that backed you on kickstarter what do we need to do for future issues.
Will you contact us?
Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Skunkfish

Quote from: seanb on 21:15, 19 January 17
For those of us that backed you on kickstarter what do we need to do for future issues.
Will you contact us?


Hi Sean,


Not sure if I fully understand the question? Further issues will be available via cpcfanzine.com, I don't think I'll be using Kickstarter for further issues.


Thanks,


James.
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

seanb

Thou shall not question Captain Wrong!

Lazy Dude

Arrived home yesterday to see the usual heap of junk on the doormat, pizza leaflets gas bill other usless tat.
Oh yeh and the CPC mag was there too  ;D
It's a good read so far.

Zoe Robinson

The fanzine arrived today. I've not had time to read it all yet but what I've perused was good. Well done! :)

Lazy Dude

I decided to order an Indian instead of the pizza from the leaflets!
Oh yeh, the mag. Best bit right now is the interview on p28/29 , its stuff like that what takes time and effort to compile. I always like the fact that all parties involved actually take the time to impart their thoughts to the readers. Unlike the immediacy of say a live forum (damn forums!) the interview provides a more considered response for our enjoyment.
Looking forward to issue 2 😎

Gryzor

My copy arrived on Friday, so I read it over the weekend. Really lovely stuff, I enjoyed it a lot!


The good: good, original material, good writing and editing (only a few typos), a distinct fanzine variety of humor, diverse articles.
The not-so-good: I wanted more :( . No, I do understand how much work goes into something like that, but I think that with a few pages more it would have shone much more! Also: the choice of font - I'd go for something more retro-like, and also a smaller size.


Thanks for the great work, really looking forward to #2. Oh, heck, it was so nice that even the missus read some of it (she started reading the DDLE review and carried on from there :D )!!

mr_lou

And it arrived in Denmark today too.  :)

Looks great! Thanks for mentioning 8-bit Memoirs in the news section!  :)
Will be interesting to see when I find some time for some cosy reading.

My only feedback so far: I feel the font is a tiny little bit too small.

Gryzor

Hahaha I like how I asked for smaller fonts, you asked for larger ones :D


The thing is, I love fanzines with lots of text -and because most of them are A5 they cram text in their small pages, thus giving a unique feel...


But, if nothing else, I really don't think the font is too small.

mr_lou

Quote from: Gryzor on 17:21, 24 January 17
Hahaha I like how I asked for smaller fonts, you asked for larger ones :D

Impossible to please everyone.  :)

Gryzor


Lazy Dude

Right, what a great idea - a different font size on each page  :D

mark_htfc

I finally managed to finish reading through it all this evening, and I must say, I am impressed with the first issue, other than a couple of missspelt grammar etc (only a couple though I might add) I thought the whole way of writing was thoroughly enjoyable.


I think the size of the text for me was perfectly fine, but I can understand why some people might think it was a bit small, although for the size of the magazine, you dont want the text to be too big. I really liked the way did the reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed reading what you though of the games, and I will have to install the emulator back onto my machine so that I can play some of the games.


If I was to ask for something to be changed then it would be the way competitions are done in the future. Getting to the final page, I thought it was a great touch you included a competition for the readers to try and win something but for me personally I would not have taken part, due to the fact I would have had to write in the book to then scan and send you the answers. If you could incorporate this another way so that we could take part without having to physically write in the book I would personally would prefer it (the magazine is too good to write in  :) ).


Finally, in regarding the photos, what would the possibility be, of instead of them being black and white, but have them in green screen instead? I still play my Amstrad with a green screen (mainly because I don't have a Color screen) and I think that'd be a nice retro touch to have in the magazine.

CPCOxygen

From what I read so far I think it's fantastic. Eight Bit Magazine even got a mention.  ;D  Font size looks fine for me, easy to read. I think  a smaller font would be a mistake.
Eight Bit Magazine The Number One Magazine for the 8-Bits.

Retro Format New Games - Old Hardware.

Skunkfish

Thanks everyone for your feedback and kind words!

I was having a bit of dilemma on the font size. On the one hand, I was finding the A5 size page quite restrictive to get the quantity of text that I wanted on each page. On the other hand, I wanted it to be legible and comfortable to read. Hopefully it sounds like I got the balance about right!

I guess an advantage of a blu-ray disk mag is that the font size can be user-adjustable (other than just moving the page closer).

I'm hoping to make some improvements for Issue 2, mainly in the way that the fanzine is written and put together as it was not done in the most economical fashion. I ended up half-writing articles in Word, copying them into Publisher and then finishing them off weeks later. Also, the lateness itself caused a lot of issues as some parts I'd written (like the news) was hopelessly outdated and had to be rewritten.

What is an obvious space-filler (the CPC Retro Dev screens on Page 30-31) was originally a feature on upcoming games, but the problem was that most of them had been released by the time the rest of the fanzine was ready for print! This time I'm focusing on getting the main features written first, and then more time-specific things like news and previews will get done at the end.

Regarding the competition (the one on page 34, not Eight-Bit magazine), I'll have a think about how I can do it differently next time!

Thanks again,

James.
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

||C|-|E||

Let´s see if tomorrow I can finally read mine!  :D   I was in Cambridge for a few days and I will not be able to check the mailbox until tomorrow morning...  :-X

reidrac

I had only few minutes to skim through it, will read it later, but I'm happy you updated it with things that happened after the fanzine was delayed. It looks fresh!

Well done and congratulations!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

reidrac

Las night I finished reading it and I liked it!

The content and the tone was great, and the font size was OK to me; although I think the fanzine would benefit from colour (those screenshots were too dark!).

If anything it could nice if you could get contributions from other people, so you have a bit less work. Do you accept contributions? I think some people around here may be interested.

Looking forward to the next issue!
Released The Return of Traxtor, Golden Tail, Magica, The Dawn of Kernel, Kitsune`s Curse, Brick Rick and Hyperdrive for the CPC.

If you like my games and want to show some appreciation, you can always buy me a coffee.

Skunkfish

Yeah, the screenshots took some alteration to get them as good as they are but still not ideal (lots of messing around with the brightness and contrast).

I would seriously consider doing further issues in colour, but the print company I used for Issue 1 is quoting me four-times the price for colour and B&W so I would have to do some shopping around.

I am certainly accepting contributions for future issues and a couple of people have already come forward and offered which is nice.

What I'd really like, is some nice juicy features, written by people who are more au fait with the subject matter than myself. Topics like game development, hardware projects and demo coding...

I'm planning a series on software houses from the CPC's past at the moment, looking at the history, games they produced and what became of them. Hi-Tec Software will be the first target, hopefully for Issue 2.
An expanding array of hardware available at www.cpcstore.co.uk (and issue 4 of CPC Fanzine!)

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