Blast Annual 2020: Volume 1. Retro gaming awesomeness in a 214 page book! It’s the way retro should be. Volume 1 show cases more than 90 games reviews across Amstrad CPC, Atari 2600, Amiga, NES, SMS, BBC, MSX, C64, Plus 4, ZX Spectrum and ZX Spectrum Next.
Also included are: Six Game Dev interviews, Four game dev contests (BASIC 10 Liner Contest 2019, ABBUC Atari Contest 2019, NESDEV 2018 Contest and Halloween C64/Amiga compo 2019).
Product reviews on the Telemach Joystick and Nextdaw music software. A feature article tribute to Atarian Stephen Wrenn Smith. A look at a heap of gaming expos in 2019 including ZXNEXT at Play Expo Manchester 2019, Barcelona RUMSX 55, PLAY EXPO MANCHESTER, CRX 2019 Expo and the MSX CRUISE 2019.
Parties and gaming communities getting together throughout 2019 are covered and Volume 1 features the following events: C MEETING, C64 CLUB BERLIN, FLASHBACK PARTY, BCC PARTY, FOREVER PARTY, SPECCY.PL PARTY, DIHALT! and REVISION. There’s a SCENE WORLD Retrospective article, coding tutorials on AGD by Simon Ferré, a C84 Smooth Scrolling feature by Shirley Knott, a BBC to ATOM Conversion by Kees Van Oss, a CPC BASIC Coding tutorial by Fabrizio Radica and Allan Turvey talks about his BRUCE LEE Hack ‘n Patch on the ZX Spectrum.
Logiker looks at BASIC Then And Now. Gary McGeechan shares his Memories Of being A Spectrum Gamer. TJ writes about how he fell in love with the ZX Spectrum and Tim Gadler tells his story of working at the SEGA Call Centre.
Louie Dimovski looks at Youtube Retro Channels that you should check out and finally we take a look at some games that are works in progress that may have been released now. Not to forget there are profile articles on Megastyle, Victor Parada, a Parallaxian Dev Diary and a look at THEC64 machine.
Darren Doyle (greyfox Books) (verified owner) –
When deciding to purchase any form of physical or digital media that covers classic retro games, Developers insights or special features across multiple vintage platforms, I am always wary about stepping into such entities, but wow does this annual deliver!. Over 200 pages of engaging content, news, reviews, scene coverage and more, Blast Annual delivers on all goals in bringing you a fantastic read layout and form, the team have done such a sterling job and with being a designer myself, I have very impressed with the work that will most definitely separate this from many fanzine attempts, this simply is above that standard and seriously will be looking forward to the next Blast Annual production.
An instant purchase.
Sean McManus –
Great book to dip into! Congratulations to George and the team on this publication, which provides an eye-opening journey through pretty much the entire retro scene!