Rumours about Nintendo launching a handheld. Genesis/Turbo Grafx debates. Charmingly illustrated level maps. Things were very different in the heyday of video game magazines.
Used to be that you could only get tiny photographs of upcoming games as a preview of what you’d be playing at home. Gamers of a certain age may remember what it was like to wait for and gorge on long-awaited issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly.
But, if you’re too young to know what that was like, you should head over to Reading EGM. Game designer Cameron Kunzelman goes through old issues of the magazine and showcases the weird, funny and prescient aspects of back-in-the-day video game coverage. It’s eye-opening to see how cyclical certain aspects of video game discussion have been.
And that photos-stitched-together maps of Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins and The Legendary Axe featured on the site? Those should be hanging in a museum somewhere.
Comments
7 responses to “Old EGM Articles Are Full Of Beauty And Irony”
The stuff around the CD-ROM addon for the SNES is pretty amazing.
I was more of a CVG reader
I’ve got a big pile of my ZZap64!, C&VG and Commodore Format Mags still at home. Going through them the other night while I was sorting and tagging/bagging them, took the chance to re-acquaint myself with this exact thing – amazing hand-drawn maps and the painted covers. Olly Frey’s work on Zzap64!’s covers over the years was absolutely amazing stuff.
I threw all mine out years ago, but back in the day I had heaps… Mainly Zzap64 (and later Zzap 64 Amiga, obviously), Commodore User, CVG, ACE.
I still remember the first gaming mag I ever bought… it was C&VG back in 1987! Can’t remember which month, though 😛
Ahhh nostalgia..
My brother and I used to spend hours typing in the programs published in C&VG, BigK and other magazines.
That’s right kids, we had to *type* our games in!
Anyone who loves local classic gaming mag nostalgia or has a pile they are thinking of getting rid of should check out oldgamemags.
I’;s one thing I miss greatly in this internet age, those drawn maps.
My brother and I would read EGM religiously every month!
Being in Australia it always had me hanging for a Turbo Graphx.. actually played Gates of Thunder last night on the Wii virtual console
Loved that mag, thanks for the memories!