New Releases: Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 127 (February 2000) and Issue 129 (April 2000)

[E-Day]

Retromags Presents!

Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 127

February 2000

Database Entry!

Download Directly!

Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 129

April 2000

Database Entry!

Download Directly!

Thanks to Sean697 for donating the issues for scanning (and to me for scanning them)!

[TOLUST]

Dam it.. You guys are the best!

[sqwirral]

Thanks!

[miketheratguy]

Ohhhhhhh, yes. Here it is. Here, at long last, it is. Issue 129. April 2000. My single favorite issue of EGM EVER.

I'll never forget it. Spring was...springing, I had a great job, and a great girlfriend (who would later turn into a stripper but whatever, at the time everything was good). I lived in an awesome house. Life was pretty sweet. I'd only just played Goldeneye for the first time the year prior and loved it, so I'd been keeping some tabs on the spiritual sequel, Perfect Dark.

It was at the Beloit, Wisconsin Wal-Mart where I was grabbing some basic supplies when I happened upon the striking, Joker-colored, 007-style cover of the latest Electronic Gaming Monthly. It promised a huge blowout look at Perfect Dark, and I was intrigued. I had some spare time so I grabbed the magazine off the rack, headed over to the snack bar where I grabbed some popcorn and a cheesy pretzel, and sat down to read.

And man, what an awesome article it was. It went into such insane detail - there were in-depth descriptions not only of the game and its overall features, but of the revolutionary single-player combat mode. I'd never heard of anything like it: The game would allow a player to compete against "sims", or "bots", a term I'd never heard before. Not only that, the player could dramatically customize the bots to do all kinds of different things. There was the bot that would vengefully seek out the character who'd last dealt him damage. The bot that would go after whichever character was in the lead. The bot who would run around the level doing nothing but stealing weapons. Each description had a nifty little cartoon representation of the bot in question, demonstrating his particular personality trait. And what's this? Not only can you customize the bots, you can customize the weapon loadouts and combat scenarios too?

It blew my mind. It was one of those moments in one's life when the possibilities of gaming were suddenly blown wide open. Things were happening that you'd never thought possible. So many options and avenues were open that, until that very day, had never been available before. The only other time that I can remember going from relatively unfamiliar with a game to achingly excited for it in such a short amount of time was Morrowind, another game that opened my eyes to what kind of things gaming was becoming capable of.

I bought Perfect Dark on a pleasant night that summer, and put several hundred hours into it throughout the years. It was basically my entire year of 2000, a year that saw me spend my last good year with the aforementioned girlfriend and my last year in that awesome house. I'll always remember the strange feeling of contentment that I felt when I'd sit out on the front porch and read another Perfect Dark magazine, this one a superbly informative (and entertaining) Versus Books strategy guide. As I sat there on that porch enjoying the shade and warm summer breeze, watching the neighbor's house being built across the street, I found myself consciously aware of how happy I was with my life. It was a great time, this summer of 2000. The summer of Perfect Dark. And it all started with that simple but all too rich memory-making issue of EGM.

I've waited years for this day - the day that I could finally add this hallowed issue to my digital collection for further reminiscence and permanent safekeeping. I'm still excited to see what else comes down the pike, and to grab all the other EGMs that make their way through, of course. But this issue - this is the one. No other magazine, with the exception of only a handful of the earliest Nintendo Powers and Game Player's, has ever left its stamp on such a happy and exciting period of my life.

Needless to say, thank you.

[kthrower]

Man, I played the crap out of Crazy Taxi after school with friends, but that game really killed great songs like "all i want" by Offspring.