What was THE independent gaming mag back in the day?

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>>3374948
It felt like all gaming mags in the 90s were based.

What do you mean by "THE"?

>>3374961
Best or most well known. The one that you have to read if you can only read one.


..because I want to read some.

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>>3374959
Prince Robot?

>>3374948
EGM and Next Generation.

>>3374959
Game Fan was honestly pretty retarded. Their layouts looked like they were made by a teenager and their writing reflected that. The only thing interesting about them was the behind the scenes shit like when their writers bought a hooker in Vegas, their checks being withheld, or when Halverson reviewed Cybermorph while tripping on acid.

>>3374970
EGM if you wanted to see pretty pictures of all the new games.
Video Games Tips & Tricks if you wanted something smarter but less flashy.
Next Generation if you wanted to look smarter, and had a pole up your butt over 3D.
Gamefan if you wanted your eyes to bleed.
Gamepro, lol.

>>3374959
I used to love the style of the 90s Future Publishing mags, especially Gamesmaster, which was hilariously sardonic and eccentric at times. Total was pretty funny too.

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>>3374996
>Gamepro
THE best right here

>>3374996
EGM it is then. Is there an archive for this stuff?

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>>3375008
5 seconds of Binging.
https://archive.org/details/gamemagazines
https://www.retromags.com/

>>3375008
>archive

https://archive.org/details/electronicgamingmonthly

>>3375015
>5 seconds of Binging.
>claiming to use Bing
>not a Bing shill

>>3375015
>>3375018
>the archive org links
Nice, thanks guys.

>retromags
I've been there, but it seems that you have to register to view the mags

>>3375028
Next time I'll just ask Jeeves.

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Of all the magazines... Next Generation was my favorite.
It was well written and didn't cater to children.

>>3374948
Gamefan without question.
I loved how Nick Rox shit all over Eurotrash games.

>>3374980
Only thing retarded here is your shitposting
>Next Gen
Wew lad
I remember one of the covers proudly heralding "The End of Console Gaming" back in the mid 90s. The instrument of this destruction was some laughably terrible looking PC game who's name I can't even remember.
Suffice to say, we know how things turned out.

>>3375879
Hyperblade

>>3375528
>my mature taste
It was proto Gaf. So far up it's own ass that it became laughable.

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I used to be way into PSM

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>>3374979

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>>3375905
this

>>3375031
...so? Register, then.

>>3374948
I like that there are magazines nowadays about retro gaming still being made and sold but I suppose that's not what OP was looking for, I guess ...

Back in the day I read the (then independent) dutch gaming magazine Power Unlimited which also had some pretty crazy writers and some reviews that made no sense at all. Almost every screenshot had some kinda joke written under it and even if it did some special features like other gaming mags (e.g. newer consoles about to be released, some celebrity who did a gaming session) it was quite refreshing how it didn't read like some obvious advertising or shilling but instead was filled with personality. I mean, every issue started with a prologue by one of the leading writers and then the rest of them wrote some kinda mini blogs. Nothing special nowadays but it was pretty unique back in the 90s. It still exists now and does modern games of course but it feels like they've become blander than other mags have ever been, even back then.

I also read Club Nintendo Extra when it was still published in the Netherlands. It had some cool stuff like a walkthrough for DKC2 where all the DK coins and bonus levels were hidden but that doesn't count because they weren't independent at all (they were basically Nintendo's advertising disguised as a magazine).

I tried searching for scans of Diehard Gamefan, and got a few random pages. Looks like someone exercized their right to be forgotten on the internet.

>>3374980
When the hell did it become hip to hate GameFan?

Sure they were unprofessional, but that's because they were basically just a bunch of teenager who loved video games, working out of a back office. Do we really need professionalism in our game magazines? Not really. When I was a kid, I wanted two things: screenshots and hype. GameFan delivered in spades.

>>3376064
Preach on Dutch bro! I sold all my Power Unlimited mags years ago, from issue 1 up to wherever. NMS, EGM, EGM2, Gamefan, Superplay were my favs.

>>3375879
>Don't like defunct game magazine you read when you were 9
>WAAAAAAAH SHITPOSTING

Grow up nigger.

And while Next Gen engaged in sensationalism, at least they knew how to write, plus they did shit like call out Bernie Stollar for killing the Saturn or Nintendo fucking up with the N64.

>>3376180
Because Gamefan just looked like shit if you have even the slightest idea on how to do magazine layouts. And I kind of prefer that a magazine had people who knew to write without constantly engaging in hyperbole (like when they dropped Sonic CDs score by two whole points because it wasn't the superior Japanese soundtrack folded over 10,000 times, nor do they explain HOW it's different, just that it was "elevator music").

>m-muh screenshots and hype

So you read GameFag because it did the exact same thing every other magazine did?

>>3375897
>So far up it's own ass that it became laughable.

You're thinking of CGW.

dude i had like 9 or 10 vintage EGM's and abot 6 diehard gamefan's and a buttloaf of gamepros (but who gives a fugg abot gamepro) and i threw em all alway cause they were raggedy as hell and i wanted to make room on my shelf for more NINTENDO POWER magazines oh well at least i still got my NP's :D

>>3376314
thanks avgn

nintendo power was alright. But what about the other vidyo games?

>>3374948
Does anyone know if there are any retro-gaming magazines going that are actually good?

I got one in the UK and it was pretty bad, same bland stuff monthly for the most part. I'm not opposed to importing one if it's an entertaining read, especially if it has a letters section or competitions or something.

GameFan was the best, if just because it felt like it was made y people who were out-and-out excited to be writing about what they were writing about.

Ultra/GamePlayers also felt like it was fun as fuck. Bill Donahue, Francesca Reyes, and Chris Slate were great. Sucked when it turned into Game Buyers, though.

EGM may have been more reliable and such, and it was great as the "biggest" mag out there, but it read like a newspaper sometimes.

Tips & Tricks was great but never really "subscription worthy", until they began using the back pages for different kinds of articles like the Armored Corner or Tournament Updates or COOL IN JAPAN stuff. Still never was a top priority mag for me unless it was covering a game I was interested in, but it was always worth checking out those back pages.

GamePro, well, it wasn't bad, it wasn't necessarily great, it was always just kinda there. Some nice things from time to time, but it always had this aura of being "kiddy" to me.

NP is NP. If you're American, you should have an idea of what NP is even by osmosis.

I unironically liked EGM2/Xpert Gamer

NB for double post, but I randomly found this in my bookmarks just now, an issue of GameFan. Don't think Dave allowed too many to be uploaded, so maybe this'll be nice for someone browsing this thread and wondering about it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45478630@N07/

I was a Gamepro subscriber back then. Switched it up to Gamer's Republic and then to Shoe-era EGM.

I enjoyed Electronic Gaming Monthly for console stuff, and PC Gamer for... well PC stuff. PCG is dead to me now since all the old reviewers are gone and I haven't read EGM in years.

Next Generation had really nice card stock for the front cover for the first year or so.

>>3374948
>american magazine
>independent
>literally 95% ads
>they didn't even play a lot of the games they reviewed

>>3377810
>forgets to post non-american independant to defends autism.
>is disregarded after receiving replies pointing out autism.

>>3377662
EGM quit years ago. I used to love them.

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>>3377612
this is amazing ty. they talk about grandia too rad.

>>3375908
>Dengeki PC-Engine
>1993-1996
It seems I underestimated PC Engine.

>>3377824
I was worried for a sec before I realized they where reviewing anime there.

My dad and I bond over mech anime, Patlabor was one of the few we've watched together from beginning to end.

There isn't a patlabor game that made it to america right?

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>>3374948

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>>3377810
also
>stole much of its format from Famicon Tsushin
>regularly stole material from the internet

>>3378023
I dont think so. I didn't realize there were that many Patlabor games. I need to check them out.

Ok their text format was more fucked up than I remember but still awesome to see Policenauts.

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>>3378889
pic related

GamePro
EGM
PC Gamer

I was into Game Informer for a while before their new format in the early 2000s. Their satirical article "Game Infarcer' was hilarious.

I'm not really a fan of Nintendo Power, PSM, etc. Maybe in small doses.

>>3378892
when smoking was cool

>ywn own this many shitty game mags

why even live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaoZ2oDMJ04

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>>3378023
>when a comfy retro games mag thread segues into a Patlabor discussion

>>3379509
you know it baby I remember discovering a lot of anime in magazines before the internet. In magazines like Wizards at the comic book shop. Also thats why I loved game mags that would cover games releasing in japan.

>>3374948
Game players monthly and psm were pretty rad

>>3374948
>press play on VCR
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCbUMEooHhI
>go to record store and ask them to order you a KMFDM cd

>>3380751
what is the mad bull 34 of retro games?

>>3375905
Dem swimsuit specials.

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>>3380770
god bless Adam Warren
>>3375905

>>3375003
>funfactor isn't a fucking score anymore

seriously, it needs to be again

>>3374948
EGM was the standard. If you only subscribed to one magazine that would be it.

Game Fan, Tips n' Tricks, and Nintendo Power were all based as well.

>>3375905
PSM was only good for fapping to the fanart.

Pocket Gamer was one of my favorites. The Game Boy and Game Gear got glossed over so often in magazines because of their focus on consoles.
I also had a sub to GameInformer for probably 10 years, I always liked how the magazine never felt biased.

>>3376064
yeah, but those mags aren't the same as growing up with this shit

its really fucking sad to think that our gen is the first and last to have print magazines for the hobby within 22 years ending with NP really. i mean, i know XB mag and PCGamer are around, but who gives a fuck now?

my own list?
fucking gameplayers/ultra gameplayers
crazy letters section, fun reviews, cursed, subscriber letters and comics

unprofessional, but i had other mags for that shit like EGM/GPro/NP

i hated when they got rid of the writer alias's, it was stupid reasons im sure

>>3377602
lucky though, game buyer was only 4 issues and then bill and chris went to PSM until it died in like 2006 or something and fran went with frank to xbox mag, which is still going somehow.

then later capt'n slate went to NP which was really odd as fuck until it died in 2012 at 285 issues. really wish they could have left them go out on issue 300

>>3377824
some top pics are from miyuki chan in wonderland, a take on the classic book, but with lesbo shit.

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Tips & Tricks

cheat codes

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>>3380794
I love finding obscure retro anime.

>>3380791

Did Bill retire after PSM or something? Like yo usaid, Slate still pops up and Fran's still going, but I haven't seen Donahue around for a long while

>>3380890
hm, i believe bill did. i think he is still doing work with his band he had around the UGP and PSM period. he better still love super bomberman 2,.

anyone have the UGP cds that game with the mag? those things were cool with tips tricks and such, stuff from the editors, like bill.

>>3380896

I'm pretty sure I still have them somewhere, unless someone else threw 'em out for whatever reason. Those were great. They still work on modern computers, even?

>>3380903
should, they are fucking CDs
i have my old sam & max and it still works

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>>3379509
>>3378023
Sorry no scanner but here is a pic from a Nippon mag I have.

I've got several boxes of egm when they were in their peak non pc years

>>3375003
I still have 4 issues of Gamepro here, as well as almost complete collections of brazillian mags. They're pretty RAD bro.

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This should end the thread. Best games magazine, and until it died in 2007, the longest videogame magazine in continuous publication at the time.

>>3375003
The GamePro collection of gaming equipment and games is on display at the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment. When GamePro closed its doors, the MADE took everything for its collection. Come visit it sometime! What we really need is someone to organize our wall of magazines.

>>3375905
whoever drew that doesn't know how to draw

>>3382194
Wow this is in Oakland but I never heard of it. I really need to check this out since im in the Bay Area. Your collection looks very impressive.

>>3380825
One of best console mags ever.

Super Play was way ahead of it's time. It regularly exposed it's readership to Japanese culture, championed RPG's and nurtured the emerging anime scene.

I'll always have fond memories of this mag.

>>3382187
Would that not be Computer & Video Games (CVG) from the UK? I believe that was the world's first Vidya mag (estd 1980 as I remember) and it ran until sometime after 2010.

>>3375003
>a funny scoring scale compensates for the shitty writing and autistic editors with lame alter egos

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>>3377824
>>3378023
>>3379509
>>3381254

You guys are now and forever my nigs

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>>3382903
>>3379509

>>3382602
My mistake.... Oldest in the USA. The only thing that matters is it was better than PC Gamer, and older. Fuck PC Gamer.

>>3382542
Open weekends, 12 to 6. You can play almost anything.

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>>3380759
There is none, video games will never achieve the title of true art until they create the video game equivalent of Mad Bull 34

>>3382194
Shit. I was just near SanFran last month.

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I don't have the actual page but if we're posting anime, Gamefan introduced me to Iria and I will always love it for that

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>>3384749
Hyper Iria for SFC is rad.

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>>3380759
probably the unreleased data east mad bull game?

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>>3384842
Is that real? I cant find the sauce.

>>3384884

what part of UNRELEASED is given you trouble

>>3374948
I had subscriptions to Expert Gamer and Game Informer as a kid

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>>3385013
hmm are you sure? I mean Sleepy is pretty much Haggar from final fight.

Does anyone here know where to find scans of Beckett Pokémon or Digimon?
Tangentially /vr/, it had the latest news on Gold & Silver. I still have the issue with the 3D Entei on the cover.

>>3375908

What´s the game of the cover?

>>3385115

you never played bouncy bouncy rabbit girl quest for the stolen shirt? Man it'll change your life

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>>3385115
Here have a sheepgirl

>>3377824
>>3378892
>>3380813
I have this issue of Gamefan in my closet in my magazines collection. It's the one with Guardian Heroes on the cover and the first issue of the magazine I had acquired. While including a section about anime in a video games magazine would be considered unrelated today it was the first time I had ever read about anime in an English magazine.

I think it was...1995 or 96?

I have a large collection of game magazines from the 90s, though, no idea what to do with them or if others have already scanned the issues that I have.

>>3374948
EGM wasn't an independent magazine. They were published by a much larger media conglomerate(I think Ziff Davis, but their ownership has changed hands a few times IIRC.) Smaller magazines like Unofficial Playstation Magazine were independent, but far more unprofessional.

(Continued)

(Continued from >>3385531)

Here's how I'd describe some but not all of them:

EGM: the most professional. Early on their writers actually had journalism degrees and most of the tone was befitting of newsworthy topics. A lot of that changed when Dan Hsu became editor though. As games got older, gaming journalists loosened up more and more, along with their hiring based on credentials.

Gameplayers: early Gameplayers was more serious, but over the years it shifted in tone from serious gaming publication that could rival EGM to talking less about games and more about its staff. They always were amorous about their staff but not as bad as the last few issues I ended up reading. Phil Donahue was often entertaining if not insane during his time there.

Gamefan: the most hype. Even though much of Gamefan's writing was hyperbole they genuinely cared about games and would get excited over imports, sometimes to a fault. Gamefan did have clever writing from time to time and some of the best magazine layouts I've ever seen. They had terrible ones from time to time also, but I think that's moreso because they were always willing to experiment with different magazine layouts. Their layouts for Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy VII's preview and review, Street Fighter Alpha 2 and a dozen others were, IMO, works of art compared to the newspaper style of columns and columned screenshots that was common at the time.

Gamepro: Gamepro by far had the best distribution of any other gaming publication. Like EGM its writers had journalism degrees, but because of its gimmicks like using cartoon characters to represent their reviewers and branding captions as "Protips", even today it's taken the least seriously. Much of its humor was safe and its content was kid friendly. It represented a time when video games actually were for kids, but because it found lots of security in that by having a larger audience and revenue, never really evolved from that.

>>3385531


I know that Dave Haverson has gone around and expunged the internet of GameFan scans, so that could be something to try and do if you're feeling sneaky.

>>3385761
Why though? What motivation could he possibly have for doing such a thing? I don't think old issues of Gamefan even sell for that much on eBay.

What clout could he possibly have against an archive or a torrent of scanned Gamefan back issues?

>>3385769

Probably just another one of his insanities. Plus he's constantly trying to reboot it, so maybe he thinks having the real thing floating around will hurt it? Who knows what that man's mind is up to.

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>>3374948
Amiga Power for sure. Only mag I've known to actually use a 0-100 scale properly (where 50% = average, neither good nor bad, instead of "Well, it loads.")

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>>3385531
yes anime discussion was rare I only seen sailormoon and a few manga ads at that point.
>>3385546
good summary. Many reviews from back then were wacky or insane which was fun. I usually just looked at the pictures.
>>3385761
like pic related? the 90s was pretty "P.C." it seems. "Little jap bastards" sounds like innocent drunk shitposting to me. Fuck /v/ had way too much controversy with "game journalism"

also HCG101 did a Gamefan history article.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/gamefan/GameFAN.htm

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see that japs did like them

>>3385546
>Phil Donahue was often entertaining if not insane during his time there.

fucking loved reading that guy. What's he up too now.

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>>3384749
I got you senpai.

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>>3386668

good man

>>3380751
That's some nice looking japanimation.

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>>3382248