Gamertell

It’s been about a month since the epic closure of Electronic Gaming Monthly/the gutting of 1Up.com. You’ve heard of it, of course, if you spend any time at all reading gaming sites, but I’ll reiterate: 1Up was awesome, they had great editorial and a stable of truly excellent video/audio content. But their parent company (Ziff Davis) was bankrupt, and they sold the site to UGO (a Hearst property), and in the ensuing kerfluffle, most of the staff was laid off, the magazine was dead, and most of the audio/video shows were canned. Outrage ensued.

Well, here we are a month later. Let me confess: I was a huge, undying fan of 1Up and EGM, and I lived by those podcasts. So, I was obviously upset when things went down.

But recently, I’ve come back to the smoking crater that was once a great online property. Like a pilgrim on a mission, I scoured the depths of the ruins, searching for familiar voices. I’m pleased to say that I found a tiny, thriving center of excellence born out of the destruction.

Like a tiny flower popping out of the scorched earth (ok, ok, I’m done with the dramatic metaphors), I stumbled across the Retronauts blog, wherein the remaining writers (with the help of a few freelancers) dish on old games, new games that remind them of old games, and the culture surrounding old games. In short: it’s about old games, much like the still surviving retronauts podcast. There are a number of excellent, quirky columns, a feature that’s also present on the other two blogs - The Tilt, which focuses on Apple/iPhone gaming, and The Grind, which has an RPG bent. They’re all under the direction of Jeremy Parish, arguably one of the site’s best writers.

It’s a new site, to be sure. But thankfully, it’s a solid one. While the new bloggy, niche-y focus may not be for everyone, I’m certainly pleased that some good was able to come out of the destruction.