WHAT IS GAME BYTES??
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Ross Erickson, Editor, Game Bytes magazine
ross@kaos.b11.ingr.com
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Quite frequently, I get email from around the world asking a common
question, "Just what is Game Bytes anyway?" Hopefully, this short
message will help explain just what this is, where it comes from, why
it's here, and where it is going!
Game Bytes started out as an idea of mine to produce a high-quality,
user-supported gaming magazine that utilizes the electronic networks
prevalent in the world today. I didn't want to create "just another"
paper newsletter; instead I wanted to create an electronic magazine,
something that made use of the capabilities of modern PCs and the high-
speed networks that connect them. Truly, I wanted this to become the
"Computer Gaming World" of the networked age.
With some programming help and some hard work, we succeeded in creating a
"magazine" program that ran on a PC, one in fact that not only could
display text -- game reviews, previews and tips, industry rumors, news and
interviews -- but also graphics: actual screen images from the games
being reviewed. So, not only did the readers get a comprehensive review
of the games, they got to see exactly what the games look like -- on their
own screens! Needless to say, this has since become a very popular
feature.
Through the gracious efforts of several people on the Internet, we
had enough articles to publish the first issue. Looking back, it
wasn't as strong as we wanted it to be, but it was a start.
Since then, the magazine has grown and improved, and now we're really
beginning to exploit the capabilities of a PC-based magazine. The
interface lets the reader view all articles rapidly and jump directly to
the article he or she's interested in, and it lets him or her view screen
shots to see exactly how the game will look on his or her screen. The
electronic format lets us distribute it by ftp over the Internet and other
networks and over bulletin boards, so that 48 hours after the magazine is
done it can be available in Russia, South Africa or Singapore. Electronic
distribution also lets us publish with much shorter lead times, so that if
we're on the ball we can get reviews of new games and reports from
industry shows out weeks or months ahead of the paper magazines. (It's
great fun to "scoop" the big guys...)
But more important than the format sophistication is the growth in the
content of Game Bytes. Our support from bulletin boards, from the
Internet community and from the Usenet comp.sys.ibm.pc.games newsgroup
readership has been tremendous. Our reviews -- written by volunteers from
the networks -- have gotten steadily better, and now we can give some of
the paper magazines a real challenge when it comes to presenting a
straightforward, informative review. We're also doing well in providing
industry news, rumors, and interviews with game-design luminaries such as
Sid Meier or Chris Roberts. We really do owe it all to the support of our
readers and our reviewers who've volunteered their time and ability to
make the magazine what it is.
Game Bytes isn't sponsored by any game publisher or vendor, and there's no
fee, subscription requirement, or other price tag for it. We are
beginning to look for advertising, however; we have learned painfully that
there are real costs in money as well as time in producing a quality
magazine -- hardware, phone bills, travel, postage -- and we can't
continue to take a loss on each issue forever. Eventually, we hope to be
able to not only cover the costs but give a stipend to our reviewers as
well, both to compensate them for their work and to let us more reliably
produce a magazine with top quality writing.
Each issue of the magazine follows a standard naming convention to
assist you in finding the issue you're looking for.
GBXX-YYY.ZIP
is the general format, where XX is the issue number (ie. 09, 10, 11,
etc.) and YYY is the 'type' of issue. This will either be GRA (for
the graphics issue), or TXT (for the non-screen-shot issue). Other
types of issues such as a much larger 'Internet' issue may also be
produced in the future.
Game Bytes is distributed over the following facilities:
a) FTP sites - as many as possible, but first and foremost on:
ftp.ulowell.edu (129.63.32.1) in the /msdos/Games/Game_Bytes
directory -- all issues of Game Bytes to date can be found here.
wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4) in the
/pub/msdos_uploads/Game_Bytes directory.
If you live outside of the USA, and there's a local ftp site that you'd
like to get Game Bytes from, please let us know and we'll upload it there.
Conversely, if you're already getting it from a local site, please let us
know that so we can tell others from your area who ask. (Email us if you
have questions about anonymous ftp or need help with it.)
b) Mail server - For a while we had a mail server to email issues to those
who couldn't get the files by ftp, and then the kind soul providing the
server had to move. (If you would like to help out, let us know.) For
right now, if you don't have anonymous ftp access and would like to get
Game Bytes, your best bet is to use ftpmail. Email ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
with the single word
help
in the message body for instructions. (Email us if you need help with
ftpmail.)
c) America On-Line
On AOL, the issues can be found in the general file section. Search
on the filename 'gb*.zip'.
d) Compuserve - Many early issues of Game Bytes appear in the Gamers
(Go Gamers) forum. Due to some restrictions on publication, future
issues may or may not be posted on CIS.
We also hope eventually to move onto GEnie and Prodigy.
e) BBSs - At this time, we upload each issue to several large BBSs,
including EXEC-PC (the world's largest BBS), and actively encourage those
who download it to spread it to their local BBSs. Game Bytes is also
pleased to be able to utilize the more than 2000 BBS systems that are the
official distribution points for Apogee/ID software products. The home
board for this is Software Creations. They can be reached at 508-365-2359
(2400 baud) or 508-7423 (9600/14.4 V.32bis).
Game Bytes is produced in two versions for each issue. One version --
filename gb##-gra.zip where ## is the issue number -- has the full palette
of screen shots included and will be quite large, but never larger than
1.44 MB. The other version -- gb##-txt.zip -- includes exactly the same
articles, but does not include any screen shots, and is thus much smaller.
Both files are zipped with PKZIP version 2.04, available almost everywhere
-- email us if you need help with the file format.
Game Bytes is produced once a month, for the time being. You can find an
index of articles and special features to date in issues 10 and later, or
as the independent text file "gb01-##.idx", where ## is the latest issue
number. The most recent issue published as of this writing was #10, and
#11 should be released June 3.
Game Bytes coverage includes IBM/MS-DOS games in the diskette and
CD-ROM formats, Super Nintendo cartridges, and Sega Genesis cartridge
and CD-ROM formats. For popularity and space considerations, we are
not covering the old Nintendo (NES), the portable cartridge game
systems, or the Turbo Graphics 16 systems at this time. We will be
considering other types of platforms as well, such as the 3DO system,
if they catch on in the market.
Game Bytes, in a nutshell, presents the following "types" of
information:
1) Reviews - These are user-contributed articles from players like you
and me who have experience with the product in question. They are
intended to be judgemental and advise readers both what the product is
and it's a worthwhile purchase or not. Reviews are full length,
comprehensive articles. (If you've played a game and you see that we
haven't done a review of it, I'd love to hear from you if you'd like
to do a review.)
2) First Looks! / Previews - This section is devoted to giving readers
a sneak peek at games soon to be released or just released. The very
short articles are merely a quick synopsis of what the premise of the
game is, an quick evaluation (if possible) and, generally, several
screen shots, when available, are included with each article.
3) Editor Notes - This section is devoted to various regular columns that
relate to the magazine or to gaming. As editor, I write a
regular column called "A View From the Edge" which contains
observations on issues in the gaming industry. This section also hosts
a Rumors/News column for interesting news items, a Modem Opponents
Wanted column where people can post requests for modem-play gaming
opponents, the Index of articles and features from previous issues, and
a number of other columns.
4) Miscellanous Features - This is where you'll find articles and special
features that aren't reviews or previews of games. Interviews with
gaming's luminaries -- people such as Richard Garriott, Chris Roberts
and Damon Slye -- appear in this section. Also, this section hosts a
Rumors column where interesting news items are published. Things like
running games under OS/2, reviews of sound cards and other peripherals,
hints, walkthroughs and other miscellaneous articles will be found in
the this section. We encourage submissions of articles of this nature
-- we'd like to print more of them!
5) Vendor Notes / Advertising - We have reserved some space for the
software vendor community to publish press releases or straightforward
advertising, with the option to add graphics as well. (Contact me
if you are interested in advertising in Game Bytes.)
6) Letters - Simply stated, this is YOUR forum to post your feedback,
inquiries, and general commentary about Game Bytes to us. We ACTIVELY
encourage you to write to us. You can email me at
ross@kaos.b11.ingr.com; other addresses to contact me at are listed in
this section of every issue of Game Bytes.
So, where do we go from here? There are a lot of opportunities to
take this even further. If all phone lines were set up for ISDN, and if
everybody had CD-ROM drives and multimedia-ready machines . . . but they
aren't and you don't, so we'll proceed slowly. We don't intend to change
our strategy much over the coming months. We simply want to be known as a
solid source of regular gaming information.
If you feel you have something to say or add to Game Bytes, please do
feel free to contact me and we'll most certainly consider it. I want
to publically say thanks for the very warm welcome many of you have
expressed to me about Game Bytes. Your response has been overwhelming.
We hope to hear from many more of you, too. As an open invitation to all:
PLEASE consider writing some reviews/previews or gaming articles of any
kind to be published in Game Bytes. Without you, we have nothing. Thanks
again for your consideration.
Ross Erickson, Editor, Game Bytes magazine
ross@kaos.b11.ingr.com