View Full Version : Gaming Fanzines
ShenmueFan
03-14-2007, 03:17 PM
I used to make a gaming fanzine years ago called GamerX and I always loved the Fanzine Patrol section in Tips & Tricks - do any one you know if there gaming zines still out nowadays and where I could get an issue/subscription?
I realize blogging has problem negatively affected 'zines popularity but I always loved flipping through little xerox'ed magazines made by other gamers.
Sweater Fish Deluxe
03-14-2007, 03:39 PM
Well, there's Digital Press's own Bio-degradable Source for Videogamers still being made after all these years.
http://www.digitpress.com/products/join_us.htm
The only other one I know of is Game Time With Mister Raroo published every so often by a guy I know. It's a great zine, full of interesting articles about games and gaming by Mister and Missus Raroo, hilarious original artwork and of course Mister Raroo's patented one-sentence reviews. It's been a while since he's had an issue out but his wife is preganant and it must be about time for her to pop the Little Raroo out, so that's not surprising I guess. That's how it is with fanzines, but I'm pretty sure he'll be back to the zine...sometime within the next couple years.
http://www.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5483531
I'm sure there must be more than just those two, but yeah the Internet and blogs and podcasts have definitely severely cut down on the number of fanzines out there not just for games, but for everything, I'm sure.
...word is bondage...
rolenta
03-14-2007, 03:52 PM
The 2600 Connection is still going strong:
http://2600connection.atari.org/
Dan Iacovelli
03-14-2007, 04:39 PM
The Atari Zone is still active as well(we a just on bit hiatus since we just changed editors and distribution hopefully we get our next newer issue out after next week)
btw: we are still looking for writers and/or reviewers(articles must be atari related)
j_factor
03-24-2008, 04:09 AM
I was going to make a topic about fanzines, but I'll bump this one. Two things. One, a plug for Gamer's Quarter (http://gamersquarter.com/), a pretty damn good fanzine IMO.
Secondly, I'd like to know if anyone here has old fanzines that they've kept over the years. I imagine they'd be pretty interesting to see now. Has anyone ever been to a zine library? They have these dedicated zine libraries in NYC, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Denver, and I think Boston. I would imagine such a thing would be pretty interesting, although I'm not sure how much game-related stuff one would expect there to be. The SF Public Library has a zine archive, but I think it's mostly local-interest stuff.
Windy Miller
03-25-2008, 10:08 AM
I was going to make a topic about fanzines, but I'll bump this one. Two things. One, a plug for Gamer's Quarter (http://gamersquarter.com/), a pretty damn good fanzine IMO.
I've really enjoyed Gamer's Quarter & I keep checking the site in the hope of a new issue appearing, but no luck. :(
Dan Iacovelli
03-25-2008, 07:10 PM
quick update on the Atari zone:
as of now we don't know when the fanzine is going be done.
I haven't heard from our new editor.
until then be sure to check our Vid Cast at ustream.tv it airs monthly on sunday
it's at ustream.tv/channel/avc-live-podcast (can also be viewed at AVC Online)
8bitgamer
03-26-2008, 11:14 AM
It's not a fanzine, but GameCulture Journal is a free pdf format magazine that makes for some interesting reading.
http://www.gameculturejournal.com/
Lasermouse
03-26-2008, 05:27 PM
Jess Ragan still has a great archive of these old videogame zines up though it hasn't been updated in awhile, there's still some very cool classic content to read.
http://webpages.charter.net/mneko13/index.htm
- MP
Dangerboy
03-26-2008, 07:53 PM
Game Rave actually started out as a monthly fanzine, and then went into hiding, then became on online comic, and is now home to the best US PSX collector on the planet. : )
I actually still have the entire hard copy of the run; but most, if not all of the soft copy computer files are long, long gone.
We were featured in Tips and Tricks, EGM, and many other fanzines. Kind of miss those days. I prefer PageMaker / InDesign over html any day.
Jason
www.game-rave.com
Jimmy Yakapucci
03-26-2008, 08:07 PM
For those of use who are older, um, more mature, there is www.2old2play.com. They run a whole web site devoted to gamers over 25 and have a magazine they put out.
http://www.2old2play.com/magazine
JY
appaws
03-29-2008, 10:43 AM
I was involved with the 1st generation of gaming fanzines back in the early 90s when I was still in HS. I think the internet was a part of killing it off, but I also think the youthfulness and unreliability of many of the people involved (myself included) contributed to it as well. Everything was a flame war and taken very personally. We were all very self-important about our 'zines that were read by a couple hundred people at most.
Thanks for posting that Jess Ragan site. It's weird to see me name on that "who's who in fandom" after all these years, although they don't have any of my stuff archived. Maybe that's a good thing! :)
slapdash
03-29-2008, 09:20 PM
Which one were you?
appaws
03-30-2008, 01:07 AM
Which one were you?
Mike Ciletti. I had my own small 'zine called Video Wars which Arnie Katz reviewed in the first ever Fandango column, then I was one of the founders of cyberBeat with Ed Finkler, Ed Karpp, Richard Karpp, and Lance Rice.
It didn't last too long. Finkler and I were in high school and were more interested in the Punk scene than in making deadlines. The Karpps were in the industry, I think they programmed some PC games or something and were too busy to stick with it. When the second generation of faneds came in, they all seemed so jazzed up to be like the prozines (and some of them, like Chris Johnston actually ended up having careers in them) that we just sort of drifted away from it, a little disillusioned.
j_factor
03-30-2008, 02:26 PM
Color me impressed.
Richard Karpp made Vectorman, btw.
slapdash
03-30-2008, 03:23 PM
Ah, well good to "see" you again, Mike. Chris wasn't the only one who got into the prozines... Ara Shirinian & Pat Reynolds have written for some (Tips & Tricks primarily), Chris Kohler's gotten stuff in Wired from time to time, and I suspect I'm missing a couple other.
I was going to make a topic about fanzines, but I'll bump this one. Two things. One, a plug for Gamer's Quarter (http://gamersquarter.com/), a pretty damn good fanzine IMO.
Secondly, I'd like to know if anyone here has old fanzines that they've kept over the years. I imagine they'd be pretty interesting to see now. Has anyone ever been to a zine library? They have these dedicated zine libraries in NYC, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Denver, and I think Boston. I would imagine such a thing would be pretty interesting, although I'm not sure how much game-related stuff one would expect there to be. The SF Public Library has a zine archive, but I think it's mostly local-interest stuff.
I still have all my Zap!'s on file, including an unfinished last issue from 1993.
Jess Ragan still has a great archive of these old videogame zines up though it hasn't been updated in awhile, there's still some very cool classic content to read.
http://webpages.charter.net/mneko13/index.htm
- MP
Wow, he mentioned my Zap!
Ter Micharoni: Ter edited one of the two fanzines entitled Zap!. The other, by Scott Weller, had two exclamation points in the title. Zap! was unique in that it focused as much on Ter's conservative political beliefs as it had video games.
Cryomancer
10-21-2008, 08:18 AM
Game Freak, creators of Pokemon, started out as a gaming fanzine. I wish someone would scan those babies.
slapdash
10-22-2008, 11:09 PM
Yeah... And I'll offer to give fanzines a home; I've got a pretty good collection, but I know I missed TONS of them.
And goodness, anyone ever find any more issues of Joystick Jolter from the 80s? I only ever got my hands on one of them.
Yeah... And I'll offer to give fanzines a home; I've got a pretty good collection, but I know I missed TONS of them.
And goodness, anyone ever find any more issues of Joystick Jolter from the 80s? I only ever got my hands on one of them.
How many issues of Zap! do you have?
slapdash
10-23-2008, 08:55 PM
I have #1-6 of Zap! (your zine), but only #6 of Zapp! (Scott's zone)
I have #1-6 of Zap! (your zine), but only #6 of Zapp! (Scott's zone)
There were 7 official released, I wonder why you never got the 7th? Right now I'm without a printer, but as soon as I get one, I'll send it to you. Sorry for being 15 years late. :)
slapdash
10-25-2008, 10:25 PM
Who knows; maybe the Post Office lost it, maybe I was a subscriber and never got around to re-subscribing, maybe I actually got it but lost it... Dunno.
Who knows; maybe the Post Office lost it, maybe I was a subscriber and never got around to re-subscribing, maybe I actually got it but lost it... Dunno.
If I recall, you won something where you got the next six issues for free, so you didn't have to re-subscribe.
I also have issue number 8 saved, but it was only about 30% completed. I'll gonna remaster them all. At the time, they were printed on a dot-matrix printer. :)