Video Games & Computer Entertainment mag

[MetalFRO]

Whenever I have had discussions with fellow gamers (from my generation) who grew up with Nintendo Power, EGM, GamePro, etc. VG&CE is only present in the conversation if I'm talking about them. I realize the magazine was relatively short-lived by comparison to the other 3 aforementioned powerhouse publications, but when I was a kid, I always felt like VG&CE was the only mag that wasn't trying to pander to me as a kid, but approached reviews in an intelligent and thoughtful manner, as well as having interesting articles about various topics related to gaming and the industry. At the time I discovered gaming mags at the local grocery store, I was 13 and wasn't reading them from the perspective of the 8-year old starry eyed kid drooling over the latest NES game screenshots. By that time I had years of gaming under my belt and appreciated the more intelligent, thoughtful tone of VG&CE over the more sensationalist content of the bigger mags.

I will say that once Andy Eddy began transitioning out of the Editor in Chief position, the VG&CE began to slip in quality a lot and became basically "GamePro lite" in its approach. That's when I let my subscription lapse and sadly, not too long after that, the mag was totally unrecognizable as the intelligently written publication I once knew. Anyone else have some love for the Andy Eddy years?

[E-Day]

I've grown to love VG&CE after discovering it through scanning several issues. I wish I had more of them to scan. I really liked everything about the magazine. Even what it changed into - Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine - was pretty good.

[MetalFRO]

I didn't realize it had changed from VG&CE to Video Games: TUGM later on - thanks for the heads-up on that. I'll have to be on the lookout for some of those issues to compare. I just think after Andy Eddy left the magazine became a different animal, and it just wasn't as good as it was during the magazine's peak, which would have been 1991-1992.

[numbersix]

Old Post but figured I'd comment..

VG&CE was my favorite magazine during that Nintendo/Genesis period. I loved it for 2 reasons.. One was the writing was definitely aimed at a slightly older crowd. I was what, 14 in 1990? So I never liked magazines like GamePro because they were just so low brow. Plus I always got the feeling that GamePro sugar coated everything.. even bad reviews.. to keep from annoying the game companies/advertisers.

The other thing that was awesome about VG&CE was that they covered computers. As much as i loved my Nintendo and Genesis I also played C=64 / PC games and was happy to get both in one magazine. I never cared much for the PC gaming mags of the time as they were very stuffy and not a lot of fun. I guess they were too far in the other direction target audience wise.

I also appreciated that VG&CE ran articles on gaming history and various topics. Few other magazines ever bothered to do things like that.. if there was a special section it was simply a moves guide for Mortal Kombat or something.

After it went from VG&CE to just VG it was awful and I stopped reading. GamePro Lite is an apt description.

[E-Day]

GamePro gave lots of bad reviews. I never noticed anything sugar coated. I always like GamePro, because even though it skewed younger, I liked the fact that it didn't take everything so seriously and was fun to read. I always felt that magazines about video games should be as fun as the games itself.

While I never read VG&CE back in the day, I've read several of the scans, and it was a very good magazine.

[numbersix]

Gamepro would give the odd blatently bad review.. but in many cases you could tell that while they didn't like a game they were trying very, very hard to find something positive to say. It's kind of the same vibe I got from the early Nintendo Powers where at worst a game would get a mediocre review.

I mostly hated Gamepro because it was written for 8 year olds and full of poorly drawn pictures. I guess it wasn't the artists fault.. I can't imagine the pressure on that guy. Hey we need 78 different drawings of SF2 and MK characters for this months issue alone! Here's a box of markers.. you have 11 days. It couldn't be easy.

VG&CE was a great magazine though.. my favorite until Next Generation came out which all in all is probably still the best video game magazine ever.

[E-Day]

I was never a fan of Francis Mao's artwork in GamePro. So it could be his fault. That just seemed to be his style

[bigster]

VG&CE was great and I always loved when I found it for sale. I have been waiting for them to be complete on usenet. I know phillymon is uploading as fast as possible but february 1993 please!!

[Cmartz]

As much as I loved Gamepro and EGM. VG&CE was awesome and probably my favorite of all time at least the earlier version since it provided a mix of both computer and console video games and some great writing involved. Never got as far as collecting the later issues which i see were a disaster.