t_wilson01
Member
Next Generation Magazine and DieHard Gamefan/Gamer's Republic. I was so excited every time they showed up in my mail box.
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Silvawuff
Member
I really liked Gamefan and Gamepro. I'd spend hours in Borders/Barnes and Noble just chilling and going through all the gaming mags there. Also in for Nintendo Power. Yeah, it was basically a full-issue advertisement for Nintendo, but it was a lot of fun to read anyway. I remember they had a big article on Pokémon they were pushing pre-release of Red and Blue that got me interested. It blew up like I never would have believed.
Fare thee well, halcyon days. For all we've gained through the internet, I feel like we've lost a bunch too.
Fare thee well, halcyon days. For all we've gained through the internet, I feel like we've lost a bunch too.
SaucyJack
Member
Nice.
I had my name in one issue in the early 80s, for having the highest score for Donkey Kong
anab0lic36
Member
Legendary Magazine, has not been a video game magazine with as good cover art since IMO. I Had nearly the entire run at one point, but god knows where they are now, think they got binned during one of our house moves.... wish Id kept them tbfh.
Touch fuzZy. get BizZay
Member
I used to read a ton of gaming mags, I'll tell you my favourites...
Mean Machines (UK) before it split in 2 was amazing. I still have their Mario World review with its huge screenshots. I used to reread issues over and over again.
It was all archived nicely but the link's dead now. There are some issues here though:
https://archive.org/details/mean-machines-magazine
Other great mags from the UK were Gamezone, which was more humorous:
https://www.retromags.com/magazines/uk/game-zone/
...and Superplay, whose import coverage made Japan feel like an impossible dream world where magical games were hiding around every corner:
https://www.retromags.com/magazines/uk/super-play/
And the last gaming magazine I cared about would be the US's PC Accelerator. It was just so irreverent and funny, you would never see anything like it today.
Every issue they would find an excuse to put a beautiful model on the cover, even when she barely had anything to do with games. They used to put fake ads inside making fun of gaming ads or just gaming trends...one time a guy wrote a review of what it was like to watch someone else review everquest, lol. They would write articles on the best way to secretly play games at work and other dumb stuff like that.
https://www.retromags.com/magazines/usa/pc-accelerator/
Mean Machines (UK) before it split in 2 was amazing. I still have their Mario World review with its huge screenshots. I used to reread issues over and over again.
It was all archived nicely but the link's dead now.
There are some issues here though:https://archive.org/details/mean-machines-magazine
Other great mags from the UK were Gamezone, which was more humorous:
https://www.retromags.com/magazines/uk/game-zone/
...and Superplay, whose import coverage made Japan feel like an impossible dream world where magical games were hiding around every corner:
https://www.retromags.com/magazines/uk/super-play/
And the last gaming magazine I cared about would be the US's PC Accelerator. It was just so irreverent and funny, you would never see anything like it today.
Every issue they would find an excuse to put a beautiful model on the cover, even when she barely had anything to do with games. They used to put fake ads inside making fun of gaming ads or just gaming trends...one time a guy wrote a review of what it was like to watch someone else review everquest, lol. They would write articles on the best way to secretly play games at work and other dumb stuff like that.
https://www.retromags.com/magazines/usa/pc-accelerator/
Touch fuzZy. get BizZay
Member
Damn you beat me to it by one post, nice
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.001
Magazines were special when tablets or laptops weren't available.
anab0lic36
Member
Some more cover arts from the run... The artist Will Overtun actually went on to work for companies like Rare.
Guilhermegrg
Member
Waited for this every month. They were politically incorrect and just didn't give a f#€&.
MastaKiiLA
Member
Next Generation, Edge, and (my favorite) GameFan. GameFan felt the most like it was written by enthusiasts. Their scoring system was largely useless, because it took a really awful game to get a low score, but IMO that's what made them great. They really loved playing games. Don't get that as much these days, with writers living in fear of losing their jobs.
SirTerry-T
Member
The first video game magazine I used to eagerly wait for each month when I was an Atari VCS owning pre-teen waiting for Santa to bring me a ZX Spectrum
Still the benchmark for multi-format games journalism, in my opinion. Back when the games, not politics took centre stage of the articles.
A good few years and rampant teenage hormones later and it was the "punky" attitude of Your Sinclair, with it's free game tapes and covers like this that earned my pocket money....
Later on it was PC Zone, which had a similar sort of journalistic style to Your Sinclair. The magazine that gave the world Charlie Brooker...
Still the benchmark for multi-format games journalism, in my opinion. Back when the games, not politics took centre stage of the articles.
A good few years and rampant teenage hormones later and it was the "punky" attitude of Your Sinclair, with it's free game tapes and covers like this that earned my pocket money....
Later on it was PC Zone, which had a similar sort of journalistic style to Your Sinclair. The magazine that gave the world Charlie Brooker...
synchronicity
Member
They were the first publication (that I was aware of at least) that treated the industry with a bit of maturity, if sometimes a bit pompous/stuffy. I really loved that mag though. And the paper stock they used in the early years was :
lachesis
Member
I liked the EGM the best. I also liked NextGen, as well as GameFan.
EGM was my first U.S. videogame magazine I started to subscribe, so probably that's why liked it. It had pretty interesting mix of all things including gossips and all - so it was pretty entertaining.
NextGen felt like it's more serious, grown-up thing. While I appreciated it, but sometimes it felt like a textbook of sort... I did love their art direction of the whole layout.
GameFan. Since my gaming taste pretty much aligns with Japanese games - a lot of GameFan had most interesting info on upcoming Japanese games that were not particularly covered by other U.S. based magazines. The magazine did feel like an import catalog for their import shop though, but I did enjoy the magazine and all.
Never much fan of a Game Pro (fun factor icon just kinda put me off, as it felt too childish).. nor much fan of a Game Informer either. OPM and other "Official" one that specifically target certain platforms were nice and all - but as a multi-console gamer, those were supplementary ones for me... I mostly got those for free demo disc!
EGM was my first U.S. videogame magazine I started to subscribe, so probably that's why liked it. It had pretty interesting mix of all things including gossips and all - so it was pretty entertaining.
NextGen felt like it's more serious, grown-up thing. While I appreciated it, but sometimes it felt like a textbook of sort... I did love their art direction of the whole layout.
GameFan. Since my gaming taste pretty much aligns with Japanese games - a lot of GameFan had most interesting info on upcoming Japanese games that were not particularly covered by other U.S. based magazines. The magazine did feel like an import catalog for their import shop though, but I did enjoy the magazine and all.
Never much fan of a Game Pro (fun factor icon just kinda put me off, as it felt too childish).. nor much fan of a Game Informer either. OPM and other "Official" one that specifically target certain platforms were nice and all - but as a multi-console gamer, those were supplementary ones for me... I mostly got those for free demo disc!
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The Fartist
Gold Member
This was my SHIT back in high school, Stephen Frost and Chris Slate held it down for the PlayStation Nation back in the late 90's, early, EARLY 2000's. I loved how they always had a legit comic book artist/illustrator to do their covers, that RE2 cover was by Joe Madureira.Psm italy
Best PlaySation magazine EVER. I'm gonna go cry now.
P.S. I had no idea PSM was available outside of the US. Awesome.
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GymWolf
Member
Yeah, and it was by far the best italian videogame magazine before they changed the entire editorial stuff.
Also some of their drawn covers were lit.
If i remember well, they even had some cover drawned by joe madureira.
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Touch fuzZy. get BizZay
Member
Nice, just googled it and Joe Mad did a bunch. I only knew about the FFVIII and FFX covers, but there's Leon and Snake and SF too
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SirTerry-T
Member
I'm guessing the top one was dedicated to the Sinclair/ZX Spectrum computers?To add some non-English magazines to the mix - here are the ones I liked best:
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
My bros and I bought game mags from about 1983-1998. Some better than others.
The ones I remember most being good:
- EGM
- Strategy Games Plus
- PC Gamer
- Next Generation
- A few old ass 80s mags (Electronic Games and Computer & Video Games). I don't think Electronic Games had anything to do with EGM unless EGM rebooted the mag into something different. Electronic Games mag was around 1984
The ones I remember most being good:
- EGM
- Strategy Games Plus
- PC Gamer
- Next Generation
- A few old ass 80s mags (Electronic Games and Computer & Video Games). I don't think Electronic Games had anything to do with EGM unless EGM rebooted the mag into something different. Electronic Games mag was around 1984
yurqqa
Member
Yup. It was super popular in Russia in the very end of 80-s and the beginning of 90-s with the army of clones.
I still remember reading the story for Elite in this magazine (I think it was called The Dark Wheel), cause we obviously didn't have any officially released games whatsoever.
Digity
Member
I remember getting a year subscription to GMR for pre ordering Xenosaga back on the Ps2 from EB Gamee back in the day, loved that magazine, still have them all.
I can remember reading through this one many of times in anticipation for MGS3.
www.retromags.com
I can remember reading through this one many of times in anticipation for MGS3.
Video Game Magazines
www.retromags.com
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Thing on a Spring
Member
Ones I used to read regularly:
Zzap64
Mean Machines
C&VG
Gamesmaster
Total
To a lesser extent:
Edge
Official Nintendo Magazine.
Zzap64
Mean Machines
C&VG
Gamesmaster
Total
To a lesser extent:
Edge
Official Nintendo Magazine.
Fbh
Member
There's was this spanish magazine called "GameLive" which I used to love because it always came with a free game and a demo disc.
Was the complete package for me as a kid. You get to read about all the new games, about upcoming games, you get an old (but often decent) free game AND a bunch of demos.
Was the complete package for me as a kid. You get to read about all the new games, about upcoming games, you get an old (but often decent) free game AND a bunch of demos.
Windle Poons
Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Sure this is coming up once a week now.
www.neogaf.com
Retro Video Game Magazine Appreciation Thread
In Spain there was a niche magazine which last only like a year or so but I totally loved. It was called Loading and it was focused mostly in JRPGs, fighting games and in general lot of titles that were appearing only in Japan. Also each number had a CD with lots of trailers and gameplay of...
Thing on a Spring
Member
Almost forgot this beaut.
reezoo
Member
Always loved this EDGE cover, was luxurious AF in person.
Now they use recycled toilet roll for their paper.
Ah! Memories. I grew up in 3rd world country where getting a game magazine when it is released was a luxury. Every month when I used to get my monthly pocket money which was 5 US dollars, I used to go to a market where they import unused old books and magazine from outside, spend hours Trying to find game magazines specially Edge which I didn’t have to get some info re recently released or up coming games.
Laptop1991
Member
PC Zone, i used to buy it every month in the 90's, PC gamer now and then.
Hawks Eclipse
Member
Slightly related but VF3 was the first 3D fighter that really wowed me when it debuted in arcades and I think part of that was how nice the chrome effect on Dural was. I seem to recall that it had very pretty looking water too.Always loved this EDGE cover, was luxurious AF in person.
Now they use recycled toilet roll for their paper.
Ceallach
Smells like fresh rosebuds
Are you the Wii U water guy?
But for me, Game Players/Ultra Game Players and Gamefan were my go tos.
My mom worked for a publishing company and I got a bunch of random ass magazines for free. Shit that was way too mature for me like Spy and Details, but then also like Rolling Stone and Spin. I got Game Players for free from time I was like 8 or 9. My first issue was one with a preview for Toh Shin Den. I think a lot back to that time and how hyped everyone was for Toh Shin Den and how revolutionary it was and how no one gives a fuuuuuuuuuck about that franchise now. When Ultra Game Players ceased publication, it swapped over to Next Gen and I was too young to really appreciate it at the time. Though I do remember one issue was eye searingly unreadable, when they chose to have red text on a black background.
Hoya Destroyer
Member
I fucking looooved Superplay in the early to mid nineties. Thats my favorite magazine of all time. I was a big fan of the SNES, English and Japanese culture. Superplay magazine gave me access to all those things.
Im an Aussie, so I read Hyper magazine later on too. It was pretty good. Cheap, funny and informative.
American magazines always felt a little dry and humorless to me, but EGM had some fantastic SF2 coverage back in the day and Gamefan had a few brilliant fighting game issues as well.
Im an Aussie, so I read Hyper magazine later on too. It was pretty good. Cheap, funny and informative.
American magazines always felt a little dry and humorless to me, but EGM had some fantastic SF2 coverage back in the day and Gamefan had a few brilliant fighting game issues as well.
Hawks Eclipse
Member
Hah no it wasn't me, though I have a vague idea of who you're referring to.
Oh man, of the magazines you mentioned, the only ones that I can recall having seen in real life are Rolling Stone and Spin.
I get the nagging feeling that you're talking about Battle Arena Toshinden. If it is indeed the game you're talking about, I never played it, though I remember it was supposed to involve a lot more jumps and/or aerial brawling as a 3D fighter.
When I was young the gaming mags I got my hands on were PC mags, didn't get into console gaming mags much outside of Edge and some others much later.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
There can only be one
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MacReady13
Member
I loved it. I remember there being a pretty good reviewer who wrote for it. He was an Asian guy. Loved reading his reviews. It was the days when reviews were about the game and not inserting their bullshit beliefs or social justice issues into a review.
Xplainin
Banned
Is there any money in old gaming mags?
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
ST Format was my first regular buy - I don’t remember buying anything for my Amstrad CPC464 but ST Format got me really looking at games and being more aware of what was coming.
They also got me into programming properly with cover disks with STOS and GFA basic on them and things like the Bitmap Brothers doing Assembler tutorials, where previously I’d mucked about on my Amstrad (I’d have been about 8 so my code wasn’t hugely sophisticated but it wasn’t bad for my age).
I have a thread the ST Format Challenge https://www.neogaf.com/threads/the-st-format-challenge.1533843/ for anyone interested in that kind of thing.
Once I got my first PC in 1996 I stopped getting magazines for a while but eventually settled on PC Zone. It was awesome. Helped by amazing games coming out with incredible frequency in the late 90s the magazine had wonderful writing and that 90s edge that’s missing today.
To anyone on this thread, I recommend going to archive.org as they have a huge selection of old gaming magazines.
They also got me into programming properly with cover disks with STOS and GFA basic on them and things like the Bitmap Brothers doing Assembler tutorials, where previously I’d mucked about on my Amstrad (I’d have been about 8 so my code wasn’t hugely sophisticated but it wasn’t bad for my age).
I have a thread the ST Format Challenge https://www.neogaf.com/threads/the-st-format-challenge.1533843/ for anyone interested in that kind of thing.
Once I got my first PC in 1996 I stopped getting magazines for a while but eventually settled on PC Zone. It was awesome. Helped by amazing games coming out with incredible frequency in the late 90s the magazine had wonderful writing and that 90s edge that’s missing today.
To anyone on this thread, I recommend going to archive.org as they have a huge selection of old gaming magazines.
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Garnox
Member
Came to post this. They were thick as hell. My first copy had the three boxing match cover between Mario, Sonic, and Crash.
Edit: Found it!
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