Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 1

Cover Story:

• Preview '89 (Want to see what's coming down the pipeline for your favorite systems? Here you go!)
  • Bad Dudes (NES)
  • Heavy Barrel (NES)
  • Rampage (NES)
  • Robocop (NES)
  • Super Hang-On (NES)
  • Airwolf (NES)
  • Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (NES)
  • WWF Wrestlemania (NES)
  • Qix (NES)
  • Operation Wolf (NES)
  • Sky Shark (NES)
  • Hoops (NES)
  • Goal! (NES)
  • RoboWarrior (NES)
  • Defender of the Crown (NES)
  • Metal Gear (NES)
  • Skate or Die (NES)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
  • Q*Bert (NES)
  • Gyruss (NES)
  • Silent Service (NES)
  • Track and Field II (NES)
  • The Adventures of Bayou Billy (NES)
  • The California Raisins (NES / Cancelled)
  • DuckTales (NES)
  • Mega Man 2 (NES)
  • Strider (NES)
  • "Mindscape Games"
  • Magic Johnson's Fast Break (NES)
  • Taboo (NES)
  • P.O.W. - Prisoner of War (NES)

Departments:

• Insert Coin (Editor Steve Harris hypes the coming video game lineup for 1989)
• Video Game Top Ten (A list of the ten titles keeping the EGM folks burning the midnight oil).
• Interface: Letters to the Editor (Readers write, editors respond)
• At the Arcades (A preview of Atari's new Hard Drivin' cabinet)
• Gaming Gossip (Quarterman divulges industry rumours about Tengen, FCI, Hasbro, Mattel, and other dishy subjects)
• 16-Bit Sizzler (The TurboGrafx-16, Sega Genesis, Konix Slipstream and Super Famicom are coming!)
• Dare to Compare (The editors pit John Elway's Quarterback against Tecmo Bowl in a battle for gridiron supremacy!)
• Amusement Players Association International Scoreboard (High scores submitted from homes and arcades world-wide!)
• Game Over (Coming attractions for next issue!)

Next Wave (previews):

• Mega Man 2 (NES)
• Super Sprint (NES)
• Guerrilla War (NES)
• Vindicators (NES)
• Strider (NES)
• Hydlide (NES)
• WWF Wrestlemania (NES)
• Walter Payton Football (SMS)
• Lord of the Sword (SMS)
• Poseidon Wars 3-D (SMS)

Press Start (gaming and industry news):

• Beeshu controllers
• Tiger LCD handhelds
• Pro-Play Arcade Cabinet for NES
• N.A.R.C. (Arcade)
• Cinemaware's Defender of the Crown and The Three Stooges coming to NES

The Home Front (console reviews):

• 1943 (NES)
• Racket Attack (NES)
• Ultima: Exodus (NES)
• Bubble Bobble (NES)
• Bump 'n' Jump (NES)
• Y's (SMS)
• Rastan (SMS)
• Time Soldiers (SMS)
• Hat Trick (7800)

Game of the Month (U.S. National Video Game Team picks their top choice):

• Tetris [Tengen] (NES)

Logon (personal computer reviews):

• F-19 Stealth Fighter (IBM)
• Zak McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders (IBM)
• Hybris (Amiga)
• Double Dragon (C64)
• Sword of Sodan (Amiga)
• Offshore Warrior (Amiga)

Ads (in order of appearance):

• Tengen Games: Gauntlet (NES) / Pac-Man (NES) / RBI Baseball (NES) / Tetris (NES)
• Tradewest Games: John Elway's Quarterback (NES) / Double Dragon (NES)
• Acclaim Games: WWF Wrestlemania (NES) / Rambo (NES) / Airwolf (NES) / Star Voyager (NES) / Wizards & Warriors (NES) / 3-D World Runner (NES) / Winter Games (NES) / Tiger-Heli (NES)
• FCI Game Counseling Hotline
• RoboWarrior (NES)
• Electronic Gaming Monthly's Great Game Giveaway contest
• Hard Drivin' (Arcade)
• Xenophobe (NES)
• TAXAN Videodiction newsletter
• TAXAN Games: Star Soldier (NES) / Mystery Quest (NES) / Fist of the North Star (NES) / Mappy Land (NES)
• Phantasy Star (SMS)
• Thunder Blade (SMS)
• Beeshu computer peripherals
• Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine subscription
• SNK Games: Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road (NES) / Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy (NES)
• Beeshu joysticks and controllers (NES)

Notable Stuff:

• Includes a full-size poster for FCI's Mag Max (NES).
• There's no real criteria for explaining how the Top 10 Games were ordered the way they were, or who was responsible for picking them in the first place.
• A letter column in the first issue? Well, all the reader response comes from the original EGM '89 Buyer's Guide, which is kind of like their Issue 0.
• One lucky winner in EGM's Great Game Giveaway contest takes home more than 50 NES games.
• Tecmo Bowl blows John Elway's Quarterback off the field, as it should.
• The TAXAN Videodiction newsletter is formatted to look like an article from the magazine, though it's completely a production of TAXAN's in-house ad team. Sneaky, sneaky, guys...
• This early in the game, EGM's juggling both console and home computer software. They'll cut the home software aspect to go console-only before too long.
• A subscription to EGM runs $19.95 for 12 issues, according to this issue's subscription ad.
• The Konix Slipstream (later renamed the Konix Multisystem) was cancelled after the company ran out of money.
• EGM editor Donn Nauert sure gets around...he has high scores submitted to the APA across multiple platforms from multiple cities in Texas and California.