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Game Magazine Nostalgia & Appreciation
LBD_Nytetrayn
TorontoRegistered User regular
TorontoRegistered User regular
So, who remembers reading video game magazines? I do-- I spent most of my life reading them, up to the point that the internet has all but eliminated them, and I have a pretty good collection of them as well.
That's why I figured I'd throw this topic out there and see if there are any other like-minded PA goers who fondly remember them as well. Pretty much anything goes, of course: Favorite covers, favorite articles/moments (like the first time you laid eyes on a certain game), favorite magazines... or heck, even least favorite of any of the above.
Here are some of my favorite magazines I read over the years.
Of course, how could this one not top the list? I'm not sure I'd be as big a fan of Nintendo as I've ultimately become were it not for getting this magazine every other month, and then every month once they went to 12 times a year. My collection is still missing the second issue, though, after a callous and uncaring act saw many of my old magazines thrown out when I could do nothing about it. I've managed to rebuild the rest since, but I think the one with Simon Belmont holding Dracula's head up to the horror of children everywhere is the one hole in my collection.
I remember this one being a lot of fun. I read the first issue over and over again excitedly as I waited for Super Mario Bros. 2 to come out. It's also largely responsible for how I became a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
For a time in the early 90s, they also ran some cool comic serials as well. Super Mario Adventures and Star Fox were my favorites, while Super Metroid was lacking (though it did present us with Samus' Chozo origin for the first time), and-- unpopular as it is to say-- A Link to the Past was okay. That said, I'd love to see these rounded up and re-released in trade paperbacks again. I already have the SMA and LttP trades they did release through the magazine's Super Power Supplies catalog, but SMA is missing the last Mario & Wario comic, while Star Fox and Super Metroid never got the same due.
I could go on and on, but I'll just close by saying that one of the biggest and happiest moments in my life was actually getting to write for the magazine. Unfortunately, it wasn't for long as the magazine came to its end soon after (just shy of 300 issues and 25 years-- it sucks that it missed two milestones like that).
SEGA does... what Nintendid, by creating their own magazine, SEGA Visions. I had every issue of this (thanks in part to it ending a lot sooner than NP), but see above. It wasn't quite as good as Nintendo Power, but still had its own charms.
I don't know what it was, but early on in its life, EGM felt like the "professional" magazine to me. That is, it was easy for me to imagine them assembling the magazine in a large office full of cubicles and whatnot that looked like the Daily Planet newsroom from the Donner Superman movies. Maybe that's an odd comparison to make, but that's how it stood out in my mind.
One of my favorite issues (I'm not sure if I still have it or not) was one with a big screenshot of Super Mario World Bros. 4 on the cover, proudly boasting coverage of the new Super Famicom months before Nintendo Power even acknowledged the system's existence. I told the people at school that Nintendo was making their own equivalent of the Genesis, but they just laughed at me! Laughed! But who had the last laugh?!
Ehem, sorry.
Anyway, besides some nice early coverage of Mega Man X, other fond memories came with getting some of the giant, supermegahuge issues they had back around that same point in the early 90s. Almost like a phone book for a small town, they were. Sure, a lot of it was ads, but hey, at least they were video game ads. And I think there was a fair bit of content, too.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was GamePro. To me, they always felt like what one would expect a video game magazine to be. Kind of casual, but not too relaxed. The first issue (pictured above) gave me my first look at Super Mario Bros. 3 in a nice double-page feature, and there was some other neat stuff in there, too. Heck, it was where my mind was blown by discovering there were Mario games on systems that weren't Nintendo.
I think Game Players was a pretty big influence on how games were covered. At first, they were as serious as anyone, but in the early to mid-90s, things got crazy. Gazuga, the Cleansing, Skullbats, Bill Donohue... it was often madcap and irreverent, and I think it led the shift to other magazines being more humorous in their coverage.
So what happens when everyone tries to be like you? In GP's case, they tried to differentiate themselves by being more serious as Ultra Game Players, which didn't go so well. Then they became Game Buyer for a few issues before the whole thing was dropped. Sad times.
Though newer than GP, Next Generation read like its big brother. More serious and industry-focused, with creator, marketing, and other such interviews and news. I read a number of them for a time, but the ones which stood out the most to me were their massive features on the then-unreleased Super Mario 64. The first screens I'd seen of the game failed to impress me, but reading their articles really helped sell me on the experience being offered.
PlayStation Magazine, or PSM for short, was sort of like Game Players' little brother, an unofficial magazine focusing solely on the then-new PlayStation. A lot of guys from GP moved over to this mag, before and after that one came to an end, so it had a sense of familiarity.
They also featured cool extras for a time, too, like stickers for your controllers and system, and inserts for your games' jewel cases. I used the Mega Man X4 one a lot, primarily whenever I wanted to use the Ultimate Armor or Black Zero. I think that insert may still be in the jewel case, come to think of it.
PSM also had a lot of neat covers early on, including a cool Castlevania: Symphony of the Night picture and a neat one of Zero and MegaMan Volnutt for their X4 and Legends coverage.
Diehard GameFan was kind of a niche magazine, focusing more on Japan-centric fare, as I recall. I only sporadically kept up with this one, but I seem to recall it covering anime as well, and featuring ads in the back which included a place selling Bandai's Rockman X model kits. I think I once bought an issue for that ad alone.
Publication was spotty, as I think the guy running it, Dave Halverson, ran into money troubles over the course of it. He also started up some subsequent magazine, such as GMR and Play, which I know less about.
Ever have that one magazine you'd flip through or read at the store, and while you liked it, it never quite enticed you to part with your money? That was Video Games for me, kind of regrettably so. I remember it being a decent but not great magazine which occasionally had some cool features (I remember a Street Fighter anniversary article where I first learned of Ryu's red hair and sandals from the first SF), but never quite enough to get me to part with my then-limited funds.
Also: Yes, that is an official CG model of Mario, courtesy of Rare around the time of DKC 2.
Before GameFAQs, there was Tips & Tricks. Truth be told, I don't remember this one too well, but I did get the above issue for the nice, blown-up image from Mega Man X5 on the cover (before we had high definition image archives online), and the art inside as well.
Finally (for my part in this post), there's a more recent magazine: Retro Gamer. I enjoyed this one while working at a bookstore which stocked it, but being an import, it sadly proved too costly for me to keep up with after.
So... I hope that's enough to start a discussion.
Edit: Spoiled some of these covers for size-- I didn't realize how big they actually were. Google Image Search lied to me! =P
That's why I figured I'd throw this topic out there and see if there are any other like-minded PA goers who fondly remember them as well. Pretty much anything goes, of course: Favorite covers, favorite articles/moments (like the first time you laid eyes on a certain game), favorite magazines... or heck, even least favorite of any of the above.
Here are some of my favorite magazines I read over the years.
Of course, how could this one not top the list? I'm not sure I'd be as big a fan of Nintendo as I've ultimately become were it not for getting this magazine every other month, and then every month once they went to 12 times a year. My collection is still missing the second issue, though, after a callous and uncaring act saw many of my old magazines thrown out when I could do nothing about it. I've managed to rebuild the rest since, but I think the one with Simon Belmont holding Dracula's head up to the horror of children everywhere is the one hole in my collection.
I remember this one being a lot of fun. I read the first issue over and over again excitedly as I waited for Super Mario Bros. 2 to come out. It's also largely responsible for how I became a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
For a time in the early 90s, they also ran some cool comic serials as well. Super Mario Adventures and Star Fox were my favorites, while Super Metroid was lacking (though it did present us with Samus' Chozo origin for the first time), and-- unpopular as it is to say-- A Link to the Past was okay. That said, I'd love to see these rounded up and re-released in trade paperbacks again. I already have the SMA and LttP trades they did release through the magazine's Super Power Supplies catalog, but SMA is missing the last Mario & Wario comic, while Star Fox and Super Metroid never got the same due.
I could go on and on, but I'll just close by saying that one of the biggest and happiest moments in my life was actually getting to write for the magazine. Unfortunately, it wasn't for long as the magazine came to its end soon after (just shy of 300 issues and 25 years-- it sucks that it missed two milestones like that).
SEGA does... what Nintendid, by creating their own magazine, SEGA Visions. I had every issue of this (thanks in part to it ending a lot sooner than NP), but see above. It wasn't quite as good as Nintendo Power, but still had its own charms.
I don't know what it was, but early on in its life, EGM felt like the "professional" magazine to me. That is, it was easy for me to imagine them assembling the magazine in a large office full of cubicles and whatnot that looked like the Daily Planet newsroom from the Donner Superman movies. Maybe that's an odd comparison to make, but that's how it stood out in my mind.
One of my favorite issues (I'm not sure if I still have it or not) was one with a big screenshot of Super Mario World Bros. 4 on the cover, proudly boasting coverage of the new Super Famicom months before Nintendo Power even acknowledged the system's existence. I told the people at school that Nintendo was making their own equivalent of the Genesis, but they just laughed at me! Laughed! But who had the last laugh?!
Ehem, sorry.
Anyway, besides some nice early coverage of Mega Man X, other fond memories came with getting some of the giant, supermegahuge issues they had back around that same point in the early 90s. Almost like a phone book for a small town, they were. Sure, a lot of it was ads, but hey, at least they were video game ads. And I think there was a fair bit of content, too.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was GamePro. To me, they always felt like what one would expect a video game magazine to be. Kind of casual, but not too relaxed. The first issue (pictured above) gave me my first look at Super Mario Bros. 3 in a nice double-page feature, and there was some other neat stuff in there, too. Heck, it was where my mind was blown by discovering there were Mario games on systems that weren't Nintendo.
I think Game Players was a pretty big influence on how games were covered. At first, they were as serious as anyone, but in the early to mid-90s, things got crazy. Gazuga, the Cleansing, Skullbats, Bill Donohue... it was often madcap and irreverent, and I think it led the shift to other magazines being more humorous in their coverage.
So what happens when everyone tries to be like you? In GP's case, they tried to differentiate themselves by being more serious as Ultra Game Players, which didn't go so well. Then they became Game Buyer for a few issues before the whole thing was dropped. Sad times.
Though newer than GP, Next Generation read like its big brother. More serious and industry-focused, with creator, marketing, and other such interviews and news. I read a number of them for a time, but the ones which stood out the most to me were their massive features on the then-unreleased Super Mario 64. The first screens I'd seen of the game failed to impress me, but reading their articles really helped sell me on the experience being offered.
PlayStation Magazine, or PSM for short, was sort of like Game Players' little brother, an unofficial magazine focusing solely on the then-new PlayStation. A lot of guys from GP moved over to this mag, before and after that one came to an end, so it had a sense of familiarity.
They also featured cool extras for a time, too, like stickers for your controllers and system, and inserts for your games' jewel cases. I used the Mega Man X4 one a lot, primarily whenever I wanted to use the Ultimate Armor or Black Zero. I think that insert may still be in the jewel case, come to think of it.
PSM also had a lot of neat covers early on, including a cool Castlevania: Symphony of the Night picture and a neat one of Zero and MegaMan Volnutt for their X4 and Legends coverage.
Diehard GameFan was kind of a niche magazine, focusing more on Japan-centric fare, as I recall. I only sporadically kept up with this one, but I seem to recall it covering anime as well, and featuring ads in the back which included a place selling Bandai's Rockman X model kits. I think I once bought an issue for that ad alone.
Publication was spotty, as I think the guy running it, Dave Halverson, ran into money troubles over the course of it. He also started up some subsequent magazine, such as GMR and Play, which I know less about.
Ever have that one magazine you'd flip through or read at the store, and while you liked it, it never quite enticed you to part with your money? That was Video Games for me, kind of regrettably so. I remember it being a decent but not great magazine which occasionally had some cool features (I remember a Street Fighter anniversary article where I first learned of Ryu's red hair and sandals from the first SF), but never quite enough to get me to part with my then-limited funds.
Also: Yes, that is an official CG model of Mario, courtesy of Rare around the time of DKC 2.
Before GameFAQs, there was Tips & Tricks. Truth be told, I don't remember this one too well, but I did get the above issue for the nice, blown-up image from Mega Man X5 on the cover (before we had high definition image archives online), and the art inside as well.
Finally (for my part in this post), there's a more recent magazine: Retro Gamer. I enjoyed this one while working at a bookstore which stocked it, but being an import, it sadly proved too costly for me to keep up with after.
So... I hope that's enough to start a discussion.
Edit: Spoiled some of these covers for size-- I didn't realize how big they actually were. Google Image Search lied to me! =P
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!
LBD_Nytetrayn on
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I was a long-time GamePro subscriber as a kid, but they slowly started skewing towards a 17-18 demo and they just got really mean-spirited at times. So I switched to Nintendo Power and bought EGMs off the rack. I can't even remember if I subbed to EGM.
It really is a bygone era, getting all your gaming news once a month. You got those morsels slowly, and E3 was considered a huge preview of Christmas. It can be easy to romanticise it a little: not being immersed in news every single day. These were simpler times, when strategy guides roamed the Earth, your favorite reviewer was a pun on Boba Fett.
What is this monstrosity
It was a British magazine that had so much good writing and inside jokes. It totally built my sense of humor and taught me English as I grew up.
I wish someone could scan all the issues and upload them for a legal opportunity to pay for viewing. Same with Super Power - the old Swedish magazine back in the SNES era...
They used to bundle various multiplayer mods along with the demos on the disc and I got pretty great at timing when my parents were out of the room our PC was in to test them out over blistering 56k. Can't remember when I stopped subscribing but I've still got some old copies stashed away somewhere. Might have to find my physical copy of Kieron Gillen's excellent Deus Ex review.
http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/assorted-essays/deus-ex/
It was me, I killed the game magazine industry.
Super Play was probably my favourite. It was generally very well made, had good coverage of Japanese import titles and fantastic covers.
Hyper is a great Australian multi-format title that's very funny and is still going after 21 years.
While obviously the Internet is great, I really miss reading magazines from cover to cover.
Unfortunately, lost all of my back copies of NP to someone throwing them out when I was at college.
I know your pain, brother. Among the ones tossed out were my collection of mid-90s to early 00s wrestling magazines, too.
One I didn't get to mention there was Club Nintendo, the German equivalent to Nintendo Power. They not only ran comics for a LOT longer, but they got kind of freaky, too.
Some have been translated into English online, but I'd love a fully translated version in print.
Oh, and I forgot to mention this, but I didn't mention Nintendo Force since I write for it now, and yeah, there could be a sort of bias there. ;P
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!
http://www.nintendoforcemagazine.com/
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I have to post this as it hit a huge emotional core for me.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
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Add me!
I was super excited when I found out Chris Slate moved over to Nintendo Power as EIC.
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Add me!
Ever seen him outside of a profile pic for one of the magazines? That guy is HUGE.
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!
In the days of the game magazine, each scrap of information about new games and upcoming sequels (even mainstream stuff like Mario) was rare and valuable. I think it was Gamefan that would do small features on games that were being released in Japan, and that stuff blew my mind. It was really strange to think that beloved games like Final Fantasy had their origin in Japan, and that we were a secondary market. It all gave the impression that the world of games was vast and mysterious.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Join the club
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The Nintendo Fun Club?!?!?!
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Add me!
Nintendo Power taught me to control my anger at a young age, or at least focus it elsewhere. I don't remember what triggered it but I got so mad at something that I basically shredded my issue with TMNT3 on the cover (Raphael I believe). Then I rented Mission: Impossible a few months later and go to pull the issue that had the guide. Wait, I can't find it! Where is it! Check the lastest backlog...oh... That was the issue I destroyed....
I also still had/have a dog-eared issue of Tips & Tricks for the massively in-depth Bushido Blade 2 write up it has. Basically every character's move set with each weapon (including their unique stances with certain weapons) and how to unlock the characters.
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!
I loved them because they introduced me to tons of insane Japanese games. Then there was the ads in the back about importing games.
And yeah, huge fan of both Game Players and PSM. They had some good coverage and their writing was genuinely funny.
I also really liked that PSM would use comic artist for their covers often.
News outlets picked it up and started reporting on this horrific pornographic game that was coming out never once realizing that it was all made up by the PSM staff. It was pretty hilarious.
Here is it:
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Add me!
And I remember a magazine getting a lot of angry mails about one of their jokes that involved resetting their system or something.
The one that got me was Simon Belmont in TMNT II: The Arcade Game.
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I still remember my favorite part of those magazines, was in the letters to the editors, people would draw pictures of video game characters/stuff on the envelopes they and they'd publish some of the better envelope arts.
I should have got Nintendo Power, which may have been a corporate propaganda rag, but what a rag!
Steam: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
Bill Donohue.
"The Box".
Then came Video Games and Computer Entertainment, which got shortened to Video Games- I usually skipped right to the international gaming pages with this one. It's the magazine that introduced me to the idea of games outside America.
Gamepro... never really stuck with me. I got mad because they didn't use their real names in their reviews... and I'd make a point to not buy it.
But Game Players... oh, now THAT brings back lots of crazy memories. For the longest time, GP was teetering on the edge of something brilliant- like they could see it, but they just couldn't really reach it. Then they hired Chris Slate as Editor-in-Chief and Bill Donohue as Managing Editor (I think...), and they hit something incredibly goddamn awesome. The letters pages in Game Players were worth the whole damn subscription cost- especially the subscriber-only newsletter- and the game ideas... oh, god, the game ideas column...
...and The Box. If you were the new guy, you went in The Box. Piss off Bill? The Box- along with whatever wild animal you were unlucky enough to be stuck in there with.
The Cleansing, and of course, The Rinsing- Gazuga the Three-Eyed Monkey God against the Lizard Hordes. It truly was the magazine to beat, and they tried to keep it going a few years longer with Ultra Game Players- and then I went to redeem some free months of an Imagine Media magazine I'd gotten when one of their publications folded, and I was heartbroken to hear GP was no more. PSM would come really close, but by that time, the net was getting its feet under it, and so were the internet forums. I was a member of the first PSM forum back in the late 90s- a shitty little Delphi forum, but we treated it like the lost city of gold. I also got my name in an issue of PSM, once- I forget which, but I'll have to look it up.
EGM was the last ome I really followed- I usually got it because of the articles and the crossword in the back of it.
The best thing is, though, I made a point to keep all of them- and 98% of them are sitting in storage, downstairs, just waiting for the day when I crack them open again and read through all the memories again. I kind of miss those days...
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Here is an interesting article about their early days and taking a backseat to the magazines.
I remember submitting to a mailbag for... N64/IGN64.com, maybe? Talking about WWF Warzone with a comment about Mr. T, and they responded to it in their mailbag.
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!
Ha. I'm pretty sure I have that issue still lying around somewhere. Most of my old gaming magazines are gone but I still have a couple that somehow managed to survive.
I like the "HEY KID WANNA GAME SYSTEM" like it's a drug dealer pushing vidya games.
The other was an RPG unlike any other. It looked kinda mundane to kid me at the time, because it was just about a psychic boy and his friends fighting strange enemies like hippies in the modern day world. Of course I didn't realize at the time that this was the making of a cult classic.
The game was called Earth Bound. Yes, two words, because as any Mother fan knows, this was the original game on the NES. While it had received a full translation, Earth Bound never saw a North American release because Nintendo wanted to push SNES games. Considering the commercial flop of Earthbound, I guess that was a wise decision.