FEATURES
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NGamer magazine
“By and large, the internet felt like a huge beast of a competitor, beating us to news, previews and reviews of just about everything.” Former NGamer editor Mark Green talks Nintendo fandom, cover-mounted DVDs, and the arrival of social media.
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Sega Pro
Richard Monteiro made his name as a staff-writer for various 8bit magazines before launching his own publishing company. Sega Pro was the first magazine he released and the start of the Paragon Publishing empire.
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Megazone
Megazone’s influence on Australian gaming can’t be underestimated. It made Sega a household name, sold a generation of kids on the Master System, and took the Mega Drive to even greater heights. But behind the scenes the line between editorial and marketing was precariously thin.
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GamePro
Launched in 1989 to cover the rapidly growing U.S. home console market, GamePro would become one of the leading video game publications of the era, eventually branching out into TV, trade shows, and this wild new thing called ‘the Internet’
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Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)
EGM didn’t just shake up the U.S. publishing landscape, it provided an alternative to the U.K. gaming media we knew in PAL territories.es here
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Sega Power
Former Sega Power editor Dean Mortlock takes us behind the scenes as the 90s console scene develops.
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MegaTech
Founding editor Paul Glancey talks about the evolution of CVG magazine, the state of the Mean Machines office, and how that led to MegaTech.
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Computer and Video Games (CVG)
Computer and Video Games magazine ran for four decades. But I’m interested in the magazine’s early 90s heyday.
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Hyper magazine. Part 1
As print media was sidelined by social and a new generation of websites, it became clear that Hyper was not long for this world.
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Hyper magazine. Part 2
Hyper was well and truly dead by 2018, with low circulation, dwindling advertising and a barely there web presence.
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Mean Machines
Before there was Twitter, Twitch, Tik Tok or YouTube. Before the Internet. There was Mean Machines.
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Videogames & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE)
Moustaches, receding hairlines and thick rim glasses were all par for the course. VG&CE had heavy ‘dad vibes’.
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Compute! Part 1
While Gibson was writing about Cyberspace, the everyday reality looked more like Compute! magazine.
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Compute! Part 2
3000 miles from Silicon Valley, and without the financial clout of other publishers, Compute! was always going to struggle.
MAGAZINE SNAPSHOTS
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The rise and fall of Mega Drive shmups
The first generation of Mega Drive games was defined by small Japanese developers who could bang out a shmup on a tight budget with a small team. But as Sega’s fortunes changed, and Sonic took the Mega Drive mainstream, the system’s library began to change.
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UK Resistance
“I spent the best part of three months doing nothing but previews and reviews of Radiant Silvergun,” is how Gary Cutlack describes his time at the ill-fated Sega Saturn magazine. But we’re here to discuss his legendary website - UK: Resistance.
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DieHard GameFan had drama
More money, more games, and more competition. The early 90s saw a boom in magazine publishing.
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The worst reviewed game in Mean Machines
“A shambling mockery of a sick parody of a game cartridge…” They don’t write game reviews like they used to.
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Out of Print Archive
“These magazines are such great time capsules. They’re an anchor to times that would otherwise be forgotten completely. I just want to see these great magazines preserved in a way that would make the original creators proud.”
FEATURE ARTICLES
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How the internet killed video game magazines
“When I first started in games magazines, the internet was a kind of goofy thing and advertisers were reluctant to pump dollars into it. As soon as the internet gained any momentum in gaming circles, you could watch circulation and advertising revenue falling in real time.”
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How to create a zine in 2023
“If I sell every single copy I’ll just about break even… which is a terrible business model, but here we are.” Ever wanted to create a zine? Here’s a deep dive into the process, costs and issues encountered while creating Forgotten World’s issue #0.
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The history of video game magazines
Specialist video game magazines first appeared in the early 80s. Four decades later they’re still here, albeit, more bespoke.
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Videogame fanzines. Part 1
Video game zines were at their peak in the early 90s, and that has a lot to do with a guy called Arnie Katz and a magazine called Video Games & Computer Entertainment.