Do you collect classic gaming mags, and why?

[josekortez]

I collected EGMs, Tips & Tricks and Play even though those aren't necessarily retro. I remember my mom made me throw out my entire collection of Nintendo Powers when I left for college, but I don't miss them.

[TheRedEye]

I collect old video game magazines purely for research reasons, but I have yet to actually use them for that purpose. So I just keep them stored in boxes just in case some day I make a reference library out of them.

[ncman071]

i actually recieved the nov and dec '93 issues of EGM in the mail a couple days ago as well as the Dec. 98 issue of Gamepro. its funny because the maturity of mid 90's EGM is not nearly as immature as mid to late 90's gamepro. the older issues i just recieved of EGM are still very readable and flat out better than the current EGM's not just because they're bigger but because the editorials are just better.

[Steve W]

I don't actively collect old game magazines, but I'm not amiss to picking a bunch up if I find them in the wild. A couple years ago I was out at a flea market, and the guy there had all sorts of junk strewn across the ground for sale. I ended up picking up an Atari 7800 (no power supply), a few Atari 8-bit computer cartridges, and something like a dozen old game mags, all for something like $5. I got the ones that were most likely to have reviews of game machines I liked, like the Atari 7800, Lynx, or Jaguar. They were pretty nice to read, but some of the early-'90s cheesiness stood out. Lots of bad full page ads back then to laugh at.

[Steven]

They were pretty nice to read, but some of the early-'90s cheesiness stood out. Lots of bad full page ads back then to laugh at.

All part of the fun/charm. I loved seeing all those ads, seeing the different ways different companies promoted their games. My friend and I would yell out "COMMERCIAL!" and automatically flip the page whenever we came across an ad way back in the early 90s. Good times. I've long since learned to appreciate the ads in their own way.

[YoshiM]

The reason for why is kinda similar to PDF's. I didn't throw mine out, I stored mine in a shed and they got water damaged. Now I *could* have kept them but I tossed them, even though they were still readable. I was in a weird mindset then. I had issues 1 of Game Players, EGM AND VG&CE for crying out loud. After a while I missed reading them so from that point on I started scouring the land and intertubes for them.

Now what I collect and why:

VG&CE: to me hands down the best gaming magazine of the late 80's to early 90's before it changed. People may consider it a bit "dry" but the mag was very informative and exposed me to more games on both console and PC, the latter of which I didn't own when I read the magazine. Reading the big story on Wing Commander pushed me to buy a VGA card just to play this game along with the issue that described the Sega Genesis. I've got a pretty good selection now, more than I had when I was a teenager. I'm still missing a bunch of the first year, though.

Game Player's: Not as good as V&CE but I still enjoy the read. Usually Game Player's covered things that VG&CE didn't, so it made an excellent companion mag. The Nintendo guides weren't too shabby either. I don't have a lot of original Game Player's, maybe four (including the first issue again!) but I did acquire a lot of Nintendo guides and the latter versions of Game Player.

EGM: I always like the photos in EGM and the multiple view, quick shot reviews of the Review Crew. What was neat about EGM is that you could practically see how huge the industry got just by the size of the magazine. It started thin and by like 93 or 94 it got HUGE (300+ pages) and then it started to scale down again. Granted EGM had a lot of ads but to me they were fun to see and are interesting today.

Nintendo Power: Actually I stopped collecting this mag after I got all the mags I originally used to own. When I was a teenager I got the last three issues of the Nintendo Fun Club Newsletter and then subscribed to Nintendo Power along with buying the Zelda: Tips and Tactics guide. I let my subscription run out because I could get my Nintendo news from sources with better writing. This was by far the easiest mag to collect and probably the cheapest.

As for the "where" part of the question: eBay and here (Buying and Selling) mostly. I did buy an issue of VG&CE from J2Games because I really wanted it and the price was decent enough.

[m117]

I don't actually collect classic gaming mags. I do keep a few recent years of EGM, PSM, and OPM. The few classic ones that I have are three Nintendo Powers with street fighter covers from II, II Turbo, and Super.

[Videogamerdaryll]

Yes,..I've been collecting them for years,80s..My storage unit is filled with boxes of them..I only have so old retro gaming magaines here /for arcade-pinball...the Dreamcast,ps,saturn etc.(plus new mags.
I mainly collect them because I hate throwing them out.
I'd buy a gaming magazine,read it then put it on a shelf,later box..

Then pull them out in the future to look through them...

[telengard]

I collect old mags also but my cutoff (arbitrary on my part) is 1989. I don't collect anything newer than that. I have mostly computer related mags and some gaming ones (CGW) for example. I wish it were as easy as just going to a website to get the ones I need to finish collections. Some of them literally show up once every few years on eBay.

~telengard