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Retro Video Game Magazine Appreciation Thread

CrustyBritches said:
I subbed to EGM as a kid in the 90s it was pretty fucking badass. I felt like I fit in with the writers and game culture back then. I feel like journos now hate games culture and people like me.
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Yes! I completely agree with you. Back then the writers wrote about the games because they loved games. Now it just feels forced and it's a business.
 
I loved Playstation Magazine when they gave you demos.

That is how I knew about Ghost in the Shell (never owned it), hyped myself for Crash Team Racing and bought Final Fantasy X on the demo alone!!

I am a subscriber of RetroGamer that provides some interesting tidbits about ex-developers and industry giants back in the day.

Damn. That Edge Image doesn't have the correct Logo placement on Playstation and the Magazine cost is in letters and not numbers. 🤔

There is a Pokemon Article on a N64 Magazine in 1998 that uses the Silver Trainer and calls an Eevee a Pikachu! 🤣
 
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Thanati said:
Man, these take me back! I used to get Crash and Sinclair user for the 8bit days, then Amiga Format (After it split from ST Amiga Format). Such a good time sitting down and just reading cover to cover.

Thanks OP for creating this thread!
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I was a fan of Amiga Power back in the day. How they got away with some of the stuff they used to write I'll never know. It was all a bit tongue in cheek and very funny. I miss mags like that.
 
This thread is awesome. I've got my old GameStar magazines from the 90s and early 2000s (biggest PC gaming magazine in Germany back in the day) still lying around somewhere...
 
I still buy the Official Playstation Magazine every month and really enjoy it.

When I buy it I will always snatch it up and conceal it under whatever else I'm buying like beer or something. Then I will make sure I use a self service checkout whenever possible. For some reason I feel a bit ashamed about my hobby and that there is a stigma attached to it.
 
This might be a very weird and specific request but if someone happens to have the bonus CD from GameStar issue 05/2000 with the Age of Empires 2 levels, can someone upload those somewhere? Archive.org had a dump of all the CDs at one point but they got removed...
 
Anyone remember the cut out Sushi-X mask in the haloween EGM one year?

I actually cut it out and wore it as a haloween costume that year.
 
Thanks guys..I'm feeling particularly old right now :messenger_downcast_sweat::messenger_downcast_sweat: I remember going into some of the most dangerous areas to get these things and comics in corner stores and coffee shops . If my mom ever fouind out she woulda shipped my ass to live with my Grandmother in Trinidad...things were sooooo easy back then..
 
I have a bunch of Brazilian ones. I can take pictures of them later.

I also have some American and British ones as well.

Love grabbing one and reading and realizing how simple and cooler things were back then without having to resort to politics and shock value for clicks.
 
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I used to own many magazine cassettes full of issues of...

Late-80s to mid-90s:

Total! (UK)
Total! (German)
Video Games (German)
Super Pro (German)
Super Play (UK)
N-Force (UK)
SNES Force (UK)
Games Master (UK)
Power Unlimited (Dutch)
Club Nintendo (Free with subscription, Dutch)
Club Nintendo Extra (sold in shops)
Computer & Video Games (UK)
Nintendo Magazine System (UK)
EGM (US)
EGM2 (US)
GamePro (US)
Ultimate: Future Games (UK)

Mid-90s to Early 00s:

Man!ac (German)
Mega Fun (German)
N-Zone (German)
PC Action (German)
PC Games (German)
Edge (UK)
Dreamcast Magazine (UK)
PlayStation Power (UK)
Play (UK)
Game Fan (US)

Still some issues of Super Play, Computer & Video Games, Nintendo Magazine System, Game Pro and EGM in that era.

There's more but these are the ones I remember best.
 
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Was also a bit of a bastard at times as I tore single pages out of magazines a couple of times, in shops. Why? Because of cheats, and I didn't feel like buying an entire magazine (with old or non-interesting news) because of cheats I couldn't write easily down. And even if I wrote some down sometimes, at certain times at certain shops, the question if I was going to buy it was asked after breathing down my neck.
 
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Gamers' Republic and Play kept the Diehard Gamefan vibe going. I actually have a complete Play collection and the rare last issue of Gamers' Republic, which featured Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on the cover.

gr-cammy-cover.jpg



Play-March2008.jpg
 
Havoc2049 said:
Gamers' Republic and Play kept the Diehard Gamefan vibe going. I actually have a complete Play collection and the rare last issue of Gamers' Republic, which featured Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on the cover.

gr-cammy-cover.jpg



Play-March2008.jpg
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So Gamer Republic is defunct now? That is sad to hear. I will definitely check out play though! What other non-political BS game mags would you recommend that are still ongoing?
 
Does anyone Sub to RetroGamer?

I have like a 100 Issues that cover so many different Developers and Indiviuals it is insane!

Their latest one tells you how to update your collection.
 


Yuzo Koshiro said:
Micom Basic Magazine, one of the most popular computer magazines among lots of game fans in Japan was published from 1982 to 2003 by THE DEMPA SHIMBUN Corporation.
I want you to know how great they affected the people in the game industry in JAPAN.
So I created this video.
Enjoy :)
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The video is in English.
 
The best thing about old games mags is that they're purely about games. No Twitter bullshit or identity politics or any of the horrendous crap that 'games media' is riddled with these days. Take me back to the 90s!
 
Do magazines not exist in the US anymore? Despite being on these boards, I still prefer the old school aspect of buying a magazine and reading it to find my news/views.

Edit: These are cool though. The anarchic and playful style is something I miss.
 
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I wonder why that non-linear style of reviewing never made its way online. It's pretty easily done.
 
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I remember back when I was a kid reading stuff like egm, tips and tricks, opm, gamepro, and psm in the grocery store while my mom shopped.

I've recently discovered a new site, retrocdn which had a lot of great scans of old magazines. I can't remember where I found out about it, but I do know someone here on gaf mentioned them to give credit where its due.
 
I had a huge collection of many different magazines, but I let them all go when I moved last year. It hurt, but you can't hold onto everything in life.

I think my favorite was NextGen. They always seemed a little more mature (although sometimes too smug) with their treatment of the industry, and they (for a while) had incredible paper stock.
 
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I love this thread.

In sixth grade we had a project where you write your name in giant letters on posterboard and cut it out. We needed to fill in all the space of those giant letters with stuff that represent us so they could tack it on the wall. We had a long time to do it.

Well one day the teacher informed us it was due, but gave the class a final pity 45 minutes of time to get them done. Mine was only about half finished and my best friend turned to me with an expression of blindsided panic. Guess we had been too busy talking about future N64 games and playing Game Boy. After a moment of futile brainstorming I knew what do and got my backpack.

His eyes widened and his expression turned to relief as he witnessed what I was pulling out. It was this:


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While it certainly contributed to me completing the project (I was further along and also got creative with gluing on legos I had handy), my friend would have been dead without this magazine. He was initially nervous I wasn't going to let him use any of it, and for years saw it as some kind of "in the trenches saving your friends ass in a warzone" shit because I let him cut it to pieces.

I still have the destroyed husk of a magazine lol.
 
I subscribed to Gamepro and EGM back in the day. I remember those days of going to the mail box. The building suspense. "Did it come today?" I wondered. Then it was either the feeling of Christmas coming early or the crushing blow of having to wait another day. God forbid it was Saturday and it didn't come cause that just meant you had to force yourself through another shitty day of school before you could bask in the crispness of that month's issue.

I've since found a lot of digital scans. Bless those folks that are doing that to preserve them.
 
I wish I still had a copy of the issue of Power Unlimited with the review of Final Fantasy III (VI) so I could make fun of it.

It was featured in this issue:

xI8xIGb.jpg


I believe the score was a 5.6 (out of 10) or something like that...read that again...a 5.6!

EDIT: Oh, looks like somebody else mentioned it here on the forum. lol!
 
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I bought both american, english and swedish mags. Edge, next gen magazine, gamefan, egm, gamers republic you name it.

Between 95-03 i probably spent 70 dollars on gaming mags each month.

My favorite was the uk version of sega saturn mag.

I have 4 large blue ikea bags in the cellar filled with old gaming mags. Once every two years or so i venture down there and read for a couple of hours.

I really loved print.
 
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This thread just makes me sad. I had boxes and boxes of video game magazines in a storage locker. Well over 500. They were all stolen when someone broke in. Hope they read them at least.
 
My brother used to buy the Official Playstation Magazine and I'd read it cover to cover...

...and then cut it apart to use as material for my scrapbook for art class. I regret that now. I should have at least kept the magazine that had a preview of Final Fantasy VII as it induced me to go and buy a videogame myself for the very first time. And then I fell in love with gaming as something more than just something fun (even though it was still fun, of course).
 
EightBit Man said:
I wish I still had a copy of the issue of Power Unlimited with the review of Final Fantasy III (VI) so I could make fun of it.

It was featured in this issue:

xI8xIGb.jpg


I believe the score was a 5.6 (out of 10) or something like that...read that again...a 5.6!

EDIT: Oh, looks like somebody else mentioned it here on the forum. lol!
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One of those magazines talks about Pokemon Red/Blue but uses the Silver Trainer artwork and calls Eevee, Pikachu!!!
 
A few years ago I started to recollect all the old Dreamcast magazines I had when I was younger.

Now I'm just trying to get all of them, including ones I never had.

I find it interesting reading their thoughts about gaming back then.
 
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