Classic gaming magazines - Scans, downloads and nostalgia (Update: Loads of PDFs now on Archive.org)

Unless my folks have thrown them away, I left a huge pile of PC Gamer mags at the family home. From 95 up until around 99 I think.

If they're still there I might have to go about scanning them in at some point.

Also plenty of fond memories of standing in WH Smiths just reading the mags in the shop and not every actually buying one! :lol:

Mags going through a rebrand or style change was always an interesting moment - changing their logo and page layouts etc. I always wondered whether this actually gained them any readers or whether it put more people off! :lol:

Cheeky Devlin wrote:
suzzopher wrote:My podcast has loads of episodes with interviews with the people behind a lot of the mags from our youth. Steve Jarret, Andy Dyer, Jaz Rignall etc

Linky please.

Grew up on Total so Jarret and Dyer were the magazine personalities I got to know well.

Enjoyed listening to that Steve Jarratt interview, especially T3, EDGE and Official PlayStation launches.

And of all the reviews you’d expect to be problematic, Total NBA ‘96 (issue 3) certainly wouldn’t have been one of them. I’ve no idea if it was actually any good in reality though. There was an extremely brief mention of it in issue 100 (“why?”) as if to say ‘wtf was this doing on the cover?’ I guess now we know!

This Article about the unique pleasures of video game magazines that I wrote for Eurogamer previously seems relevant to this topic! Posting in case of interest to anyone here.

It also prompted the cited Jes Bickham (previously of N64/NGC) to get in touch which was really lovely and would have completely blown my teenage mind

Another thing about videogames magazines for me is that I was far more likely to see something I didn't know or had any intention of reading about, and therefore developed an almost encyclopedic knowledge of a system, whereas today and online I tend to focus more on what I know or believe I am already interested in, everything else just falling to the wayside. I'm not sure that in-depth coverage even exists any more.

Before all the information would come to you, whether that was through a magazine, demo disc or compiled VHS/DVD, whereas now you've got to go to it. And you can't go to it if you don't even know about it is in the first place.

NickSCFC

KK wrote:Another thing about videogames magazines for me is that I was far more likely to see something I didn't know or had any intention of reading about, and therefore developed an almost encyclopedic knowledge of a system, whereas today and online I tend to focus more on what I know or believe I am already interested in, everything else just falling to the wayside. I'm not sure that in-depth coverage even exists any more.

Before all the information would come to you, whether that was through a magazine, demo disc or compiled VHS/DVD, whereas now you've got to go to it. And you can't go to it if you don't even know about it in the first place.

There's been quite a few articles about this.

Apparently people are using personalised services more and more (think Google News, Netflix, Spotify...) which is resulting in pop culture becoming less universal and more segregated.

I still have most of my collection from the early 90's through to early 2000's. Its made up primarily by Commodore Format, Amiga Power, Zero, Super Play and Arcade. I have exceptional taste.

I do love dipping in to one every now and then and being whisked back in time, a time when Special Reserve offers were all you could think about, together with whether you would rather have a T shirt and Binder, Free game or a Zip Stick with your imaginary annual subscription to a magazine that you could never afford.

I remember ordering gunstar heroes from special reserve when at school, and it taking what seemed an age to arrive. When it did though I was the envy of my mates and the only person who had that game for the rest of school. I got so many quality swaps out of it, with some offering entire consoles to swap for it for a week.

Wow, i don't think i actually ever got anything from it (Special Reserve), i just loved it conceptually. I might have gotten a free DDR mat for PS1 from them in the late 90's. Not sure what the promotion would have been though.
DDR mat is still boxed and unused. Obviously.

Anywhere i can download the last 20 or so editions of cvg? I got a few emails printed, but cannot find them in any of the archives currently available. I managed to keep my edge and dreamcast magazines, but chucked away cvg and gamesmaster years back!

NickSCFC

Ad7 wrote:I remember ordering gunstar heroes from special reserve when at school, and it taking what seemed an age to arrive. When it did though I was the envy of my mates and the only person who had that game for the rest of school. I got so many quality swaps out of it, with some offering entire consoles to swap for it for a week.

I traded a toy cowboy gun for about 8 NES games with a kid in the year above me under the pretense that it fired pellets.

A week later I took one hell of a beating but he never got those NES games back.

Reminded myself of this from issue 13 of ARCADE magazine the other day:

As much as that appears to be David Walliams under there, in reality it's actually ARCADE's art editor Alvin Weetman (also "Cheats Daddy" in OPM from 2001-2004). A lot of people though thought this was entirely legit!

That Archive website is coming in very handy for freeing up space (which I was beginning to run out of); I've started selling off physical copies of magazines I own and replacing them with digital.

I've been sorting through a load of old boxes and such recently, trying to have a bit of a clear out, and I keep finding stashes of old gaming magazines. :lol:

What do people do with them? I'm reluctant to throw them away/recycle them, but I'm unlikely to ever sit down and read them. I've got loads of N64/NGC magazines, and then various issues of OPM, Play, ONM, etc.

Tempted to start a topic about where people store this gooseberry fool, whether it's games, old consoles, peripherals, or magazines. I feel like the space they take up could be better used.

I had a very large collection of magazines at one point, hundreds of issues of PC GAMER, PC ZONE, EDGE and even older stuff going back to Amiga and Spectrum days.

I would move them around from house to house and never actually look at them so one day I just ditched them all and have never regretted it!

I sold off the vast majority of Official Xbox Magazine and demo discs on eBay, and downloaded them digitally from Retrocdn. Also did the same for the 2006 and 07 period of OPS2 and got them off Archive.org.

I was beginning to run out of room to store everything, so I thought I'd get rid of the mags I never really cared for anyway or haven't read in well over a decade - however there's still occasionally info in there that I want to retain or sporadically check out, so still having them digitally is very useful. Perfect for the iPad.

Some magazines like Xbox World 360 and Xbox Gamer haven't been uploaded anywhere yet though.

Last edited by ITSMILNER on Thu Jan 14, 2021 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I used to love NGamer magazine, really good Nintendo coverage in that one and I used to love the presentation and layout.

Also, does anyone remember Advance magazine, the dedicated GBA magazine? I want to say it came out quarterly, the first few issues were in that 'W H Smith travel edition' size but then they switch to standard magazine size. I don't think it lasted long, 5-6 issues maybe?

EDIT: This one https://magazinesfromthepast.fandom.com/wiki/Advance

Corazon de Leon

Hold on, Lara Croft went to Gordonstoun? :lol:

Yeah I had quite a collection as well but I also just put them all in the recycling. It was really pleasing.

Yes, I do remember Advance, though I don't think any of the handheld dedicated magazines did very well sales well. There was also an Official PSP Magazine (occasionally had a playable demo UMD) which they called a Guidebook, and I think that managed to run from 2005 to 2008. It was mostly edited by current OPM ed Ian Dean.

I do have a number of magazines that are seemingly very rare though, such as PSNext and LARA: THE OFFICIAL LARA CROFT MAGAZINE (yes, this was actually a thing in October/November 1999, and thoroughly gooseberry fool it is too! Well, the majority of it, anyway...)

Lotus wrote:I've been sorting through a load of old boxes and such recently, trying to have a bit of a clear out, and I keep finding stashes of old gaming magazines.

What do people do with them? I'm reluctant to throw them away/recycle them, but I'm unlikely to ever sit down and read them. I've got loads of N64/NGC magazines, and then various issues of OPM, Play, ONM, etc.

Tempted to start a topic about where people store this gooseberry fool, whether it's games, old consoles, peripherals, or magazines. I feel like the space they take up could be better used.

Rather than chucking them I would try to find a magazine scanning project online to see if you've got anything they're missing. I've been trying to find a complete set of N64 online (scans, not to buy) and there are some that are just not out there (At least not publicly).

Or you can sell them. There's definitely a market for old mags.

I'm big into preservation for the pre-digital era stuff as so much of it just gets chucked in the recycling.

Classic gaming magazines - Scans, downloads and nostalgia (Update: Loads of PDFs now on Archive.org)

Favourite classic games magazines? (Pick 3)

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