Gaming magazines on the Internet Archives

Just so you know, the Internet Archives has got full scans of decades-old editions of magazines like PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World. It's a huge nostalgia rush, and it's a lot of fun to read through them and see all the previews, reviews, discussions, and rankings of so many classics (and many more non-classics). It's always fun to see ads for games that would be great, or games that would be completely forgotten, or games that would be cancelled, and it's a trip when you come across something that you've totally forgotten about.

It's also kinda funny to read the reviews of games and see some of the bizarre and clueless things that get said, like how Master of Magic was described as a "fantasy RPG" that "appeals to fans of both strategy and action games" (what?) and how Ultima IX somehow managed an 80%. I love how Game of the Year rankings had categories for things like "Best CD-ROM Rerelease," or how games that have ended up being classics would lose categories to games that have been more or less forgotten. Actually the best standout might be that in 95, PC Gamer refused to award a Best RPG award, stating that none of the RPGs released that year were any good (I don't know that they're wrong, either. That was at the peak of the Great RPG Depression).

Speaking of which, a fair amount of it becomes really enjoyable in hindsight. Debates, questions, and concerns about whether the internet would impact PC gaming or if it was "just a fad;" strategy sections that provided tips that were completely bunk (how dare those editors who had their hands on the game for all of a week not know it as well as people who have been playing it for twenty years!), and just the way certain things work out, like how everyone was fawning over Command and Conquer was amazing and a shoe-in for Game of the Year until, partway through December, Warcraft 2 dropped.

Maybe the thing I love most about these old magazines, though, is the variety in them. Every issue you had major features about a ton of different video games. Real time strategy, adventure games, puzzle games, RPGs, turn based strategy/4X, city builders, economic sims, wargames, first person shooters, action games, game show adaptations, and the sims... holy crap the sims. Military flight sims, space sims, commercial flight sims, submarine sims, tank sims, Giant Robot Walkers of Death sims, driving sims, helicopter sims... You'd see a huge variety of games every issue.

Yeah, I know, technically there's more variety today, you just need to know where to look, etc etc. But you have to admit, the days when super-niche games got plenty of media coverage are gone.


On a less enjoyable side, it's also a reminder that gaming media has always been about promotion, not journalism.

 

(The Internet Archive also has thousands of DOS games ready to play in-browser, from Eye of the Beholder to Warlords 2 to Prince of Persia)

 

Ok

 

https://archive.org/details/amiga-world?&sort=date

 

None of which allows saving so it sucks.

 

I've never found digitized versions of my first gaming mag, GameNow.

"Inspect Element" might reveal where the files are stored. Perhaps "Open in New Tab" then nets you the files for download? Works for me for porn, anyway.

 

http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/



http://www.meanmachinesmag.co.uk/pdf/streetsofragemd.pdf

 

I've been going through old gaming magazines lately. What's been the biggest eye-opener to me is realizing that the "quality" of the mags is mostly just an imaginary concept held aloft by nostalgia. A cursory glance revealed plenty of examples of either some serious incompetence, or the most child-like trolling ever seen in a printed publication.

Most of them are just typos or typeset blunders, but some of the more notable examples include:

# C+VG trying so hard to beat the others to the punch that they reviewed either pre-release copies that don't have their names finalized, or reviewed foreign imports from Japan without knowing one word in Japanese. Previously I had mentioned them reviewing the Japanese version of side-scrolling shooter Zero Wing and awarding it a good score, and thereby completely missing out on the infamous hilarity that was the English version. Recently I discovered that they reviewed side-scrolling platformer annoying memory test Rick Dangerous, but kept constantly referring to it as Richard Dangerous.

# An issue of Amiga Format had an amusing screw-up when an article headline for a children's program on that issue's coverdisk was printed as "Type some shit in here please".

# Atari World, a magazine covering the Atari ST in 1995, tried to be relevant (and as edgy as possible) by having the main article of one issue cover computer porn without as much as a whiff of censorship. Unfortunately that meant a bestiality photo 'accidentally' ended up in a print copy that was shipped to retailers, and there was quite a shitstorm as the mag had to be recalled to have the offending page removed. An un-recalled copy of said issue is a highly-sought after collector's item now.

# Editors seem to lack the simple ability to count. C+VG didn't have issue numbers on its mag until 1989 with #93... except that was the 94th issue. Meanwhile GamePro outdid them by going straight from #80 to #91 in 1996 with seemingly no explanation.

It's also quite interesting to go through these mags from an advertising perspective. It's around the mid-90s that the annoying "edgy as fuck"-period of advertising started which peaked with the infamous "John Romero is about to make you his bitch"-ad for Daikatana.

Also reading editorials from editors of various Amiga publications during the early 1990s, and then watch as those editorials get more desperate, delusional and outright hysterical as the clock ticks closer to 1994... and beyond.

Good times.

 

What's the legality of this in areas where bestiality pornography is illegal to possess?

 

About the same as owning snuff films, kiddie porn, and decently-sharp knives: Go to British gulag.

Unless you have a loicense for that are a Muslim. Then you're good.

(Goes without saying that Atari World was a UK-based mag.)

 

Is this a weird-ass stereotype or are there actually recorded instances of Muslims in the UK not being prosecuted for possession of these things because of their religion?

 

I want to believe this is some weird-ass stereotype. But this is the UK, in $CURRENT_YEAR, and I just couldn't tell you for certain anymore.

 

The most doubtful claim above is that paedophiles are sent to jail in the UK. In fact, it is traditional to allow them to die of natural causes before publicising their crimes.

 

Game Players / Ultra Game Players = best video game magazine.