The print media that shaped a generation of players
The flagship US multiplatform gaming magazine of the 1990s, known for its newsstand presence, colour reviews grid, and the famous April Fools hoaxes that fooled an entire generation of players.
Nintendo's own official US magazine, originally published in-house, that served as the primary strategy guide, preview source, and brand ambassador for a generation of NES and SNES players.
A cult favourite US magazine distinguished by its import coverage, lavish full-page screenshots, and enthusiast editorial voice that championed Japanese games years before they reached Western shelves.
A long-running US multiplatform magazine aimed at younger players, recognisable for its "ProReview" format and mascot-heavy visual identity that made it a staple of school-library gaming coverage.
The UK's most critically rigorous games magazine, known for its austere visual design, willingness to award low scores to high-profile games, and a long-running editorial philosophy that treats games as a serious design discipline.
The UK's oldest dedicated gaming magazine, launched in 1981 when home computing was still new, and a primary reference for a generation of British players through the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, and Amiga eras.
A UK console-only spin-off from CVG that became the defining voice of British 16-bit gaming coverage, celebrated for its irreverent editorial style and detailed multiformat reviews during the Mega Drive and SNES era.
Japan's most influential games publication and the world's longest-running dedicated gaming magazine, whose four-reviewer scoring system and rare perfect 40/40 scores carry enormous weight in the Japanese industry.
A well-regarded US gaming magazine from the early 1990s that carved out a niche with longer-form reviews, detailed strategy content, and a more analytical editorial approach than its mass-market competitors.
The British magazine for Commodore computers, launched in 1983 and published by EMAP from 1984. It grew from programming tutorials into a games magazine and became CU Amiga in 1990.
The world's longest-running PC-dedicated gaming magazine, launched simultaneously in the UK and US and still in print, credited with professionalising PC games journalism and making demo discs a publishing standard.
A US monthly dedicated entirely to cheat codes, passwords, and strategy tips that served as a pre-internet clearinghouse for game secrets during the years when sharing such knowledge required a physical publication.
The definitive ZX Spectrum magazine of the 1980s, published by Newsfield in Ludlow and famous for its sharp reviews and the vivid, distinctive cover artwork of Oliver Frey — for a time the biggest-selling computer magazine in Britain.
Newsfield's Commodore 64 counterpart to Crash, launched in 1985 and beloved for its irreverent humour, exhaustive C64 coverage, and star reviewers like Julian "Jaz" Rignall — a national gaming champion whose scores literally provoked developers to code against him.
The first magazine in the United States devoted entirely to video games, founded in 1981 by Bill Kunkel, Arnie Katz, and Joyce Worley — the publication that invented the vocabulary and editorial template every games magazine since has followed.
Edge's American sibling — an unusually intelligent, often controversial magazine that treated game development as a subject worth interrogating rather than a source of screenshots.
The magazine that used the whole percentage scale, published a table comparing its scores to everyone else's to prove the others were inflating, and got its ad revenue pulled for it.
America's first games magazine to put a playable demo disc in every issue — turning a magazine into a delivery mechanism for the games themselves.
A British SNES magazine from Future Publishing, revered for its deep focus on Japanese games, anime, and import RPGs, and for Wil Overton's manga-style cover art — a publication that shaped a generation's love of Japanese pop culture.
The first magazine devoted specifically to computer games, founded by Russell Sipe in 1981 — a serious, long-lived US PC-gaming institution that survived the 1983 crash and covered the hobby for a quarter-century.
A British ZX Spectrum magazine famous for trading dry technical coverage for anarchic, self-mocking humour — a tone that reshaped UK games journalism and fed directly into later titles like Amiga Power.
EMAP's magazine for the 16-bit computer generation — Amiga, Atari ST and PC — launched in 1988 under former Zzap!64 writer Gary Penn.
A multi-format British magazine that scored games out of 1,000 and drew each one a "Predicted Interest Curve" showing how long it would hold a player's attention.
The longest-running magazine for Sinclair computers, published for eleven years and 134 issues, and selling 96,000 copies a month at the height of the ZX Spectrum boom.
The first commercial magazine devoted entirely to retro games, launched in 2004. It survived its publisher's bankruptcy within two years and is still published monthly.
Future Publishing's Sega magazine began as S: The Sega Magazine in 1989, covered every Sega console from the Master System to the Saturn as Sega Power, and ended as Saturn Power in 1998.
The first magazine from Future Publishing, launched by Chris Anderson in 1985 for Amstrad CPC owners. It ran for 117 issues and established the cover-tape habit British readers came to expect.
Launched in 1993 as the tie-in to Channel 4's GamesMaster TV show, the magazine sold more than 219,000 copies of its first issue and outlived the programme by twenty years.
Future Publishing's Commodore 64 magazine arrived late in the machine's life, outsold Zzap!64 within two years, and was the last commercial magazine for any of Britain's big three 8-bit computers.
Future Publishing's monthly Amiga magazine, which sold more than 160,000 copies an issue at its peak and ran 136 issues, each with a cover disk.
The retailer-owned magazine that began as FuncoLand's newsletter in 1991 and, bundled with GameStop's loyalty programme, became one of the most widely circulated magazines in the US.
Shinseisha's Japanese arcade magazine, devoted to shoot 'em ups and later fighting games, whose annual Gamest Awards were voted by readers.