EGM Issue #1

[Ferneu]

I was reading EGM #1 and, even though there is no number in the cover or anywhere else, it seems to keep reffering to itself as if was issue #2.

And the last page literally says "strap yourself in for the next invasion as the third issue of Eletronic Gaming Montly hits the stands..."

 

So,  is it really issue #1? Or is it #2. Maybe the magazine changed names between #1 and #2 and that is the cause of the confusion? If so, anyone knows the name the previous issue was published as?

 

[Areala]

41 minutes ago, Ferneu said:

So,  is it really issue #1? Or is it #2. Maybe the magazine changed names between #1 and #2 and that is the cause of the confusion? If so, anyone knows the name the previous issue was published as?

The answer to all questions is "yes".

Technically the first issue of EGM is "Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1989 Buyer's Guide", published in February 1989. This kicked off what is now known as EGM, and three months later in May, EGM #1 was born. The Buyer's Guide was a one-shot intended to test the waters, while EGM #1 was the first issue in what was intended to be a bimonthly, and later monthly, publication.

Neither the 1989 Buyer's Guide or the 1989 Preview Guide (which is recorded as EGM #1 here) have official titles in their respective mastheads (the page where the staff and publication information are listed). EGM's second issue was published as "Volume 1, Number 2", meaning the second issue of its first year of publication, so we know that's officially their #2.

The more I look into this, the more I wonder if we may actually have it backwards in the database. Since subsequent issues of the Buyer's Guide were published as actual numbers of EGM's monthly catalog, it may be more accurate to have the '89 Buyer's Guide set to issue #1, and the issue we have labeled as #1 relegated to a subsection, since the masthead seems to indicate that the Preview Guide was meant to be its own thing, while the Buyer's Guide was the regular feature. Of course, later in the magazine's life, the Preview Guide became incorporated into the standard issue numbering, so your guess here is as good as mine.

But the point is that, yes, there was an issue of the magazine published prior to issue #1, it's the '89 Buyer's Guide, and we set the database entries up in chronological publication order because that's what seems to make the most sense. I hope that helps.

*huggles*
Areala

[Sivilius]

To go even further into what Areala has already said, while the Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1989 Buyer's Guide was the first issue of EGM, in some ways it wasn't.

The original iteration of EGM was actually called Electronic Game Player from 1988. EGP had the exact same layouts as the early EGMs did as well as the same editors. For reasons unknown in late 1988 Steve Harris decided to change the name from Electronic Game Player to Electronic Gaming Monthly, and the rest as they say, is history.

[Areala]

Did anybody else want to be a member of the US National Video Game Team back in '89-'90?

*huggles*
Areala

[E-Day]

We have the 1989 Buyer's Guide in the Cover Gallery as Issue 0. The general consensus among anyone who is into gaming magazines is that the May 1989 issue is Issue 1. Some other magazines have had Issue 0s as some sort of preview or test issue. Official Dreamcast Magazine did this if I recall correctly.

Seems like EGM did things a bit screwy for their first several issues. The Buyer's Guide is referred to  as the 1989 Buyer's Guide in the masthead and issue 1 is referred to as the 1989 Preview Guide, both of which they say they publish annually as a reference directory to EGM. Then they published issue 5 as the 1990 Video Game Buyer's Guide, 7 as Top Score and issue 15 as the 1991 Video Game Buyer's Guide. They didn't get consistent until November 1990.

[Ferneu]

WOW!

"the first issue of EGM is actually Buyers Guide. Which in turn is not the really the first issue because EGP came before it. And if you dig a little bit deeper you will also notice ... and ... and ... and therefore we can safely conclude that Steve Harris shot Kennedy and knows where Hoffa was burried."

 

Thanks for all the help. You guys are awesome!

 

PS: you guys just gave me a lot of cool information and I was going to suggest the creation of a new field in the database where things like this could be added. Then I went to the database entry itself and saw that there is already a "Notable Stuff" item inside the contents and, had I read that before creating this topic, I would have saved us all a lot of typing

 

PS2: in my defense, I thought the contents of the... contents would have only... the contents. You tricked me!

 

PS3: if you were asking me, I'd vote to separate the "Notable Stuff" in a new field, instead of leaving it inside the "Contents." Anyway, I'm glad all those cool tidbits exist and are associated with the magazine itself inside the DB, now that I know where to look for it...

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by Ferneu
grammar (yes, it was even worse!)

[Areala]

3 hours ago, Ferneu said:

WOW!

"the first issue of EGM is actually Buyers Guide. Which in turn is not the really the first issue because EGP came before it. And if you dig a little bit deeper you will also notice ... and ... and ... and therefore we can safely conclude that Steve Harris shot Kennedy and knows where Hoffa was burried."

Thanks for all the help. You guys are awesome!

PS: you guys just gave me a lot of cool information and I was going to suggest the creation of a new field in the database where things like this could be added. Then I went to the database entry itself and saw that there is already a "Notable Stuff" item inside the contents and, had I read that before creating this topic, I would have saved us all a lot of typing

PS2: in my defense, I thought the contents of the... contents would have only... the contents. You tricked me!

PS3: if you were asking me, I'd vote to separate the "Notable Stuff" in a new field, instead of leaving it inside the "Contents." Anyway, I'm glad all those cool tidbits exist and are associated with the magazine itself inside the DB, now that I know where to look for it...

You're more than welcome. I indexed that issue of EGM for the database, and I tend to go overboard when I write mine. If you check some of the other entries, they are more simplified. I'm just a big nerd.

*huggles*
Areala

[Ferneu]

You are awesome!