Old Video Game Magazine Archive
In his post yesterday, @bozz mentioned an issue of Nintendo Power. When I was a kid, I was a subscriber. What a great magazine.
It gave tips on and reviews of all the popular NES and SNES games. It was preceded by the Nintendo Fun Club newsletter, which was game tips only and completely free. It became so popular that Nintendo eventually couldn’t keep it free, at which point it morphed into Nintendo Power.
I didn’t get my NES until after the Nintendo Fun Club era had already passed, so I missed that one. But I started my Nintendo Power subscription around issue 8 and stayed a loyal subscriber right through college. By that point I had a pretty sizable collection.
When I moved to Japan, all of those magazines were packed up in boxes and put in my parents’ basement. I honestly have no idea whether they’re still there or whether they were long ago thrown out.
BUT — the internet doth provide!
That site has not only every Nintendo Power issue (it ran for 24 years) scanned cleanly and packaged as CBR files, but also other early gaming magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, and many, many more.
What’s easy to forget now is just how important magazines like these once were. There was no YouTube, no walkthrough sites, no wikis, no datamining. If a game had a hidden mechanic, a secret ending, or an impossibly obscure trick, you either figured it out yourself, heard about it on the playground, or waited for a magazine to explain it months later. These publications didn’t just review games — they mediated the entire gaming culture of the time.
While digital scans can’t possibly replace the feeling of flipping through a physical magazine, it’s still wonderful to have access to all of these again. Paging through them brings back an avalanche of memories. The ads, layouts, artwork, even the writing style of the time.
Anyway, if you’re like me and have fond memories of video game magazines from this era, enjoy the archive.
[Title image created by ChatGPT. Man, if not for that unfortunate butchering of the Mario 2 NES cover, this would almost be the perfect image.]
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David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. |
I've never seen that before; I imagine those magazines are old. But thanks to the internet, it's easier to keep collecting what we love. Maybe I'll take a look at that magazine; it sounds interesting.
See also:
https://www.outofprintarchive.com/
https://archive.org/details/videogamemagazines
https://www.megalextoria.com/magazines/index.php?twg_album=Video_Game_Magazines
That is so cool you were able to find that site. It would be real cool if those are still in your parents basement. I remember my first Nintendo, I was an older teenager and didn't play much except in winter when I didn't get out much, but thought it was cool. Never owned a Super Nintendo though. I think by the time they came out I was graduated and on to Marine things. I remember the wife and I used to play Mario brothers though and enjoyed it a lot on my days off.
Nintendo Power was so awesome. I still remember pouring through the pages when every new issue would come out. Eventually when the SNES got popular I stopped my subscription because I still only had the NES and content for that was pretty sparse.
This post has revived one of my worst childhood traumas. It's about the Mario Bros. castle level, which is like a maze. A friend and I spent a lot of time frustrated because we couldn't find the right path, until another classmate came and played with us to show us the way. Unlike us, he had obtained that information through other means 😎
I think that today these things don't happen because of the easy accessibility that the internet gives us, but certainly those experiences mark our lives, or at least leave an indelible mark on our childhood 😆