Help Preserving SEGA MegaZone Magazine

[Blake00]

Hey guys,

Someone just told me about this place and I just had to sign up as it's great to see people passionate about the same thing!

If some of you here are Australian, you have a good retro gaming mate who’s an Aussie, or you know a retro gaming influencer with Aus fans then maybe you can help with this preservation attempt!

I’ve been working with others to try and digitally preserve copies of a great old late 80s early 90s Australian video game electronics magazine called MegaZone that covered PC & Amiga (with a particular focus on point & click adventures), Atari, Nintendo and a lots of SEGA stuff (it eventually became SEGA only in its final years).

At this point in time 48 of the 56 issues have been found and scanned by various collectors and myself leaving 7 issues still missing, all from the magazines earliest years. Many of the magazines found are missing their posters and some occasionally had supplement mini books that may be missing too. We’re also trying to digitize any MegaZone TV commercials out there on old VHS video cassettes as we have rescued 2 but know there are more (I remember seeing more as a kid).

I can see that someone here has even uploaded some Megazone covers to your site. Should you guys want to increase your records and even have pdfs too then feel free to take what you need from our collections as we have many more. Sadly you guys don't have any of our missing 14 though.

More info about what MegaZone is and how people can help here:

https://blakessanctum.wordpress.com/2019/12/29/sega-megazone-preservation-archive-needs-your-help/

Edited June 23, 2023 by Blake00

[Blake00]

Jeez I hope I can edit my post after a mod approves it as I can't seem to edit it now and the image link looks broken, there's multiple typos and I forgot to link to your megazone section lol!

https://www.retromags.com/gallery/category/88-mega-zone/

EDIT: All fixed now!

Edited April 13, 2022 by Blake00

[Areala]

No worries, Blake! Welcome to the website (and what a killer introduction, I might add)!

I fixed the issue with the image on your first post, so that should be good now. New members can't edit their own posts until they've made a total of five or so different posts, so if you need anything prior to hitting that benchmark, just let a moderator know and we'll take care of it. Otherwise, join in the conversation! We've got a ton of different topics, especially in Gaming Discussion, where a new member can hit that benchmark to full membership just by answering some of the questions posted.

*huggles*
Areala

[MigJmz]

Wow amazing. I don't see why we cant include these on the site but we should ask Phillyman first. 

Also some of these covers and scans will need cleaning up if its ok. Did you scan these unbinded or binded ?

[Blake00]

Thanks guys.

 

19 hours ago, MigJmz said:

Also some of these covers and scans will need cleaning up if its ok. Did you scan these unbinded or binded ?

 

Sure, if you guys are taking a copy for here you can do whatever you want with your copies haha.

I'm only responsible for roughly 20% of the collection, the rest have been scanned over the years by multiple people across multiple sites with files getting passed around so knows what they did. As for me I did not take the staples out (no way in hell I'm damaging my personal collection lol) so I guess that's classed as binded? I spread the mag out over an A3 copier at work and scanned 2 pages at a time (and then separated them to A4's later in Adobe suite) to reduce bending distortions. I scanned at 400 dpi, I think most of the other ones are only 300dpi with varying levels of compression. All a bit of a mixed bag really but hey its better than nothing!

[Blake00]

Small update guys.. finally my efforts have netted a new find. A fellow named Colin contacted me over email and informed me that he has two MegaComp issues (pre-MegaZone Issue 2 and 4) and the first MegaZone along with several more early issues from 1990 (Issue 5 and what we believe is Issue 7 and 9). He's sent me pictures of all the covers however so far he's only scanned one mag for me and I haven't heard from him for a while since sadly so fingers cross he does the others eventually. That one mag was MegaComp Issue 2 and sure enough it mentions the name change from MegaCom (Issue 1) which confirms the NLA records. The scan is not of the best quality but beggars can't be choosers so I've added it to The MegaZone Archive !

Another fellow recently posted a comment in one of my other threads about this search claiming that Issue 56 was not really the last one and that a few months later another issue appeared and that a letter he wrote to them was in it. I find that hard to believe as Issue 56 clearly states that it's the last plus I was a subscriber and the only thing I got sent to me from them after Issue 56 was a cheque in the mail refunding me the rest of my subscription lol!

On and yet another fellow sent me pictures of some sort of Sega bucket (called Mega Booster Pak) promotion that was associated with MegaZone. I can't see the word MegaZone written on them anywhere so I'm not sure about adding them to the archive at this stage. Maybe they were more of a Sega Club thing?

And finally I also saw some more little supplementary 'Mini Megazone' fold out booklets (similar to my one pictured below) on ebay recently. The seller wanted 80 bucks EACH for them though so no one bought them. In the end I just took his pictures from the sale, maybe I fashion them into something for the archives.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Blake00

[Blake00]

Hi guys! Time for another update as we’ve had some great new developments on the SEGA MegaZone Preservation Archive Project ! Unfortunately Colin is having some problems with his scanner so I still don’t have all the issues he offered however others have come forward and I’ve been able to score some big additions to the The MegaZone Archive !

First I’ve gotta start with the best one. Big thanks to Minuous over at the English Amiga Boards for letting me know plus David & his friends over at DLH’s Commodore Archive for uploading the file and giving me permission to copy, because I HAVE OBTAINED ISSUE 1! Yes really, the first issue from the late 1980s that started it all! And sure enough as suspected issue 1 was called MegaCom without the P on the end (before it was changed to MegaComp and then MegaZone).

I’ve also been contacted by Mick Elliot who had the super rare Issue 4 of MegaComp (the final issue before the name change to MegaZone) and kindly offered to scan it for me. This means we now have every issue before the name change to MegaZone except Issue 3. Fingers crossed we score that one one day too!

Then I got lucky on ebay when I saw someone was selling a massive collection of MegaZones and I noticed 2 of them I didn’t have in my physical collection, Issue 8 (EDIT: original wrote this as Issue 9 but it’s actually 8 ) and Issue 22. So I contacted the seller and negotiated them taking those 2 out and selling separately to me! Issue 22 is already in the online archive however Issue 8 is not! So I’ve scanned it in high quality and added it to the collection! Love that Arnie Total Recall cover!

And finally, as mentioned in my last update I’ve also managed to bag some more super rare MegaZone subscription & game catalogue foldout booklets. They were being sold on ebay or an utterly ridiculous price I was unwilling to pay. The seller had no interest in dropping the price however thankfully they did complete scans of ever page for the sale pictures. This allowed me to download them, rotate them (they were all wonky), and clean them up a bit to make them readable. They’re far from perfect but they’re readable which is the important thing. I’ve labeled them as Issue 5 and 20 supplements however I’m only guessing which issues they came with due to their similar content (Issue 5 the first MegaZone is still missing from the archive but Colin has sent me it’s cover).
 

There are now only 10 issues missing from the MegaZone preservation collection (issues 3, 5-8, and 11-15)! Well most likely 10 lol as there may be a mythical Issue 57 out there! A fellow on this forum claims the summer issue 56 was not really the last despite the issue saying it was and all subscriptions (including my own) being canceled and refunded. He says a final issue 57 showed up at news agencies however he’s sadly lost his copy. Can anyone else confirm this mystery issue exists? Anyway, big thank you to everyone for their help! Make sure you visit the The MegaZone Archive to see these latest additions.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Blake00

[twiztor]

keep up the good work! i can't say that i'm familiar with this mag, but i always love when a series nears its completion!

[JHD]

 

I just love the idea of grabbing the page images from the eBay auction and using that to recreate the guide! Making the content available in some fashion is better than waiting for the "perfect" copy.   

[Blake00]

Thanks guys!  haha yeah desperate times called for desperate measures lol. That annoying ebay seller is still selling the mini catalogues for a fortunate.. just wont take the hint.

Wish I could edit my posts to change all my links to the archive itself as unfortunately some bloody musician decided to call themselves Megazone and someone's backed up their stuff to archiveorg resulting it their music appearing in my magazine collection.  So I've gone in and edited all 56 rescued items in the collection to have a new 'more specific' author/creator name of "Megazone Magazine" which should hopefully stop any future mixups with other people using the word megazone in their stuff!

Hopefully at some point when my post count is high enough I'll be able to go up and change all occurrences of this:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator:"MegaZone"&sort=titleSorter

To this:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator:"MegaZone+Magazine"&sort=titleSorter

EDIT: All fixed now!

Edited April 13, 2022 by Blake00

[Blake00]

YES!!!! 2 years later I can finally edit posts haha! Have fixed all my broken links in this thread lol!

Sadly no developments on the MegaZone mag front though.. no new scans found and ebay's run dry over the last year.

Edited April 13, 2022 by Blake00

[bp317]

Cheers Mate,

On behalf of I, and the many who haven't responded to this, truly appreciate your diligence and steadfastness in making this old magazine something from nothing. I am not from Australia but that doesn't matter in the slightest. Salute!

Keep it up when you have a chance or an insight; this is an exact example of "there was no information until I submitted" example that sometimes results in a permanent archive for those who care. 

 

bp

[Blake00]

On 7/10/2022 at 12:04 PM, bp317 said:

Cheers Mate,

On behalf of I, and the many who haven't responded to this, truly appreciate your diligence and steadfastness in making this old magazine something from nothing. I am not from Australia but that doesn't matter in the slightest. Salute!

Keep it up when you have a chance or an insight; this is an exact example of "there was no information until I submitted" example that sometimes results in a permanent archive for those who care. 

 

bp

Thanks man, much appreciated! :)

Well, It’s been a long break since the previous project update as I hadn’t had much luck over the last few years sadly, however I’m happy to announce that things have changed and I’ve finally received a bunch of new donations to the SEGA MegaZone Preservation Archive Project ! :)

Firstly the awesome Colin May who previously donated the rare issue 2 has successfully scanned issues 5 and 6 which were the very first issues after the final name change from MegaComp to the one we all knew and loved, MegaZone! To successfully obtain these rare early issues is such a great achievement. Thank you Colin!

 

Obtaining these issues has also confirmed that my original assumptions of the October & November 1990 issues being issues 9 & 10 respectively were incorrect as Issue 6 is dated August so there can only be one possible issue 7 between it and the Oct issue I’d said was 9 meaning it must actually be 8, which then means the Nov issue 10 is actually 9 too! The reason I had to originally guess those numbers was because many issues in that period did not say their number and until now I had no issues near Oct/Nov 90 to compare them to and on top of all that the magazine switched between monthly & bi-monthly multiple times during the early 90s making very difficult to predict. Some of my predictions / issue number allocations may still be wrong and only obtaining more lost issues will help reveal the truth! Anyway the good news is Colin has also kindly provided me with the missing 4 pages from issue 8 (formerly 9) so anyone who’s previously obtained this issue (pictured below) will definitely want to re-download it!

The next piece of utterly awesome news is something I never thought would happen! Project fan Sean Paul kindly let me know about a passionate TV archiver named FlemishDog (check out their channel to see other awesome content they’ve rescued) who was in possession of not 1 but 2 more MegaZone TV commercials for Issues 26 & 27 and were in the same style with the same cool music as the Issue 25 commercial I’d previously found on my own tapes and added to the collection a while back. I know there’s another one of these out there too as I remember another similar advert in my childhood but with Captain Kirk in it, so I’m guessing it was for Issue 24 as that contained a review of Star Trek 6. With awesome folks like FlemishDog archiving tv adverts maybe one day I’ll see it again! :)

 

Well that’s pretty much everything for this update. Colin has actually given me more but I’m holding off on that as well as holding on to some more MegaZone subscription cards I’ve found as I want to save them for a future update where if all goes well another excellent fellow who shares our passion for preserving retro video game mags named Forgotten Worlds (check out his channel to see other awesome content he’s rescued) has kindly offered to scan several more MegaZone magazines not currently in the collection! So fingers crossed the next project update containing all this good stuff won’t be too far away! :)

Sadly I almost managed to obtain yet another missing MegaZone issue I’d never seen before a few days ago dated April 1991 (possibly Issue 14) but was defeated in the ebay auction. I don’t know what’s happened (although I suspect I only have myself to blame by raising awareness for this magazine and making people remember it again) but up until a year or so ago you could buy a MegaZone magazine for 10-20 bucks (AUD), yet now days I seem to be battling with other collectors who are willing to spent 100-150 bucks on a single mag which is just crazy. I’m on a low income so I just can’t justify spending that much on an old video game mag despite how passionate I am about them and my desire to scan them for this preservation project. What’s even more annoying is that I sold 2 mint condition still sealed copies of MegaZone a few years back for around 25 bucks each, so god knows how much I could have got for those now! So anyway if you’re a fellow MegaZone collector who wins an auction for a mag you haven’t seen in this archive, then odds are you’ve beaten me to it! So congratulations, but please, I hope you consider scanning your prize for the preservation project otherwise it could be lost to the world forever. Some consolation though is that the seller took a photo of the cover so I’ve taken a copy of that, so if anyone out there sees a mag looking like this one then please contact me as we need it!

There are now presumably only 7 issues missing from the MegaZone preservation collection (issues 3, 7, 10-11 and 13-15)! Hopefully one day we’ll get these final issues backed up and preserved! Big thank you again to everyone for their help! Make sure you visit the The MegaZone Archive to see these latest additions.

[StrykerOfEnyo]

I commend you all for trying to track down and complete this magazine. So many of these had similar names across multiple regions, and its really hard to track them down. A few years ago I was looking up issues for MEGA (UK), Mega Play (US), Mega Power (UK), Mega Tech (UK), Sega Magazine (UK), Sega Visions (US), Sega Force (UK), Sega Power (UK), Sega Pro (UK) and others. It was hard because so many of them were going at the same time (1990-1995), and some would launch while expecting one console to take off (like master system), and then have to switch platforms and change the name of the magazine by the next year. Like Sega Magazine started in 1994, then changed to the Sega Saturn Magazine in 1995 because Sega stopped supporting their other consoles around that time. But the that mag had to stop by 1998 because the Saturn was dead. S: The Sega Magazine started in 1989, but then renamed to Sega Power by 1990, and carried on to 1998. Sometimes the staff would be exactly the same going into a name change, and sometimes the original numbering was the same, but not always. I'm glad magazines like this are being tracked down. Its so interesting watching a mag have to change drastically with most of the same members, and then see what new member bring to the table. I was looking for this mag myself years ago, so it nice it's so close to done. It's fun looking at MegaComp, then seeing MegaCom, and then seeing it eventually become MegaZone!