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What was the first gaming mag you purchased?


KHANV1CT

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Mine was Electronic Gaming Monthly issue 76 (Twisted Metal Cover). After that I started buying all kinds(Gamepro, EGM2, Tips and Tricks...). I used to have hundreds of issues, but sadly I got rid of them.

A lot of people seem to have gotten rid of their gaming magazines so you're not alone. I don't know why I was different but I always kept mine. Kind of a pack rat I guess. I did draw on my earliest ones though, so they're not really of much value these days.

What was it about that issue of EGM that made it your first purchase?

Anyway, yeah. I was like 11 when that thing hit the stands. An obsession with Nintendo Power would follow soon thereafter.

Game Player's was a decent magazine for its day. Primitive and simplistic, but they have a certain charm. I'm pretty sure that this was my first gaming magazine as well. While I didn't have that specific issue, I had a couple of the Nintendo Buyer's guides or whatever they were (one of them has the face of a knight on the cover, I'm sure of that much). I didn't buy them though, I received them for Christmas of 1989. Hey, I was 11 then as well, another similarity..... ....are you me?

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I had old issues of joystick and computer mags growing up. But the first magazines I remember buying were the very first EGM, the 1989 buyers guide. Also Videoganes and computer entertainment, the one with the TG-16 and Lotus cover. And started Gamepro with issue number one. Also EGM (I never bout number one but did buy number 2 and up) pretty much everything from 1989 I probrably purchased. Including Game Player's. I couldn't get enough Genesis news.

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I could be wrong but the first gaming magazine I bought off a newsstand with my own money might have been the January 1998 issue of PC Gamer. It had a demo for Tomb Raider II that I couldn't play because my PC didn't have a 3D accelerator card, but it was nice to dream.

I definitely remember the first magazine I subscribed to with my own money—PC Games. I'd go to my friend's house and we'd take turns playing his awesome gaming systems and when he was playing I'd read one of the many issues of PC Games he had just laying around. Eventually I looked at one of those inserts that said, "Subscribe now! 12 issues for $12!" and thought, shoot, I can afford that. So I took the insert and placed it in an envelope with $12 cash and a month later I had a subscription.

My parents noticed it and asked me how I got a magazine subscription. They seemed surprised and alarmed. "It was just $12," I said. They told me I should not have done that and next time I should ask them. They also told me I should never send cash through the mail because anyone can open it and just take it, and that it's better to send a check or pay with credit card. I remember being annoyed by that because that would only ensure that I would need to ask their permission so they could say "no." I didn't even have a gaming PC. I had to go to a friend's house to play games. That $12 was just so I could dream, so who cares if someone took it? I'd find a way to dream anyway.

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What was it about that issue of EGM that made it your first purchase?

I was just at the grocery store one day and it was the only videogame magazine they had and I begged my grandma to buy it for me. She actually used to work for one of those telemarketer services that sold subscriptions so she could get me Gamepro and Nintendo Power practically for free. So I had those coming in and I would buy EGM off the newsstand. I really can't choose between EGM and Gamepro being my favorite from the old days. I really got addicted to them because they featured tips, tricks, and strategies that I never knew about. Keep in mind I had no idea about strategy guides until a visit to Electronics Boutique to pick up MK3 on Genesis.

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I want to say Electronic Gaming Monthly #2 was the first gaming mag I got, but more than likely its NIntendo Power.

I don't really know because I did get NIntendo Power for free for at least a few months in 1988 when it started. NIntendo must have gotten my address from mailing in a registration card. The free subscription probably ended and my parents had already subscribed for me before I got EGM #2.

Self-purchased first gaming mag was an issue of Diehard Gamefan.

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  • Retromags Curator

First gaming mag I was introduced to was the Nintendo Fun Club newsletter. A family friend sent my name in on a registration card so I could get a free subscription. Sadly, the only one I received was the R.C. Pro-Am cover which was the last one they sent out before switching over to Nintendo Power. I got issue #1 free because of that Fun Club subscription though, so I can't complain.

First magazine I ever bought with my own money (actually with money pooled with my brother) was a subscription to Nintendo Power. That Dragon Warrior give-away was just too sweet to pass up. :)

*huggles*
Areala

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First magazine I ever bought with my own money (actually with money pooled with my brother) was a subscription to Nintendo Power. That Dragon Warrior give-away was just too sweet to pass up. :)

That's also how I acquired Dragon Warrior, although I believe I took advantage of the offer on a renewal, or else a new subscription after my current one expired, since I clearly remember my first subscription issue being #8 with Duck Tales on the cover (although I ordered the remaining back issues as soon as I could afford to). I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like that giveaway happened until the following year?

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Nintendo Power Issue #10 for me.

It was the first NP i got with my subscription. 2 months to a magazine was a LONG time to wait for a kid.
The free Dragon Warrior promotion was unheard of at the time. A FREE NINTENDO game with your magazine subscription? And a strategy guide? Insanity!

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