Are we not all fans of the past? We were all there, after all. And sure, sometimes the past was hard - but it had its great moments, too. Anyway, prepare to crumble into dust as we tell you all about these "vintage" game magazines that are about to be revealed to the public! That's right, your childhood is vintage now!
The Video Game History Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to preserving our digital history, something that video game companies are notoriously bad at doing. Their mission is to advocate, educate, and preserve everything from game manuals to magazines, and even source code.
Every now and again, some huge historical moment happens in gaming, like the discovery of unreleased Mega Man art, or that time someone actually found the legendary buried E.T. cartridges in the desert. Today (12th March) at 2pm Pacific (10pm GMT), the Video Game History Foundation will be livestreaming an unboxing that could go down in history: 600 old video game magazines, from a range of publications and dates.
The stream will be on their Twitch channel, so make sure to tune in if you want to check out some old mags with ancient reviews and undoubtedly poorly-aged jokes. We love retro mags, but... yeah. The '90s were rough. We're still excited to see that slice of gaming history, though!
Which mags or issues are you hoping to see? Let us know in the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 35
I don't think this "it is the current year — the nineties were bad in comparison" joke works either. Can only repeat the same incorrect view so many times. The nineties were just fine. It is the people who have changed, and broadly for the worse.
Can't wait to see what they find
Another world, another time; in the age of WONDER!
"The '90s were awesome." - fixed it for you.
That said, there are certain things in older mags that make you go "oh wow, were they way off" with the benefit of hindsight. That's all part of the fun though.
@Menardi actually, part of my job on magazines was to look through old ones, and that's how I can say with confidence that magazines - even into the 2000s - were surprisingly sexist. It's not a joke, it's the truth.
The games magazines of the 90s were infinitely better than any of the current drivel that’s written on gaming sites these days
l remember couple of old vintage magazines l had...but l just throw them out. I really don't see the reason why to keep them. Depends on the magazine like what's inside and what its about then it could be a keeper if that certain person likes it.
Got to love the NLife community. One throwaway comment about the obvious and well-documented dodgy content in 90s media and grown men have a meltdown.
I really would love to see Nintendo Magazine, the one that used to be published here in Australia. It was my favourite as a kid along side Hyper which was a catch all console one. Sadly we no longer have any unless they're imported and that stinks.
During the N64 years I would buy Official Nintendo and N64(changed name per console release) magazines. They always made for interesting reading which has continued on this site through the same / different authors.
With this collection of past magazines, highlights could be opinion pieces on the industry at the time, or future predictions.
@nessisonett They will surely make you a moderator someday, my meltdown-averse friend.
@KateGray Congratulations and thanks for your unsolicited employment history and your opinion, Ms. Gray. Regardless of how "sexist" you find select advertising from the nineties to be compared to today's far more discriminatory advertising, your rote repetition of your opinion as fact does little to undermine the campy silliness of nineties advertising or the value of advertising produced throughout human history in general until our decision to dismiss sex-based advertising over the past several decades. I think even a young writer such as yourself would be more than a little disingenuous to say that you find no value in even the biggest "offenders" of the decade. In the era of social media and corporate virtue signalling, a time when self-harm amongst youths in an increasingly militant, conformative society is a growing problem, there is value in looking back to a time of relative normalcy in which "who cares what is 'acceptable,' just live your life. Be different, be 'offensive'" was more of a mainstream sentiment.
@Mr_Persona I feel magazines from 1980s-2010s have a lot of value in regards to beta information as well as developer interviews. I feel that is one of their major historical values and why a lot of these need to be archived digitally and physically to preserve that information for research purposes. A lot of information about early film is lost so we should work hard to preserve first hand accounts about development and reception as much as possible. And I feel for gaming to be a respected artform and cultural touchstone we should learn from the mistakes of the past and preserve a lot of this for future generations wanting to do research into the early medium.
Archiving digital magazines and websites will be a lot harder... as when a site goes down it's hard to archive the information and even videos on sites like IGN from even 10 years ago are just gone due to changing proprietary players.
I wonder if old italian gaming magazines hold some gaming historic value too...
I kept all the ones I had back in the days. Not enough to fill as many boxes I think, but they are still quite a lot.
I used to have a ton of Nintendo Power, GamePro, and EGM magazines from that era. Besides a few of the Nintendo Powers, most issues were forgettable 🙃
@Menardi To be fair she (@KateGray) is not wrong... a lot of news reporting from even the late 2000s (PS3/X360 days) commented about how sexy characters were or how gory the content was to show "matureness." It was a rather juvenile era and while I miss it to a degree (AVGN would just not be created now-a-days and a lot of his more obscene content has been toned down as James got older) I don't miss that "edgy", "sexy" and "mature" BS that was within it.
@Wexter Of course, that is not to say advertising was not guilty of a certain degree of sexism. I think the point that is perhaps lost on most who are very much tapped in to the totally not at all harmful "us vs. them" mentality of the internet today (hence why the mere act of discussing it in a remotely nuanced way is derided as a "grown adult having a meltdown" by an armchair expert looking to gain smarmy favor with the article author) is that, regardless of how "awful" one may personally find particular aspects of "vintage" advertising or any other work produced prior to the current times, there is still great value in it, and it deserves to be seen and enjoyed by modern eyes rather than ignorantly and crudely dismissed every time it is mentioned, hence the importance of work like this.
@Beatrice Are you implying toxicity didn't exist in the 90s? Dude, even the ADVERTS were toxic back then.
I dare say they'll wear gloves, they'll be fine.
@Menardi To be fair you were rather dismissive to Kate's experience. And while I agree that values change with the people that does not make any sexist remarks in the past even okay then. Just because something was socially acceptable then does not make it socially acceptable now or even morally okay at the time. Describing characters by their bust sizes or how sexy a game is not (unless it is about the empowerment of the character which they rarely are when they make said comments)... okay no matter what sex it is directed toward. ESPECAILLY when it is about reporting about the news of a product.
But the myth that the 90s or 00s did not have strong female characterization or design is also farcical. But she was mainly talking about comments made in the magazines rather than the content of the products they were reporting on. We should understand the context of the times and not be judgmental by todays standards, but we should also learn from it.
And let's not forget Screwattack made this back in the day. : https://youtu.be/vmlWqYQOovk If you enjoy the video or not... it really was not their best moment and this was aired on GameTrailers a reputable news outlet at the time.
@Wexter I can understand the confusion. No offense is meant in my commentary, which is retaliatory if anything, as the article, and the relevant line it sneaks in, is itself dismissive. The point is simply to end the practice of repeatedly dismissing everything remotely related to a time period that is not today with every mention, which is harmful, and instead look for the value in it.
@Menardi Yes and the value should be historical and a product of the time. We should understand the context, but once again does not make the comments even at the time less sexist just socially acceptable when they were made.
@Wexter Which is a harmful sentiment, one that has already been addressed. Regardless of how "flawed" one personally believes the content is, it has unimpeachable value regardless of time period, and deserves to be seen without asterisk all the same. We can certainly agree to disagree. We can agree however in our love for nineties Rareware Ltd., whose games and advertising boasted plenty of qualities considered undesirable in modern terms that make it all the more refreshing and enjoyable today. I am still in shock that Dinosaur Planet is now in the hands of fans.
@KateGray In the 90’s I would have had no issue if every girl at school played video games... of course. But the reality was, no one did (at my school)... not because anyone said they couldn’t or shouldn’t but because they thought it was uncool. Why did they think that? Well maybe that’s another story, but the point is, that the magazines just reflected the reality at the time at least for me... I’m not sure that’s sexist as much as it is just ‘how it was’.
In 40 years people will most definetely look at something that we do now (nothing to do with sexist behaviors) and think ‘wow, we can’t believe they thought that was ok’... but currently, you and I might both think that it’s completely fine. I try not to label past things with modern perception, or at least not with the connotation implied by the current view. Sometimes, sure... but with a bit of perspective.
@FTL There is wisdom in this. Very well articulated.
I have a full pallet of video game magazines in storage going back to the early 80s & all the way to when they just about died one by one! Once and a while I search an issue by memory on eBay and shocked to see what some are being sold for!! My wife tells me to sell them but nope not yet lol. One of my favorites is the issue of Electronic Games Magazine which did a big article of “The Atari 5200 Vs Colecovision” comparing features and game cart libraries etc, among countless others! Ahhh the memories!! ☺️
Those magazines don't look that old. I mean, Fortnite and Paw Patrol?!
@joey302 Lol the Atari 5200 is hilariously bad! Which one did they recommend as now I'm curious?
Watch them be fake like that Pokemon booster box incident. https://www.polygon.com/2020/10/28/21538821/box-of-first-edition-pokemon-cards-fake-375000-dumb-money-logan-paul
Seriously though, I really hope they vetted the source they got these old magazines from.
Have anyone check out people Out-of-Print Archive. They do restoration and make them digital copies of classic gaming magazine. I anyone want to donate magazines help their digital restoration please check out this site: http://www.outofprintarchive.com/
I think it’s relative when you grew up. If someone grew up in 1349 they would say it’s better than 1369 for instance, maybe it’s an age thing. BUT i preferred the world before the internet. There was mystery! And you had to actively find out information and music rather than the ease of a button click away! I know I’m part of the problem but hey ho I’ve always got my memories, and a large part of my childhood was video game magazines, I felt alive and connected to them, even if some games didn’t turn out so good. I could go on and on like an old man. X x x also the 90s had Kurt Cobain so there is that that I miss pretty much everyday xxx
I used to love gaming magazines. I pretty much had every GM every CVG from 1988 onwards. Most Of Games TM and Edge.
I binned them all a few years ago as it practically took up two rooms.
These days I just pick up Edge and bin then once Im done (or generally take them to my mums takeaway for reading material for customers-pre covid.....where someone inevitably takes them, which is fine)
@Wexter lol as a kid I absolutely loved my 5200! I also loved the Colecovision but overall I grew up a huge Atari fan! The article unfortunately tipped the scales in favor of the colecovision system due to better arcade quality ports such as Mr. Do, Donkey Kong, Mouse Trap and Lady Bug. Now I didn’t agree with the article lol cause the 5200 had its own share of excellent arcade ports such as Centipede, Missle Command, Pole Position, Ms Pac man, Dig Dug and Others. Problem was the article accused Atari of rehashing titles already available on the 2600 and Atari 400/800 computers with no fresh titles for the 52. So Colecovision got the nod. And btw both systems controllers were horrible lol. But my brothers and I had a blast with both systems!! ☺️
@Menardi saying that the '90s was occasionally sexist by today's standards (and even standards back then) does not discount the entire decade's worth, nor does it mean that I hate the '90s.
I don't understand why you come to my articles just to complain about them every time. You clearly don't enjoy my writing, and you have been nothing but unpleasant to me in the comments. It's unnecessary.
@KateGray
That's one of my memories of them.
I remember Crash magazine doing a feature on sexism in computer games back in the the 80s. Probably wasn't the best written thing, and the magazine itself wasn't above gender stereotyping.
Anyway, on topic - thanks for the article, Kate! Really Interesting!
@KateGray I apologize if you feel that way, Ms. Gray, I am simply offering my commentary, as anyone is wont to do in the comment section. Have to have a certain level of thick skin when you write opinion articles on the internet. I have praised your writing on at least one occasion, however, I would like to think I am fair. I also appreciate your clear love for Ocarina of Time, a game that was marketed at one point in a way many today would surely take issue with and features some "outdated" qualities if one absolutely has to minimize it to such a severe degree, mind you (hence my point in this article. There is obviously more to Ocarina of Time, the greatest game of all time, than "saving the princess" and "getting the girl, lest you play like one," which was its advertising slogan at one point — the same can be said for even the most "undesirable" non-modern media, which in these busy times is a point that can be lost on most when that media is negatively reduced and dismissed in the same breath it is introduced). Your writing, as anyone's can when opinion is a factor, occasionally tends to promote certain attitudes that invite discussion. Not going out of my way to 'single you out,' as I enjoy your articles as I do anyone's, even when I may disagree with the opinion at times.
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