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View Full Version : Happy 20th Anniversary to both EGM & GamePro!!!



Aarzak
05-06-2009, 10:47 PM
It all started, back in May 1989.

From Retromags:

May 1989, probably started out like most any other month but if you were into entertainment in just about any form, there were some big happenings. If you were a gamer then you probably were excited to see Taito release Operation Wolf on the NES, Tengen released what would become an unofficially licensed version of Tetris (get a copy of Game Over for the scoop on the mess surrounding Tetris) and Arch Rivals is released in arcades thanks to Acclaim. Magazines were still not considered mainstream and were often viewed as slightly below comics (which had collectability on their side). Still at the time May was a very important month. EGM #1 and Gamepro #1 were released this month and it was the beginning of change for the industry as a whole, video games and magazines based on video games were changing. So was the world for that matter, May 1989 saw the opening of Disney-MGM Studios and the Calgary Flames won their first and only Stanley Cup Trophy.


Life as the King of Pop wasn't much easier in 1989 as he was the focus of a police call about a suspicious person shopping near a Californian jewelry store. Michael Jackson was shopping in disguise.
Harrison Ford reprised his role as Indiana in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. If you had a mom like mine, you know about Dallas and Bobby Ewing and the talk that went on about the Season finale with him caught in the crossfire as a rival tried to kill J.R. (Bobby's brother for those that don't know). TV shows that called it quits this year include the following May 1 - The Benny Hill Show (UK) (1955-1989), May 10 - Dynasty (1981-1989), May 14 - Family Ties (1982-1989), Moonlighting (1985-1989), May 21 - Miami Vice (1984-1989), May 22 - Kate and Allie (1984-1989).




and now, 20 years later, only one of the two is left standing, and it isn't the well-liked one. :D Not to mention, its unpublished, finished 20th Anniversary issue will never be seen in any form due to politics.

For those of you that were old enough back then, what were your first impressions of the two mags' first issues?

Must've been an exciting time to be a gamer back then........NES will still dominating and firing on all cylinders, the Sega Master System was.........oh and don't forget the imminent launches of the TG-16 and the Genesis.

Baloo
05-06-2009, 10:52 PM
I thought both GamePro magazine and EGM were both still around no?

Aarzak
05-06-2009, 10:55 PM
EGM got canned this past January.

David J.
05-06-2009, 11:19 PM
In may of 1989... my parents got married I think. That or one to two months before. I forget, and hey, they don't really celebrate their wedding anniversary either!

Rusty Venture
05-06-2009, 11:25 PM
Who would have thought that Game Pro would outlive EGM.

Joe Redifer
05-06-2009, 11:30 PM
Not to mention, its unpublished, finished 20th Anniversary issue [of GamePro] will never be seen in any form due to politics.

Say what? I demand an explanation of this.

Aarzak
05-06-2009, 11:39 PM
The final editor-in-chief, on the blog announcing the demise of EGM (or was that the one after?) mentioned that their February 2009 issue (with SFIV on the cover, and what would've technically been their 20th Anniversary issue) was in the pipeline at time and close to completion, and that, while it'll never be released in print, could be released soon in digital form.

Another blurb from a guy in the 1UP/EGM camp mentioned that the fate of the 20th Anniversary issue was "in Ziff Davis's hands". They had plans to release the issue online, but due to the selling off of 1UP to UGO it has little, if any chance of seeing the light of day in any form. It wasn't a compromise Ziff was willing to make apparently.

.....And I JUST noticed that I said "of GamePro", and not "of EGM".

RowdyRodimus
05-07-2009, 02:32 AM
I can't believe they didn't mention that we were in full swing of the nations hottest fad, BATMAN! In May of '89 you couldn't walk three feet without seeing the famous yellow oval bat symbol (which I still think is the best Batman logo).

sasuke
05-07-2009, 05:08 PM
I used to have both magazines around 2000-2005. EGM usually had more interesting stuff, but GamePro was fun to read, too.

R.I.P. EGM :rip:

otaku
05-07-2009, 05:59 PM
kind of a sad birthday especially since they didn't make it to a 20th anniversary mag. Gamepro is good but man I used to love EGM but they went downhill and died

Zebbe
05-07-2009, 07:05 PM
In may of 1989... my parents got married I think. That or one to two months before. I forget, and hey, they don't really celebrate their wedding anniversary either!

Wow, and my parents got divorced :D.

I don't know much about GamePro or EGM, but I've learnt that GamePro was a joke magazine where the editors knew nothing about the games or writing in general and that EGM was more serious and better.

Rusty Venture
05-07-2009, 09:26 PM
Game Pro and EGM can be summed up like this

Game Pro: gave out "Protips" that weren't always worth printing (which is somewhat of a joke). All their reviewers had funny names (ie: Scary Larry, The Tummynator, Linoleum Blown Apart) and their reviews were usually full of lame puns. Aimed more at kids.

EGM had better import coverage and better pre-views. They were initially favorable to the Genesis until "Street Fighter 2" came to the SNES. After that point they became SF2 obsessed, they gained an SNES bias, and the reviews (IMO) became very questionable.

That is the Rusty Venture crash course on Game Pro/EGM

jerry coeurl
05-07-2009, 10:21 PM
I was a big fan of EGM growing up. Didn't much care for Game Pro, even at a young age I could tell that there was no substance.

Melf
05-08-2009, 08:56 AM
I used to buy GamePro religiously back in '89 and '90, since no other game magazine came to the local pharmacy, and the closest book store was almost an hour away. I ended up just giving them away to my friend's little brother. I'd like to read those early issues again now, to see how the articles hold up (probably poorly).

parallaxscroll
05-08-2009, 03:46 PM
It was sometime in July 1989, I was in my local OSCO drug store in Niles. IL (a suburb of Chicago) where I saw EGM for the first time. On the stand was EGM issue #2. I read the articles on the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16, got all excited about these new 16-bit consoles coming out.

http://i41.tinypic.com/x4jk8i.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/2hncrrs.jpg

It changed my life over the next year -- I had a new goal for doing well in school. Everything I did revolved around doing what I had to do, to get one of the new consoles. Of course I chose Genesis over TurboGrafx-16 (even though I'd eventually get a TG-16 as well). The following April, I had my Sega Genesis!

EGM was my #1 source for gaming information, until Next Generation magazine came out in the mid 90s and then the internet became something everyone was using, magazines became less and less important.

Youngie
05-08-2009, 05:34 PM
EGM (and EGM2) have fond memories for me. I'd had a a few of the older issues more than 10 years ago but gave them away when I moved house. Those damn mags had like 500 pages per issue. Awesome stuff. I can still remember an Earthbound feature in one of those mags...