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I'm doing this new podcast called "RetroBlast: A 90's gaming RetroSpective". It's basically a chronological look at my gaming history during the early 90's. Anyways, I just thought that I would mention the podcast here because I end up talking about EGM issues quite a bit. So if anybody is reading EGM issues from 1991 they might enjoy some of these shows. In my most recent episode, I talk about issue #22 of EGM (May 1991): The show isn't specifically about gaming magazines, but I mention them a lot, and in a few of the episodes I've talked about magazines quite a bit. The podcast is a solo podcast, basically me reflecting back on my early 90's gaming adventures, but on episode 11 special guest Chris Alaimo (from Classic Gaming Quarterly) joins me on the podcast. At a certain point we talk about a number of topics relating to the May 1991 EGM. RetroBlast: A 90's gaming RetroSpective iTunes link Episode 9 has a pretty long discussion about gaming magazines in it, only thing is, episode 9 is kinda a bad episode to start with, because I'm telling this long personal story that really began back in episode 7. In episode 9 I talk about EGM, GamePro, Game Players and Video Games and Computer Entertainment. All of these magazines will be talked about in future episodes of RetroBlast. I'm basically covering specific timelines of my gaming life, and i was a hardcore video game magazine nerd at the time, so it's a bit part of my videogaming memories. So, I'll be talking a whole bunch about EGM and GamePro in future episodes. Die Hard GameFan and Next-Generation were my two favorite magazines of all time, so when I eventually get to the time when they were available, I'll be talking about those mags too. Check it out if you get a chance...

Thanks for all your hard work.

I love just looking at the history games and the time periods. I mostly like doing this though because you can find gaming info and pictures in these old magazines you can't find elsewhere.

DRM - And consoles are any better? Not that I can tell if you look at GOG.com for example. Steam - great collection of older and current games quite often for excellent prices when you factor in their sales etc Origin - not as good as Steam but the only way to play EA games. You can include UBIPlay in this too ..... The above really aren't all that different to the console environments like Xbox Live which means there's no disadvantage there Digital Activation - I'll give you this one although really, the consoles have esoteric disc formats which form the basis of protection along with mandatory accounts anyway, so I'm not sure how PC's requiring activation hurts when you factor in copy protection formats like Safedisc have been rendered obsolete by the latest Windows 7/8/10 updates. Disabling protection on the disc in favor of activation in theory allows for software backups once again. Always on connection requirements - Depends what you want to play I guess ..... Console Ports Gone Bad - Why on earth would anyone want a console port on a PC in the first place? They're generally fairly crap games with poor file saving and linear game-play in the majority of cases. Ugh!!!! As far as I can tell with Batman: Arkham Knight it sounds like they bit off more than they can chew touting features like 4K gaming etc. With the consoles pretty ordinary specs they had to dumb it down to get them running properly in the first place so either they overloaded the PC version or they simply have crap coders. I think it's a case of both scenarios on this one. Buying a new video card - at least you can actually do that for a PC. Try that on any other platform. Nope ... The whole point is that PC's are indeed upgradable unlike any other platform. Logic dictates that if a company codes for a given specification then in theory, every upgrade from that point on results in better performance. I know the counter argument is that software developers don't have a defined standard to code to but but as long as they define what specs they have set as a minimum criteria then it's up to the consumer to make a decision on whether they need an upgrade or not. Forgetting all the above for a second, there's one undeniable reason for PC gaming..... Emulation. Nothing can touch a PC for emulating older gaming systems. Trying to keep consoles like the Dreamcast going when Sega has abandoned production of GD-R drives etc mean the PC represents the only way of retaining your ability to play it. Factor in the ability to use all manner of controllers (you can even use Wii controllers and Nunchucks for example) along with emulators for pretty much every older system ever created and that alone is worth it in my books.