Classic Video Game Magazines....Even better than the games?

[Anthony1]

One thing about Retro-Gaming that I think is dramatically underated, is the value of old school video game magazines. Think about it. We love these old games. We wish that there was a major mainstream magazine devoted to our love.

Well, there isn't a major mainstream magazine that is devoted to us, but we can get the next best thing.....Issues of Gaming magazines from back in the day, when they were brand new, covering the issues and games of the current day. Old video game magazines like Game Players, the early EGM's and GamePro's. The early Die Hard Game Fan's and Next-Generations. The great years of Video Games and Computer Entertainment. Just to name a few of the great magazines that were on newstands in the very late 80's and throughout the early 90's.

To me it's awesome, for me to open up a issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly from the very early 90's. A issue that is talking about a brand new unknown Genesis game called, "Sonic the Hedgehog". A game that would end up changing the fortunes of Sega and Nintendo forever. It's just cool to me, to see the old advertisements. The old TurboGrafx-16 ads, and the really old original Genesis ads. And the ads for the first SNES games and stuff like that. It's just really sweet.

We don't have a current magazine that is covering the games that we love the most from the past, but we do have the old magazines that covered the games that we loved, when they were brand new. Before History had time to give it's ultimate stamp of approval or denial. It's cool to read the old articles, about systems that never saw the light of day. Systems like the SNES CD rom system. Games that never ultimately came out. Like Super Mario 5 CD on the SNES CD.

I just really feel that for whatever reason, people are very into getting the old games and the old systems, but the magazines that originally covered them, tend to be forgotten about.

Fine for me. Less people for me to have to compete with on Ebay. You see, I used to have the majority of all these magazines, but a number of years ago, my wife was cleaning out the garage, and she ended up getting rid of like 150 of my best gaming mags from the past. At the time, I wasn't a retro-gamer, and I didn't really care all that much. I sure as heck didn't want to see the magazines go, but I didn't put a huge fight into keeping them. Had the same thing happened now, there is no way I would have allowed her to throw them out.

So now, I'm on a mission to re-acquire all the old classic video game magazines that I had back in the day, and to also acquire the classic video game mags, that for one reason or another I didn't have at the actual time, but which I want to get now.

Right now, I'm trying to slowly but surely acquire the first 100 issues of: EGM, GamePro, Game Players, VG & CE. I'm also trying to get every single issue of Die Hard Game Fan and Next-Generation that were released. I still have a long ways to go, but I know that when I complete this collection, it will be a wonderfull collection to be able to look back on, and re-examine.

By the way, if anybody has any old gaming mags they want to dump, by all means, let me get a crack at them before the Garbage Man does.

[Astro Lad]

I agree 100%. Sometimes looking at an old magazine does an infinitely better job of rekindling the feeling of a game/era than actually playing a game and, yeah, the ads, editorials etc. all make you REALLY nostalgic. Be careful tho otherwise you're gonna start another e-bay cottage industry and 90's EGMs will be going for $100/ea.

[Anthony1]

I agree 100%. Sometimes looking at an old magazine does an infinitely better job of rekindling the feeling of a game/era than actually playing a game and, yeah, the ads, editorials etc. all make you REALLY nostalgic. Be careful tho otherwise you're gonna start another e-bay cottage industry and 90's EGMs will be going for $100/ea.

You know, Ebay and the old video game magazines is very weird. The fluctuations in the valuations of the mags are dramatic. Some times you can pick up some nearly mint mags for a song, and sometimes they go for outrageous sums, at least, as far as magazines go. Just today I won an auction for some near mint early GamePros. I got them for around 15 bucks, 27 issues of very early GamePro. Of course shipping will be another 12 bucks, so it will end up being about a buck an issue, which is actually a super, super deal. I've seen early GamePro's like this go for like 13 bucks each! I've seen some of the really, really early issues of GamePro go for 20 bucks or more. I'm talking like the first 3 issues.

Also, Die Hard Game Fan's sometimes really go through the roof in price. I've seen early Game Fan's go for 10 bucks a piece at times.

But, then you also get some auctions that for whatever reason, nobody is paying attention to, and you can pick up some really good mags for virtually nothing.

[Gamereviewgod]

Not to hijack your topic Anthony, but does anyone know a good way to search for these on E-bay? Game Pro brings up tons of sports stuff, Next Generation is self explanatory, VG and CE brings up tons o' junk, and other various mags. I've always wanted to expand my mag collection to an ever more ridiculous level, but I find it so hard.

[Anthony1]

Not to hijack your topic Anthony, but does anyone know a good way to search for these on E-bay? Game Pro brings up tons of sports stuff, Next Generation is self explanatory, VG and CE brings up tons o' junk, and other various mags. I've always wanted to expand my mag collection to an ever more ridiculous level, but I find it so hard.

Actually, I think this is a major factor to the whole price fluctuations. I think that there are alot of very good auctions of old video game magazines that for some reason, nobody finds them.

What I usually do, is enter the word "magazines". Then there is this section that is "magazines and catalogs". I narrow the search, and just put in stuff like "egm", "gamepro", "video", "game". Stuff like that. Still for some reason, I will find other mag auctions in other places, that don't come up under those searches. It's weird.

I'm probably ruining things for me, by even bringing this topic up. Now there are going to be alot of people snagging auctions right from under me.

[Dr. Morbis]

Using quotes and brackets will help your search a lot.

For example: "Next Generation" (vg, games, mags, magazines, issues, volumes)

That search will bring up any auctions that have the words "Next Generation" in a row AND any one of the words in the brackets. Conversely, if you put a negative sign in front of the first bracket, it will exclude all auctions that have any of the word(s) in the parentheses in its title.

For example: "Game Pro" -(sports, baseball, basketball, whatever)

[slip81]

Hey i'm also interested in collection old gaming mags, but i only want old issues of egm (i'm trying to get a coplete run) if anyone has any that they want to get rid of let me know. If they are one i want i will either buy them or trade other mags for them, i have some old gamepros, gamefans, and egm2, xtreme gamer, computer gaming monthly.

if interested let me know, slipstation@yahoo.com

[Ze_ro]

I'm pretty big into magazine collecting as well... I have a fairly large amount of GamePro and EGM's from the early-to-mid 90's, and I've been trying to flesh out my collection recently. Luckily for me, the local thrift store sells magazines for $0.49 each, so I can get armloads of them for $5-10 (Of course, I have to wade through tons of crappy women's magazines). My favorites have got to be the early Nintendo Power magazines. They have excellent coverage of games (their maps are very well done), and for some reason, the lame cartoon (the ones with Nester) are just so campy and classic. Remember when GamePro used to include cartoons too?

While we're discussing magazines, does anyone know of any good ways to keep track of a magazine collection? I have somewhere near 200 magazines, and I certainly can't remember offhand which dates/issues I'm missing. Usually the best I can do is recognize the magazine covers. I've been considering cataloging them all in a spreadsheet, as that's how I already have my video game collection categorized. If possible, I'd like to have some (reasonably good) way of entering what games are showcased in which issues (Not necessarily every review of course), but I can't think of many good ways to do this with a spreadsheet. To make things more complicated, I'm running Linux, so Windows programs don't help me that much (but I'm flexible).

--Zero

[Half Japanese]

My mom was moving this weekend and I went to go get some of my stuff out of her house and I found about 200+ of my old game magazines!!!

translation:

I also found my DC box and a my DC Panther and Virtual Boy and some other old carts. Life is an adventure!

I had a ton of old EGM, GamePRO, Video Games (now-defunct sister mag of Tips and Tricks), Ultra Game Players and tons more! God bless being a pack-rat!

[16-bit]

Nice topic.

I collect video game magazines too. They are a nice resource to have and I grew up reading VG & CE so it is a nice nostalgia trip as well.

I have many early EGM and VG & CE issues that I want to get rid of.

I would be interested in trading for issues of Electronic Games (after they left VG & CE), EGM, and Gamefan that I do not have.

[YoshiM]

Whole heartedly agree. I used to have a decent collection of game magazines but I stupidly stored them in my shed where they got moisture damage. All those VG&CE's .

Gamepros are usually easy to find along with EGM. I've yet to find a Game Player's other than a strategy guide. And forget VG&CE, I can never find the suckers.

[scooterb23]

I used to collect GamePro...I had an 11 year coollection going...less than a dozen issues from complete I'd guess...

But I was running out of space..

Norkusa had them at last account

[NE146]

I just really feel that for whatever reason, people are very into getting the old games and the old systems, but the magazines that originally covered them, tend to be forgotten about.

No way brutha. At least here my video game magazines have always been prized possesions. All those hours and hours reading them while sitting on the can . Luckily I've always kept every single video game related literature I've had since I was a kid and still have them to this day, although they're pretty beat up now.

I totally agree it's awesome to read them and see the marketing, the hype, the write ups and reviews of games when they were fresh and new. It makes you want to dig out those games and play them again! Or alternatively it can introduce you to a game you missed back in the day.. a game you wouldn't have given notice to today. But there's something about reading a review, or seeing the ads and pictures that makes it much more interesting.

I have a good collection of my original 80's magazines (Joystik, Electronic Games, Video Games, etc.) and am now occasionally picking up missing ones off Ebay.

However, ...EGM? Since I was in college in the 80's and actually had my own money, for EGM I have em ALL Well.. maybe 99% of them. I have one of their original issues when they were known as Electronic Game Player (EGP) and of course all their spin offs (Mega Play, International Gaming) etc. I love it!

[hydr0x]

i'm also one of the mag collectors around, though i do collect german mags (Mega Fun, Total, N-Zone, Maniac, Fun Vision....) mainly, and nearly nobody else does, the only mags that tend to get expensive are official DC magazines. i'm still trying to complete my Club Nintendo and Fun Vision collections right now, on a good way but there are some very hard to find issues

[lendelin]

I love old game mags as well...for all the reasons already mentioned, plus they were a big help when I bought some games from ebay some time ago. I read actually old gamereviews in NP and GamePro to check if I'd like the game.

I have around 500 - 600 mags, GamePro from 1991 on til today, all Nintendo Powers, EGM from 1992 - 1998, all SwatPros, all EGMs yearly buyers guides, and some other stuff; and becasue I'm anal retentive as they come, everything looks like new. I didn't engage in hindsight collecting, just never threw anything videogame realted away.

I'd like to complete my EGM and GamePro collection, but then...I wasn't in the mood to look on ebay in the last year nor did I have the time.

LONG LIVE THE OLD GAME MAGS!

[Ruudos]

I'm trying to get the earlier Club Nintendo issues and saw them once. The olny ones issues I spot sometimes, are the ones I already have.
I've once bought a big lot of magazines for just $10, the ad only said that it were Power Unlimited mags, but I got a lot more, some Mean Machines, some NMS, an EGM, a N64 special from Edge, and a bunch of N64 mags.

[slip81]

to Ze_ro: the best way to catalog a collection of mags is to just sit down, make a list of all the issues you have and then right down the ones you need. Having only 200 mags this shouldn't take too long, i used this methood when i originally cataloged my comics collection, which consists of well over 4000 comics under about 30-40 different titles, but now that i have the list all i hvae to do is update it whenever i get more comics.

Also a note to anyone who read my previous post on this thread, i was mistaken, i don not have a bunch of old gamefans, but a bunch of old game informers, sorry if i got anyone's hope up.

[AB Positive]

I too am interested, but I'm picky. I want 16-bit era EGMs only. so like, '92-'96 basically. I used to have all these but very idiotically tossed them a long time ago. I still have one issue left, the very first video game mag I ever bought with SF2:CE on the cover.

If anyone sees a lot w/ EGMs from this era and wants to split with me, let me know. I have one saved right now. Plus, any TG-16 or Neo Geo mags I might pick up too.


There's nothing like seeing all the old ads, chuckling at the systems that were supposed to be the next big thing (the EGM I have left has an article on the upcoming FM Towns Marty ). All the old rumors and grumblings about what might happen next. I loved the 16-bit era, good good times

-AG

[RCM]

I think the magazines to get for any enthusiasts are the GAMEFAN magazines that came after Dave Halverson left and Eric Mylonas (ECM) took over. Those few short years were the best of my videogame magazine reading life. I have yet to see or read anything that can top them (to me people). Besides the dose of nostalgia you will get while reading you will also get important lessons that can help you become a better gamer. ANother lesser known magazine to check out is FOUL. It is based in NYC and had some cool content. Their reviews and writing skills sucked but they managed to always print some sort of interesting article about some rare proto or a cool custom piece of hardware or software. RIP GAMEFAN, I still love you!

THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM

[Anthony1]

I think the magazines to get for any enthusiasts are the GAMEFAN magazines that came after Dave Halverson left and Eric Mylonas (ECM) took over. Those few short years were the best of my videogame magazine reading life. I have yet to see or read anything that can top them (to me people). Besides the dose of nostalgia you will get while reading you will also get important lessons that can help you become a better gamer. ANother lesser known magazine to check out is FOUL. It is based in NYC and had some cool content. Their reviews and writing skills sucked but they managed to always print some sort of interesting article about some rare proto or a cool custom piece of hardware or software. RIP GAMEFAN, I still love you!

THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM

Actually, I think it's the complete opposite. I think the GameFan's with Dave Halverson, were the ones to cherish. Back in the early days of GameFan, every single page of the magazine contained content that meaned something. Not just a rehash of the marketing crap that was on the back of the box of the game. Even in the previews, they would give you a good idea how a game was coming along. How a game played, how a game flowed, how a game felt.

I love the early GameFan's. However, I'm actually trying to get a complete set of GameFan, regardless of Halverson's departure half-way through. I'm trying to get every single issue. Eventually.