I actually like gaming magazines. I read the one we get every month. Gameinformer or whatever. While you can get a lot of the info on the net, the articles are usually much better put together then the bare bones stuff you find on the interwebs, and tend to have decent screencap coverage and whatnot. Also some cool interviews and the like you can't really find elsewhere.
As for Gamepro: I stopped at about the same place. Last issue I ever got was the Dreamcast one. I loved me some old Gamepro though, so much.
Though possibly not as much as old Nintendo Power, when it had Howard and Nester.
I was surprised but not diappointed. I had subscriptions to ever game mag I could get and GamePro was shit. Shit in the bad sense. It started damn good and turn to corporate ass kissing for favours way way too early in it's life cycle. The reviews were a joke. By 2000, the thing was an embarassment.
I still read some of my old issues of GamePro from time to time. Classic stuff like a Counter-Strike strategy guide, or previews of Banjo-Tooie. Those were definitely good days I will always remember fondly.
At this stage of my existence, I'm more apt to register a stronger emotion over news that something is still around, versus something that no longer is.
Like Weird Al. He's still around! Making songs! Being relevant! That just blows my mind. Conversely, if you told me tomorrow that he's finally retired and out of the biz, I'd just shrug my shoulders and continue about my day.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
I posted a "RIP GamePro" status on Facebook and a dude in his mid-20's legitimately didn't know what Gamepro was. That made me even sadder.
I used to be a huge Gamepro fan. When I was in elementary school, I'd beg my parents to buy me a copy whenever I could. Being $11 bucks was a hard sell with my dad though. In early highschool (just before I got the internet), I'd save whatever lunch money was left over (or even skip lunch) to buy it. I was always wanted to be "that guy" who was always up to date on what was going on in the games industry.
It's definitely a sad day when something that was once staple for me as a gamer dies ... but such is progress. As much as I liked Gamepro, it just didn't have the personality that gaming blogs and review sites have these days. I wish them luck in their new business direction.
I posted a "RIP GamePro" status on Facebook and a dude in his mid-20's legitimately didn't know what Gamepro was. That made me even sadder.
I used to be a huge Gamepro fan. When I was in elementary school, I'd beg my parents to buy me a copy whenever I could. Being $11 bucks was a hard sell with my dad though. In early highschool (just before I got the internet), I'd save whatever lunch money was left over (or even skip lunch) to buy it. I was always wanted to be "that guy" who was always up to date on what was going on in the games industry.
It's definitely a sad day when something that was once staple for me as a gamer dies ... but such is progress. As much as I liked Gamepro, it just didn't have the personality that gaming blogs and review sites have these days. I wish them luck in their new business direction.
Gamepro dies but Jim Sterling lives on. The world isn't fair, is it?
I won't miss them because no one reads magazines any more. However I get very nostalgic when I think about them. Mid 90's is when I read them and stopped about the 2000's. I had a sub to that, Nintendo Power, and Tips and Tricks.
I have GameInformer thanks to GameStop too but the majority of the time it gets a single glance over and then put in a pile somewhere. Not being into giant RPGs or shooters limits how much gaming news is relevant to me at this point.
GamePro as a website could have done well if they had embraced their past and gone retro a bit. They could have brought back goofy avatars and maybe found some kind of funny video review format to match it. However every time I tried to read their site I remember it being kind of a mess and not very user friendly. They should have used that history to their advantage and tried to pull folks my age back in by appealing to the warm fuzzies of nostalgia.
ProTip: To kill the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies.
Yeah, GamePro was always kind of a joke to me. . . not really that great of a gaming magazine, and their reviews weren't always well written. I had NP for my Nintendo needs growing up, and it wasn't until around high school or so when I started dabbling in the other consoles and systems, but print magazines other than the Official XBox Magazine (for the demo discs) weren't high on my to-get list. When the internet became huge and various sites such as IGN (before they went completely bonkers) and the like became more available (and free) for varying opinions and reviews, print magazines became a nonissue to me.
GamePro, I hardly knew ye. . . Really, I barely read anything from them seriously.
At least it wasn't a fuckton of ads like Gamepro until the Gamecube era. Also, even my teen self knew how stupid their review metric was. Basically, I felt sadder when Future snapped up NP.
Probably should change the title to not a single fuck was given when Gamepro died.
At least it wasn't a fuckton of ads like Gamepro until the Gamecube era. Also, even my teen self knew how stupid their review metric was. Basically, I felt sadder when Future snapped up NP.
Probably should change the title to not a single fuck was given when Gamepro died.
I have an issue for Nintendo Power where they urge me to buy The Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly in their review. Bullshit it wasn't just glorified ads. If anything, being sold to future made NP more legitimately critical.
At least it wasn't a fuckton of ads like Gamepro until the Gamecube era. Also, even my teen self knew how stupid their review metric was. Basically, I felt sadder when Future snapped up NP.
Probably should change the title to not a single fuck was given when Gamepro died.
I have an issue for Nintendo Power where they urge me to buy The Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly in their review. Bullshit it wasn't just glorified ads. If anything, being sold to future made NP more legitimately critical.
I don't think anyone used Nintendo Power for reviews. Hell, even after Future they still don't have a fucking spine. Difference to me at least was that most of the content was guides, tips, interviews, and other stuff rather than 50% ads for stupid shit like some nonsense controller like Gamepro. You can weep its death all you like, but utility wise it was only good as toilet paper to me.
At least it wasn't a fuckton of ads like Gamepro until the Gamecube era. Also, even my teen self knew how stupid their review metric was. Basically, I felt sadder when Future snapped up NP.
Probably should change the title to not a single fuck was given when Gamepro died.
I have an issue for Nintendo Power where they urge me to buy The Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly in their review. Bullshit it wasn't just glorified ads. If anything, being sold to future made NP more legitimately critical.
I don't think anyone used Nintendo Power for reviews. Hell, even after Future they still don't have a fucking spine. Difference to me at least was that most of the content was guides, tips, interviews, and other stuff rather than 50% ads for stupid shit like some nonsense controller like Gamepro. You can weep its death all you like, but utility wise it was only good as toilet paper to me.
You've let nostalgia blind you. Nintendo Power indeed was chalk full of bullshit ads. Page after page of ads for the Nintendo Power hotline, "reviews" which were poorly masked ads, etc.
At least I'm realistic about what Gamepro was. You should go back and thumb through some of those Nintendo Powers again.
I will always associate the phrase "ProTip" with GamePro. That said, I did love this magazine. When I was like, 8, my mom would always bring me back the same three magazines: GamePro, EGM, and Tricks and Tips. Those three were the kings of gaming magazines.
Jumping aboard to say GamePro was a big part of my childhood too. Did they not forge any internet presence at all? It is the end of an era but perhaps that era ended a long time ago?
Also giving my condolences to those who are losing employment, especially this time of year.
"I'd happily trade your life for knowledge of my powers."
-Louis C.K.
But for a magazine like that to die without a peep being mentioned is a bit surprising. Regardless of its most recent state, it is still a major part of 90's gaming in the US.
At least it wasn't a fuckton of ads like Gamepro until the Gamecube era. Also, even my teen self knew how stupid their review metric was. Basically, I felt sadder when Future snapped up NP.
Probably should change the title to not a single fuck was given when Gamepro died.
I have an issue for Nintendo Power where they urge me to buy The Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly in their review. Bullshit it wasn't just glorified ads. If anything, being sold to future made NP more legitimately critical.
I don't think anyone used Nintendo Power for reviews. Hell, even after Future they still don't have a fucking spine. Difference to me at least was that most of the content was guides, tips, interviews, and other stuff rather than 50% ads for stupid shit like some nonsense controller like Gamepro. You can weep its death all you like, but utility wise it was only good as toilet paper to me.
You've let nostalgia blind you. Nintendo Power indeed was chalk full of bullshit ads. Page after page of ads for the Nintendo Power hotline, "reviews" which were poorly masked ads, etc.
At least I'm realistic about what Gamepro was. You should go back and thumb through some of those Nintendo Powers again.
I have and it honestly isn't as bad as Gamepro or EGM. Gamepro got really bad at the end of the 90's were it was like 75% ads. I'm just talking content here, dawg. Gamepro's content was mostly ads. I'm not even talking sneaky shit like NP always did (duh). Just page after page of ads like a fucking Maxim issue. If you like that, then more power to you.
Shady3011 on
0
Mike Danger"Diane..."a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered Userregular
Does anyone else miss GMR? I am pretty sure it was only sold at EB, but I remember loving the hell out of it. I think most of the writers are at 1Up now.
GamePro died to me once it started being "edgy" with more of the stupid shit you see on a lot of gaming sites today. The avatars changed to a more realistic style (which was stupid), they aged up the review faces (do I even need to say that's stupid?), and the reader mail responses got more acerbic and snarky.
Same here.
I was a lucky preteen in that I had subscriptions to Nintendo Power, GamePro, and EGM. I got a SNES for the X-mas of its release year, and a year or so later my older brother bought a Genesis, which he never played. I got the SEGA channel when I was in high school. It was my Mom's way of consoling me during the year+ I couldn't go anywhere aside from school and doctor visits (I had back surgery in '94, just after my birthday. I grew a couple of inches because of it, and couldn't fit in the van we owned. That van wasn't structurally sound enough to modify, so we had to get a newer one. We couldn't afford it at the time, so we had to slowly save for it).
GamePro is why I desperately wanted Phantasy Star IV, which I briefly played on the SEGA channel, and GamePro TV is why I got Hyperzone, which is a criminally underrated game.
I don't remember enough about Earthworm Jim to remember why he has a "Hey bitch, check out my badass armpit!" pose.
ACTUALLY, that issue DID explain why Jim was in weird poses like that. The official art from EWJ was done by two different people, and each had their own idea about what EWJ was supposed to be. One artist wanted Jim to be a serious action hero, and most of the more serious art is done by him. The other thought jim should be a goofy, off the wall character, and a lot of the funny pictures are by him.
That cover is meant to be a mashup of both styles of Jim.
At least Nintendo Power never called Zero "Mega Man's canine companion."
Anyway, this sucks... my wife wrote for them. And when John Davison came on board a year or two ago, he really turned things around, made it a more respectable publication...
...then when he left, they basically undid all that. Then eventually went quarterly. And apparently, after one issue of that, canned it.
I knew the writing was on the wall when they went quarterly, but I at least though the website would survive.
I read the magazine here and there, but rarely cover-to-cover. I did have the first issue, though, and I wish I hadn't lost that recently... now more than ever.
From like 93 till about 96, my dad and I were subscribed to so many magazines at the same time, it was pretty awesome. At one point, we had a GamePro subscription, a SWATPro subscription, an EGM subscription, an EGM2 subscription, a GamePlayers subscription, a Diehard GameFan subscription, a Tips and Tricks subscription, a PC Gamer Subscription, and I wanna say a PC World subscription, all at the same time.
What? No SEGA Visions (which I also had a ton of until recently)?
Never had a subscription to any of the system specific magazines. No OPM, no Sega Visions, no Nintendo Power, no Turbo Force, etc.
Never saw much use in them. They were glorified advertisements. NP might have been the best of the bunch because of their guides, but beyond that it was just like all the rest.
I read EGM a lot, but that was because our local library had them for anyone to check out and take home. they were often in a poor state but read them cover to cover. I liked knowing each of the contributors by their name and avatar, and even owned a Major Mike action figure. I wrote letters in, trying to get in the magazine but never did. also ProTips will never die, my favorite protips are from those lamepro issues.
it is sad to hear it died but I doubt it was worth it to keep making them. as an adult the only magazine I read is OXM, and that was a gift subscription. if it's quality is similar to other modern game mags, I can see how it died. in fact the only thing magazines have over the internet is exclusive reveals... which get posted to kotaku and every other site as soon as it hits stands (or before)
Holy shit, I'm reading a retrospective on gamepro, and I had no idea that Gamepro actually started the "You can't spell ignorance without IGN" joke in an issue of LamePro (where they actually referred to a fictional (but obvious parody) online supersite GNO - 'You can't spell IGNorance without GNO!')
Soooo... I'm gonna take a stab in the dark at assuming this isn't against the rules to post, but you can download tons and tons of back issues of GamePro (and several other magazines like GameFan and GamePlayers and EGM) from www.retromags.com
Just in case anyone is itching to relive the good old days. I'm sick at home today and I'm loading up my tablet with a shitload of these to read in bed.
I was surprised but not diappointed. I had subscriptions to ever game mag I could get and GamePro was shit. Shit in the bad sense. It started damn good and turn to corporate ass kissing for favours way way too early in it's life cycle. The reviews were a joke. By 2000, the thing was an embarassment.
I'm not American, but I used to buy Gamepro in 1998, and l was surprised to see that people actually kept sending letters to them, getting exposed to being treated like crap because in the fan mail section because the editors seemed to act like they were the most badass of the badass (but I think they didn't do it all the time, I remember that they were apologizing to Jaguar fans because they had previously said that the Jaguar was dead, but at the time of the apology, some new games were going to come out). Besides that, it was a pretty cool magazine but my main reason for buying it was Lamepro, that was an awesome section. Or maybe I liked the non-April issues because it was written in English and I had a small bias towards English reading material at the time.
Soooo... I'm gonna take a stab in the dark at assuming this isn't against the rules to post, but you can download tons and tons of back issues of GamePro (and several other magazines like GameFan and GamePlayers and EGM) from www.retromags.com
Just in case anyone is itching to relive the good old days. I'm sick at home today and I'm loading up my tablet with a shitload of these to read in bed.
Very cool site - may have to install a comic reader on my phone and read some of these. I have a blank wall in my game room - I was thinking about printing out some classic game cover art - magazine covers would be pretty neat to add in too...
I was surprised but not diappointed. I had subscriptions to ever game mag I could get and GamePro was shit. Shit in the bad sense. It started damn good and turn to corporate ass kissing for favours way way too early in it's life cycle. The reviews were a joke. By 2000, the thing was an embarassment.
I'm not American, but I used to buy Gamepro in 1998, and l was surprised to see that people actually kept sending letters to them, getting exposed to being treated like crap because in the fan mail section because the editors seemed to act like they were the most badass of the badass (but I think they didn't do it all the time, I remember that they were apologizing to Jaguar fans because they had previously said that the Jaguar was dead, but at the time of the apology, some new games were going to come out). Besides that, it was a pretty cool magazine but my main reason for buying it was Lamepro, that was an awesome section. Or maybe I liked the non-April issues because it was written in English and I had a small bias towards English reading material at the time.
BTW, is this picture a 'shop?
It probably isn't a shop, but remember: ProTips weren't limited to just reviews. Their game guides were riddled with ProTips. I don't have that issue in question, but it could have very easily come from a guide to FFVII.
Posts
As for Gamepro: I stopped at about the same place. Last issue I ever got was the Dreamcast one. I loved me some old Gamepro though, so much.
Though possibly not as much as old Nintendo Power, when it had Howard and Nester.
Of course it's going under. Who buys magazines anymore?
I'm not gonna shed a tear when Playboy bites the dust either.
EDIT: Really, why would I be nostalgic for magazines where half the pages are just obnoxious advertisements?
Like Weird Al. He's still around! Making songs! Being relevant! That just blows my mind. Conversely, if you told me tomorrow that he's finally retired and out of the biz, I'd just shrug my shoulders and continue about my day.
I used to be a huge Gamepro fan. When I was in elementary school, I'd beg my parents to buy me a copy whenever I could. Being $11 bucks was a hard sell with my dad though. In early highschool (just before I got the internet), I'd save whatever lunch money was left over (or even skip lunch) to buy it. I was always wanted to be "that guy" who was always up to date on what was going on in the games industry.
It's definitely a sad day when something that was once staple for me as a gamer dies ... but such is progress. As much as I liked Gamepro, it just didn't have the personality that gaming blogs and review sites have these days. I wish them luck in their new business direction.
TWITTER TWATS
Gamepro dies but Jim Sterling lives on. The world isn't fair, is it?
And I don't shop at GameStop anymore, so once my rewards thing expires, I guess I wont read magazines anymore.
GamePro as a website could have done well if they had embraced their past and gone retro a bit. They could have brought back goofy avatars and maybe found some kind of funny video review format to match it. However every time I tried to read their site I remember it being kind of a mess and not very user friendly. They should have used that history to their advantage and tried to pull folks my age back in by appealing to the warm fuzzies of nostalgia.
Yeah, GamePro was always kind of a joke to me. . . not really that great of a gaming magazine, and their reviews weren't always well written. I had NP for my Nintendo needs growing up, and it wasn't until around high school or so when I started dabbling in the other consoles and systems, but print magazines other than the Official XBox Magazine (for the demo discs) weren't high on my to-get list. When the internet became huge and various sites such as IGN (before they went completely bonkers) and the like became more available (and free) for varying opinions and reviews, print magazines became a nonissue to me.
GamePro, I hardly knew ye. . . Really, I barely read anything from them seriously.
XBL Gamertag: evilive7
Playstation ID: evilive7
3DS: 4699-7349-0534
At least it wasn't a fuckton of ads like Gamepro until the Gamecube era. Also, even my teen self knew how stupid their review metric was. Basically, I felt sadder when Future snapped up NP.
Probably should change the title to not a single fuck was given when Gamepro died.
I have an issue for Nintendo Power where they urge me to buy The Simpsons: Escape from Camp Deadly in their review. Bullshit it wasn't just glorified ads. If anything, being sold to future made NP more legitimately critical.
I don't think anyone used Nintendo Power for reviews. Hell, even after Future they still don't have a fucking spine. Difference to me at least was that most of the content was guides, tips, interviews, and other stuff rather than 50% ads for stupid shit like some nonsense controller like Gamepro. You can weep its death all you like, but utility wise it was only good as toilet paper to me.
You've let nostalgia blind you. Nintendo Power indeed was chalk full of bullshit ads. Page after page of ads for the Nintendo Power hotline, "reviews" which were poorly masked ads, etc.
At least I'm realistic about what Gamepro was. You should go back and thumb through some of those Nintendo Powers again.
And yes. SWATPro. The best.
Press X To Podcast
Press X To Watch
I also used to read PSM, the "unofficial" one. Mainly because they had a swimsuit issue, and that appealed to my 13 year old self.
Also giving my condolences to those who are losing employment, especially this time of year.
-Louis C.K.
We mentioned it in the Industry thread.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
I have and it honestly isn't as bad as Gamepro or EGM. Gamepro got really bad at the end of the 90's were it was like 75% ads. I'm just talking content here, dawg. Gamepro's content was mostly ads. I'm not even talking sneaky shit like NP always did (duh). Just page after page of ads like a fucking Maxim issue. If you like that, then more power to you.
Same here.
I was a lucky preteen in that I had subscriptions to Nintendo Power, GamePro, and EGM. I got a SNES for the X-mas of its release year, and a year or so later my older brother bought a Genesis, which he never played. I got the SEGA channel when I was in high school. It was my Mom's way of consoling me during the year+ I couldn't go anywhere aside from school and doctor visits (I had back surgery in '94, just after my birthday. I grew a couple of inches because of it, and couldn't fit in the van we owned. That van wasn't structurally sound enough to modify, so we had to get a newer one. We couldn't afford it at the time, so we had to slowly save for it).
GamePro is why I desperately wanted Phantasy Star IV, which I briefly played on the SEGA channel, and GamePro TV is why I got Hyperzone, which is a criminally underrated game.
ProTip:
Thats the January 95 issue I mentioned in the OP. One of the very best issues of the magazine.
The sad thing is I have every game magazine I ever bought in storage boxes EXCEPT that one because my dog ate it
Earthworm Jim is just happy to have armpits and wants to share his manly pits with the world.
As a side note, I had/have that issue.
ACTUALLY, that issue DID explain why Jim was in weird poses like that. The official art from EWJ was done by two different people, and each had their own idea about what EWJ was supposed to be. One artist wanted Jim to be a serious action hero, and most of the more serious art is done by him. The other thought jim should be a goofy, off the wall character, and a lot of the funny pictures are by him.
That cover is meant to be a mashup of both styles of Jim.
Hey...
Anyway, this sucks... my wife wrote for them. And when John Davison came on board a year or two ago, he really turned things around, made it a more respectable publication...
...then when he left, they basically undid all that. Then eventually went quarterly. And apparently, after one issue of that, canned it.
I knew the writing was on the wall when they went quarterly, but I at least though the website would survive.
I read the magazine here and there, but rarely cover-to-cover. I did have the first issue, though, and I wish I hadn't lost that recently... now more than ever.
What? No SEGA Visions (which I also had a ton of until recently)?
Sometimes it's nice to not stare at a screen for a bit, while still enjoying what you love.
You're kidding, right?
I think we have that one around here, somewhere...
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
Never saw much use in them. They were glorified advertisements. NP might have been the best of the bunch because of their guides, but beyond that it was just like all the rest.
it is sad to hear it died but I doubt it was worth it to keep making them. as an adult the only magazine I read is OXM, and that was a gift subscription. if it's quality is similar to other modern game mags, I can see how it died. in fact the only thing magazines have over the internet is exclusive reveals... which get posted to kotaku and every other site as soon as it hits stands (or before)
Just in case anyone is itching to relive the good old days. I'm sick at home today and I'm loading up my tablet with a shitload of these to read in bed.
BTW, is this picture a 'shop?
Other than that magazines have been dead to me for years, since the internet took over that role for me. I have already grieved man!
Very cool site - may have to install a comic reader on my phone and read some of these. I have a blank wall in my game room - I was thinking about printing out some classic game cover art - magazine covers would be pretty neat to add in too...
It probably isn't a shop, but remember: ProTips weren't limited to just reviews. Their game guides were riddled with ProTips. I don't have that issue in question, but it could have very easily come from a guide to FFVII.