Are there any 'holy grails' of half-remembered magazines you're looking for?

[lalalei2001]

In my quest for reading video game magazines I have five main goals:

1. Figure out which issue of Game Players had the letter where someone wrote in about a hypothetical Mega Woman game, including a boss list. "The enemies would be different, and a lot harder."
2. Figure out which magazine spoiled the entire ending to Mega Man X5 along with a boss guide, and may or may not have had a Lunar 2 Eternal Blue boss walkthrough in the same issue. (I THINK it was Game Informer's Roleplayers' Realm section but I am not sure.) "Smash Zophar in just four turns!" "With his last burst of energy, Zero destroys Sigma."
3. Find out which magazine had a Phantasy Star Online guide for the Dreamcast, I believe. "If you'd still like to mix it up hand-to-hand now and then, choose FOMarl."
4. Find out which magazine had a walkthrough for Sonic Spinball, including detailed maps.
5. Find out which issue of Beckett Pokemon Collector had Jingaroo comics.

What half-buried stuff in the recesses of your brains are YOU guys looking for?

Edited February 22, 2021 by lalalei2001

[Ethereal Dragonz]

There was lesser known magazine in the 90's (can't recall the name) that had Game Genie codes which claimed to allow you to play the bosses in Street Fighter II on SNES but I never found a working code online except one that caused a player 2 to glitch as a random boss.

This magazine had images of the code working on SNES (could have been photoshopped).

[kitsunebi]

BEFORE it was called PC Gamer, BEFORE it was called Game Players PC Entertainment, BEFORE it was called Game Player's Strategy Guide to PC Games...it was called Game Player's MS-DOS Strategy Guide, The Game Player's Guide to MS-DOS Computer Games,  and Game Player's PC Buyer's Guide.  At least, we think so.  Most of those early issues have never been seen in the wild, so it's a little unclear exactly what was going on with all the name changes.  But I want 'em. 

[lalalei2001]

I'm also looking for an article about some sort of game where you had elemental god/goddesses that grew stronger and more detailed over time, i think it was a strategy game. I don't know if the game ever actually came out, and I can't remember any more information, so I'll likely never find that one.

[perfinpuz]

On 11/2/2018 at 11:10 PM, lalalei2001 said:

5. Find out which issue of Beckett Pokemon Collector had Jingaroo comics.

Issue 7 March 2000 had two pages of Jingaroo outback dreamtime adventures presents "Croco-vile the Nightmare King" part 2.

It is considered an advertisement and not listed on the contents page.

It also says check next issue for more of the story.

[lalalei2001]

44 minutes ago, perfinpuz said:

Issue 7 March 2000 had two pages of Jingaroo outback dreamtime adventures presents "Croco-vile the Nightmare King" part 2.

It is considered an advertisement and not listed on the contents page.

It also says check next issue for more of the story.

Aaaaaaaaah! THANK YOU! I've been looking for that for a decade!

[nononanon]

GameNOW deserves to be preserved!

Truth be told, I only remember it from my childhood so it really might not be great.

[lalalei2001]

I vaguely remember GameNOW!

[theatermike]

The Phantasy Star guide is definitely the March 2001 issue of Expert Gamer. I have a copy in storage.

Sonic Spinball is likely Gamepro, although I am not 100% sure on that.

There were a ton of games featuring Gods and Goddesses. Everything from Archon: The Light and the Dark, to Age of Mythology and Zeus: Master of Olympus. There were hex-based strategy games in that mould as well.

[lalalei2001]

Oh, wow! Thank you! (That expert gamer ish has X5--I wonder if it had the ending?  "With his last burst of energy, Zero destroys Sigma." XD) I'll keep looking for that Lunar 2 boss guide too! "Smash Zophar in just 4 turns!"

EDIT: I might have found the Lunar  2 guide too, as well as Chrono Cross and Grandia 2! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gamers-Republic-Magazine-Issue-27-Aug-2000-Lunar-Chrono-Cross-Grandia/321616815551?hash=item4ae1db25bf:g:n1AAAOSw4PxaKdYw:rk:2:pf:1&frcectupt=true

I also remember multi=-page walkthroughs/previews for Spike McFang, Aero the Acro-bat, Whomp 'Em, and I think Tomba. These were PROBABLY split across issues/series. XD

I also remember a Tiny Toons walkthrough, and the Death and Return of Superman walkthrough, and the first Wario Land. These were all Gameboy games, but no idea what magazine it was.

Edited December 12, 2018 by lalalei2001

[lalalei2001]

I got that Expert Gamer magazine and while it had an X5 walkthrough and boss guide, it didn't have the ending. I wonder which mag it was... (It did have the Phantasy Star and Skies of Arcadia complete walkthroughs though!)

[mvangord]

I had this one magazine, probably the first video game magazine I ever owned, that was some sort of handheld game magazine (it may be the elusive issue 2 of Pocket Games but I'm not sure since I had issue 6 or so and they were nothing alike).  The cover story was on some obscure GBC game called Xtreme Sportz (yes, really) and it had a ton of mostly badly translated information about Pokemon Gold & Silver that was occasionally flat out incorrect (saying Entei was a Fighting type).  It gave some pretty scathing reviews to a couple of games too, the two terrible Austin Powers games and Star Wars Yoda Stories I think?  Then they had a post-mortem on the Neo Geo Pocket Color with a drawing of Mario taking a piss on the system's grave.  If only I could dig it out of my basement and the cramped binders I shoved so many of my game mags into...

[jonphilmitch]

On 2/10/2019 at 7:39 PM, mvangord said:

I had this one magazine, probably the first video game magazine I ever owned, that was some sort of handheld game magazine (it may be the elusive issue 2 of Pocket Games but I'm not sure since I had issue 6 or so and they were nothing alike).  The cover story was on some obscure GBC game called Xtreme Sportz (yes, really) and it had a ton of mostly badly translated information about Pokemon Gold & Silver that was occasionally flat out incorrect (saying Entei was a Fighting type).  It gave some pretty scathing reviews to a couple of games too, the two terrible Austin Powers games and Star Wars Yoda Stories I think?  Then they had a post-mortem on the Neo Geo Pocket Color with a drawing of Mario taking a piss on the system's grave.  If only I could dig it out of my basement and the cramped binders I shoved so many of my game mags into...

I donated my Pocket Games to Phillyman, who is now in the process of scanning them. However I do have a scan of the cover of issue 2 and I don't see a reference to "Xtreme Sportz". I guess we'll know for sure once it gets fully scanned, edited, and uploaded.

 

[JhonnyD]

Checkpoint, an italian multiplatform magazines, 4 issues only. I found recently issue number 2 at my grandma’s house, was pretty sure it was thrown away 

[mvangord]

27 minutes ago, jonphilmitch said:

I donated my Pocket Games to Phillyman, who is now in the process of scanning them. However I do have a scan of the cover of issue 2 and I don't see a reference to "Xtreme Sportz". I guess we'll know for sure once it gets fully scanned, edited, and uploaded.  One thing I forgot to mention was they had a really early feature on the upcoming Game Boy Advance (which they called the Advanced Game Boy) which was shown as a more rectangular model different than what we ended up getting.  They also had a section where they reviewed yo-yos...cool, I guess?

 

I thought it might be something like Pocket Gamer but that's a UK publication apparently?  Either way I have the actual issue in my basement but the odds of me unpacking it before we move again are astronomically low.

[mvangord]

On 2/12/2019 at 4:58 PM, mvangord said:

I thought it might be something like Pocket Gamer but that's a UK publication apparently?  Either way I have the actual issue in my basement but the odds of me unpacking it before we move again are astronomically low.  One thing I forgot to mention was they had a really early feature on the upcoming Game Boy Advance (which they called the Advanced Game Boy) which was shown as a more rectangular model different than what we ended up getting.  They also had a section where they reviewed yo-yos...cool, I guess?

No idea how my stuff got into your quote.  The cover might actually not have been Xtreme Sports (which was one of the first WayForward games apparently) but actually Spider-Man, since there was a huge walkthrough on the GBC Spider-Man game in it.  That's about all I remember about it.  I wish I at least remembered the title.

On a side note, I bought an issue of some UK publication once that was being sold at Barnes & Noble and found a British lottery ticket in it.  I think it was Cube or something?  There was this section where they commented on the top 10 best selling games and they just used it to go on a tangent about Arctic Thunder.  I might be thinking of two things.

[archeopteryx]

Oh man I thought I was the only one.  I just spent 3 hours at work searching for an old letter to a gaming magazine (has to be either CGW, EGM or the impossible to find Computer Game Review, and almost certainly from the early/mid 90s).  The guy in the letter was reminiscing about how when Ultima first came out, he would wake up, play it for 14 hours straight, eat a tv dinner and sleep for a couple hours before waking up and doing it all again.  I remember my best friend and I reading that letter and making fun of the guy.  Then we spent the next 10 hours taking turns playing Might and Magic III.

 

I'm almost positive the letter was in Computer Game Review and CD-ROM Entertainment, which I remember being my favorite PC gaming magazine, but unfortunately does not seem to be archived anywhere.

[lalalei2001]

That letter sounds hilarious; i hope you find it!

[Estil]

It's not gaming, but I'd love so very very much (like I already said in a seperate topic) to have available somewhere all the archived issues of SPORT and Highlights for Children...as well as being able to read the encyclopedia yearbooks from World Book, Brittanica, etc

[mvangord]

FOUND IT!

[lalalei2001]

Sweet! :D

[mvangord]

That's not my copy btw, just the only image of it I could find online.  Too bad I couldn't resize it and find out what issue it was based on the bar code.  I didn't find anything else when I used archive.org on Imagine's website at the time so it probably didn't last too long.

[Leathco]

One of my holy grails has already been preserved here:  the entire run of PCXL, which I still think was the best PC gaming mag ever made.  The other holy grail for me I would love to see preserved is the PS1 era of the Official US Playstation Magazine.  More or less issues 1 through 54, cause 54 was the final issue to come with a PS1 demo disc.  Loved this era in gaming. 

 

A lot of other faves of mine have already been preserved here.  Early issues of EGM, the entire early run of Nintendo Power, lots of Next Generation, which were the big 3 I read before OPM and OXM (which I figure OXM is too recent to really be preserved here yet due to copyright issues).  Really thankful for all the work that has already been done.

[lalalei2001]

Does anyone know which gaming mag had a multiple page walkthrough for ToeJam and Earl: Panic on Funkotron? All I remember is "One door leads to death" in a bonus area as well as an enemy profile.

[mvangord]

I remember this one issue of GamePro I had from around 2002 that had this pack in book that was basically a catalog for a lot of ADV Films titles.  Kinda weird since anime DVDs were more Play's territory, don't remember GamePro doing much in that department.  It'd be nice if more publications had some sort of list of all the pack-in/subscriber bonuses that came with them.  I guess if people send mint copies they could get everything but I get why that would be hard to part with.