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Here’s my bio… In 1992 I started out on Mean Machines Sega and Nintendo Magazine System. In 1995 I became editor of C&VG. I led the C&VG website from 1998 until Christmas 2000, then I left journalism to be concept design manager at Criterion Games. I returned to journalism in 2002 and from 2005 I’ve been running my own company, Unlikely Hero.
PAUL DAVIES GIVES HIS VIEWS ON THE RETRO WORLD
One was never enough uring a time when computer and videogames carried a genuine ‘Gosh!’ factor, the appeal of Nintendo’s greatest ever marvel was strangely workaday… as essential as a decent kettle. Thinking about it now, videogames were an add-on to my hopeless unemployable heavy metal lifestyle in the late Eighties. They needed Setting Up and Making Proper Time For within the confines of my parents’ home – all very ceremonious and probably a bit worrying and mysterious. With Game Boy, though, its role as an attractive and always accessible play thing was instantaneous to everyone at home, including my younger brother who got hooked on Tetris. Completely out of character, although he did dabble with Game & Watch Fire back in the day. We ended up buying another Game Boy for general family access to mainly Tetris and whatever else I brought home. Game Boy plus Tetris surprised the snobbish games connoisseur side of me that had grown worse with my beloved Mega Drive. A friend of mine had been playing Tetris in the local pub and had been banging on about it, saying it was All The Rage among his other friends (who were obviously smarter than me by implication). Anyhow, my mate was amazing at that stupid coloured-block-puzzle coin-op that kept drinkers glued to the screen while their Doc Martens stuck to the rancid carpet. For him, Game Boy fitted right in with the reading of hefty fantasy novels and admirable mastery of Yngwie Malmsteen arpeggios. It went with him everywhere so was shockingly beat up whereas mine was of course kept pristine in an old but clean football sock. Not that I ever played football. Just like that, in a flash, as I could never have thought, Game
Hello, retro gamers. My name is Paul Davies. I used to be the editor of C&VG and have also worked on a number of classic gaming magazines over the years
12 | RETRO GAMER
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Boy brought gaming to the masses. They still weren’t interested in Golden Axe, Thunderforce II or Super Shinobi, but I allowed myself to feel smug about it. Heh, a game has grabbed you too huh? You know now why I cry. Of course this had the adverse effect of causing even more puzzlement at my chosen profession a year or so later: “You play games [imagines Tetris] and write about them for a living? Well…” As for my approach to the growing catalogue of blurry experiences that came on adorable little cartridges – oops, Game Paks – I pursued the impossible under the instruction of C&VG, Zero, Total and Mean Machines. I tried really hard to complete Battletoads for example, an effort comparable to the ‘Mile High Club’ achievement in Call Of Duty 4. I never played F-1 Race though. F-1 Race and its four-player link-cable speciality held no practical appeal even to a gaming obsessed moron like me. Then came Pokémon, shortly accompanied by Game Boy Pocket with its superior screen quality and range of funky coloured cases. Game Boy leaped from a side-order to the main dish for millions of gamers and millions more kids to keep quiet. I was a 20-something bloke cursing at the gates of Victory Road while on the train alongside a bemused girlfriend (who amazingly agreed to be my wife). At this point I’m only going to say The Rest Is History, because after Pikachu and the gang grabbed the world’s attention, Game Boy must’ve paid half my bills for a long, long time!