OC&GS is an online newsletter, the title of which is self-explanatory. Classic computers and video games are covered in many different ways throughout each issue. We try appealing to people who like to read, and who might appreciate unique perspectives on old games, rather than those seeking flash and fireworks. Remember: There's always more going on in your brain than your monitor.
The original, hard-copy newsletter was started by Adam Trionfo in late 1994. It was a bold move at the time; he wasn't sure if there were enough old-game enthusiasts to comprise a large readership. Also, he used an Amiga 1200 with Pagestream 2, a wonderful page-formatting application that unfortunately ran very, very slow on such a skeletal Amiga (68000/OCS). It took him ten minutes just to make a minor grammatical change, for instance, because he had to watch the page being re-drawn at a turtle's pace. Once the thing was finished, he sent it out to a few people whose interest he thought might be aroused, and made further copies available at a few local stores (in Albuquerque, NM). To his surprise, he got a lot of feedback, and dozens of readers sent in the requested buck per upcoming issue.
Adam and I met up in the spring of 1997. We'd been friends briefly about ten years earlier, in high school. When we started hanging out again, we discovered that we both retained a fanatical interest in old video games. We also both held the opinion that supposedly obsolete computers (i.e. the Amiga) could compete with IBMs, even surpassing them in some areas (with the right software and internal enhancements). At the time, this was perfectly true.
Adam told me about OC&GS and gave me a couple of leftover issues. I asked why he'd stopped publishing it after three issues, having had such a good reaction from readers. He said that the growing Internet, with all of its classic game sites, had discouraged him. I told him that people still liked paper newsletters, because...well, you can just hold 'em and read 'em and stuff. I told him that we should start it up again, and he agreed. With his Amiga 3000 and my 2500, Pagestream 2 was actually a delight.
So, after a three-year gap following Adam's last text outing, OC&GS #4 -- or, as we called it, Vol. II, Issue #1 -- was sent out to 60 or so of the addresses he'd retained from his previous mailing list. After less than a year and only two or three new issues, we were being mentioned in UK Atari 'zines, Digital Press and other publications/websites, and our address roster approached 200 readers. That was when I moved to New York for a little while to play music. Since we couldn't work closely together anymore, we decided to turn OC&GS into a website, available for free reading to anyone interested. We abandoned the bimonthly format and now simply upload new articles as they're written. Enjoy! -- CF
Updated May 2002