Do you prefer modern day mags that cover the retro scene or old mags from back in the day ?

[WCP]

So, it seems when you're a fan of retrogames, and you enjoy magazines, there are two different possible routes to take. One route, is to collect the classic magazines from the actual era. You know, early issues of GamePro, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Players, Video Games & Computer Entertainment, etc, etc.


You can read the mags, and see the advertisements and stuff, and it's like stepping back in time. You get a real feel for the vibe of the gaming scene for that month and year of the issue that you're looking at.




Another option, is to buy any of the current day magazines that cover the hobby of retrogaming. These magazines mostly look back upon certain retrogaming topcis, and cover things from a perspective of the modern gamer looking back at the best that retrogaming has to offer.



Of course, there are tons of people that could give a rats ass about reading anything printed on paper, and they are perfectly happy downloading scans of old mags onto their tablets. Or maybe getting the tablet version of various retrogaming mags.


I enjoy collecting the classic mags. I like being able to pull them out, hold them in my hands, and browse thru the issues. Sometimes I will read the articles and the reviews and such, but mostly I just really love looking at the various advertisements and stuff. Nothing can take me back to the early 90's like a classic issue of EGM or Die Hard GameFan. I understand the appeal of the new specialized magazines devoted to the idea of retrogaming, but I actually prefer to read the issues from back in the day, where they are talking about everything like it's happening right now. I like that perspective better than looking back on it like a historian.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Old magazines! I still read them. I'm currently reading thru old EGMs starting from issue 3 and I just hit when the SNES was being released Aug/Sept. 91...Great times!

[Tanooki]

The old ones, they stand for the period and what the period stood for. They weren't looking back with rosy tinted beer goggles, just the eyes of someone on the cutting edge who never knew what was going to happen next since it was pre-internet and they'd cream themselves over something stunning. Now everything is online and ruined months before it arrives if you keep up with things and then you get all the looking back at how great stuff was despite the fact it never was always great, just had great moments and plenty enough to chain together a delusion of perfection.

[Oldskool]

The old ones, they stand for the period and what the period stood for. They weren't looking back with rosy tinted beer goggles, just the eyes of someone on the cutting edge who never knew what was going to happen next since it was pre-internet and they'd cream themselves over something stunning. Now everything is online and ruined months before it arrives if you keep up with things and then you get all the looking back at how great stuff was despite the fact it never was always great, just had great moments and plenty enough to chain together a delusion of perfection.

You saved me from a lot of typing.

[Zama]

I missed the classic mags from the 90s like Expert Gamer, Tips & Tricks, & Gamers' Republic I remembered many summers ago, I would wandered into the magazine section at the supermarket during a weekly shopping spree, and see all these video game mags in all of their colorful cutting-edge vibe, just waiting to be read by someone. Those mags gave me an inside look on the latest news and previews to look forward to next month or so. It was a really great feeling of wonder and being in harmony with your favorite hobby

[celerystalker]

Classic magazines all the way. Aside from liking the original context, I also like the more colorful, abstract designs a lot of the old magazines like Nintendo Power had. I was so happy a couple of months ago when I stumbled on a couple of old issues of Sega Visions and GamePro at a local store and snapped them up.

Most important in making the distinction for me, though, is what I use them for aside from nostalgia. I like to dig through the old preview and "coming soon" sections of old magazines and look for games that never came out, and then try to track them down if they came out in another region and try them. I would never have tried games like Battle Dodgeball or Gradius II without those old magazines reminding me of them in their own charming way filled with in-the-moment enthusiasm.

[ZeroCool]

The old magazines...I also really love the advertisements from the time...makes me feel young again. Another reason why I like reading my old Archie Comics. They had old advertisements especially the one where you sold stationery to win different prizes. Its also interesting seeing a list of NES games that were being sold through mail and they had the price right beside it.

[WCP]

Do you guys read the scans of EGM and stuff like that on your tablets, or are you actually getting your hands on the real issues ?


Reason I ask, is because I actively collect a ton of different mags, and one thing I enjoy about it, is that there doesn't seem to be that huge of a demand for these old issues, and you can sometimes get them for a song if you wait long enough and are patient enough. Sure the Ebay "Buy It Nows" can be quite outrageous on many classic mags, but few actually sell at that price. Most of the mags that sell, are multiple mags where you can get the issues for around $3 or $4 each per issue.


To me, it would seem like if there really were a lot of people collecting these magazines, the prices would be way higher. So I'm kinda glad in a way that less people seem to be trying to get these mags. Just makes it easier and less expensive for me.

Still, I think more and more retrogamers should look into getting their hands on the real deal issues. It's quite enjoyable, to have a comfortable rocking chair, near a window with some nice sunlight coming in, sipping on a cup of coffee, reading a classic issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. I especially like all the earlier mags with the higher quality paper. Just feels really good to the touch. In the mid to late 90's all the magazines started to use the cheapo recycled paper which kinda sucks.

[Steven]

Old magazines all the way.
Although I am subscribed to Retro (the one funded via Kickstarter) and enjoy that, too.

But nothing can beat the EGMs and GameFans of the early-mid '90s. Love flipping through them -- as someone already stated it's akin to stepping inside a time machine of sorts

[YoshiM]

I agree with what Tanooki said. Reading the "retro-mags" are neat to read a review of the past so to speak but it's someone else's viewpoint. Some authors tend to write about the elder games with all the flourish of today's gaming media prose that tends to look too deep into a title or machine. Some remind me of the stereotype of an art critic, who describes the subtle nuances of what they see and make it seem like it was some drive or the programmer tapped into some inner feeling to come up with what they did.

Reading magazines from the era either brings you back or is a window to how gaming was. Games, what was popular, advertising, hints that even though you were told what was coming up at the end it wasn't really a "spoiler" as you had to have skill to get to that point, and the articles themselves. So different from today and I prefer that. I never preferred the "new" journalism that crept in when the Web became more accessible and popular.

[Az]

At first it was hard for me to go back and read those magazines for several reasons. One was the brutal honesty that they (mostly) were geared towards kids and young 'ens so it's a bit hard to digest as an adult. Another was that "standards" or whatever stick used to measure things weren't quite as thought out as they are today, so you often get reviews that speak a lot but say nothing. Lots of previews, especially import ones, were just a single blurry screenshot or two often lifted from Japanese magazine surrounded by a few sentences of trite nonsense that you could tell was someone just conjecturing about the screenshots.

However, after a while of reading modern EGM, Game Informer, etc... it's same dog and pony show cranked to 11 while mixed with equal parts pretension and endless circle-jerking. Instead of a blurry screenshot preview with nonsense text we get a massive 2 page spread of one single HD screenshot (which may or may not be gameplay footage or seen from the actual gameplay angle) along with 1000 word interviews with everyone but the guy that scrubs the toilets. The hype is endless for months until the actual game ships..... then all the sudden it's reviewed as a turd. You're fucking telling me you guys spent all this time with all the developers and all the preview versions and didn't realize it was a shit game until after devoting 3 covers and 50 pages of previews to it? Really?

Modern magazines are filled with "journalists" who pontificate endlessly about nothing, who speak a lot but say little. Journalists to bleat on and on about the effects of lacking transgender biracial paraplegics as player avatars and being glad that new systems are released simply because current gen has "been out there too long". Magazines so pretentious and up their own asses that it's quite refreshing to read a Nintendo Power designed to be sold to a 8 year old. My favorite magazine of all time (Diehard Gamefan) was just a bunch of assholes who loved playing games. At the time they never claimed to be lofty "game journalists".

A recent EGM had a review of GTAV from a staffer that had never played GTAIII because he was too young when it came out. Look, I'm completely sorry, I'm going to show my age here. If you were still shitting yellow when GTAIII was released then your opinion on pretty much every gaming issue is invalid. Journey away from your mother's apron strings and be a game "journalist" to report news, but don't dare act as if your opinion has any validity.

[MidnightRider]

Modern retro mags can't bring you back to that sense of excitement for what's coming, like issues of older magazines can. Still, I wouldn't say they don't have their place, it just can't quite replace the experience, if that's even a goal for them.

[Nebagram]

Mags like Retro Gamer have their place but you can't be the old mags. Not all of them, obviously- but today's game mags just feel sedate compared to what came before. I won't name any particular mags (conscious of the Atlantic divide) but in the old days, late 80s/early 90s reading a game mag was a bit like reading a cross between a novel and a comic book. Nowadays it's like reading a newspaper- same old, same old, and no mags really have their own individual character any more.

[ProjectCamaro]

Old magazines from back in the day for sure. As for reasons see the posts above mine, I won't regurgitate the same information here.

[Zap!]

Easily old ones. I'm gonna sort my old VG&CE mags right now. Thanks, you inspired me.

[Bojay1997]

I see them as very different and as such, I enjoy both. I like the old magazines for the nostalgic feeling and their ability to provide a context of the time. I like the new magazines like Retrogamer because they provide a more in-depth factual analysis of the history behind the games, creators and companies that was often lacking in the older magazines.

[Peonpiate]

Old mags all the way for me, I bought them as a kid and still have literally several hundred in total from that era. I dont read them much anymore but every now and then ill flip through one when i feel like doing so. I still have the original EGM Mortal Kombat 1 console "preview" issue, where they "claimed" that even the SNES game had blood and gore in it at the time [yet all the SNES pics they provided showed NO gore, just like its actual release,, but in hindsight its funny how big of a deal that was]. I have mostly EGM and Next Generation magazine, I collected EGM until Ziff Davis bought them out and their quality jumped off a cliff when the Sendai editors left...Next Gen was, imo, utterly badass for its first 3 years of production, but again it nosedived when it changed management/editors.

[Dr. BaconStein]

The only game magazine I have ever subscribed to is Nintendo Power. I had it from around '98 or '99 to '05 or '06. I didn't even know they still make dedicated gaming magazines. Retro Gamer looks pretty cool, do they ship to US?

[wizardofwor1975]

I don't mind the new ones. Although their is an element of nostalgia that I'm just as guilty of myself that can skew the articles. However, I do collect the older gaming magazines and enjoy reading them.

[Gentlegamer]

The old ones, they stand for the period and what the period stood for. They weren't looking back with rosy tinted beer goggles, just the eyes of someone on the cutting edge who never knew what was going to happen next since it was pre-internet and they'd cream themselves over something stunning. Now everything is online and ruined months before it arrives if you keep up with things and then you get all the looking back at how great stuff was despite the fact it never was always great, just had great moments and plenty enough to chain together a delusion of perfection.

Well said, and I'll add that often the ads of each issue are more valuable than the preview/reviews, and editorials.

I recently acquired a big stack of EGM from the 91-95 era, and it is pure joy poring through each volume... the old ads and editorial info sometimes points out games I've over looked for decades!