It's Monday, so it's time once again to turn the spotlight on you as... The Ombudsman Asks:
This week's question: What was the first exposure to video game journalism?
Were you an early adopter of magazines like Replay? Were you one of the many that made Nintendo Power the most popular children's magazine for a time? Did you get a free subscription to Sega Visions for registering your Genesis? Were you attracted to the glossy covers of an early Next Generation and immediately hooked?
Feel free to elaborate on your early game mag experiences. Was your first from the newstand or a subscription? Was it a gift or a personal purchase? What struck you about the magazine? What annoyed you? Do you still have the magazine? If so, does the content hold up after all these years (if you don't, do you think the content would still be fresh)?
I'll get the conversation started: My first video game magazine was a copy of Nintendo Power Volume 7 (July/August 1989, Mega Man II cover). It was a gift from my favorite aunt on a trip to visit assorted relatives in New York. I was all of seven years old at the time. I clearly remember her handing it to me as we walked to the car to leave for home. It was already dark out, so I had to squint to read under the passing highway lights. My gradnma (sitting next to me) said I would damage my eyes. I didn't seem to care.
My favorite part was the Super Mario Bros. 2 tip book, which was a huge help in conquering my favorite game of the time. Unfortunately, it was only part one of the tip book, so it only helped with the first half of the game. I remember liking the Howard & Nester comic too, although I couldn't remember the content until a quick Google search just now.
Before long, I was a loyal subscriber to NP, starting with Volume 19 (Strategy Guide #4: 4-player Extra). I had no four-player games (nor a multitap), so I never even opened it, instead keeping it as a mint-condition monument to my newfound obsession. It's currently sitting in my parents' basement, (till in near-mint condition), along with hundreds of game magazines that have come to my door since (in much worse condition). I won't let my parents throw any of them out.
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Video Games and Computer Entertainment. As a young child, my much older brother would buy this fantastic magazine nearly every month. I've still got 'em, tucked away in a box in my apartment. It primed me for a lifetime of viewing videogames as something that could be talked about intelligently. Man alive, was I pissed off when it turned into Gamepro and tanked. I miss the hell out of VG&CE.
ReplyDeleteI don't even remember. I know I got a free Nintendo Fun Club (the pamphlet that existed before Nintendo Power) subscription from one of the postcards that were in some NES games. That started with either the 4th or 5th issue. (Nintendo Fun Club lasted 7 issues as I recall before Nintendo Power was launched in its place.)
ReplyDeleteBut that wasn't my first, by far. I had some arcade and early console magazines (Atari 2600, C64, etc) whose names escape me now. Back when arcade games themselves could carry a magazine. I still remember the ads for the Vectrex, the images of Dragon's Lair (and an interview with Don Bluth), the news that Sinistar would have a 49 direction joystick, etc...
Like most people it was that First issue of Nintendo Power. I remember people bringing that magazine to school and it was like an event. I remember seening the Ninja Gaiden issue like there was gold on the pages.
ReplyDeleteI later subcribed to Nintendo power (or rather I asked my grandma to) and as great that magazine is I knew that the reviews were a little biased (not as much as other places like GI). So I started buying some magazines. I bought Game Players (Great mag and at that time was less wacky) and the first EGM. Which have a mediocre rating system. MISS, HIT, and DIRECT HIT. Still it was a good debut issue. I think I bought another magazine but I don't remember which one is it.
I consider EGM and Game Players my first exposure to VG journalism for the reason that Nintendo Power was a biased mag.
Yup, I too started on Nintendo Power. Started the subscription with the second issue, I believe. And soon after I started that, I got a GamePro subscription also. (Seriously, my jaw was agape with hints of a smile when I saw "Dan Electro" post here the first time.)
ReplyDeleteBut as I grew older NP was the first to go. Not to mention that comic books were filling as much of my time as video games were, so when choosing one games magazine to keep, GamePro got that honor. (Though interestingly, I never got a advertising mailer or request to re-subscribe from them until years later when the N64 was about to hit shelves. I got the Mario64 promo VHS in the mail and the letter asking me to return to Nintendo Power.)
Eventually, EGM replaced GamePro, and the internet replaced EGM. And here I am. Linksites (Evil Avatar, Slashdot) for news and blogs (GameDevBlog, GrumpyGamer, GameMatters) for insight.
My story is all too simuilar to the rest of the post. I too started out with Nintendo Power. I can't remmeber which issue, though I do remember getting the free Metroid strategy guide, or was it Ninja Gaiden, with my subscription. Ah Howard and Nester, I have fond memorys of that comic. For some stange reason I can still recal the exact details of when Howard retired from the strip.
ReplyDeleteAs I matured into the 16bit realm, I Droped NP for EGM, starting in at about issue 5. I Would tell you for sure which one it was, because I saved them all (anyone know why we save our game mags?)but unfortunately my mother recently threw them all away when she discovered them hideing in my brothers old room.
Currently I get most of my info off the web, or PC gamer. But every now and then I pick up a copy of EGM.
I also started on Nintendo Power with the Mega Man II issue. I just ate that stuff up right through the SNES era. But before that I used to read Compute!'s Gazette and type in the Commodore 8-bit games. That was total geek heaven to a child like me.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the rest of the people, I never subscribed to Nintendo Power, nor do I remember ever wanting to although I owned NES, SNES, and N64 (weird). My first video game magazine was PC Gamer, again about 5-6 years ago. My brother used to buy it off of the storeshelves and then my parents got him a subscription for two years (they were trying to encourage him to read :) ). I would "borrow" the magazines and read them. After I moved to college and my brother went to college, we stopped getting them. Old issues are still lying around the house and occasionally I pick them up when I run out of other reading material.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Michael Fan
A September 1999 issue of PSM.
ReplyDeleteI think my first was also VG&CE, or a similar magazine of that era. Pac-Man was featured on the cover. I also remember the magazine Electronic Entertainment (I think that's its name...). Those were the days...
ReplyDeleteMine was the first issue of Nintendo Power. I never subscribed to video game magazines. I either bought them at the newsstand or bummed them off of friends. After NP, I started reading GamePro. For a while I stopped reading games mags altogether. Then there was Edge. I read that in the latter half of my stay in the UK. I have a subscription to Nintendo Power right now, but I only got it for the subscription incentive (Zelda Collector's Disc), otherwise, I wouldn't bother.
ReplyDelete