Gaming magazines

[Pike]

Remember when these existed and were a huge thing? Which ones did you read? I have stacks of Nintendo Powers and Game Informers somewhere.

[AssassinDX]

I used to read the Official Nintendo and Playstation magazines in the early/mid-90's, and later Total! 64 (who I believe referred to the Playstation as the 'gaystation' - my mum didn't buy that magazine afterwards when she saw that) and N64 Magazine (I still have a keyring for it on my set of keys, and they called Sony's console the Pl**station for what it's worth). I also read Play Magazine which I think covered all the consoles of the time.

I threw a load of them out when I moved out of my parents house, but I still have a few in the attic somewhere including issue 1 of... some magazine or another, I know it has Earthworm Jim in the style of Da Vinchi's Vitruvian Man on the cover. I'll dig them out one day.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I have a box of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazines that I still look at occasionally. The only other one I ever used to look at was Playstation magazine, and that was just when they had something special come with it like a demo disc or when it had a disc containing The Eternal Calm video for FFX.

I do have a subscription for Game Informer right now but I just don't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the old magazines for whatever reason. There were just some things about EGM like Seanbaby reviewing awful, awful games that really pulled me in.

[Wolf Kanno]

I used to read a ton of these growing up. my favorite were GamePro, PSM: Unofficial Playstation Magazine, Nintendo Power, Gamefan, Play, EGM2 and CVG. Lately I like Retro Games but I don't have a subscription. EGM had its moments but I rarely agreed with them and Game Informer was better when they first started out and used more colorful dialogue when reviewing a bad game nowadays its like reading EGM before they went bust.

[Agent Proto]

I collected Nintendo Power back in the 90's. I also bought other gaming magazines on the whim, mostly for drawing the pictures from the games I liked. I still get GameInformer, but it's for my brother. Oh well :shobon:

[Bolivar]

I used to subscribe to GamePro and would scour the others in the magazine aisle whenever my mom took us grocery shopping at Pathmark. I suppose that was the back in the day equivalent of opening up a couple tabs of gaming sites.

I really miss the innocent enthusiasm the editors of the older mags had, compared to the snark and cynicism of online journalism today. I guess it's a casualty to turning a hobby into an artform.

[Colonel Angus]

The old days of GamePro were great. I had a subscription from '92-'08 or something. It's a shame I threw them all out a few years ago, but I felt they were taking up room & half of them were in crappy shape from the constant readying & carrying around. :( It was my dream to work for GamePro.

I miss the personas they used for their reviewers. That was a cool concept. Almost like what people have on message boards re: our screen names.

[Mercen-X]

GamePro, eXpert Gamer, EGM, PSM, Play, Official U.S. Playstation Magazine, T&T, XBOX Magazine (despite not owning an XBOX until long after), Game Informer, Edge Magazine... I got a box full of Nintendo Power from my cousin despite the fact that it was incredibly pointless. I did appreciate one issue which was a complete walkthrough of Castlevania (I forget which one... you could play as a pirate, I think).

I was just thinking recently. It may be cheaper to access gaming information online, but it's not necessarily quicker. With all of the ad placements slowing down page loading, you may never see certain pages compared to being able to just pick up a paperback and flip through to something interesting. I remember constantly buying issues simply for one article in the whole mag. It wasn't exactly cheap, but I didn't have to wait.

[Pumpkin]

I still read one of them. Game informer?

[Jiro]

The Australian gaming magazine scene is still growing. PCPowerplay increased its distribution by like 5% last year. I've ever really only read HYPER and PCPP and I write for both of them now so that's kind of awesome. I have a couple of Game Informer copies lying around but those motherfuckers didn't even acknowledge my pitch so fuck them.

[Sephex]

When I was a kid I was subscribed to Nintendo Power for many years. I still have several of them lying around. I wish I took better care of them.

As I got into my teens I was subscribed to EGM the most. I got others like Game Informer and GMR only because they came with one of those discount cards and Gamestop. I still have several of those lying around. They are fun to look back on occasionally.

In fact, a coworker gave me the latest Game Informer to thumb through earlier tonight. The layout looks neater compared to how I remember it being.

The last magazine I actually paid with my own money was Nintendo Power's last issue. There were a lot of cool retrospectives from various past and present writers, as well as game developers.

[Araciel]

EGM

There was another one which had such amazing art direction but I forget what it was called :(

[escobert]

The only one I ever went out of my way to get was PCgamer. I did get game informers over the years from Gamestop

[Ayen]

I used to be subscribed to Nintendo Power and Electronic Gaming, but don't follow either anymore. I even sent in a question to Nintendo about how to clean the screen off the Game Boy Advance and they sent me a reply back. That was pretty cool. I was hoping to get the question in the magazine, but having them write back to me was just as good.

[Rez09]

I had subscriptions to GamePro, PSM, and EGM at various times, and I used to love reading them. I used to share the information inside with the people I knew (not that anyone really cared looking back) and I felt super important. >: D

I lost interest in the publications a long time ago though, and I haven't followed any gaming magazines since PSM changed its name a while back. That said, I do pop onto EGM's site every now and then to see what they are up to and listen to their podcast.

[Aulayna]

Official Nintendo Magazine UK was the best.

They included so much collectible stuff with most issues. Got things like NES controller keyrings, Paper Mario stand-ups, Zelda figurines etc.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I read GamePro. It was a good mixture of reviews and humor that made me chuckle.

I still ready my Skullbat for The Cleansing. All Hail Gazuga!

[Dat Matt]

There was a Sega magazine I used to collect in the 90s. Can't remember any thing about it, bar it giving away disc 1 of panzer dragoon saga as s give away gift. That was rad, tried to get the game for Christmas, but got a basketball game instead which was crap

[Loony BoB]

I used to buy PC Gamer in NZ, ans PlayStation magazine. Not often, because I didn't have much cash coming in at the time, but it was always a good read and I do miss gaming magazines in general. If only the internet didn't beat them to everything, and as mentioned by Bolivar, if only they retained their enthusiasm and upbeat nature.

[metagloria]

I had (almost) every GamePro from January 1993 into the early '00s. The one I missed was October '94, with Sonic and Knuckles on the cover. I'll never forget that, because I tried to find it for the longest time, and I loved S&K.

[Del Murder]

I was a huge GamePro and Nintendo Power fan back in the day. I still have all the old NPs somewhere staring with the first issue. I'm sure they're worth...absolutely nothing. :laugh:

These days I read Game Informer. They seem pretty fair and the articles are interesting.

[Mirage]

I used to buy Official Playstation Magazine, because they were the only ones with playable demos.

[Bubba]

I have every issue of Super Play magazine which ran for four years whilst the Super Nintendo was out. They're all in mint condition as well so they're probably worth a few bob.

I had this dream a while back that I went back in time there offices when they were still in publication. I was explaining to them all about the future of gaming, Sony and Microsoft's dominance, the internet, everything. It was awesome.