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The thing I miss most about gaming during my childhood is that anticipation of the new EGM or Game Pro magazine coming in the mail
- Thread starter Rbk_3
- Start date
OP was on another level compared to me. Magazine subscriptions? Never in my parents' house! We went grocery shopping and read the magazines while they got the groceries. Wrote down the cheats on paper if there was anything we wanted.
The mid 90s were wild!
The mid 90s were wild!
When gamefan magazine came out wuth their glossy pages and high quality look I was hooked.
I miss it too. Loved flicking through mags, having no idea what was on the way, all the while picturing in my head how the games would look and sound in motion.
Absolutely agree OP, undoubtedly driven by nostalgia but there is just something satisfying about flipping through those old pages. I thought about starting a collection but it's probably hard as hell to track down old gaming magazines.
Getting a new magazine whether in the mail or at the store was always a treat. Hell, I used to love just going back and reading old ones I had collected.
For whatever reason, I would always read them starting from the back tho lol.
For whatever reason, I would always read them starting from the back tho lol.
One of these days I want to put it into words how special gaming magazines were before the internet, or have someone do it instead and upon reading it think to myself "AHA!!! That's it! That's why!"
The best way I know how to put it, is that when you were a kid before the internet, you knew that video games were magical and that they were special, and that they were also something fairly new and that you were a part of this incredible new industry on the ground floor. You're part of the group. That's a really good feeling. Adults - the hopeless and clueless baby boomers that they are - had no comprehension or appreciation for video games. They thought they were a baby's toy. If you'd ask your parents to watch you play, they'd do it for 15 minutes out of obligation and then leave once they felt they've done their duty. They didn't get it, but you know better.
And then once a month you get magazines that connect you with whats happening in the industry in this awesome hobby, all written by people who can appreciate video games the way you appreciate them, and it's wonderful. It's like a meetup of the group. I remember when I watched my copy of the Donkey Kong Country VHS tape, the best part of it was when the Treehouse gang were just sitting around a table talking about the game. Reading a gaming magazine was like being at that table, being connected to the world of video games.
The best way I know how to put it, is that when you were a kid before the internet, you knew that video games were magical and that they were special, and that they were also something fairly new and that you were a part of this incredible new industry on the ground floor. You're part of the group. That's a really good feeling. Adults - the hopeless and clueless baby boomers that they are - had no comprehension or appreciation for video games. They thought they were a baby's toy. If you'd ask your parents to watch you play, they'd do it for 15 minutes out of obligation and then leave once they felt they've done their duty. They didn't get it, but you know better.
And then once a month you get magazines that connect you with whats happening in the industry in this awesome hobby, all written by people who can appreciate video games the way you appreciate them, and it's wonderful. It's like a meetup of the group. I remember when I watched my copy of the Donkey Kong Country VHS tape, the best part of it was when the Treehouse gang were just sitting around a table talking about the game. Reading a gaming magazine was like being at that table, being connected to the world of video games.
Some of the former writers would post about on GAF back in the day. It was very mismanaged.
Not EGM or Game Pro (I'm British, though I did get the occasional copy) but during the Mega Drive days I used to buy Mean Machines Sega and Sega Magazine every month (both mags were monthly but came out two weeks apart from each other IIRC). I'd also buy Sega Power and Sega Pro on occasions.
I really miss the anticipation of getting the latest news and reviews. At the time it was especially exciting as the rise of 3D meant that gaming was experiencing a paradigm shift, there was new console hardware coming out that seemed like a quantum leap from the previous gen, the arcades were still healthy on the back of high end hardware, and everyone was pumped about what the future might bring.
There's something else I miss too: the people who wrote the games mags back in the day gave the impression that they were gamers like you who were happy to write about something they had a passion for. These days it feels like too many online writers have a thinly veiled contempt for their audience and are really angling for a PR job at a publisher.
I really miss the anticipation of getting the latest news and reviews. At the time it was especially exciting as the rise of 3D meant that gaming was experiencing a paradigm shift, there was new console hardware coming out that seemed like a quantum leap from the previous gen, the arcades were still healthy on the back of high end hardware, and everyone was pumped about what the future might bring.
There's something else I miss too: the people who wrote the games mags back in the day gave the impression that they were gamers like you who were happy to write about something they had a passion for. These days it feels like too many online writers have a thinly veiled contempt for their audience and are really angling for a PR job at a publisher.
I agree. I have a huge stack of Nintendo Power that I dug out last night oddly enough to see which still had the posters lol. There was a positivity and an enthusiasm that you can never have again with the internet because everything is data mined and everything is over analyzed and in my opinion there are more people out there just looking for flaws because it makes for more clicks and controversy. Not saying of course that there are not some real steaming piles that are put out there but I think that there are far too many sites and names trying to makes names for themselves. Back then it was Nintendo power, egm. gamepro, pcgamer just depended on which systems you liked
I loved that, finding some write up about a new game coming out, then hoping for more information as it got closer.
Also of course got to shout out one of the other main reasons I loved them, DEMO DISCS.
There really isn't anything like it anymore sadly. Imagine you read about a new game coming out in a few months, but....you get to actually PLAY IT before it releases!
Also of course got to shout out one of the other main reasons I loved them, DEMO DISCS.
There really isn't anything like it anymore sadly. Imagine you read about a new game coming out in a few months, but....you get to actually PLAY IT before it releases!
I used to love reading game informer, EGM, Nintendo power and later OXM. It was magical anticipating the arrival in the mail. I particularly enjoyed reading them while taking a shit. OXM had demos and such and that was also awesome. Same thing for those PlayStation underground demo discs. I used to play the hell out of those....And the strategy guides you could buy from Nintendo power damn that shit saved my ass with SM64 and GoldenEye.
I really freakin miss those days and I hope I can still find my old ones. I would love to read through them.
I really freakin miss those days and I hope I can still find my old ones. I would love to read through them.
Me and my bros would initially pick them up at places like Safeway or 711, then Chapters became more of a factor.
I definitely miss gaming magazines. They were wonderful during the NES, SNES, PS1/N64 era in particular.
My fave was Gamefan. Super passionate. I definitely enjoyed a bunch of others though like EGM, Next Generation, Gamer's Republic, Game Pro, Game Players, etc. Super nostalgic.
I definitely miss gaming magazines. They were wonderful during the NES, SNES, PS1/N64 era in particular.
My fave was Gamefan. Super passionate. I definitely enjoyed a bunch of others though like EGM, Next Generation, Gamer's Republic, Game Pro, Game Players, etc. Super nostalgic.
Power Unlimited <3 Was subscribed for years. I loved reading them, always got me excited. Some articles I remember reading over and over, like the Ocarina of Time one.
I can relate. I used to look forward to the next issue of GameInformer back in the day, especially since I didn't have internet.
Lot of nostalgia for gaming magazines right now...
I was subscribed to the German edition of GamePro until their quality was so low, I decided to quit. I just very recently subscribed to Edge since issue #333. The gap between those two subs is 10+ years.
It feels good to hold a magazine again.
I was subscribed to the German edition of GamePro until their quality was so low, I decided to quit. I just very recently subscribed to Edge since issue #333. The gap between those two subs is 10+ years.
It feels good to hold a magazine again.
Gaming magazines are probably the aspect of gaming i am most nostalgic about. I very fondly remember reading Commodore 64 magazines in the late 80's, and still remember whole paragraphs of reviews. Games themselves leave vaguer progressions for some reason, with Super Mario World (and some of the aforementioned C64 games) being exceptions.
There is too much easily accessible information now so that kills the anticipation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DHGF was absolutely fantastic!!
Ah man, it was a time indeed. It was a time when gaming was a hobby, a niche one at that, and as Ecotic has said it felt like the one time each month that you'd 'meet up' with like minded individuals.
My experience is a UK and really Nintendo centric one; I used to get Nintendo Official Magazine and Cube, dabbled in Edge as I got older'; so 1997 to 2005 was prime video game magazine time for me. Much like shark97 , I had weird habits and rituals when it came to obtaining them, I knew one local store that would always put the issues out a day early so i'd ride my bike down or get off the bus straight from school. I eventually moved to a subscription because it was cheaper but had to wait that extra day!
As soon as I got home I would read them cover to cover, although for some reason the first page I would turn to would be the very last one to see what the preview was for the following month. It was so nice to get a peek into this world, that as a kid with all the time in the world, you could completely immerse yourself in. I miss the curation that medium naturally allows; you didn't get spurious comments at the end of an article, all the letters from readers were hand picked (and probably made the readership seem more mature than they were) and there was a craftsmanship to it that doesn't come across the same way on a screen.
All in all though it's a nostalgia trip of my youth; as far as obtaining information it is objectively better what we have at our disposal now and I remember the excitement of using my first forum and how the world of video games opened up to me (totalgames.net). There were definitely things that were better about the industry as a whole back then, it felt small, it felt exclusive and full of potential. As with all things; when they get big enough, you lose that feeling.
My experience is a UK and really Nintendo centric one; I used to get Nintendo Official Magazine and Cube, dabbled in Edge as I got older'; so 1997 to 2005 was prime video game magazine time for me. Much like shark97 , I had weird habits and rituals when it came to obtaining them, I knew one local store that would always put the issues out a day early so i'd ride my bike down or get off the bus straight from school. I eventually moved to a subscription because it was cheaper but had to wait that extra day!
As soon as I got home I would read them cover to cover, although for some reason the first page I would turn to would be the very last one to see what the preview was for the following month. It was so nice to get a peek into this world, that as a kid with all the time in the world, you could completely immerse yourself in. I miss the curation that medium naturally allows; you didn't get spurious comments at the end of an article, all the letters from readers were hand picked (and probably made the readership seem more mature than they were) and there was a craftsmanship to it that doesn't come across the same way on a screen.
All in all though it's a nostalgia trip of my youth; as far as obtaining information it is objectively better what we have at our disposal now and I remember the excitement of using my first forum and how the world of video games opened up to me (totalgames.net). There were definitely things that were better about the industry as a whole back then, it felt small, it felt exclusive and full of potential. As with all things; when they get big enough, you lose that feeling.
I miss Tips & Tricks. That was my go to magazine. I loved all the codes in the back and their quick snippets detailing the controls in some games. I still have my Gundam Battle Assault 2 issue. It stinks that modern games don't have cheats though.
