Favourite Video Game Magazines

[Freestyler]

All this tells us is that Games magazines were better when they weren't being used as an extension of the Publishers PR machine.
I stopped reading print mags the day I saw them all using the exact same PR-approved screenshots, Press release "Previews, and other hack stuff.

Once you knew what to look for you could spot it pretty much everywhere.

[thebear]

Razzle

great for showing you the best way to get the most fun out of tyour joystick

[koopa42]

Razzle

great for showing you the best way to get the most fun out of tyour joystick

This is fact and some of those 80s essex 'babes' sure had a few broken ports

[Swainy]

Anyone remember Games-X from the early 90's? http://retroasylum.com/games-x-magazine/

[The Laird]

Anyone remember Games-X from the early 90's? http://retroasylum.com/games-x-magazine/

Yeah I loved Games X, bought it every week without fail. Wish I still had them all

[The Last Ginja]

Zzap! 64-I read this cover to cover several times a month back in the day I wish I'd never dumped them all now.

Total-Great but short lived multi format mag
Arcade-See above.

Games TM-See Below
Retro Gamer-""

These 2 are the only magazines I read now, and Games TM is more down to my obsessive nature of having them all, a quick scan read is all it gets. It used to be read cover to cover.

Retro Gamer I read every month, but now I only read the articles that have any relevance to my gaming history.

[c0nfu53d]

Super play and EGM in the 90's. Retro Gamer is the only modern mag I like as Games TM is no longer as good as it was and NGamer is now gone.

[stvd]

Tv Gamer
Crash, Your Sinclair
Mean Machines
C+VG
Retro Gamer

[SpecChum81]

These were/are a list of my favourites

Your Sinclair
C+VG
Crash
Sega Power
Mean Machines
Retro Gamer

I'm always riffling through them, but I've made sure I've kept them in good condition!

[RodimusPrime]

disgraceful how the mighty Superplay has not been mentioned more.

as for me

Mean machines
mid 90's CVG

one person mentione it, ARCADE that was a great magazine and so was a mag called CONTROL.

[killbot]

Amiga Power was the daddy, unapologetically harsh with its review scores and showed utter contempt for PR people or publishers trying to wangle a good review with freebies and perks. They actually publicly named and shamed other mags they knew were taking kickbacks for good reviews. Where did magazines with those kind of balls go?

No other mag has ever had respect for its readers like AP. It didn't talk down to you and the staff all worked on the principle that if people were spending £25 of their hard earned money then they needed to be warned right off any sub-standard product. Single-figure review scores were common. Team 17 even tried to sue them for the scores some of their games got.

Some of it might have been a bit precious (was a videogame mag really the place for a crusade for journalistic integrity?) but by God it was entertaining.

The only mag that's come close in recent times is Nintendo Gamer, which has sadly now also gone to the great newsagent in the sky. It's a worrying time for games journalism, print mags are dying out and many of the major websites have far too cosy a relationship with the major publishers.

[GigaPepsiMan]

Reason magazines like AP don't exist anymore is because the industry won't let them exist, magazines could get by on sales alone back then but with magazines dying a death these days losing ad revenue is a kiss of death.

[Sputryk]

Exactly, Killbot. AP was a breath of fresh air and by far the best 16-bit 'zine. Some of Stu Campbell's reviews had me in stitches. Wish I'd kept them all, now. As well as these few:

Games-X
Crash
ACE

[Prof Mango B Coconut]

Amiga Power was the daddy, unapologetically harsh with its review scores and showed utter contempt for PR people or publishers trying to wangle a good review with freebies and perks. They actually publicly named and shamed other mags they knew were taking kickbacks for good reviews. Where did magazines with those kind of balls go?

I think they mostly got into Scottish politics/Scottish independence.

[errolwd40]

Back in the mid 90s I used to enjoy reading the short lived Gamesworld Magazine (based on the sky tv show) and Ultimate Future Games.

I loved the reviews in Gamesworld as all 4 writes had to review each game and they based the end score on a combination of their individual scores. I think Dave Perry was editor at the time.

Ultimate Future Games was excellent as it was promoting imports from japan, early Saturn ,playstation and ultra 64 stuff.

Both were also very glossy.