Missing Magazine - Computer Play

[RetroDefense]

If you have any additional information regarding this magazine, please chime in so we can eventually begin indexing and preserving this publication!

 

Computer Play - published monthly by Computer Play Magazine Corp. - is a defunct, short-lived 'zine originally intended to go head-to-head with Computer Gaming World.

 

Name: Computer Play

Website: nada

Country: USA

Number of issues: 12?

 

 Archivist Jason Scott provided a detailed description for the Internet Archive, quoted here:

 

 

 

Computer Play is a game magazine devoted entirely to games on the PC and other computers, although a column was devoted to console games as well. For a period of time, it was the only competition Computer Gaming World had in the US, although its relative obscurity today should indicate who ultimately won the battle.

According to an interview with Computer Gaming World's Johnny Wilson, Computer Play got its start when a distributor decided to start its own computer magazine after it lost the rights to distribute CGW. The resemblance of Computer Play to CGW is undeniable -- at the time, both magazines were extremely text-heavy and devoted most of its space to longform reviews of PC games, with the occasional strategy feature. Computer Play did not have any equivalent to Scorpia's column in CGW, but it did offer more screenshots and color pages than the CGW of the era, and it also included a regular column that covered Nintendo, Sega and Atari games.

Despite being reasonable competition for CGW at the time, Computer Play is nearly unknown nowadays, presumably thanks to low distribution and a short shelf life. Although the quality of writing in the magazine doesn't quite compare to CGW's, it is notable for the contributors it fielded. One of the associate editors was Rusel DeMaria, who went on to have a very prolific writing career that included co-writing High Score! with Johnny Wilson. Other contributors included career freelancer Russ Ceccola and Rawson Stovall, a pre-teen reviewer who had a syndicated video-game column in the early 1980s; he's currently a producer at Electronic Arts.

July 1989 is believed to be the final issue.

 

Here's an issue breakdown based on Internet Archive issue scans and Jason's description.  Cover dates (and some guesstimated cover dates) are listed.  Issues are confirmed to exist unless noted otherwise.

 

01  Aug (internally copyright 1988; premiere issue based on editorial)

02  Sep 1988

03  Oct 1988

04  Nov 1988

05  Dec 1988

06  Jan 1989

07  Feb 1989

08  Mar 1989

09  Apr 1989

10  May 1989? (exist?)

11  Jun 1989? (exist?)

12  Jul 1989? (exist?)

 

A cover gallery already exists here at RetroMags.

 

Magazine dbase:

https://www.retromags.com/magazines/category/usa/computer-play/

 

Definitely a prime candidate for preservation given it's original time frame and obscurity!  While several have already been digitally preserved, Internet Archive's Computer Play scans are not the best in terms of quality.  New scans are definitely recommended if possible.

 

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8/6/16 edit - confirmed October 1988 issue; mag dbase

Edited August 7, 2016 by RetroDefense

[RetroDefense]

Found confirmation of the Oct '88 issue in the October 15th 1988 edition of the Lakeland Ledger newspaper.  Updated the OP.

[RetroDefense]

Added to the magazine dbase.  I included the final three unconfirmed issues but added a "questionable" notice to each with a link pointing here.  Hopefully someone will eventually visit the section and clarify the details.