Do you guys read old Video Game magazines?

[Anthony1]

I was wondering if any of you guys read old video game magazines.

Man, I had a huge collection of old magazines, but when I moved to my new house, my wife finally convinced me to throw a ton of them away. What a bad move on my part.

At the time, I had no real interest in older games and systems, but now I do big time. I have converted into a retro-gamer and I miss all those old magazines.

I do have a pretty good collection of the magazine "Next Generation".

But what really sucks is that I had this huge collection of Die Hard Game Fan's and I think I threw those away too.


Damn. Die Hard Game Fan was my all time favorite video game rag. Well, early in their life cycle it was. They later got bought out by another company and changed all their writers and their editors and stuff.

At least with my Next Generation issues, I can go back and see what they were talking about in the magazines back in May of 1997 or whatever.

[thekeepr]

I collect magazines like I collect everything else in this hobby....ALL OF THEM THAT I CAN GET MY HANDS ON!!! I still have my original Electronic Games mags, along with everything I subscribes to, find laying about in thrifts or garage sales, etc,etc,etc. I feel that printed matter....any printed material about video games is collectible, and extremely desirable for referencing,enlightment,enjoyment, and just plain cool to have!!!! The Keeper 8-) 8-) 8-)

[Videogamerdaryll]

I collect magazines like I collect everything else in this hobby....ALL OF THEM THAT I CAN GET MY HANDS ON!!! I still have my original Electronic Games mags, along with everything I subscribes to, find laying about in thrifts or garage sales, etc,etc,etc. I feel that printed matter....any printed material about video games is collectible, and extremely desirable for referencing,enlightment,enjoyment, and just plain cool to have!!!! The Keeper 8-) 8-) 8-)

I collect magazines like I collect everything else in this hobby....ALL OF THEM THAT I CAN GET MY HANDS ON!!! :D

Me too..

I have boxes of Video game magazines..
I enjoy reading the old mags.

[NE146]

Ditto. I love old mags. Luckily I kept pretty much 99% of every mag I bought since the early 80's. So I got pretty much a sample of everything. Ironically, the only "complete" collection I think I have is EGM however and that's huge! x_x .. But my all time favorite's are older magazine's such as Joystik, and Video Games

[hydr0x]

I collect magazines like I collect everything else in this hobby....ALL OF THEM THAT I CAN GET MY HANDS ON!!! :D


exactly, i do also collect every shit about video games i find :)

i have complete collections of German Club Nintendo Mag(<=>Nintendo Power), 100% Total Nintendo, Mega Fun, Maniac, and GamePro (well, first issue was last year :p) and a lot of the issues of N-Zone, Cube, Playstation. Mausklick, Bravo Screenfun, Dreamcast Kult and Games&More, i do also own more than half of the issues of the PC-Game-Mags PC Action, PC Games, PC Joker, GameStar and PC Player

wow thats a lot of stuff x_x

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I used to have the complete run of the original Electronic Games...until my mom decided it was time for me to "grow up." Heh. What I wouldn't give...

If you want to read some classics, though, I know that both Digital Press and AtariAge have the complete run of the original Atari Age magazine scanned, and I've got the complete run of Odyssey2 Adventure (http://www.thelogbook.com/odyssey/magazine/) scanned and posted on my site. Ahhh, "Otto C." the robot. Those were the days. :D

[digitalpress]

Here's all of the Atari Age magazines scanned JUST FOR YOU :)

http://www.digitpress.com/archives/atariage/

[AB Positive]

someone came to my store today and just dumped off around 40 old nintendo power mags, from the SNES era. The announcements of Starfox, "Super Mario World 2", Donkey Kong Country... and one issue that has a 20 page spread on...

wait for it...

the Virtual Boy!!! YAY!

man, it's really funny just looking back on all this.

-AG

[maxlords]

Yeah...I stil have all my old NPs and EGMs, as well as a few old Sega Force and most all of the end run of Next Gen. I keep all my gaming mags...never know when you might want to go back and read em again...I do it :) If my wife told me to throw em away, she'd get told to piss off (course I'd get beat up and be sleeping on the couch......)

[den68]

of course I do. my avatar was scanned out of an old video game mag I purchased back in 1982. I remember riding my bike to 7-11 to buy it. heh heh.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I LOVE finding old mags, I alway check the magazine racks when i'm out hitting thrifts. I've only got a few hundred right now and most of them are the subscriptions I've had the last few years.

I'd like to find more Die HArd Game Fan's, I've only got one but it looks like it was a very cool mag.

[Starcade]

I have a little over 200 different magazines, so yes, i collect them. :)

[Rogmeister]

I recently decided to see if I could build a complete or near-complete collection of EGM...another batch just arrived today, in fact. I got some duplicates of issues I already have but that's what happens when you get them in lots. I also have most of the first 130 or so issues of Nintendo Power...

[Starcade]

Hey rog, I may be inerested in taking some of your doubles off your hands if they are priced decently, please send me a PM, and we can talk!

[Rogmeister]

Okay, Starcade, I'm on my way to work now and it'll take me a bit to go through what I just got but I'll send you an IM or e-mail tomorrow once I have time to make a list...

[Six Switch]

Yes I collect mags too.I don't have any really old ones,the oldest I have are the first few EGM2 issues or older EGMs.I never throw any out now and I never will.

[calthaer]

The cool thing about some of those game mags (like old Nintendo Power magazines) is that they have maps and such that you just can't get too readily. GameFAQs is all text. I don't have an extensive collection but I do have some that feature StarTropics and the two G.I.Joe games, which are a personal thing of mine ('cause I like G.I.Joe).

As a minor side note, it's also funny to have old comic books that have ads for classic games in them. Along with ads for Bonkers candy and back-issue comic places (and sometimes ads for Karate classes and whoopie cushion junk) are ads for old 2600 games and NES games.

I remember that one that had a bunch of grey Konami boxes at the bootom that said "WHIP, DRIBBLE, <verb>, <verb>, <verb>" and told you to...what was it...I have that issue around here somewhere...

Yeah, INSERT KONAMI VIDEO GAMES INTO THE NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM AND PLAY YOUR HEART OUT.

The reprinted trade paperbacks of those issues just doesn't include the ads, which in some ways is a shame.

[Retsudo]

Yep I read the old ones. I Just finished reading an old copy of Game Pro from 1996. It has Tekken 2 on the cover. ALSO I might add, Im too cheap to buy new mags :D

[Gamereviewgod]

I usually read one every night before I fall asleep. Scary thing is I read them so many damn times before, I can almost read it out loud without even looking at the mag. I have about 700, I think, but I've never counted. Got 2 magazine racks from a closing store and that's worked perfectly.

[Sulaco22]

Hells yeah. I have a ton of Electronic Gaming Monthlys that I go over everynow and again. I only wish that someone would scan old EGMs for a website so they can be preserved for all to read and looked at. Great Great stuff. Maybe I will take it upon myself someday. But then I think about all sorts of copyright troubles and what not and I then I don't wanna do it..lol :(

[NE146]

Hells yeah. I have a ton of Electronic Gaming Monthlys that I go over everynow and again. I only wish that someone would scan old EGMs for a website so they can be preserved for all to read and looked at. Great Great stuff. Maybe I will take it upon myself someday. But then I think about all sorts of copyright troubles and what not and I then I don't wanna do it..lol :(

.I scan them all the time and post them here! Like here's a an ancient EGM review of Blaster Master :P

http://www.users.qwest.net/~userid946/EGP-57.jpg

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I collect old magazines that usually find in flea markets at $ 0,30 :P . I have a lot of southamerican and USA magazines...i love to enjoy the old reviews and the "new" news of the moment...

[Kid Fenris]

I've got to confess that I'm sometimes more thrilled to find some old gaming mag than some interesting and scarce game. A game is just a singular experience, with no self-contained impression of how it fit into the industry. A magazine, even if it's horribly written and ugly to look at, is a glimpse of an entire era of gaming, and it inevitably reminds me of where I was when, say, Sonic the Hedgehog debuted. I think I actually started running around the house and yelling "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG" at the top of my lungs, in the hope that my parents would get the hint. They didn't.

And though I've kept all of my Nintendo Powers and pre-1998 Gamefans, I also threw away a lot of my other mags as a kid. I wish I had kept them all. Yes, even the GamePros and the latter-day Gamefan issues that made me want to throw up.

Anyway, I'm always checking the magazine section at my local used bookstore, where anything over five years old is a buck. I wish someone would dump a bunch of early GameFans and EGMs.

[Ruudos]

I love to read them. I'm still hoping to get the first issues of the dutch Club Nintendo magazines, but I hardly ever see them.

[qaotik]

I only bought a few english mags back then but its so much fun reading them that i dont know why am i not collecting them. Of the handful of mags that i have the best one have to be Computer And Video Games (CVG) it covered consoles and computers (Genesis/SNES & Amiga/PC) and has lots of other interesting stuff on it. Wish i had a scanner so i could show you guys some of it. Does anyone have any more info on this? This is probably only a UK mag and mine is issue 141 aug 93.

[Dobie]

I don't collect them really, but I do read them quite often. My local public library has old game magazines of all kinds, so I'll browse through them whenever I'm there, and maybe photocopy articles of interest to me. I have to ask for them at the counter, because they're all in storage, and I can't check them out to read at home. But I'd suggest it to anybody--if you have a hard time finding a particular copy, check your library!!

[hamburgler]

I read old video game books almost all the time.

[zmeston]

I read old video game books almost all the time.

I love videogame magazines from the Golden Age -- especially Video Games, which had wonderful writing (a game magazine with fascinating and informative content instead of hype-filled previews? Get out!!) -- and hope to pick up a bunch at CGE, although I don't know that my measly budget will allow for many.

As a reviewer-weasel, I'm especially fascinated by what critics of the time had to say about the "future" classics. In my Dec. '82 issue of VG, Megamania is panned (1 1/2 out of 4 "robots"), while Pitfall (3 1/2 out of 4) warrants a whopping 120 words of coverage. The reviewer even takes a swipe at Frogger ("I never could understand the popularity of this slow-moving, rather simple-minded game")! Great stuff.

-- Z.

[hydr0x]

I love to read them. I'm still hoping to get the first issues of the dutch Club Nintendo magazines, but I hardly ever see them.

i don't know when they started in the netherlands, but i've got the dutch issue 4/1992 and the blue classic mag

[Anthony1]

I was wondering if there is any website or place where you can order back issues of magazines.

With both EGM and GamePro still being current mags, I would think that you would be able to order their back issues. I've been to GamePro's website, but I couldn't find any link to back ordering issues. I don't know what EGM's website is.

I have seen used gaming magazines on Ebay, but the lots are usually around 20 or so mags and they are all mixed up and in pretty crappy condition, and with the shipping and everything, it just seems like it would be better to pay a higher price for specific back issues.

The thing that really sucks is that most people that have these old classic magazines, have probably just thrown them in the trash.

I can tell you that I had tons, and tons of video game magazines that I had been collecting for some time. When we moved to our newest house, my wife finally convinced me to get rid of them. At the time I wasn't a retro gamer, so I didn't really care too much. Now I could just kill myself! Plus, just the fact that I threw them in the trash makes me so mad. I had no idea at the time that I could have gotten some good money on Ebay for them.

[zmeston]

With both EGM and GamePro still being current mags, I would think that you would be able to order their back issues. I've been to GamePro's website, but I couldn't find any link to back ordering issues. I don't know what EGM's website is.

EGM hasn't always been a ZD-published magazine, and so wouldn't have pre-ZD issues, but publishers don't keep stockpiles of back issues on hand anyway, for reasons both practical and financial. It varies from magazine to magazine, but roughly half of all newsstand copies go unsold and are destroyed, with the covers torn off and returned to the publisher for credit. At least that's how it worked fifteen years ago, when I had a real job at a bookstore. If you're reading this, Achika, how does your store handle magazine returns?

Also, you surely realize that today's EGM and yesteryear's EGM have only a name in common. When a magazine gets a new publisher or a new editor-in-chief -- and EGM has had both over the course of its lifetime -- it's never the same again. When Next Generation stopped borrowing editoral from the British magazine Edge and replaced its British editors with Tom Russo, a GamePro vet now working for G4, it took a noticeable drop in quality. And when Russo was replaced with Aaron John Loeb, NextGen was doomed.

GamePro has had a much more secure staff by comparison to EGM. I think most of the current editors have been with the magazine for half a decade or more, a LONG time in the magazine biz.

And then there's Chris Bieniek at Tips & Tricks, the editor-in-chief for 101 issues and counting -- the longest EIC run in the history of videogame magazines. T&T has had a remarkably consistent and knowledgable editorial voice over the years thanks to C.B. He, along with Bill Kunkel and Andy Eddy, is one of my journo heroes.

-- Z.

[slapdash]

The thing that really sucks is that most people that have these old classic magazines, have probably just thrown them in the trash.

Worse than magazines, think of newsletters (both fan-produced or corporate ones). Less people save these than magazines, plus they weren't as common or easily found as magazines. That bums me out.