Official Pandora Magazine

[Wootson]

For some time now I've been thinking about the possibilities for a Pandora magazine. As far as I know this has never come up before, so that's why I would like to bring it up now.

As many of us know there are lots of official computer/console magazines out there. By this I mean things like magazines for Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo, etcetera. Even the underground scenes still have their own paper versions of magazines these days, like Amiga Future for example. So why not the Pandora? Personally I would love a subscription on a high-quality written Pandora magazine. It could include things like the latest news from the developers, news about upcoming software, tips and tricks, (p)reviews and so on. Possibly even a disc with various different applications, games, emulators, wallpapers, etcetera. I'm not saying it has to be a monthly magazine, it could also be released four or six times a year. For this to work it obviously needs some exclusive content added to it, as most news and so can be read online in todays world. If it would be a magazine with let's say 100 to 150 pages of good and fresh content, then I could definitely see it work out.

See it as a way to expand the community in the offline world. Maybe even do it in such a way that for every magazine sold there goes a little money into a savings account which could then be used for purposes that serve everyones needs. By this I mean things like coding competitions, fundings for professional developers, etcetera.

A paper version obviously costs a lot of money to publish. A digital version does not.

I would like to know how other people think about this. And on forehand I would like to ask everyone to not start a war about paper versus ebooks. Paper is here to stay, like it did for decades already. Thank you.

 

[NLS]

I think this would take quite some time, money and resources.

 

[kingoddball]

Would be fun.
It would be great if it could become an official glossy retail mag (maybe preorder only/mail order). Similar style to PSM or any of them linux rags.
andora2ut4:

You could also try .PDF version - Print if you want it.

 

[Prometheus]

I seem to recall that, with the exception of stuff like Retro Gamer (if memory serves), the circulations of most games magazines are incredibly poor, and I'm not entirely sure that their content (again with the exception of stuff like Retro Gamer) is something to aspire to, either... That said, it does sound like a fun idea, but this is making me wonder whether it would be cost-effective.

What sort of stuff, specifically, would make good exclusive content, though? I'm curious.

 

[relapse808]

Here is a great title for the first issue.

"Where the hell is your pandora?"

 

[Aninhumer]

I'm not sure a magazine with only around 4000 potential customers would be economically viable, especially since as you say there will already be plenty of competition from online sources. 100 pages is expensive enough to print, never mind pay someone to write it.

Call me a young whippersnapper, but I'm not really interested in paying for a slightly better written set of old news and reviews, printed on shiny paper.

 

[TrashyMG]

Print is Dead.

 

[skeezix]

I used to make newspapers and ads in a paaaaast lif. It's a lot of work, especially glossy colour stuff. And getting 100 pages of content is vey hard. Likely you'd Ned 30% advertising at good rates to cover costs too.

I think more realistic is online or PDF, with a fee good folks making stories. Like 10 pages every 3months, and that's already pretty hard. On the upside there are a tonne of good small magazines like that.. It can work

I'd pay for your print rag, but it's hard going. I mean, you write up a couple articles and see how much work it is

jeff

 

[MDave]

Save the trees!

 

[puppydee]

Save the trees!

Yes use stone instead!

 

[kingoddball]

Paperless mag is good.
Bring out a good PDF viewer for Pandora and make it correct resolution for mobile devices!

 

[LineOf7s]

One of the PDF mags I read regularly is Full Circle Magazine, which deals with the different *buntu distros of Linux (Ubuntu, Kubuntu etc). It comes out once a month, and is perhaps a good model for the sort of thing the Pandora community might have an outside chance of achieving if we tried hard enough. And if we could think of what to put in it. And could be bothered.

Full Circle Magazine isn't bad - it has its faults - but it's a nice read, and it's a warm fuzzy feeling to read something from a bunch of people who (presumably) wouldn't look at you like they just stepped in you if you mention Linux. This, though, from an estimated worldwide distribution of *buntu of 12 million people. I wonder what 4000 can do.

 

[mali]

Reminds me of this:
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/46553-a-name-for-new-upcoming-pandora-zine/

 

[torpor]

Maybe not a full-blown magazine, but definitely a web-based 'zine would be great .. one thing thats always irked me about this scene is the lack of cohesive information about news and exciting things .. well, certainly the "View New Content" button on these forums delivers a handfuls of granules daily, but if there were a more pro-active publication that really delivered interesting articles and news items around the edges of the scene, I think it could do well.

Another thing I think we as a community need is an effort to put together really well-packaged full-blown SD card images for 'plug and play' style gaming .. and I don't mean the grey-market ROMS and all that stuff, but legit apps that are meant to be spread far and wide. Plus if someone put together a list of free/PD/copy'able ROMs for each emulator, then we could have the situation where a big fat Emu disk could be made, containing everything properly set up and in order, and then just add ROMs to it as we find them. But imagine if there was a real group activity set up to build nice plug-'n-play SD card images for easy-to-use gaming ..

I know, this is what .PNDs are for, but I really look forward to a .PND-building group forming somewhere around the edges, making regular releases. This would be another good thing for a publication dedicated to the Pandora scene to support .. sorta like the way many PC mags in the UK go to the effort (or used to) of making CD's for the cover ..

 

[kuru]

My first thought was "save the trees", too

Then again, we're so few people that my conscience settles lightly, that amount is just wayne.

I think I can see Wootson's incentive. It's like wanting to hold a finished Pandora. Maybe it's wanting the tangible, professionally looking and not-downloaded-from-teh-interwebs "proof" of our decent and unique community here, wrapped up all nicely with a proper cover ready to be piled up neatly.

 

[paulguy]

So you mean like mini bootup OSes with a single app to write to an SD card? Eh.. Don't really see that too useful, but maybe an app you can run on your pandora with a few nice little extras and nice little menu (with maybe some cool chiptunes or something heheh). I've seen a few things like that done for the homebrew scenes of other consoles, where there was a ROM with some articles, some neat demo stuff like small games and whatnot all presented in a nifty little demoscene-inspired interface. Maybe nothing like that being done often, but would make a good yearly thing to see some of the stuff the community has done over the year.

 

[torpor]

No I mean more like a big .ZIP file you extract to the root of the SD card and its got everything ready to roll .. heck, I'd even consider subscribing to such a service and paying for it, to be honest ..

 

[Wootson]

Well, I always think that paper magazines are a little more "magazine" than digital ones. But hey, I also know that it's pretty hard to sell a paper version. And that it's a lot of work to create one. Maybe even go as far as to say that paper is obsolete in this day and age... Maybe this whole paper thing is just inside my head because I was born in the 80s.

A .PND version might also work out pretty well. In the end the community decides in what format such a magazine would be, not me personally. So if everyone wants a digital version, then so be it. Paper obviously costs a lot of money, and you don't have those costs with a digital version. In the past there were lots of various disk magazines that runned pretty well, so that could work out just fine.

As for the content that needs to be written: non-profit. See it more of a way to provide some news and info to the community, rather than to fill your pockets. And content more in the style of interviews, extensive reviews and previews, etcetera. Not that 140 character Twitter BS.

 

[carlgeorge]

I think a paperless magazine that is formatted for the pandora screen is the way to go. To actually print and distribute something is far too costly to seriously consider.

I really do like the idea of a magazine though. It is a great way of making sure people are aware of key information/developments that they may have missed - kind of like the blog, but in more much detail.

I don't like those magazines that are trying to be too witty and are really full of waffle (I'm thinking about GPmagazine) something more akin to Gruso's posts on the blog would be good. I'm thinking it basically needs to show all the new stuff that has happened in between issues. You know, this emulator has been updated, these great homebrew games have been released with reviews, this hardware mod has been done and here's the photos, new firmware brings such and such benefits, reviews of accessories like cases and such.

Yeah, a blog on steroids, that's the future.

 

[kuru]

OK, considering the high price of "E-ON" EVE Online magazine which can't have too many buyers, but still thousands more of potential ones than a Pandora magazine, I'd prefer a digital solution.

I don't seriously plan to read PDFs on the Pandora though. Might be a different story if the formatting takes into account the small screen. I'd rather get an old SmartQ V7 or maybe an Archos 7 home tablet once it's available for eReading goodness. Anybody in Europe selling a V7 by any chance?