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[IrishNinja]

*editor's note: apologies for blurry camera-phone shots/big images/etc, will work on & contribute more later if GAF's interested.

Found a few fanzines while going through my older game magazines, and I wanted to talk about this tiny subculture of gaming history.

quick anecdotal tale on my intro to these: back in '93, Sunsoft was hyping Aero the Acrobat hard, and ran a double-page ad in gaming mags that had a hidden offer for a free copy, which i noticed as a testament to my wasted, sexless youth keenly observed, and promptly jumped on. Lo and behold, come October or so, there it was, in my mailbox! Not to be that dude that bitches about a free meal, butts butts butts game wasn't worth the self-addressed envelope i sent, in my opinion. However, the perplexing part was major gaming mags that month: Aero was on the cover of almost every one, and took high marks almost across the board! Granted, platformers in the day were like shooters now, but man, I felt left out in the gaming press love-fest at the time.

Around then, Video Games & Computer Entertainment ran an article about fanzines, and included a few addresses to the more popular ones, which is how I got in on the ones posted above. It's worth noting that they were obviously low-brow humor, cheaply made, self-indulgent etc (oh gaming press, how very far you've come), but reading Aero get absolutely trashed, and other lesser-known titles praised/made known was really cool to see at the time.


It occurred to me that many of you likely knew of these fan publications (a few might've contributed to them!), but excessive snark aside, they did bring one element I've found valuable in every gaming community I've taken part in from TheGIA to GAF: they were a great place to learn about sleeper hits/lesser-known titles, and I can honestly say, I never would've heard of (much less experienced) Valis 3, El Viento, Another World and numerous other greats during their era without their say-so. This isn't necessarily to say that the major gaming mags weren't reviewing them, but covering arcades & the many formats of the day meant even double-sized EGM's had way more to say about Street Fighter II than they did Zombies ate my Neighbors, for example.

Looking @ gaming culture/media these days, it's easy to see what became of these - they're basically everyone's gaming blogs now. In my head, these sort've exist along the same line that GAF's love for the happening of Ultima online does; it's a time capsule sort've thing that wouldn't work at almost any other period. Looking back, industry gossip (naming names!), angry rants about SNES MK losing blood, and trashing both the Jaguar (low-hanging fruit, granted) and major, AAA-of-their-time titles in some reviews aren't the makings of a unique and beautiful snowflake, but again, in the day, these things stood as something of a sharp contrast to the larger gaming press.

Anyway, here's a look at them via some more crappily-taken images:

naturally, Sega listened to every point, which is why Eternal Champions is the vibrant, tournament-friendly fighter it is today

MK: not a good look for gameboy

yup, that's Sonic CD getting a 9+. Anything lower and I'dve canceled my $10 subscription, no doubt

GEA membership was serious business! I loved this stuff though.

likewise, a 9+ for Super Metroid...I may've lost a few friends posting this one.

SHOTS FIRED, EGM


So yeah, did anyone else read these things?

Spoiler

the irony of my talking about their praising of sleeper hits and then posting reviews of the big titles is not lost on me, i assure you

 

[IrishNinja]

dot dot dot

 

[Gravijah]

screw your words, scan these so I can actually read 'em

 

[Drkirby]

Yeah, I can't make out anything. Did Mortal Kombat for the Gameboy get a 0, 6, or 8?

 

[Starwolf_UK]

I remember Computer and videogames here in the UK used to have a fanzine seciton. In the cheap yellow pages seciotn (where retro topics, guides and classisfied ended up). It sounds like the fanzine authors would send a copy to them which the info would then be posted for interested people complete with a few words from the Computer and Videogames team.

But as you said the internet changed everything and now YOU are the fanzine...similarly fan clubs also went down the drain.

 

[Moofers]

I had always heard this term thrown around back in the 90s, but I just assumed it was a reference to GameFAN magazine. lol

 

[IrishNinja]

screw your words, scan these so I can actually read 'em

....you want? i got better cameras/scanners if you really wanna know how MK and Maximum Carnage and shit fared back then.

 

[state_vector_collapse]

There were two great RPG fanzines here in the U.K - Role Call and Journeys End.

Role Call was mainly written by Rachel Ryan and her then boyfriend(?) whose name escapes me, but I'm sure he has written for NTSC-UK. And I did see Rachels name pop up in the awesomeness that is Superplay I believe.

Can't recall who wrote Journeys End, but it was a girl from Birmingham? or at least around that area I think.

Really enjoyed them both, and it was a shame when release became sporadic and you just knew they were coming to an end.

 

[Gravijah]

....you want? i got better cameras/scanners if you really wanna know how MK and Maximum Carnage and shit fared back then.

I love reading this kinda stuff, so if you've got the time/are bored, I'd definitely read it.

 

[Articalys]

Man, I remember seeing articles on these in the back pages of Tips & Tricks way back when. Never read any myself though.

 

[WillyFive]

Fanzines are great.

 

[Shig]

I found an old Video Game Players magazine that had a monthly column that reviewed a bunch of zines. It was weird as a kid seeing these gaming mags I'd never heard of and would never see.

 

[abasm]

When I first saw this thread, I assumed you were going to write about Scroll, exp, and Kill Screen. This, however, is both surprising and highly pleasing.

Higher resolution scans would be much appreciated.

 

[SovanJedi]

I love fanzines, I used to write in one years ago. Well, mostly did the art covers rather than "write", per se, but still.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Why is there a buff Sonic on one of the covers....

 

[Cheesemeister]

So yeah, did anyone else read these things?

Read? No, I published my own 1-page gaming newsletter for my friends in my video game club in elementary school. It was mostly info compiled from Nintendo Power.

 

[IrishNinja]

^shit, you have to post that.

gravijahs/co - does anyone have a good site for thumbnailing hosted images? cant really scan, but i can use a better camera to post up those 4 fanzines if that's cool by the TOS (15+ years later, i wanna say it is).

 

[GDGF]

Awesome topic! The Fanzine scene was sweet.

 

[Why would you do that?]

I think Game Freak (Pokemon) started out as a fanzine.

Satoshi Tajiri created the magazine, and Ken Sugimori did the art.

I guess I'm too young to have experienced fanzines, but ever since learning about Game Freak a few months back, I've imagined creating a fanzine and giving it to my local supermarket. Like about Nintendo games, or Indie games.

I had no idea they had an official name... "Fanzine" ... heh.

 

[luka]

I can't believe I paid 70 bucks for Maximum Carnage back then. :\

 

[mollipen]

Kind of funny to see this topic, because when I went home for Christmas one of the things I did was pack up my fanzine collection so that I could send it out here. I just wanted the chance to look through all of those old issues again, but I've been thinking about maybe scanning some of them (hoping the original creators wouldn't mind).

One of the bright spots of my time doing fanzines was when one of mine was published in the fanzine section of EGM 2. I felt like I had totally made it then! *laughs* I then also got to be on the other side of that when I did my own first (and, sadly, last) fanzine review column in the last issue of GameON! USA.

 

[IrishNinja]

shidoshi - i was halfway expecting your post here; not just cause you're down as fuck with so much of this industry stuff (much respect!), but that same SHOTS FIRED EGM thing i posted from the GEA had an exert later on taking it to them for trickman terry/sushi-x? i forget who shitting on Gamefan with a potshot about selling import titles you review. i recall thinking that was shit, too, and being glad someone sad it.

 

[djtiesto]

I remember reading a website a long time ago, that might have even been from GAF's very own Chris Kohler, that reviewed all these fanzines. Maybe he'll chime in here. I have never gotten into fanzines myself, although there was one called "Shining Forth", that mainly covered RPGs, that I was always interested in.

I definitely encourage everyone in this thread to scan in any 'zines they have, we don't want this stuff lost to the ages!

 

[Gravijah]

^shit, you have to post that.

gravijahs/co - does anyone have a good site for thumbnailing hosted images? cant really scan, but i can use a better camera to post up those 4 fanzines if that's cool by the TOS (15+ years later, i wanna say it is).

Sorry mang I don't really know.

 

[mollipen]

shidoshi - i was halfway expecting your post here; not just cause you're down as fuck with so much of this industry stuff (much respect!), but that same SHOTS FIRED EGM thing i posted from the GEA had an exert later on taking it to them for trickman terry/sushi-x? i forget who shitting on Gamefan with a potshot about selling import titles you review. i recall thinking that was shit, too, and being glad someone sad it.

Before I started working for GameFan, at some point EGM actually reviewed an issue of GameFan in their fanzine section, basically saying it was nothing more than that. COLD-BLOODED. At the time, I was such a GameFan devotee that I set fire to that issue of EGM2, and sent it back to them along with a letter about how pathetic I found them to be. That letter would then be included in the package of stuff I sent to Halverson, which ended up getting me the job at GF.

Also, not the best, but here's a photo somebody was able to grab me of the fanzine review section I did for the last issue of GameON! USA. You'll notice that it includes a review of one Video Zone, the fanzine Mr. Chris Kohler used to produce (and which was how I originally got to know him).

 

[WillyFive]

I guess I'm too young to have experienced fanzines, but ever since learning about Game Freak a few months back, I've imagined creating a fanzine and giving it to my local supermarket. Like about Nintendo games, or Indie games.

Go for it. It's great fun.

 

[Tiktaalik]

I think Game Freak (Pokemon) started out as a fanzine.

Satoshi Tajiri created the magazine, and Ken Sugimori did the art.

I guess I'm too young to have experienced fanzines, but ever since learning about Game Freak a few months back, I've imagined creating a fanzine and giving it to my local supermarket. Like about Nintendo games, or Indie games.

I had no idea they had an official name... "Fanzine" ... heh.

Yeah it would be rad for someone to buy all of them and translate them or something. I think they're pretty expensive.

 

[mollipen]

guess I'm too young to have experienced fanzines, but ever since learning about Game Freak a few months back, I've imagined creating a fanzine and giving it to my local supermarket. Like about Nintendo games, or Indie games.

I've really been tempted as of late to put out another fanzine issue. Sure, you have websites, podcasts, blogs, twitter, even working for legit magazines, but there's still something about putting everything together, going to Kinko's, and walking out with a printed thing that you yourself produced.

It's sad that that whole world died as much as it did. Even when I'd get a fanzine that was absolutely terrible in production and/or writing (and I saw many of those), there was still something so wonderful and interesting about them. Each one was a labor of love, and having a new issue suddenly show up in your mailbox was a great surprise.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

*editor's note: apologies for blurry camera-phone shots/big images/etc, will work on & contribute more later if GAF's interested.

Found a few fanzines while going through my older game magazines, and I wanted to talk about this tiny subculture of gaming history.

quick anecdotal tale on my intro to these: back in '93, Sunsoft was hyping Aero the Acrobat hard, and ran a double-page ad in gaming mags that had a hidden offer for a free copy, which i noticed as a testament to my wasted, sexless youth keenly observed, and promptly jumped on. Lo and behold, come October or so, there it was, in my mailbox! Not to be that dude that bitches about a free meal, butts butts butts game wasn't worth the self-addressed envelope i sent, in my opinion. However, the perplexing part was major gaming mags that month: Aero was on the cover of almost every one, and took high marks almost across the board! Granted, platformers in the day were like shooters now, but man, I felt left out in the gaming press love-fest at the time.

Around then, Video Games & Computer Entertainment ran an article about fanzines, and included a few addresses to the more popular ones, which is how I got in on the ones posted above. It's worth noting that they were obviously low-brow humor, cheaply made, self-indulgent etc (oh gaming press, how very far you've come), but reading Aero get absolutely trashed, and other lesser-known titles praised/made known was really cool to see at the time.


It occurred to me that many of you likely knew of these fan publications (a few might've contributed to them!), but excessive snark aside, they did bring one element I've found valuable in every gaming community I've taken part in from TheGIA to GAF: they were a great place to learn about sleeper hits/lesser-known titles, and I can honestly say, I never would've heard of (much less experienced) Valis 3, El Viento, Another World and numerous other greats during their era without their say-so. This isn't necessarily to say that the major gaming mags weren't reviewing them, but covering arcades & the many formats of the day meant even double-sized EGM's had way more to say about Street Fighter II than they did Zombies ate my Neighbors, for example.

Looking @ gaming culture/media these days, it's easy to see what became of these - they're basically everyone's gaming blogs now. In my head, these sort've exist along the same line that GAF's love for the happening of Ultima online does; it's a time capsule sort've thing that wouldn't work at almost any other period. Looking back, industry gossip (naming names!), angry rants about SNES MK losing blood, and trashing both the Jaguar (low-hanging fruit, granted) and major, AAA-of-their-time titles in some reviews aren't the makings of a unique and beautiful snowflake, but again, in the day, these things stood as something of a sharp contrast to the larger gaming press.

Anyway, here's a look at them via some more crappily-taken images:

naturally, Sega listened to every point, which is why Eternal Champions is the vibrant, tournament-friendly fighter it is today

MK: not a good look for gameboy

yup, that's Sonic CD getting a 9+. Anything lower and I'dve canceled my $10 subscription, no doubt

GEA membership was serious business! I loved this stuff though.

likewise, a 9+ for Super Metroid...I may've lost a few friends posting this one.

SHOTS FIRED, EGM


So yeah, did anyone else read these things?

Spoiler

the irony of my talking about their praising of sleeper hits and then posting reviews of the big titles is not lost on me, i assure you

My apologies for digging up this ancient thread from 2011, but it's a topic dear to my heart. I was part of the videogame zine scene in the 1990s, which was inspired by Arnie Katz and took on a life of its own. Many successful people in the game industry began writing and publishing zines, including Chris Kohler, Chris Johnston, Ara Shirininan and Tyrone Rodriguez. It was a lot of hard work but very fun and rewarding. I still can't believe we were all given official press passes and allowed into Consumer Electronic Shows.

Question: is there any chance that you could post a high-rez photo of the GEA Eternal Champions review that you posted? I threw away my copy years ago (to my eternal regret), and I no longer have a personal copy. I'm very thankful that you've read it, as I was very passionate about my writing in those days. Also, do you have any other zines to share?