Do you feel the need to have the alternate covers ?

[Anthony1]

For those that collect the real mags... Do you feel like you need to own the alternate cover versions ? Or are you fine having just the one you already got ?

This GamePro is an example. My June 1991 issue of GamePro has Bugs Bunny on the cover instead of this really weird looking Sonic. (Hmm, on a side note, maybe this is why people talk smack about Francis Mao ?) . Anyways, if I find the other version with Sonic on the cover for a cheap price, I'll probably snag it. Normally I don't care too much about alternate covers, but that Sonic cover looks so strange, so I will eventually track one down.

[Depressor]

If the magazine have alternate covers - why not to have them all?

[Anthony1]

If the magazine have alternate covers - why not to have them all?

True, but sometimes these magazines get silly with it, and they will have like 4 different covers for the same issue. I think EGM did that once.

[E-Day]

For those that collect the real mags... Do you feel like you need to own the alternate cover versions ? Or are you fine having just the one you already got ?

This GamePro is an example. My June 1991 issue of GamePro has Bugs Bunny on the cover instead of this really weird looking Sonic. (Hmm, on a side note, maybe this is why people talk smack about Francis Mao ?) . Anyways, if I find the other version with Sonic on the cover for a cheap price, I'll probably snag it. Normally I don't care too much about alternate covers, but that Sonic cover looks so strange, so I will eventually track one down.

For this issue, I wanted both covers. I had only ever seen the Sonic one up until a couple of years ago. GamePro never showed the Bugs Bunny one when advertising back issues, and anytime I searched eBay for GamePro, the Sonic one was the only one I ever saw. Until one time I saw the Bugs Bunny one. I didn't know if it was rare or special, but I thought it was odd, so I grabbed it because I didn't know it existed before that point.

Otherwise I dont really bother with alternate covers.

[VGBounceHouse]

True, but sometimes these magazines get silly with it, and they will have like 4 different covers for the same issue. I think EGM did that once.

EGM 173 had five variations which is the most I found in my collection. There are at least two issues where they had four variations.

I think having all the covers is important for archival completion online but have never sought them out to have on hand. Guess we'll see how I feel once I get through a lot more archiving lol

[Anthony1]

For this issue, I wanted both covers. I had only ever seen the Sonic one up until a couple of years ago. GamePro never showed the Bugs Bunny one when advertising back issues, and anytime I searched eBay for GamePro, the Sonic one was the only one I ever saw. Until one time I saw the Bugs Bunny one. I didn't know if it was rare or special, but I thought it was odd, so I grabbed it because I didn't know it existed before that point.

It's funny, because in a later issue of GamePro, they apologized for having the two different covers. I think subscribers got the Bugs Bunny one, and the Sonic one went to newsstands, or possibly vice versa... I just know a ton of GamePro readers got so upset about it and GamePro apologized and said they wouldn't do it again, lol...

[Sean697]

EGM 173 had five variations which is the most I found in my collection. There are at least two issues where they had four variations.

I think having all the covers is important for archival completion online but have never sought them out to have on hand. Guess we'll see how I feel once I get through a lot more archiving lol

EGM has a lot of alternat covers.

I've found issue 8 has a CES only alternat cover.

Issue 70 has 4 Mortal Kombat 3 covers

Another issue 82 I think has 4 vf2 covers

Street fighter 3 has two covers I've seen I think it's 84

South Park has 4 covers issue 114

EGM 97 has 3 covers

The FF 10 issue has I think 2 covers .

And I know there are more l. I noticed a few of the buyers guide issues have variant covers with black background instead of white.

[parallaxscroll]

EGM has a lot of alternat covers.

I've found issue 8 has a CES only alternat cover.

The TurboGrafx-16 vs Genesis issue has CES cover? Neat.

[VGBounceHouse]

EGM has a lot of alternat covers.

...

And I know there are more l. I noticed a few of the buyers guide issues have variant covers with black background instead of white.

If you've checked my database I noted cover variations (and which cover(s) I have) in the comments field. Once I sync my issues to RetroMags numbering I will put up a table with filtering so they'll be easy to spot.

[Anthony1]

Here is the picture of the June 1991 GamePro that I have with Bugs on the cover :

[Anthony1]

EGM has a lot of alternat covers.

I've found issue 8 has a CES only alternat cover.

Do you have a picture of it ? Curious what it looks like..

[Sean697]

Do you have a picture of it ? Curious what it looks like..

If you have EGM 82, look on page 54 and there is a picture of it. If not DL EGM 82 from the site and you can see it. It's in an article on the history of EGM.

[Anthony1]

If you have EGM 82, look on page 54 and there is a picture of it. If not DL EGM 82 from the site and you can see it. It's in an article on the history of EGM.

Wow, that's a really cool article. I normally don't read too many EGM's after a certain period (hated the cheap paper)...

I'm going to have to take some time and kick back and read that whole article, very interesting stuff... That issue must be extremely rare. Has anybody ever seen one up on Ebay ? I wonder how many total issues they made for the CES ? Maybe one thousand issues ? Maybe even less ?

In that one article, I noticed they were talking about the 8 rarest issues of EGM... They had issue #33 and #41 included in the list, but #41 seems super common to me. I always see that issue on Ebay.

[Sean697]

Wow, that's a really cool article. I normally don't read too many EGM's after a certain period (hated the cheap paper)...

I'm going to have to take some time and kick back and read that whole article, very interesting stuff... That issue must be extremely rare. Has anybody ever seen one up on Ebay ? I wonder how many total issues they made for the CES ? Maybe one thousand issues ? Maybe even less ?

In that one article, I noticed they were talking about the 8 rarest issues of EGM... They had issue #33 and #41 included in the list, but #41 seems super common to me. I always see that issue on Ebay.

I asked Frank Cifaldi who has an extensive magazine collection and archive and he's never seen it and he has some of the rarest mags I know of from that time period. I think maybe if you contacted some of the original staff like Steve Harris or Ed Semrad, Martin Allesi, Trickman Terry etc. they might have information on it. But I'm always reluctant to contact those guys for the purposes of this site. I'm mean I'm sure they must know about Retromags but I wouldn't wanted bring any unwanted attention or controversy.

[E-Day]

Steve Harris is well aware of this site. He did an interview for the site years ago. And him doing so is what caused us to change our stance on allowing unedited scans on the site. It looked bad, and we didn't want any content owner with good will to think we were making their property look bad by having these crap looking scans.

[twiztor]

Do you feel like you need to own the alternate cover versions ? Or are you fine having just the one you already got ?

in general, i'd be happy with the one i got. if there were extenuating circumstances, my viewpoint would change.

in your example, i would prefer to have the Sonic cover, since he's known for being a video game character. if i had a subscription and had received the Bugs cover, i'd be ok with it, but likely would pick up the Sonic cover if i could find it for cheap.

if a mag shipped covering one of my favorite games, but i got an alternate cover with something i cared less about, i would absolutely seek out the other version.

if it was a version with 4 covers of the same game, but with different scenes (i'm thinking the Nintendo Power that featured Star Wars: Episode I on the cover) then i'd just stick with what i got, since none of them are really that important anyway.

[miketheratguy]

I've got a bit of OCD regarding this stuff. I hate when magazines have alternate covers because (A) I'm going to want them all and ( I inevitably wind up with the worst one. So while uploads of multiple covers isn't something that I expect from this site, if they're made available you can bet that I'm going to download them and patch them into the pdfs that I make.

[TheRedEye]

Typically I just get them if I happen to see them cheaply but I am now ravenous about this stupid Bugs Bunny cover I didn't know existed until 30 seconds ago.

[E-Day]

i haven't seen the bugs bunny cover since the issue i bought on ebay a few years ago.

[RetroDefense]

I'm usually fine with what I've got.  The exception would be when an alternative cover reflects some extra internal content like a subscription bonus or whatever.  Or even altered content - Next Generation and some of their disc editions, for example.  Then I might try and track an alternative down.  Usually I'm only interested in the trivia and circumstances surrounding an alt cover though.

 

Like comic collecting, I I imagine collecting alternative magazine covers could be difficult depending on what you actually consider to be an alternative cover.  Like later Nintendo Power newsstand issues versus subscriber issues where the artwork is often cropped and/or resized.  Or some of Game Informer's subscriber covers that lack any sales copy.  Or even digital releases versus physical releases.  Or digital releases that've retroactively released alternative covers.  Could get kind of crazy.  

[PowerGamer]

I have an alternate cover for PSM #42.  A videogame store near where I live had two of that issue.  One had Rayman like the one pictured in the database, but there was a second one which had Dante from Devil May Cry and Samanosuke from Onimusha illustrated by Randy Green.  I bought that one.

[kitsunebi]

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I uploaded the covers to the first issue of the new Assassin's Creed comic...all 20 of them.  Most of them were exclusive to one retailer, so if you were hellbent on owning physical copies of each one you'd be driving all over town like a madman trying to track them down.  You also would have spent $80 on 20 copies of the same comic, essentially.  So yeah, hopefully there's nobody that crazy out there.

 

Still, if I can get them for free, I'm happier having the extra covers than not.

[gwmac223]

It sure increases rarity

[tedart]

Sorry if I missed it and someone already mentioned this, but for the issues that had alternate or multiple covers, are they uploaded with the magazines on this site?

[Sean697]

Sorry if I missed it and someone already mentioned this, but for the issues that had alternate or multiple covers, are they uploaded with the magazines on this site?

There a some. The case usually is we don't have scans of all the covers in high enough resolution. But I have been actively trying to get all the covers for the stuff I'm scanning.