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What was your favourite old school gaming magazines?

Xplainin

Xplainin

Banned
Showing my age here, but back in the day gaming magazines were the life blood for gamers.
We had EGM, Edge, IGN, Hyper (Australia) and the official console magazines.
I used to love getting the free game demo discs. These magazines came out once a month, and here in Australia we had to get these mags as imports, and they would cost you like $10-15 each. So the news you would get on rumours, new consoles etc, would be two or so weeks late.

For me the best one was Edge. Always seemed to have the best game spreads, best rumours and it was a nice thick quality magazine.

What was your best one, and do you miss them?
 
Eimran

Eimran

Member
dHNry8E.jpg
 
AV

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Playstation Max in the UK. Poop jokes galore.

latest


99p, Jesus. The OPM these days is about 6x as much here.
 
Rayderism

Rayderism

Member
Mags I always used to get:
Video Games & Computer Entertainment
Videogames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine
Video Games
Electronic Games
Next Generation
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)
GamePro
Tips & Tricks
Run Magazine (old C64 mag)
Various game-specific guides

I think some of those (the first 4 listed maybe?) were just variations of the same mag with name changes over the years. Not 100% sure on that.

Good site to relive old magazine memories:

Retromags

Retromags is a site dedicated to the digital preservation of old video game magazines!
www.retromags.com www.retromags.com

Anyway, they have all since been replaced by just accessing the internet. I haven't bought a gaming mag in many years. The last one I remember buying was a guide for Final Fantasy 7 back when it was a new game.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
The UK Computer & Videogames Magazine at the end of 4th gen and during the 5th gen era.

cvg-185.jpg


The 5 star review score was also the best. You don't really need more than 5 (1-awful, 2-mediocre, 3-OK, 4-good, 5-great). This way you also had all "great" games under the same valuation so no pointless comparisons were ever made.
 
Mato

Mato

Member
nkarafo said:
The UK Computer & Videogames Magazine at the end of 4th gen and during the 5th gen era.

cvg-185.jpg


The 5 star review score was also the best. You don't really need more than 5 (1-awful, 2-mediocre, 3-OK, 4-good, 5-great). This way you also had all "great" games under the same valuation so no pointless comparisons were ever made.
Click to expand...

This. I had a stack of those that I would pore over all day. This is how I learned my English. The anticipation for next months issue was as big as buying a new game. Younger players can't really relate to that. I hated the redesign and soon after that and also because of the internet I stopped buying it. There was also Edge. I threw everything out a couple of years ago.
 
Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch

Member
Gamefan and EGM were my bibles back then.

Gamefan in particular had a huge hand in molding my gaming tastes - mainly at the end of the mag's life during the Dreamcast days. This was the time they featured Strider 2, Vagrant Story, Gunbird 2, Virtual On OT, Ogre Battle 64, Dimahoo, Batrider, Metal Slug 3, and retro stuff like MUSHA and Gain Ground. I still read those mags from time to time...
 
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wondermega

wondermega

Member
Old (original) EGM was AMAZING. It was sloppy and crude as heck, but that was fine, they gave you glimpses of absolutely everything that was worth talking about! VG&CE was a great alternative to that, a fair bit stodgier (maybe a bit too much) but where EGM was very hyper and short on details, you got the sense that these guys were more thoughtful and meticulous (hah.. maybe a stretch) in their writing. Anyway it was always useful and very interesting.
Before all these guys was Nintendo Power, of course. In the very beginning, that mag just felt like a toy. So much care was taken into each section, making sure the presentation was always very unique and jammed with pics and info. Honestly in those days the hype and scene around the "coming soon" games was sometimes more fun then when they actually released! Other mags of note were Game Player's and GamePro - they were alright to pass the time after you were done drooling through the other mags, I guess.
 
SkylineRKR

SkylineRKR

Member
Sega Saturn Magazine. I should have about 20 ish but lost them. At least I can't find them anywhere. Accidentally threw they away or put them somewhere I don't remember.

Other good mags are PSM 100%, EGM 90's and early 2k's.
 
JimiNutz

JimiNutz

Banned
Easily Official UK PlayStation Magazine for one reason only... Demo Discs

The demo disc was the main attraction for me and the magazine itself was just a side bonus. I discovered some of my favourite games of all time because of those demo discs:

MGS
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Dino Crisis
Wipeout 2097 (XL in the US)
 
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TMLT

TMLT

Member
From the UK. My top 3 would be CVG, the criminally short lived Arcade, and Playstation Power.

Not sure if it counts as old school yet but I really enjoyed PSM2 as well.
 
SaucyJack

SaucyJack

Member
Fuz

Fuz

Banned
4825c26685674dacd7fc4468b2a3e709.jpg



Googling for the image and I realized they easily had the best cover arts for any magazine.

8bit era truly was magical.
 
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John Mullins

John Mullins

Banned
Orta said:
CK80i0aW8AEGADf.jpg
Click to expand...

Had all of these, and can remember all the covers they bring back good memories. Saturn was my GOAT console and this was the magazine. Loved their demo discs.

That DOA cover got a bit of a workout back in the day.
 
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Handy Fake

Handy Fake

Member
Fuz said:
4825c26685674dacd7fc4468b2a3e709.jpg



Googling for the image and I realized they easily had the best cover arts for any magazine.

8bit era truly was magical.
Click to expand...
The best.
Also had centre page poster pullouts which were handpainted and downright creepy but terribly well done.
 
Xplainin

Xplainin

Banned
John Mullins said:
Had all of these, and can remember all the covers they bring back good memories. Saturn was my GOAT console and this was the magazine. Loved their demo discs.

That DOA cover got a bit of a workout back in the day.
Click to expand...
Same. I loved the Saturn. I will admit, it annoyed me that it couldn't do transparency well, if at all. Looking at that mesh smoke was an eyesore.
But I loved the console, and the games.

I didn't have the same relationship with the DOA cover like you did lol
 
John Mullins

John Mullins

Banned
Xplainin said:
Same. I loved the Saturn. I will admit, it annoyed me that it couldn't do transparency well, if at all. Looking at that mesh smoke was an eyesore.
But I loved the console, and the games.

I didn't have the same relationship with the DOA cover like you did lol
Click to expand...

lol yeah I commentated on just that recently in the communities Saturn thread on here. Ghetto mesh effect on Wipeout 2097 vapour trails was the ultimate shame :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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Xplainin

Xplainin

Banned
John Mullins said:
lol yeah I commentated on just that recently in the communities Saturn thread on here. Ghetto mesh effect on Wipeout 2097 vapour trails was the ultimate shame :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Click to expand...
One of my fav Saturn games was loaded and it did the best job with smoke and transparency on the console. I think Loaded might have been better on Saturn than PSX if my memory is correct.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
I subscribed to quite a few. First was Nintendo Power, in the SNES era, then GamePro. Eventually I got a subscription to PSM and PC Gamer, mostly for the demo discs, but the mags were great too. Then Next Generation because the more upscale approach appealed to maturing me.

However, I bought EGMs and EGM2 frequently (yes, video gaming was so awesome back then EGM had to make a second magazine to cover it properly), especially those amazing November/December 400 page issues, and GameFan once in a while. Later on I worked at EB Games and read everything.
 
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16bitwarzvet

16bitwarzvet

Member
EGM, Game Pro, Game Fan, Edge, and Next Generation...I was a fan of all of them and going to the magazine section at every grocery store was where my mom would always find me. I would always be on the hunt to see if the newest issue had arrived. My favorite would have to be EGM though (Long live Sushi X!!!) My best friend was a Game Pro fan so we would argue constantly over which magazine was better. Those were the good ol days.
 
16bitwarzvet

16bitwarzvet

Member
lugnutal said:
EGM, Game Pro, Game Fan, Edge, and Next Generation...I was a fan of all of them and going to the magazine section at every grocery store was where my mom would always find me. I would always be on the hunt to see if the newest issue had arrived. My favorite would have to be EGM though (Long live Sushi X!!!) My best friend was a Game Pro fan so we would argue constantly over which magazine was better. Those were the good ol days.
Click to expand...
This!! ( and maybe I’ll remember to use the right account when posting 🙄
 
Petaya Berry

Petaya Berry

Banned
Super Game Power, Ação Games and Video Game.

From 1989 until 2014 I still had them and in February/2014 I threw all away.

I will never forget the hype before a new edition in those 90s.
 
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B

Breakage

Member
I bought loads of magazines during the early 2000s. But my favourites were probably Edge and GameMaster. I still have all my Edge issues.
 
Scotty W

Scotty W

Gold Member
Gameplayers for the comedy, Gamefan for the pics and weird Japanese imports.

Anyone remember the weird Japanese stuff that used to be in the back of tips and tricks? Or that EGM 2 used to exist?
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
SaucyJack said:
C&VG is available on archive.org btw.

Click to expand...
Thanks i already have 001 to 229 without gaps (that's all issues until the end of 2000, which i use as a cap for retro game magazines since it was around then that i stopped buying them). Archive.org seems to stop to issue 120 something, which used to be an old torrent i came across back when i was searching for them.
 
nush

nush

Gold Member
AmuroChan said:
I grew up with EGM. It was like Christmas for me when the magazine arrived each month in the mail.
Click to expand...

Gamepro and EGM were imported into the UK. I didn't know at the time they were imported magazines as they were sold alongside other british magazines. But when I worked out what they were they were like the internet for me, more information and sooner than any british magazines. I also found it interesting that some games had wildly different reviews between the US and UK.

These days there's a global opinion on games and we've lost something because of that.
 
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