Super Play Magazine! Who read it? Who misses it?

[theMot]

The SNES was an excellent console and without a doubt Super Play was the bible according to all things SNES/S FAMICOM and even N64 towards the magazines death. September will be 10 years since Super Play got the axe :(

I remember Digital Press was featured once or twice in SP's fanzine section back in the day :) . the fanzine feature was a really cool part of the mag i thought. For a magazine so main stream it had a lot of focus on what were back then pretty obscure subjects like Anime and RPG's, in fact i would attribute a lot of how popular RPG's became outside of Japan due to this mag unearthing them.

Good Times! I remember every month going down to the Newsagents sifting through all the other SNES mags (the'yre was at least 10 i can remember from back then) and finding my copy of Super Play. Wil Overtons cover art work alone made it worth the price! All the excellent stuff (journalism) inside from the likes of Zy N, Tony Mott, Johnathan Davies, Jason Brookes, James Leach and company was the icing on the cake.

If your a SNES fan and you never read it and dont know what the hell im on about , go for a look on EBAY you can find copies for a dollar or two. It's really worth having a look at. I havent found a mag since then that's been half as good.

Was anyone else a reader?

[Mayhem]

Yep, I've still got all 47 issues here in binders, along with everything they gave away with it

SuperPlay truly was, imo, the greatest magazine produced in the 90s (with Zzap!64 taking the honours for the 80s). It had great writing, great balance, enthusiasm, verve, wit and seemed to be written for gamers by gamers.

Anyone wanting to check it out should look for the mysterious "Mort" online and inquire about a DVD with scans on...

(not official and uncover because Future have stopped authorised sale of the scans now)

[tom]

Except for Tony Mott, an idiot who I had a great slanging match with. He obviously presumed I am English, made fun of my grammar, and in the last issue, made a grammar mistake himself, so he looked the fool. He took over Edge, those were the darkest Edge years, and he was on UK TV trying to talk about video games. He knew nothing...
Me and Steve Goss (UK programmer) always had a good laugh about him

[theMot]

Except for Tony Mott, an idiot who I had a great slanging match with. He obviously presumed I am English, made fun of my grammar, and in the last issue, made a grammar mistake himself, so he looked the fool. He took over Edge, those were the darkest Edge years, and he was on UK TV trying to talk about video games. He knew nothing...
Me and Steve Goss (UK programmer) always had a good laugh about him

Which issues were the slanging match in? LOL I thought Tony was good for what it's worth.

Mayhem, yeah ive got that DVD of the scans. Good stuff, it must have taken Mort ages to scan all that.

[Mayhem]

Mort is not human at times when it comes to scanning

Just glad to have helped out on the SuperPlay DVD as I had a bundle of stuff photographed/scanned from my collection he didn't own. Mostly the free gifts.

[poloplayr]

Super Play still remains my all-time favourite magazine. God, the memories. I'm thinking of /buyingcollecting all old issues. My mummy threw out all my old stuff when I left for uni years ago.

[hydr0x]

if anyone could point me towards a source for that dvd that would be great (a torrent would be good either)

i ususally find the torrents and stuff i need but this one i didn't (i found the site that ONCE sold the dvd and now's still selling a lot of others, but they stopped selling this one!)

[2Dskillz]

I am actually not familiar with this zine.

Did exclusively cover nintendo, or all systems. What were the highlights that made it so cool?

[Mayhem]

@hydr0x - as said, look for a guy called Mort online. You can find him in various places including the Zzap!64 site, Retro Gamer, Lemon64 and more.

@2Dskillz - Superplay was dedicated to the Super Nintendo only. In a console capacity. It had no problem covering anime as well, seeing as quite often the two interlinked. If you're interested, go get the DVD and have a read

What made it stand out was that it was written incredibly well, BY people who were good writers AND interested in playing games, FOR people who wanted the same. The tone and level taken by the prose was sufficiently adult enough to not sound like they were talking down to the readers, and it had a wide variety of angles, interests and features.

Plus the artwork was superb, done by Wil Overton who now works for Rare. A new piece by him is on the cover of issue #20 of Retro Gamer, and there might be more in the future.

[specialmove]

I got a letter printed in it once (think it was one with a megaman cover?) Twas a great mag. Binned all mine years ago, shame really.

[illegalbrain]

I know this is an old thread, but I found it whilst looking for stuff about Super Play magazine, of which I'm slowly rebuilding a collection.

Anyway, the good news is I just found the torrent for that CD with all the issues on it at undergroundgamer.com

[Steven]

I know this is an old thread, but I found it whilst looking for stuff about Super Play magazine, of which I'm slowly rebuilding a collection.

It's funny you bump this. Because of theMot posting this thread in early January 2006 I became aware of Super Play's great existence. I went on a hunt for it and well, my journey is an unbelievable one that can be read here:

http://www.rvgfanatic.com/7464/57222.html

Ironic... late late last night I was just reading over that article I wrote... recalling the great memories. I actually was reading the final SP issue (#47) just five minutes before I'm writing this post now! Literally. Scary...

Super Play was definitely an awesome mag, IMHO, only Sega Saturn Mag tops it.

[ccovell]

Yeah, SP was a great magazine! I loved reading it back in the day, and I even have good memories of the monthly walking trips going to the only newsstand in my town that stocked the magazine.

A long time ago, I made a short article on my page about the classic days of EGM and Super Play. I've rescued it from the internet archive, so please take a look here:

http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/c...ial_index.html

[Steven]

A long time ago, I made a short article on my page about the classic days of EGM and Super Play. I've rescued it from the internet archive, so please take a look here:

http://www.disgruntleddesigner.com/c...ial_index.html

Great piece! Reminds me of my own magazine-loving ways (if you pop around my site you'll see a couple magazine-related articles as well).

<<<
So, my love for EGM pretty much stayed up until mid-1993 or so. After that, the glut of SF2 stuff and Genesis stuff turned me off. Despite that, I retained my subscription of EGM until about 1997, because I was interested in the SNES and N64 information that EGM had. Still, EGM were by that time merely shadows of their former selves
>>>

Really? I thought EGM was actually in its prime in 93 and 94. But then again, I was always a bigger SNES fan than NES. I feel the quality was never the same after they cranked out the Dec. 94 issue, the biggest magazine ever clocking in at over 400 pages. It was like they exhausted every resource to create that legendary issue. Jan 95 on... the "spirit" was never the same IMHO.

I thought EGM actually maintained a decent level of quality into late 1997 even. Issue #100 is not only beautiful asthetically (sp?) but it is well written, almost harkening back to EGM's glory years. That was Nov. 97. However, when Ed Semrad officially left around issue #105 or so, the mag went downhill and continued its downward spiral. No offense to Dan Hsu, whom I like, but he couldn't hold Ed's editor jock.

I got EGM for free in the 00's, and they developed that "edgy tough we're cool" attitude that I hated so much. And I'm not alone.

Finally, I do agree with you on EGM's International Outlook section in the early days. I loved it too and it really opened my eyes that there was indeed a market outside the US...

But back to SP...

Amazing piece, my man. It's amazing how similar our magazine interests are. SP and EGM are in my top 3 all-time publications (Sega Saturn Magazine is #1, another ace UK mag). Reading your retrospective almost brings a tear to my eye (hyperbole), and I'll definitely have more magazine articles on my site in the near future.

The humor wasn't always on the mark for me in SP, but you're right it was wry and perceptive, not the lame kiddy stuff you'd find in say GamePro. It didn't slag us with RADICAL! and MONSTER! either, like too many magazines from that era. Overall, I do think it's *slightly* overhyped by the diehard fans out there (I think mainly because SSM spoiled me such) but I know why they love SP so -- it was indeed a great pub... filled with passion and style. I just wish they had more "showcases" like SSM had. Championing the upcoming hot releases one month in a 6-page blowout, then have the review the next month or two to give us the final blowdown.

Regardless, there'll never be another mag quite like Super Play.

[ccovell]

Really? I thought EGM was actually in its prime in 93 and 94...

As with shark jumping, there are always 10 different opinions on when it actually happened...

:-)