Topic: UGO Buys 1UP, EGM Dead [Updated] (Read 8655 times)

Bal · « **Reply #40 on:** January 08, 2009, 04:40:54 PM »

Great post by Shoe and Crispin about the end of EGM, including their personal retrospectives of the magazine and their time there

I'm reminded of how many games I bought solely on the strength of EGM reviews, particularly in the PS1 era, that I otherwise would never have given a second glance. Things like Valkyrie Profile and Front Mission 3, two of my favorite games of all time. I think I still have the issue of EGM that included the special, subscriber only, cut out Decapitato disc.

Arc · « **Reply #41 on:** January 08, 2009, 05:40:39 PM »

Checkout the cover compilation.

Personally owned issues 51 through 65, and no covers before or since had equaled that unchecked reign of graphic majesty. Then the walls - o - text returned, ditching two-dimensional illustrations for awkward polygonal models (so went the industry). Doubt the content was ever as robust, either. Issue 52 was 324 pages thick.

Bal · « **Reply #42 on:** January 08, 2009, 06:23:59 PM »

Just pulled out my copy of issue 100 (one of way too many I still have squirreled away). This thing is hefty, and features a great fold out cover (complete with extra huge FF7 add on the inner face). Also contains their review of one Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (9.0,9.0,9.5,9.5). But the big feature in this issue is definitely EGM's very first top 100 games of all time list, which culminated with Tetris at number 1. The top ten of this thing still holds up today.

Bal · « **Reply #43 on:** January 08, 2009, 06:31:49 PM »

Follow-up: Haha, oh man, there's a preview in here for Mega Man Neo (later to be known as Legends). The Blue Bomber Finally Goes 3-D, says the hook. God, how I poured over these things every month, taking in every detail like a starving man.

Thad · « **Reply #44 on:** January 08, 2009, 07:34:40 PM »

What did you pour over them?

Kazz · « **Reply #45 on:** January 08, 2009, 09:09:35 PM »

I did something similar to PC Gamer, which also topped 300 pages in its heyday. Now, of course, it is a rag.

Mothra · « **Reply #46 on:** January 08, 2009, 09:28:30 PM »

I got started around 170, when they did their top 100 games of all time bit and started Seanbaby's section on the back with his rantings on E.T. and Superman. First time I ever found something genuinely fun to read in a gaming magazine, and certainly didn't hurt that they seemed pretty spot-on in reviewing the first slew of Gamecube/Xbox launch titles. Quality stuff, my only real complaint being the explosion of ads that went down around 181 that necessitated tearing them all out before I could actually get down to reading the damn thing. Comes with the territory, I suppose.

Wish I could find it, but they did a spectacular Halo 2 preview feature using all 8-bit art to recreate what they imagined the multiplayer battlefield would look like. I wished they'd run with the idea into later issues, but it still stands, in my mind, as the most creative way I've ever seen to comment on game content that didn't yet exist in the handful of screen shots available.

Brentai · « **Reply #47 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:07:42 PM »

My first EGM was the one with Battletoads on the cover. That'd be, what, issue 20? I had a subscription from that Turtles in Time one to Donkey Kong Country, so that's, what, 34-63? And then I pretty much stopped reading it altogether. Print was already dying by then. The latest one I have is... actually I think I have the Advent Children one, dunno why though.

The early ones were awesome because they'd let low-budget import companies run ads and those'd not only tell you what games were out in Japan but would also just brazenly print scans from hentai games. That was a hell of a thing back then, when porn wasn't a URL away and it was convenient that your parents had no idea that there were tits in your game mags.

Best cover? That Primal Rage one with BETTER THAN MORTAL KOMBAT 2 in big bold letters. They also said the same thing inside, about Time Killers. Oh man, those guys had some delicious balls back then.

Kazz · « **Reply #48 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:08:58 PM »

it was about dinosaurs, man. of course it was better.

Romosome · « **Reply #49 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:12:58 PM »

Quote from: Crash on January 08, 2009, 10:07:42 PM

The early ones were awesome because they'd let low-budget import companies run ads and those'd not only tell you what games were out in Japan but would also just brazenly print scans from hentai games. That was a hell of a thing back then, when porn wasn't a URL away and it was convenient that your parents had no idea that there were tits in your game mags.

oh man, I remember this!

Was EGM the one that had all those half-centimeter square thumbnails of Lunar's cutscenes where the girl was totally definitely naked and you could see everything, too? Or was that Gamepro

Brentai · « **Reply #50 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:21:06 PM »

GamePro had the Lunar strategy guide with the character shot of Jean where her dress was clearly parted too far up and her bush was showing, so I'm guessing it was somewhere in there.

It also had the Totally Naked Sprite from Seiken Densetsu 3 in the same issue, IIRC. There was a lot of Official Game Porn getting through the radars around that time. See also: Katt's anus, Felicia's nipples.

...I may have just had an active imagination back then, come to think of it.

(The EGM adverts really did have straight-up tits though. That wasn't even open to interpretation.)

Romosome · « **Reply #51 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:30:33 PM »

How did Lunar get away with showing bush in the first place, though? I thought it was illegal to show pubes even in porn until like 1995, which is why anime had the barbie-doll syndrome for so long.

Romosome · « **Reply #52 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:31:04 PM »

Quote from: Crash on January 08, 2009, 10:21:06 PM

See also: Katt's anus, Felicia's nipples.

wait, what

Brentai · « **Reply #53 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:33:40 PM »

...you should probably read all of that post.

Beyond that, though... y'know, SUBTLE SHADING.

Romosome · « **Reply #54 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:35:38 PM »

I just wasn't sure where your youthful delusions began and early obscure videogame sordidness ended.

Also, I don't remember a character portrait but there was a full sequence where they find Jean in some crystal and she's naked before they drape the single poncho over her that she wears apparently the rest of the game.

(I didn't play it)

Brentai · « **Reply #55 on:** January 08, 2009, 10:47:04 PM »

Lucia. There's a full sequence where she walks around her little citadel completely and utterly bare. It's okay, she has no genitals, at all, whatsoever.

Jean is the gypsy dancer. That's about all you need to know about that.

Romosome · « **Reply #56 on:** January 08, 2009, 11:52:30 PM »

Thanks for the name clarification. Could've SWORN there was more detail on Lucia in my innocent little memory though. Probably just as you said for your case, however.

This is more entertaining than UGO discussion. You don't think that scene's on youtube, do you?

Niku · « **Reply #57 on:** January 08, 2009, 11:54:45 PM »

romosome is not entertained by thirty people being laid off?????

Romosome · « **Reply #58 on:** January 08, 2009, 11:57:00 PM »

I'm on a nostalgia kick, leave me alone

Brentai · « **Reply #59 on:** January 09, 2009, 12:00:01 AM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssFY8Irw_lA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYoB2WxBf4M

Naked chicks beat out horrible tragedy, I guess.

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Author Topic: UGO Buys 1UP, EGM Dead [Updated] (Read 8655 times)