Console Gaming Mags From Back In The Day . . . .

[TL]

So guys what were your favourite and least favourite gaming mags from back in the day?

Here is one of my Favourites to start with:

Game Zone

For me this was without doubt the best multi-format gaming mag ever made. It covered all the popular machines (including LOTS of great Lynx coverage), was never biased, covered imports, had a great tip & cheats section and lots of interesting news stories. I always thought it was really well layed out too with review scores I often agreed with. I loved drooling over the PC Engine and Neo Geo reviews wishing I owned one. When this split into Sega Zone and Nintendo Zone (thus forgetting the other formats) it became complete crap. 

And one I really didn't care for despite it popularity:

Mean Machines

The console based spin off of C&VG that also featured several of the same staff including that complete bellend Julian "Jaz" Rignall. Firstly I will say that I liked the layout and the fact they had loads of screenshots but what I didn't like was that they were really Nintendo biased for a start. The latest SNES games always got stupid high scores and the NES got a ton of coverage despite being a commercial failure in the UK. Another big problem I had with it was that they stated on the cover that they covered the Atari consoles when in fact I never once saw a single review for any of the 4 Atari consoles in the magazine. They did a bookazine that had Lynx, 7800 and 2600 in it but the only mention they ever got in the mag was usually some very small news article or a derisory comment.

[AmigaJay]

Mean Machines
Like many this was my fav mag back in the day, no boring stuff just news, reviews and funny to boot!
Ive actually started buying some of the early issues, I have 17 out of the 24 issues made before it went crap and split up.

Games X
Another mag I have great memories reading, Especially for the latest news because back then no Internet and this was published weekly which was and still is unique, sadly only last just under a year, I currently own the first and last issues of this mag.

Sega Pro
Loved the feel and they were first to review mega cd games in 1991, great news exclusives too.

Megatech
Awesome Megadrive mag that had plenty of first reviews and news, great look to the mag too, I own the first issue which I bought last week to relive some memories!

C&VG
The best multiformat mag until around 1993 when it went really crap and changed design and paper like 3 times in a year.

The One Amiga
My fav Amiga mag, great demo disks and loads of exclusives reviews and news.

Sega Power
Never thought this was much cop, only bought a couple of issues back then, preferred the other Sega mags out at the time.

Gamesmaster
Still for the life of me can't believe this piece of garbage is still going! Toilet paper for kids! Harsh but true!

[DreamcastRIP]

Favourite:
Crash

Those I particularly enjoyed:
The One, C+VG, ST Format, ACE, Your Sinclair, Official Dreamcast Magazine, DC-UK

Those I thought were okay:
Sinclair User, ST Action, Games Master, The Games Machine, EDGE

Least favourite:
Any Sega or Nintendo-specific magazine I ever skimmed through due to their infantile nature

(Yes, I know some of the above publications were computer mags, not console mags!)

[dubchaser]

Total
A Nintendo magazine.  I bought every issue, they're still in a box in my loft!

Ultimate Future Games
Multi format mag from the Jaguar era.  I have all these issues too, in a box in the loft!

[dot.fyre]

My first mag was TV Gamer -  Atari VCS, Intellivision, Vectrex & Colecovision.
But mostly Atari VCS - even though the screenshots were black & white
I'd buy it religiously - until the newsagent stopped stocking it. 

[TL]

Games X
Another mag I have great memories reading, Especially for the latest news because back then no Internet and this was published weekly which was and still is unique, sadly only last just under a year, I currently own the first and last issues of this mag.

Sega Pro
Loved the feel and they were first to review mega cd games in 1991, great news exclusives too.

Megatech
Awesome Megadrive mag that had plenty of first reviews and news, great look to the mag too, I own the first issue which I bought last week to relive some memories!

Have to agree with these!!!! All great magazines 

Ultimate Future Games
Multi format mag from the Jaguar era.  I have all these issues too, in a box in the loft!

I forgot about that! When I first got my Jaguar I used to buy that mag religiously!!

[AmigaJay]

Games World was another tv tie in magazine around that time, I remembered it covered the Jag, CD32, 3DO etc think I bought the first 5-6 issues and probably went onto other mags.

[TL]

I just got hold of some scans of various old mags so I am going to stick some files in the downloads section very soon!

[Shadowrunner]

I just got hold of some scans of various old mags so I am going to stick some files in the downloads section very soon!

Awesome! I love looking at old game magazines.
For me my favorite was Diehard Gamefan. The quality of the screenshots were so much better then most magazines.

[Spector]

It was around 1992 that a lot of games magazines started taking images from what appeared to be a PC application rather than a photo of the TV with the lights off. The images were much clearer, but they looked dead somehow, and the pixels were accentuated. Never liked the look of them and it was another reason i lost interest in gaming. NMS Magazine was a good example when it started at the end of that year.

[AmigaJay]

Collecting some first issues of mags lately, just picked up CU Amiga issue 1, Commodore Computing with Amiga article from Mar 1986 which I think might be the earliest Amiga article, I did buy issue 1 of CVG which I was really happy, paid £50 for it which is cheap as issues go for £200 on retro sites, but was gutted when 6 pages were missing, sent it back and at first he accused me of ripping them out etc. etc a day later and lots of emails we finally agreed, I mean why WHY would I do that if I just paid for a item I wanted badly?! Got my money back, but wary now, am ask all sellers to check item before sending...

[Rogue Trooper]

I just got hold of some scans of various old mags so I am going to stick some files in the downloads section very soon!

Could well be sending you yet more on a memory stick, in future, started working on them over past few days.

[TL]

I just got hold of some scans of various old mags so I am going to stick some files in the downloads section very soon!

Could well be sending you yet more on a memory stick, in future, started working on them over past few days.

Sounds awesome! I will send back this memory stick to you this week.

[Rogue Trooper]

Before i post 'proper' i used to buy a HUGE amount of mags over the years, few comments on those mentioned above:

Ultimate Future Games, used to buy every issue, had my letter printed in there as well (got answered by Atari's then P.R Person), but they were very harsh on lot of Jaguar games for some reason.

As a C64 owner, i used to get:C.C.I, Zzap 64 (The bible, well until issue 50 at least, went downhill after that, C+VG and C.U, seemed to be some tit for tat reviewing going on between the 3, with games getting high scores in 2, low in the other and vice versa).

Atari 800XL owner, well had to be Atari User.

ST wise:The One (outstanding magazine), ST Format, Zero (superb) , The Games Machine, Games-X , Raze and  C+VG.

Game Gear, Lynx, Megadrive+MCD days,:Mix of Mean Machines, M.A.G (awful), occ.Sega Power, Sega Pro, game Zone (Loved C+VG's GO! mini-mag).


PS1 era:Off PS mag, Playstation Plus.

DC era:Off DC mag, DC UK

Then you've likes of Edge, Gamestm (stopped buying this time last year), Retro Gamer etc.
got cupboards FULL of gaming mags.


Think it was MEGA that claimed MCD had NO custom sprite chips......brilliant piece of work there boys n girls...lol

[Rogue Trooper]

Forgot ACE-superb mag with it's Pink Pages and P.I.C curve, bought Gamesmaster for a while.Dread to think the money that's gone on subs etc over the years.

Laird, it's slow process for myself transfering stuff, espically now i'm on NIGHTS, trying (as always) just to put things of interest rather than just throwing everything on there, so interviews, articles, games ads, special features, reviews of formats now seemingly ignored by mainstream Retro publications (ST, 7800, C16 etc).

Hope the best bits will appear on this site for the benifit of the community on here.