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Gaming magazines

Started by Kryton, June 29, 2020, 09:23:09 PM

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Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I started buying Total (Nintendo mag, not petrol station) from the first issue. I didn't even own a games machine at the time, although it did convince me to choose a SNES when the time came. I carried on buying that for a few years, until the local newsagent stopped stocking it, at which point I switched to Official Nintendo Magazine, despite Total's warnings that official mags were unreliable and biased in their reviews.

I bought the odd issue of Gamesmaster and Edge on occasion. They covered systems like the Neo Geo and PC, which felt like a peek into some strange parallel universe. I know Edge is generally seen as a bit pretentious, but I was a pretentious kid and it felt refreshingly grown up, compared to the other magazines. I remember the graphic design being nice and tasteful.

I think I got a few issues of some PS2 mag, mostly for the demo disks, but I got out of the habit around 2000 or so. I stuck with Digitiser until it went kaput and then the internet came along.


Bazooka

I bought a fair few Ganesmaster issues, I quite liked it was a messy collage design inside, and it seemed quite broad in it's coverage. I generally just bought any magazine that had a free demo disc or cheat book (some of those cheats never worked).

The Culture Bunker

I remember not long after my dad got our first PC picking up a magazine that was basically about 20 pages, as the main draw with the disc with about 120 demos on it. Obviously most weren't much cop, but the two I remember most clearly are 'Spear of Destiny' (Castle Wolfenstein sequel, I think) and 'Quarantine', which sold itself as being a 'Doom-on-Wheels' kind of affair. Quite good too, I seem to remember, with a nice touch that you could play your own CDs to soundtrack the carnage. I've still got the freebie badge from when I saved up enough to buy the full game.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on July 02, 2020, 03:50:54 PM
I remember not long after my dad got our first PC picking up a magazine that was basically about 20 pages, as the main draw with the disc with about 120 demos on it. Obviously most weren't much cop, but the two I remember most clearly are 'Spear of Destiny' (Castle Wolfenstein sequel, I think) and 'Quarantine', which sold itself as being a 'Doom-on-Wheels' kind of affair. Quite good too, I seem to remember, with a nice touch that you could play your own CDs to soundtrack the carnage. I've still got the freebie badge from when I saved up enough to buy the full game.
Here's Lemming's review of Quarantine

QDRPHNC

Did anyone else ever occasionally buy the American magazines like Gamepro and EGM? Even as I kid they were lame to me, had this sort of strange swagger to them.

Pranet

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on July 01, 2020, 01:57:24 PM
I don't think they had Amiga Power at our local newsagent.

I'm sure that World of Spectrum had loads of YS scanned in, though it all seems gone now. Shame. I do remember reading it for the first time - my best friend had a copy and give it to me when he was done - and I was laughing so much my mam thought I'd gone a bit strange, as I wasn't the kind of child prone to such outbursts of glee.

Internet archive has them-

https://archive.org/details/your-sinclair-magazine


Phil_A

Quote from: the on June 30, 2020, 10:17:19 PM
I had that issue. Their Sonic 2 review did manage to hit the newstands before anyone else's IIRC.

It must've only just made it into the issue before deadline though, as the cover image has stuck with Jerry Seinfeld dressed as Blanka.

"And what's the deal with denim shorts" etc

I had that issue as well, and if I remember correctly they gave an absolutely glowing review to the dreadful Bart's Nightmare. What were they thinking?

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Pranet on July 02, 2020, 09:15:09 PM
Internet archive has them-

https://archive.org/details/your-sinclair-magazine
Oh, excellent!

So I can say October 1988 was my first time reading YS. I'm assuming my mam didn't clock the somewhat graphic front cover of some bod having his teeth knocked out and his eyeball smashed out of socket.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Phil_A on July 02, 2020, 09:18:23 PM
I had that issue as well, and if I remember correctly they gave an absolutely glowing review to the dreadful Bart's Nightmare. What were they thinking?

Mister Six

Quote from: Pranet on July 02, 2020, 09:15:09 PM
Internet archive has them-

https://archive.org/details/your-sinclair-magazine

Christ, I can actually smell the paper. Or maybe I've got a brain tumour, I dunno.

Clicked on the Gazza one, and weirdly I recognised that big Chip's Challenge page. Wonder why it stuck with me for so long?

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Mister Six on July 02, 2020, 09:40:35 PM
Christ, I can actually smell the paper. Or maybe I've got a brain tumour, I dunno.

Clicked on the Gazza one, and weirdly I recognised that big Chip's Challenge page. Wonder why it stuck with me for so long?
I flicked through a few, and found a review of 'Roadblasters' and before I read it, I already remembered a particular line from it. I think it was just that good of a magazine, that I read at an age everything was sinking it, that makes seeing the old issues seem so familiar.

Mister Six

Thinking about it, I probably obsessively read and re-read stuff as well at that age, which helps. Plus trying to get my tiny head around the idea of a publication making up stuff about Farty the Warthog and the editor being sectioned and that.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Mister Six on July 02, 2020, 10:21:22 PM
Thinking about it, I probably obsessively read and re-read stuff as well at that age, which helps. Plus trying to get my tiny head around the idea of a publication making up stuff about Farty the Warthog and the editor being sectioned and that.
True enough - we probably re-read stuff for want of anything else! Nowadays, you can find thousands of articles about any subject you want in four seconds. In 1989, you had one magazine to last you a month.

Mister Six

Exactly!

Ooh I just realised issue 54 had a cover by Glenn Fabry (later of Hellblazer and Preacher cover fame). I wonder what other luminaries worked on YS covers?

(BTW is it just because I'm looking at these on my phone, or are these pages all really low res?)

Pranet

The discussion about old magazines and remembering them- yes I think it is a combination of things really sinking in at a certain age and also re-reading because you didn't have much else to do back then. Today I was flicking through a copy of Sounds from 1990 and it was like the entire paper was still in my head.

madhair60