in the 90s, i only had subscriptions to tips & tricks and eXpert gamer, but i’d get to occasionally buy stuff like OPM and EGM and stuff. it wasn’t until the early 2000s that i was able to subscribe to other magazines. i think it was expert gamer that alerted me to harvest moon 64’s existence, as well. i remember going to my therapist and telling her about the game and my therapist convincing my mother to get it for me because of its “social” aspects. probably the only good thing to come out of therapy as a kid.
I had an issue of eXpert Gamer with this ad on the back, and I was obsessed with it. this was one of the last games i really remember feeling excited for before my depression took hold (I’ve already mentioned this a million times here, though).
Remember haivng to pay $50 for a VHS copy of the Gatchaman reboot because you only had a 56k connection so it’s not like you could pirate it off of usenet?
i ambiently read these a lot as a kid to the extent that me and a friend drew comics which had “cheatcode” pages full of absolutely spurious cheats, some for games i had only read about and some that were just wishful thinking (plok codes…)
most fascinating to me is the second one which includes a cheat code to “see princess peach nakad”. you will have to take it on trust that i was not very interested in these things at 7 years old, so i’m pretty sure it was just aimless mimicry of the endless tomb raider nude code articles i remember seeing in GamesMaster or whatever at the time, including the weirdly intimate framing
Danzig talking shit on Klaus Janson is hilarious and so true. I still have both the Spawn/Batman crossover books and the Image book is just leagues above the DC book lol.
these were in every magazine with an item photoshopped out and something else put in place depending on the year, month, magazine, etc. eventually jaguars and super nintendos were replaced with playstation and nintendo 64s.
super play was a brit snes magazine with a focus on imports, particularly jrpgs. as importing meant sending 70 quid postal orders to some mail order place in bristol this stuff wasn’t really accessible to me at the time but the jarpeg content in every issue primed me for zsnes and that genre taking a hold over here with ff7
I love “BETTER THAN FINAL FANTASY?” and all of the equivalent headlines (“DOOM KILLER?!” “MARIO 64 KILLER???”) and how they always took way bigger swings than the clickbait we have now.
