Famitsu Issue 0001 (June 20, 1986)

OK, here it is, the first issue of Famitsu – a landmark issue if ever there was one. Please be aware however, that this IS NOT a scan of the original magazine (which is super-rare and costs hundreds of dollars) but rather is a scan of a reproduction. The gray borders around each page are new to the reproduction, allowing them to occasionally print some commentary on the contents of the page. Otherwise, the content of the magazine, including the ads, is identical to the original.

However, the reproduction is printed at about half the physical dimensions of the original. As such, the quality of small detail suffers somewhat – a fault of the magazine’s printing, not of the scan. The copy I had also suffered from some water damage, which is visible in a few places. Even so, unless someone is willing to scan a copy of the original #1 (I won’t hold my breath), this is probably the best we’ll get, and I feel it’s an important look at the origins of the most influential video game magazine ever published.

Finally…the cover. This is where most of the damage was evident. Warped by water damage and extremely faded, the cover was in such bad shape that I opted to repaint it (something I would normally never do with a scan). It wasn’t possible to repaint all of the tiny spaces between the Japanese characters, so the text is a little muddy, but on a whole I feel the cover is much more presentable than the unadulterated scan. For anyone who finds such digital manipulation an abomination (moreso than spot clone-stamping here and there, that is), I have included the original scan of the cover as the final page before the Retromags splash page.

Anyway, this issue is a special exception. I hope you can look past its faults to appreciate the history! Expect all future Famitsu issues from me to be similar in quality to the previous two I released.