FUSION Magazine is FIFTY!
A little over five years ago I pre-ordered the very first issue of FUSION Magazine direct from Fusion Retro Books. This was a company I hadn’t heard of until the year before when I used Kickstarter for the very first time to back the CRASH 2018 Annual – I mean, who wouldn’t need CRASH issue 99 in their lives?
Since that time I’ve watched the magazine grow and flourish, become online friends with many of the contributors, published a few reviews, and was ultimately approached to help create this very website you see before you. So FUSION is very dear to my heart, and probably my favourite modern magazine behind CRASH and the now-defunct Wireframe.
But enough of all this – let’s take a look at this extra special 50th edition of FUSION!
Firstly, Andrew Fisher charts the history of FUSION Magazine from its earlier incarnation to its current form and everything that happened in between. There’s a look back at the rare printed editions you may not own and a guide to the early trading cards that drove collectors mad.
Retro Faith takes us behind the scenes and describes a day in the life of working at Fusion R Gamer, and also looks back at another anniversary taking the form of a Dreamcast online spat.
Elsewhere Ben Honebone reviews Armored Core VI, Andrew Oyston dives into Subwar 2050, there’s a Retrospective on SOS: The Final Escape, plus Paul Twist interviews famous broadcaster, podcaster and gamer Iain Lee as he also turns 50.
Rounding out the special issue, Toy Polloi is feeling particularly blue, as he looks at Smurf toys, the FUSION team share their personal top fifty twenty games of all time, there’s the latest game chart flashback with Let’s Talk Retro, and George Sturgeon gives you an insight into his creative process of inventing wonderful series in the magazine.
All this and more can be found in FUSION #50 – you can subscribe to the magazine here.
