DREW SLEEP

SHARES HIS MEMORIES

IT’S BEEN A FEW YEARS – HOW DO YOU LOOK BACK ON YOUR TIME WITH RETRO GAMER?

Working on Retro Gamer was the best gig I ever had and ever will have. The halcyon days of having endless amounts of fun with Darran, Nick and Andy, and our former designers Jonny Wells, Sam Ribbits and Woz Brown were some of my favourite days.

Retro Gamer is one-of-a-kind, and that’s all down to its team. It’s Darran’s laser-focussed drive to obtain behind-the-scenes access in the form of candid interviews, Nick’s best-in-class technical nous, Andy’s amazing design work and Tim’s perfect eye for detail. I’m not forgetting the freelancers too: Paul Drury, Martyn Carroll, Graeme Mason, Rory Milne and so many more besides, are the beating heart of Retro Gamer: here’s to you, guys.

YOU MENTION FUN…

I’m honestly surprised that Nick and I are still working at Future after the psychological torture we submitted Darran to on a daily basis. A special mention goes to RG’S former designer (and Gobbo King) Sam Ribbits for being the most dastardly of the trio that probably gives Daz nightmares to this day.

It’s infamous that Darran isn’t a fan of Dig Dug, and we exploited this by hiding mentions of it within Retro Gamer’s pages. But as my time working on Retro Gamer was drawing to an end, I inserted one final Trojan Horse: just pop the numbers on the Desert Island Disks passport into an Ascii-to-text converter. It’s been there since at least issue 212, probably longer!

IT CAN’T HAVE ALL BEEN FUN AND GAMES, THOUGH?

I think anyone who has worked in print media has done a late shift getting an issue out of the door, and it all gets a bit weird after hours. One night I’d gone to make a coffee and shuffled back to find Darran, usually a tall and assured presence, crumpled at his desk.

“Daz…” I said, concerned, “You all right, mate?” He unfolded, looked at me and pointed at a highlighted word on his computer screen. I can’t remember what it was, but the important part is that the word was spelt correctly and was in exactly the right place.

“Is this a word?” Darran squeaked, defeated. “I don’t know any more…”