ANDY SALTER

IS IN THE HOT SEAT

YOU CAME TO RETRO GAMER IN 2019 – WERE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK ON A GAMES MAGAZINE?

Yes, I had a short break on Web Designer after games™ closed down and I’d been on Web Designer before, but I was quite pleased to get back onto a videogames mag.

DO YOU FIND THERE’S MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORKING ON MODERN GAMING MAGAZINES AND RETRO GAMER?

It’s a big difference. A large part of those magazines are sort of templated for previews and reviews. They also really relied more heavily on getting the new stuff in and the deadlines are quite tight, because obviously you’ve got to arrange access to these new games. With Retro Gamer it’s not as big a problem – if we can’t get someone to do an interview for a game we want to do one issue, it can go in the next issue, or it can go in an issue six months later.

IT’S PROBABLY EASIER TO GET ART FOR MODERN GAMES THOUGH, RIGHT?

The more recent the game is, the easier it is to get art, I find. But with some games it’s not as important – the further back you go, the more you can get away with using pixel art. So the 8-bit games look quite good when you make them into big bits of art; even up to the Playstation era is fairly good because it’s got quite a stylistic sort of 3D.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVOURITE COVERS OR FEATURES?

I quite like the Doom cover, that was quite nice. I think my favourite one overall though is the Street Fighter Ryu pixel cover, the nice big bit of pixel art – it’s also a really good subscriber cover. Also the Sonic 3 cover, we really encapsulated the look of the box art, and I like the recent Crash Bandicoot one.