GamePro en Español

[BlackSquirrel]

A friendly heads up:

https://www.retromags.com/gallery/category/542-gamepro-en-espanol/
GamePro en Español, a Spanish language version of GamePro. Retromags has it listed as an Argentinian magazine, which it is, except it isn't. It's a "Latin American" magazine. Check those covers, it's a mixture of

• Argentina
• Chile
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• Mexico
• Peru
• Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic
• Venezuela

and hey, here's a version for everywhere

Each country has its own minor cover variant, which means in order to document this magazine properly, you'd need a dozen sets of scans for every issue. Are the contents the same? Are advertisements localised? Are currencies converted? Did every country even receive every issue? Important details for a part of the world whose video game history is not well documented.

The good news is I don't think minor variants exist elsewhere...





... he lied.

Last year I found myself cataloguing the Sonic the Hedgehog Archie comics series. And then I found myself having to do it again because there were Canadian variants. And then again for "direct editions". And then again for weird one-off prints. I think I might have to start doing the same with magazines. You might too.

[kitsunebi]

That's interesting, but unless someone who knows/cares about Spanish language magazines volunteers to fix it, it will probably have to remain as is.  Those covers were all just dumped into the gallery years ago by Phillyman - they aren't labeled correctly, and no database has been created for them.  They're really only there in case some day someone decides to create an accurate database.  If we have any inaccurate databases, I'd like to get those corrected, but I frankly wouldn't be surprised if there aren't all sorts of mislabeled covers that have been uploaded to our galleries over the years (since literally any registered member can upload covers without moderation).

No one currently volunteering their time around here has the interest or knowledge to create an accurate database of magazines from any of those countries, but that's OK, since no one is scanning any of those magazines for this site, either.  Actually there may even be Spanish-language websites that have this sort of thing already documented, meaning that all it would take is someone doing the research and copying their information.  But again, that would require someone with an interest taking the time to do so.  Are you interested in doing it?

So far as variant covers go - if we have a variant cover, we like to include it in the gallery, but if it's a "micro-variant" where the only difference is something like a barcode or a different country's price printed on the cover, I don't think anyone really cares.  We aren't that anal about documenting every single minor variation.

 

It's funny you bring up comics, since I'm a moderator on a comic database site as well, and one of my personal pet peeves is that some people like to differentiate between newsstand and direct editions of every comic in existence.  To be perfectly honest, the difference in collectibility between the two is very minor and which one is preferred tends to vary by individual collector.  Not to mention it has become a moot point over time as most comics switch to direct/digital editions only.  I can't deny that there are some people who care about such a minor differentiation, but I'm certainly not one of those people.  We definitely won't be creating separate entries for such minor variations of magazines here.  We're interested in preserving magazines as sources of information, not as collectibles.

[BlackSquirrel]

Brute-forced myself an answer:

https://segaretro.org/Talk:GamePro_en_Español

Got ahold of three full(?) scans which suggest:
a) It's a flat English -> Spanish translation. No content is specifically tailored for a Latin American audience outside the letters page. They even have US prices.
b) All advertisements come from the US (at least in Argentina). So US distributors attempting to sell into Latin America, as opposed to local companies.
c) The translation was handled by Editorial América S.A.... which is/was a company based in Miami, Florida. So I guess it's technically an American magazine.

Fun times.

[E-Day]

And the mailing address to write to the magazine was Virginia Gardens, Florida. And same writer avatars and names (translated).

[kitsunebi]

In retrospect, it seems blatantly obvious that a magazine titled "GamePro En Espanol" would just be plain old GamePro...in Spanish.  A-duh.

I'm unfamiliar with GamePro...are the Spanish edition covers exclusive to that version, or do they use the same art as the English ones?  Regardless, if the contents are nothing but translations, that renders something that was already of niche interest into something almost entirely lacking of importance as well.  Unless of course you only speak Spanish.

[MelfPR]

I live in PR and remember Spanish GamePro. It was a straight-up translation of the U.S. mag.

[Foxhack]

There was a Mexico-only edition of GamePro down here in the 90s. IIRC, it was all very badly translated content, with regional promos and ads included. I had a couple of issues (Virtua Racing, Super Street Fighter II and Sonic & Knuckles covers) which I intended to donate, but they were lost in that big flood at my house two years ago.

Judging by the covers on the site, and other comments on this thread:

• There's a Spanish (PR?) US only edition, published in the US. Something tells me this was intended for states / territories with a large Spanish speaking population, like Florida and Puerto Rico;
• There's regional editions for Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico + Dominican Republic, and Mexico; at least, for the first year.
• This cover has a ton of countries listed, but not Mexico. I found a Mexico-only version at Mercado Libre Mexico, so it's possible every other country had a consolidated magazine, while we kept our regional one, at least for some issues.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Foxhack