High-End

High-End (The Magazine for Advanced Video Gamers) is a bimonthly magazine devoted entirely to consoles, with extensive coverage given to imports. Although it was ostensibly a nationally-distributed magazine for two years, it was fanzine-like in style and never achieved widespread popularity. (In fact, it was so obscure that most U.S. gamers have never heard of it.

History

The magazine debuted nationally with its October/November 1991 issue, although the editor's letter suggests it existed in a locally-published form before then. In format, it was an interesting mix of the chief styles of the day -- its artistic design was mature and reminiscent of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, but its writing was amateurish but enthusiastic like the Electronic Gaming Monthly and GameFan of the day.

Although printed on high-quality paper and even including some ex-GamePro writers on its staff, the magazine never achieved success. Its only major advertiser was Accolade; although it featured advertising from other companies by 1993, these ads appear to be low-quality color copies taken from other magazines and reprinted. The magazine allegedly attempted to charge publishers for the ads after illicitly printing them, but presumably had little success.

High-End ceased publishing sometime in 1993, with no individual issue totaling over 32 pages.