The bad news just keeps coming for print magazines in the US, with the end of EGM and the sale of HardCore Gamer Magazine on eBay. Of course this comes about by the fact that 
print has just had a very difficult time in keeping up with the internet and in particular big gaming sites and blogs where gamers can get their news in a flash as opposed to once a month. I have been contributing arcade reviews for HardCore Gamer Magazine for some time now and I have no idea how this will change but I suppose it depends on who buys it up. If the magazine sticks around, I hope that they keep the friendly attitude towards arcades going, if not however then I suppose it’s not a major loss. While I have critical of game mags for ignoring arcades as a whole before, if no one is reading them in the first place then the effect of these mags going under isn’t going to hurt arcades (or other video games) much at all. Still, kudos for the editors at HGM for giving arcades some well-deserved attention.
If I had a bunch of back issues of mags like EGM, it would be cool to take some scans of old arcade reviews, just to reminisce of the times when they actually did care. In fact, what game magazines did you like to read arcade reviews in ‘back in the day’?
Just about to hit the sack – you guys are fast with updates tonight!
My opinion to the mag news is based on a recent chat I had with a editor of a ‘certain’ game mag.
He made it clear that he would not change his opinion on arcade – then as he was removed from the job his replacement stated “hey we are interested in anything that gets coverage”!!
Keep up the good work guys!
LOL, some editors are knuckle-draggers. Coverage is what should matter, not whoever gives them the most hookers for the weekend but alas, that is how some go about it.
Hey, I still got some old GamePro in my room. After I’m feeling a lot better I’ll put some scans up
I remember reading the following mags for arcade information:
US mags:
EGM
Gamepro
Gamefan
Tips & Tricks (is that mag still around?)
UK mags:
CVG (defunct
Arcade (defunt)
Gamesmaster (especially for the Mortal Kombat 2 movelist)
Various Dreamcast mags
In the UK, multi-format mags EDGE, Games & Retro still have some coverage of the arcade scene.
I still have my old issues. I’m glad!
Its like losing Gamefan all over again. 🙁
It’s a shame that magazines in general are doing so badly. They’re all getting hammered by the shift from print to online advertising. Cost cutting measures then mean they get rid of all the good writers, slap a DVD or free gift on the cover and hope it sells the magazine.
Websites are good for timely news coverage, but magazines are good for other content like analysis and editorial. Unfortunately the margins got so thin they stopped playing to their strengths.
I would say Molloy that the analysis and editorial has been beaten out of the magazines long before the downfall. Look at the Diver-Gate fiasco and the dirty deals and you wonder why they survived this long.
Oh I’d agree with you wholeheartedly there. They’ve all been on a slippery slope since the mid 90’s. My favourite writers Stuart Campbell wrote a really interesting article about his horrible experiences working freelance for Future Publishing. I can’t find a link at the moment but it makes for pretty facinating reading.
Interesting topic, I haven’t read a proper games mag in years with good arcade coverage in the UK and gave up on EDGE about 8 years ago when it seemed their bias was shifting to console entertainment only.
Thinking of ace arcade coverage back in the day, EGM and GAMEFAN were good during the early 1990s. CVG did pretty well in the 80s as well as the 90s. Remember a magazine called Ace Computer Entertainment or ACE in the 80s along with The Games Machine. I think some of the old Commodore mags like ZZap 64 and the Sinclair equivalents also had some coverage.
In the 1990s EDGE were cool up until the late 90s and had some good features on the likes of Sega and the AM teams around the time Daytona and Sega Rally were making waves. Also around then I remember Maximum and Arcade, both long gone, providing some great reviews and features. While flicking through the pages in WHSmiths, have occasionally spotted arcade reviews in the likes of current mags like Games TM and EDGE, and Retro Gamer takes a look at the scene from days gone by.
After going back and reading the arcade previews and reviews in all my old early 90s EGMs, they are all pretty horrible. Nothing more than hacky scans of the flyers and the screen caps they had. As bad as they were, they still got me excited for the new games back then. Too bad they don’t have digital back issues to sell.. or do they?