StrykerOfEnyo

This was a short-lived magazine, meant to be the US extension of the popular Japanese magazine, Game On! The first issue introduces itself as Game On! USA, but it would only last 7 issues. Issue #5 has another big black & white segment from the Super Street Fighter II: Cammy manga, Fight Four. And we have another segment from the Samuria Shodown manga, Battle Five. This time we get a lot of coverage and interviews for Nintendo and the N64. we get another 4 reviews, but they keep using the Japanese name of some games like before, which gets very confusing since this is meant to be reviews of US games. Like "Legend of Thor" on the Saturn, which it calls the "best action-RPG so far in the 32-bit age," but that's NOT the right name. The game is called Legend of Oasis in the US, but it doesn't mention this fact. It does say that this game is a sequel to Legend of Oasis on the Genesis, but that's not right -- it was "Beyond Oasis" on Genesis. This might seem like a nitpick, but when a magazine keeps referring to the wrong name, that's when I stop picking it up. Its almost impossible to find out this stuff back in 1996. The only reason I know some of this was because GameFan did a preview of a game called Story of Thor, but then they mentioned the US title at some point, so I always remembered that.

This was a short-lived magazine, meant to be the US extension of the popular Japanese magazine, Game On! The first issue introduces itself as Game On! USA, but it would only last 7 issues. Issue #4 has a 24-page black & white segment from the Battle Arena Toshinden manga, War God Legend. And we have another 30-page segment from the Samuria Shodown manga, Battle Four. This issue has some articles on Square, a write-up on Horned Owl, and reviews for Floating Runner, Keio Flying Squadron 2, Legend of Thor and Jumping Flash 2. The interviews from Square are worth a look alone.

This was a short-lived magazine, meant to be the US extension of the popular Japanese magazine, Game On! The first issue introduces itself as Game On! USA, but it would only last 7 issues. Issue #3 has another big black & white segment from the Super Street Fighter II: Cammy manga, Fight Three. And we have another segment from the Samuria Shodown manga, Battle Three. Very similar to what issue #1-2 did. The first 18 pages have articles, and later on you get a reviews of Tekken 2, Tokyo Highway Battle, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei, and Robo Pit. The screenshot quality ifor the games is rather low for what you would expect for 1996. I dont care for this format too much, with around 55-pages consisting of reprinted manga pages, I'd rather find out about more anime and games, but then, I guess thats why the mag didnt last long.

This was a short-lived magazine, meant to be the US extension of the popular Japanese magazine, Game On! The first issue introduces itself as Game On! USA, but it would only last 7 issues. The mag covers manga and anime, along with games based on manga and anime characters. I think I know why this magazine didnt last long. Issue #2 has a 30-page black & white segment from the Super Street Fighter II: Cammy manga, and another 24-page segment from Samuria Shodown manga, very similar to what issue #1 did. The first 18 pages talk about the race to make 3D fighting games, how Battle Arena Toshinden 2 came to the US with an interview, the latest news, and some interesting translation aspects when bringing games from Japan to the US. Its fascinating, but then you run into 55-pages of manga. Then you have 5 more pages of content, 5 pages of ads -- and thats it. The manga isnt bad, its professionally-produced, taken from the real books -- but it takes up most of the mag. I like the articles and interviews, but the large chunk dedicated to reprinting manga stories isn't for everybody. Check out the articles, then move on to the next issue:)

This was a short-lived magazine, meant to be the US extension of the popular Japanese magazine, Game On! The first issue introduces itself as Game On! USA, but it would only last 7 issues. There was another mag called GameOn that has over 130 issues but I'm not sure if there is any relation. This magazine would feature manga and anime, but I'm not so sure about games. This issue hs a 26-page black & white segment from a Cammy manga from SFII, and a 30-page segment from Samuria Shodown. Seriously, this issue is 84 pages total, and 56 pages are taken from manga. It give you a nice taste of the comics, but not much news or reviews on other stuff.

Dave Halverson confirms in this issue that he started Die Hard Game Club in 1990, a store that would sell, buy, and trade games in California. It also had import games, and they would have their ads in the magazine. We get this info because this is the issue that Dave rants against an allegation from EGM that they sell illegally copied games, and that they sell the games they review. I don't know why he address these rumors, but this is the issue you can find it in the Editorial page. The Adventures of Monitour comic feature SGT Gamer this time. I always that it was cool that the other magazine characters were featured in the comic. The colors and quality of the screenshots really stand out in this one, like Chuck Rock II, Keio Flying Squadron, and Splatterhouse Part 3. Halverson ordered high-quality RGB cables himself for all the systems, resulting in the best quality screenshots for nearly ANY magazine of the time, if not for years after this. It stands out when the grass background you have is the same texture from Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Or in the review for Goof Troop where they use the sand texture as a place to put the black text. Pages like this stood out so much in 1993-94. The page layouts were rough sometimes, but they would get progressively better throughout the first couple years. We see a few more games on the FM Towns Marty, like Force II and Tatsugen that look good. Another good issue, and 3DO coverage is coming.

Highlights include a 2-page layout for ThunderStrike (sega cd), Rocket Knight Adventures has a nice layout design with brick walls added to the top and bottom of some screenshots (though the red text makes it hard to read), and Sorcerer's Kingdom (snes) looked impressive back then (but the white text on a light orange background can still hurt my eyes a bit). There's high praise for Night Striker (sega cd, japan-only back then) but this game came with the Genesis Mini 2 a year ago, but I didn't like it at all. I still love looking at these mags because you see games like Ex-Ranza and Time Detonator that I want to check out today. Good luck trying to read the Sega Previews Section (page 46-47 in the magazine itself). I'm sorry if it seems like I'm being harsh, but dark blue text on top of a darkened background is very hard to read the way its presented. I don't know if it's just the scanning process and maybe the real-life page is easier to read -- I don't have my original issues anymore. If others had difficulty reading it today, then please let us know. I wonder if it's just me. I honestly have not had such a hard time reading a videogame magazine before on a regular basis, and I have easily gone through over a thousand digital issues over the last 10 years. I'll stop mentioning it from now on. The 4-page coverage of Battletoads (nes) showed me sections I never knew existed. MechWarrior (snes) looked great, as well as Sengoku 2 (neogeo). They even cover a game on the FM Towns Marty (the first 32-bit console). Its only Microcosm, but its interesting to see it on the Marty. There's some talk about the 3DO but no screenshots yet. You also see the 2-page ad for the Die Hard Super Store in Tarzana, CA - which could be the reason the magazine has "Die Hard" in the title (in the early issues). A solid issue, worth a look.

This was the first issue at 100 pages. I remember owning this one. I loved the layouts with full-color images in the background like for Blaster Master 2, and the huge number of screenshots for games like Time Gal and Anette Again. It really left an impression, and I always wondered if all that extra ink added a lot to the cost. I don't remember another mag at the time that used so many screenshots around the edges of a page. There are some instances of words being hard to read because of the background colors clashing with the font color. This does happen a number of times in this magazine, especially the early years. I sometimes wonder if they had access to tools that would let them soften or blur images, or be able to add additional text boxes around words to help separate them. In the early 90s, I've heard some publisher programs just didn't have certain tools like that back then. Lots of great imports in this issue, like from WolfTeam. Im not sure if we know who Skid, Sgt Gamer, Tom Slick, and The Enquirer are at this point. I know E. Storm is Dave Haleverson himself, but cant remember if the early avatars have been identified.

I always had fond memories of GameFan, but a few years back I went through every issue, grabbing screenshots of all the reviews and content I liked, with plans to you them in videos in the future. There were a few off things I ran into. like reviews being VERY high. Like for Streets of Rage 2, Revenge of Shinobi 2 and World of Illusion having several high scores of 97%, with Illusion itself having a 98% and 99%. Okay, a bit high but they were possibly deserving for their time. Then LandStalker gets a 98, 99, 99 and a 100%! I thought it was a solid game but nowhere near those scores in other magazines (more like 7s or 8s). But then Road Blasters gets a 95, 98, and 99! Its a decent game, but its one big quick-time event. To compare it to the score you normally would see for a Mario, Sonic or Zelda just seems odd. I never liked reviews done by "avatars" or made-up monikers. Sometimes it feels like the reviewer is more honest if they use their real name (or a professional name). This is 1993, so this is kinda early in the whole profession of reviewing videogames, but I was always a bit wary of some scores from this magazine. Maybe this should be a topic for a forum instead. I just thought it was interesting.

The group behind this magazine partially came from GameFan. About 5 of them left or broke off and created a mag called Dimension-3, which covered PC and 3DO, but it only lasted 7 issues. I never liked the name “Dimension-3” but this probably came from the name of the publisher, Dimension Publishing. The group released another mag at the same time, Dimension PS-X but only released two issues, before renaming it PS Extreme, which then lasted many years. I really like this group of David Jon Winding, Greg Off, Tim Lindquist, Eric Winding, Mark Winding, and Joe Sutton. Most of this same group made another short-lived magazine, Q64. If you liked the early years of GameFan then you might want to check out any of the magazines I mentioned above. Their stuff has all been high quality from what I've seen, and I've been tracking down much of it for many years. Highlights From this Issue: They made this as a collector's quality book for Nintendo 64 owners, with plans for three Volumes per year, but that didn't always work out. It still has reviews, previews, news, strategies and a cover story. There are reviews for Turok, Doom 64, Blast Corps, Hexen, Mario Kart 64, War Gods, and FIFA 64. The writing itself is decent, but I don't like the layout of the pages, which mostly consist of these thick colored boarders on the top and bottom of pages. I always never liked magazines that try to come up with interesting names for the different sections, because new readers wont understand these at first. Reviews are called Judgement 64, previews are called Future Play 64 in this first issue, and strategies are Strategies 64. The page backgrounds are mostly plain white, but this changes in later issues, but not by too much. This also is made by a group of people that work well together, but this means you don't see the name of the people that write the reviews or even the cover stories. I guess I expected more given the talent, but then, this magazine was more of a side project than their main publications, so just keep that in mind.

This group started the Dimension-3 magazine, with about 5 people coming from GameFan from what I could tell. Dimension-3 was released by Dimension Publishing that focused on PC games and the 3DO console. It only ran 7 issues, and the group published another mag at the same time, Dimension PS-X but only released two issues. They eventually saw success when they renamed this magazine PS Extreme, which lasted many years. I really like this group of David Jon Winding, Greg Off, Tim Lindquist, Eric Winding, Mark Winding, and Joe Sutton. If you want more from this group, then check out PS Extreme. These two issues have a big load of great reviews for PS1. So many solid games. Some became classics, some got put on the PlayStation Classic for some reason and angered a lot of people, but I have found memories trying to play each one of these games. It was an exciting time to be a gamer. These issues are small, but there's only a handful of ads.

After GameFan was out for a little over 2 years, a few members broke off and created Dimension-3, a short-lived magazine released by Dimension Publishing that focused on PC games and the 3DO console. Tim Lindquist was on GameFan for the first 10 issues, then he became Production Director for Dimension-3. Greg Off worked on Game Fan until issue #24. He started off as an Editor and doing some production, and then was the distribution manager until issue 23. He was one of the Senior Editor on Dimension-3. David Winding started off as the Advertising Director for the first 7 issues of GameFan, then he was the sports editor until issue 27. He became the Editor-in-Chief for Dimension-3. This supposedly was their chance at going independent for themselves. I don’t know if Dimension Publishing insisted on the name, Dimension-3, but it seemed to really hurt the magazine. I had no problem with their content, but I thought the name was bad. Dimension-3 only ran 7 issues, and the group published another mag at the same time, Dimension PS-X but only released two issues. They eventually saw success when they renamed this magazine PS Extreme, which lasted many years. I really like this group of David Jon Winding, Greg Off, Tim Lindquist, Eric Winding, Mark Winding, and Joe Sutton. Most of this same group made another short-lived magazine, Q64. I've been tracking down a lot of their work, and I have been enjoying it:)

GameFan was a magazine started by Tim Lindquist, Greg Off, George Weising, and Dave Halverson in September 1992. After a little over 2 years into production, a few members broke off and created Dimension-3, a short-lived magazine released by Dimension Publishing that focused on PC games and the 3DO console. Tim Lindquist was on GameFan for the first 10 issues, then he became Production Director for Dimension-3. Greg Off worked on Game Fan until issue #24. He started off as an Editor and doing some production, and then was the distribution manager until issue 23. He was one of the Senior Editor on Dimension-3. David Winding started off as the Advertising Director for the first 7 issues of GameFan, then he was the sports editor until issue 27. He became the Editor-in-Chief for Dimension-3. This supposedly was their chance at going independent for themselves. I don’t know if Dimension Publishing insisted on the name, Dimension-3, but it seemed to really hurt the magazine. I bought one issue on newsstands, but I almost didn’t because I didn’t understand what “Dimension-3” meant. Was it the 3rd in a series? Was it the 3rd publication with the same name? I had no problem with their content, but I thought the name was bad. Dimension-3 only ran 7 issues, and the group published another mag at the same time, Dimension PS-X but only released two issues. They eventually saw success when they renamed this magazine PS Extreme, which lasted many years. I really like this group of David Jon Winding, Greg Off, Tim Lindquist, Eric Winding, Mark Winding, and Joe Sutton. Most of this same group made another short-lived magazine, Q64.

Thank you for these re-scans, E-Day. I was looking back, and by no means were the originals bad, but I think the standard at the time was 25 to 50MB for an issue, but sometimes you would get 100MB. But eventually the process of scanning at 600dpi (right?) and then compressing them down to something more managable seems to be the standard for a bit now. Some go overboard, like I found a Japanese-only 3DO magazine that had a 1GB file! And this was around only 60 pages. It looked good, but thats a big file per mag. These new GamePro scans look wonderful, and have so much detail you can really zoom in without getting much pixelization unless you go extreme. The detail in the ads is so crisps and clear (I know, but the variety of color saturation and fine detail is always higher for ads it seems then normal artwork done by the magazine staff itself) -- way better than looking at them with the naked eye, I think. Thanks again for the effort!

You know things were slowing down when there was only TWO reviews per issue. Extreme Racing and Virtual Karting are covered in this issue, and next issue only has 2 planned reviews as well. Well, that and this issue is only 36-pages long. I owned a 3DO and that was a rough console to love, but I can't image what it was like to have an Amiga CD32.

The CD32 was marketed on the box as "The World's First 32-bit CD Games Console". It was the first such machine released in Europe and North America, but it was beaten to market by seven months by the FM Towns Marty. I was always interested in this console but it only lasted 2 years on the market due to the bankruptcy of Commadore. I know the system would be known for having a lot of garbage, but it did have the occasional interesting-looking game. Like Alien Breed 3D in this issue, and Heimdall II looked like a decent isometric fantasy adventure. I hope more issues become available in the future. Thanks for putting these together MigJmz. These issues might not be for everybody, but thanks to emulation, I hope to try a lot of this system's library.

DC-UK was a Dreamcast mag launched by ex-Edge deputy editor Caspar Field, who was around for the first seven issues. He departed the mag to launch, Mr Dreamcast, a magazine aimed at children. You got a lot of bright colors like orange, yellow, and blue. There's no editorial page this time. The character of Mr Dreamcast (a CGI model of the blue Dreamcast logo with arms, legs, and eyes) now answers letters. They lay it on thick in this issue too. One letter from a reader said, "It had everything I ever wanted in a DC mag, news, cover story, previews, compos, cheats and more. [later]...the Club Zone is wicked and I like how you created Mr Dreamcast - he looks mint." Yeah, it seems like a desperate attempt to list everything in your mag and also to appear to be cool with the readers. The writing is probably more aimed at 12- to 14-year-olds, and there is a section that asks kids (ages 11-12) questions about what they think of Dead or Alive 2 and Chu Chu Rocket. It is odd that they have a letters and user art sections already, but they do have a website, so it's possible they got content from there. The Mr Dreamcast character shows up everywhere. He even has a small version of him next to the score for every review with a quote from him. It makes it seem like he wrote all the reviews, and I can't find names of other reviewers on those pages. It does say that games are reviewed by his "experts," but if I wrote a review for a game, I would want my name in the magazine. It's a strange experience, and it only lasted two issues. It's fun to see it.

DC-UK was a Dreamcast video game magazine published by Future in the United Kingdom. DC-UK was launched by ex-Edge deputy editor Caspar Field, who was around for the first seven issues. He departed the mag to launch, Mr Dreamcast, a magazine aimed at children. The editorial page introduces the character of Mr Dreamcast, a CGI model of the blue Dreamcast logo with arms, legs, and eyes. The first issue had cutouts for two cars from Crazy Taxi. It taught you how to draw Rayman, and there was an article that explained surfing on the internet on the Dreamcast. It had a lot of bright colors, some text is a little bigger than what you normally see, and you see a few pics of kids. It's nothing too extreme, but you do notice little things like this, and there is a hint of trying to come across as being “cool” to the readers. The writing is probably more aimed at 12- to 14-year-olds, so it's not like it talks down to them, but this is a bit younger than what EGM and GamePro were going for in the late 1990s -- which could be older teens (15+ year-olds). Its odd, and apparently only lasted two issues.

Thanks for these dedicated console mags. It might seem like the Nintendo 64 didn't have enough games come out to keep a dedicated magazine for it to survive long, but this one lasted at least 3 years, and taking a look inside explains why. Good layouts with vibrant colors, lots of screenshots, and reviews with several 4-page layouts with a solid scoring system and a "second opinion" column which lets another reviewer share his thoughts. Several mags were doing this in the late 90's and it really added a lot when other reviewers backed up the main reviewer to let you know they were justified. Its great seeing these UK mags that sometimes did show up at the big bookstores, but they always cost a bit more so it wasn't practical to buy every month.

Its great seeing another PlayStation magazine that I never saw before. There were so many, and even though the layouts are rather standard and look average for their time, they have a few game previews I never remember seeing before. 3Sixty, a racing game on the water using hover-bikes. And Tank Racers, which I don't think came to the US. There's a review for Live Wire that's looks good, but I don't think it came to the US. It's ALWAYS great seeing new magazines for these older systems. Thanks for your work MigJmz on editing and deciding to release this.

Thank you for this magazine. Dreamcast Monthly has been hard to find for me, outside the first 3 issues. The console was my favorite at the time. This was one of those mags that like the fact they were "unoffical" but I've noticed those are the ones that are harder to find years later. A few highlights are: They have a preview of a game called "Dronez" and gave it a description of possibly being the "most confusing Dreamcast game ever?" It looks interesting but I never saw it release on another platform. Obviously, you have the multipage review of Half-Life that never officially released, which is a great find. Animal Soccer looks odd, I wonder if it came out in the UK? I don't remember a console version of Heavy Metal FAKK 2, but we can see it here. a Hidden & Dangerous Walkthrough, Part 1 (with 10 pages) up to mission 6. there's a Players Guide for Power Stone 2 (6 pages). Great issue, I'm glad its preserved:)

Thanks for this. Its not often we get to see a magazine that started around 1990-1991. Its nice to see the page layouts and color used. Everybody was trying to get noticed on the newsstand but making a gaming magazine for consoles was so new that there was no "standard" in what your magazine had to cover. The review Crew all get a photo and a first name -- not many mags did that yet. There wasn't even an editorial page from what I could tell, so I will need to go through more issues. This mag seems to have some personality in the sidebars and with some of the images. Good stuff.

Dreamcast Monthly was a British magazine which at the time of its launch, claimed to be the first Dreamcast review magazine in the United Kingdom. It was hard fining DC magazines in the US, so its great to see these from the UK, especially this one since most places ONLY have the first three issues. I liked the layout of this mag, and there are a few games previewed that didnt see a proper release (not in the US). Akimbo: Kung Fu Hero, Deer Avenger 3D, Armada 2, Titan After Earth and a few more I don't remember ever being released. The pics here are very nice, and there's some nice quality ads in here. I once had five Dreamcast consoles and over 70 games, there all gone now, but it great to see games that may have made it on the system back then. I hope more issues show up. These are a great find.

Issue 88 has a feature, "Game Then,,, An Expert Gamer Retrospective," where they show all 88 issues of Expert Gamer magazine that have released up to this point. For those that don't know, Issues #1-49 were called EGM2. Then the mag changed names, but the numbering system continued, so Expert Gamer actually starts with Issue #50, and they show each mag up until this one, #88. There are a few highlights for certain issues, but all have a list of games covered, and its 14 pages long. Its a nice look back across the many years, and the name change let them stand on their own and reach more readers. Other highlights include Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA) with 12 pages of coverage and color maps. Dragon Warrior III has 9 pages with a few full-color illustrations, charts for weapons and armor and spells, but also a list of all tiny medal locations. There's an ad for SOBE with Oddworld Munch's Odysee, only on Xbox. A nice ad for Corn Nuts, and one for a week-long event on Toonami (Cartoon Network) with some nice color and detail on their mascot. Worth a look.

CyberSurfer was another PC gaming magazine, which was a rather crowded market back in 1995. The biggest standout for the magazine is its editor, Jason McCabe Calacanis, who became a very well-known internet entrepeneur, investor, and author. He went on turn $100,000 into $100 million and wrote a book on this feat. But before all this he had a publishing company and was an editor for a PC magazine. By 1996 he would start a magazine called Silicon Alley Reporting which started out as a 16-page black and white publication, and ballooned to over 300-pages in length, along with a sister publication. So take a look at this small magazine managed by a guy that would become the CEO of Weblogs, Inc. I only know about a handful of issues existing, but it's great to see any of them here. Calacanis went on make some serious money, but you won't find many mention this magazine when people think of a million-dollar investor. (unless he talked about it on his podcast at some point)