Game Player's PC Strategy Guide

[aloram]

It seems to be missing from the database. Yes, another magazine from the whole Game Players/Player's mess! Here are a couple examples:

http://www.amazon.com/GAME-PLAYERS-STRATEGY-GUIDE-August/dp/B002ACQDN4

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Game-Players-PC-Strategy-Guide-Volume-4-Number-2-April-30th-1991-/111820449601?hash=item1a0904a741%3Ag%3AfWkAAOSwu-BWQSzk&nma=true&si=5TUPKihGNqPH%252FcLU%252Ff8IjinuwG8%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[kitsunebi]

I had both of those issues and more, but at some point LIKE A FOOL, I cut out the pages featuring games which interested me and threw out the rest. Ever since I first started collecting old magazine scans, this has been the title I've most wanted to see. Maybe someday...?

[aloram]

They don't show up on eBay that often, but when they do, they tend to sell for a fairly low price.

[marktrade]

I have one issue from October 1991.

Also five issues of "Game Player's PC Entertainment" which appears to be a separate magazine that is also not in the database.

I feel like there's at least one more Game Player's magazine still missing.

[kitsunebi]

I'm pretty sure Game Player's PC Strategy Guide later became Game Player's PC Entertainment. Furthermore, Game Player's PC Entertainment is the magazine that became PC Gamer. I had a subscription to PC Entertainment when it was discontinued and the remaining issues were filled by PC Gamer. The changeover is acknowledged in the first issue of PC Gamer, as well.

Any and all Game Player's PC issues are at the top of my personal want list.

[marktrade]

I'm pretty sure Game Player's PC Strategy Guide later became Game Player's PC Entertainment. Furthermore, Game Player's PC Entertainment is the magazine that became PC Gamer. I had a subscription to PC Entertainment when it was discontinued and the remaining issues were filled by PC Gamer. The changeover is acknowledged in the first issue of PC Gamer, as well.

Any and all Game Player's PC issues are at the top of my personal want list.

Wow, really? No kidding. That makes sense, now that I think of it. I'm glad I was able to pick a few up, then.

Not to be confused with PC Entertainment published by IDG in 1996, which was previously known as Electronic Entertainment and then later PC Games before it was acquired by PC Gamer.

I promised aloram I would finish with Next Generation and NextGen before working on anything else in exchange for donated issues, but if he's looking for these as well then I'm sure I can scan a couple of these in the meantime.

[kitsunebi]

That's awesome. But no need to mess up your plans and do things out of order. I've waited for decades, I can wait a bit more. The Game Player's PC mags (under both titles) are just my personal holy grail because I used to own so many of them, and yet for some forgotten reason threw them all away, even though I kept all of my other game mags from the same period. I've been kicking myself ever since, so I figure having them on digits will finally allow the healing process to begin.

[aloram]

Thanks marktrade. Looking forward to the completion of Next Generation/NextGen, but definitely excited to see some of these Game Player's PC Strategy Guide issues afterwards. Keep up the awesome work!

[kitsunebi]

I just did a google search for "Game Player's PC Entertainment," and this thread was the first and pretty much only thing to come up. I think that means we're the experts who know more about it than anyone and it's our duty to make this the leading site IN THE ENTIRE WORLD for information on this series of magazines. Imagine the prestige! Imagine how happy it will make the 12 people who remember these mags! Seriously, though...I REMEMBER! I CARE! I really do. Any progress on getting these added to the site?

[marktrade]

They're next on my list. I'll post links to ADO as soon as they're ready. Right now I'm just experimenting with different ways of scanning them. Since they're stapled and I have an A3 scanner, I can scan each double sheet and get 100% of the page intact, but then I get some very cumbersome files. If I can just figure out how to automate all this, then they'll go a lot faster.

Edited March 14, 2016 by marktrade

[kitsunebi]

They're next on my list. I'll post links to ADO as soon as they're ready. Right now I'm just experimenting with different ways of scanning them. Since they're stapled and I have an A3 scanner, I can scan each double sheet and get 100% of the page intact, but then I get some very cumbersome files. If I can just figure out how to automate all this, then they'll go a lot faster.

We still need a place here for them once they've been scanned though, right? I assume Philly is in need of info (first/last issue) that might be hard to provide.

Also, I wondered before when you mentioned it elsewhere...what is ADO?

[marktrade]

We still need a place here for them once they've been scanned though, right? I assume Philly is in need of info (first/last issue) that might be hard to provide.

Also, I wondered before when you mentioned it elsewhere...what is ADO?

Archive Dot Org.

Yeah, it'll basically be impossible to get a complete listing since it's rare, but that doesn't stop me from scanning.

[kitsunebi]

Archive Dot Org.

Yeah, it'll basically be impossible to get a complete listing since it's rare, but that doesn't stop me from scanning.

Ah, I see. In my mind, it's always just "The Internet Archive." Never heard it given an abbreviation before.

Hopefully we can make the Game Player's PC issues available here even if the database can only be as complete as the issues we have/are aware of. It's not as if anyone will be looking at all the blank entries for missing issues, anyway. A lot of times, piecing together data on a rare mag like this can take years, as issue by issue are discovered randomly popping up on eBay or whatever. It seems silly to have to wait until every issue has been found before allowing a title to have any presence on the site.

[marktrade]

In lieu of database entries, we can just use the forum for the time being. That's what I did for PC Accelerator and it worked very well.

According to Blair Carter's "Computer Games: A Bibliography with Indexes," Game Player's PC Entertainment was a bimonthly periodical continued by the monthly PC Gamer and before it continued the bimonthly Game Player's PC Strategy Guide, which continued the seasonal Game Player's MS-DOS Strategy Guide before it.

To recap the precursors to PC Gamer that continued one another went in order:

Game Player's MS-DOS Strategy Guide

Game Player's PC Strategy Guide

Game Player's PC Entertainment

They continued one another in numbering. So in 1992 you'll see "Volume 5" of Game Player's PC Entertainment but in 1991 you'll see "Volume 4" of Game Player's PC Strategy Guide. Likewise "Volume 1" will be Game Player's MS-DOS Strategy Guide in 1988. So we should be advised when we're talking about one magazine we're talking about all three.

Edited March 15, 2016 by marktrade

[marktrade]

Here have a scan.

https://archive.org/details/GPPCSGVol4No5

[kitsunebi]

I feel like I'm gonna be saying this every time you post an issue, but...I HAD THAT ISSUE! I still have no idea what kind of fever dream hallucinatory state I was in when I threw out all my Game Player's PC mags - the ONLY game mags I EVER threw out. It just doesn't make any sense to me, and I have no recollection of what possessed me to do it. This is why it's so important to me to see these things again - to finally heal the pain of one of the greatest mistakes I ever made in my life. #firstworldproblems

I've gotta admit, though, I don't think I've ever seen an issue of Game Player's MS-DOS Strategy Guide. Just one more thing to dream about seeing here...

Thanks so much!!!!!