Video Games & Computer Entertainment
[ Years Active: 1988 - 1996 ]
That is definitely not the actual size of the Lynx!
This subdued alternative to EGM and GamePro was published by Larry Flynt Publications (no joke) and featured some of the most questionable reviews around. For example, can you think of any other magazine that didn't immediately fall in love with Street Fighter II? It took Video Games & Computer Entertainment the better part of a year to warm up to this Capcom classic. Five years after launching the magazine, the magazine dropped their computer coverage and renamed the magazine Video Games. It's good to see that they decided to stick with the generic magazine name theme.
How It Ended:
After having mild success with the renamed Video Games magazine, the editors decided to call it quits and move on to greener pastures. But they had reason to keep
The reboot may have been more attractive, but it was still the same terrible magazine!
their head up high. The magazine managed to have two different spin-offs (the short-lived Turbo Play and the generically titled, Tips & Tricks) and even got the scoop about Reptile long before EGM or GamePro. Okay, so they aren't exactly Woodward and Berstein, but you take the small victories when you can.
Brand New Series Finale:
Surprising everybody, the finale of Video Games & Computer Entertainment featured a half-drunk Andy Eddy retelling the story about what led him to lead this magazine's staff. He then explains that the last few years (the "Video Games" years, as they would come to be known) were all fiction; they were nothing more than idealized figments of his imagination where the magazine had won the lottery and became superstars. Unfortunately that's not what happened. Instead, the magazine continued to lose money and suck the will to live out of everybody that came close. Unfortunately the second in command, Michael Davila, died of heart failure, which devistated the staff and pushed them into an emotionally fragile state. We also learn that Catherine Ann Rundell is a lesbian, which is why she was having such a hard time meeting the right guy.
GameNOW
[ Years Active: 1994 - 2004 ]
I was hard pressed to find a GameNOW magazine that didn't have some sort of anime or licensed cartoon on the cover (this is the best I could do)!
Talk about a storied history. Once upon a time there was a magazine called Electronic Gaming Monthly. In the early part of the 1990s, EGM's publishers decided that they could make twice as much money if they switched to a bi-weekly schedule. To do this they created EGM2, a preview-only publication that would eventually become Expert Gamer. Expert gamer would rule the roost between 1998 and 2001, when it would become, you guessed it, GameNOW (as opposed to GameLATER, which is my plan). GameNOW lasted 27 issues, about half of what Expert Gamer and EGM2 were capable of doing.
How It Ended:
It all ended in January 2004 with a blow-out of ... Yu Yu Hakusho: Spirit Detective? Okay, so a Game Boy Advance game
The dude from BlackThorne isn't the only one that hates the name GameNOW!
doesn't make for the most gripping cover story, but at least it wasn't issue 25, which featured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The best you could have hoped for was the penultimate issue, billed as a very special Final Fantasy issue. Outside of the crummy cover story, there was no obvious clues the GameNOW staff was about to be UnemployedNOW.
Brand New Series Finale:
In a surprisingly emotional finale, Dan Leahy is diagnosed with an incurable disease. Editors new and old band together for the first time to give support and help Dan overcome this affliction. This is the first time that staffers from EGM2 and Expert Gamer have worked together towards a common interest, giving fans around the country a chance to see their favorite editors doing what they do best. Thankfully Dan overcomes is ailment and lives happily ever after. They don't really explain how he was cured of his incurable disease, but this is a finale, does logic really matter?
Games for Windows: The Official Magazine
[ Years Active: 1981 - 2008 ]
Just as long as Jeff Green is there ...
It started its life as Computer Gaming World, a magazine founded all the way back in 1981. A quarter century later Ziff Davis decided to change the name to a more Microsoft-friendly, Games for Windows: The Official Magazine. While the loyal readers stayed put, the editors would regularly lament that many new readers were worried that they would no longer be impartial. The good news was that GFW did stay impartial, unfortunately that came at the cost of a canceled computer game magazine.
How It Ended:
It didn't end with a final issue or much of an explanation, instead Ziff Davis decided to close down Games for Windows: The Official Magazine and move everybody to the online side of
The next big game, just not necessarily the next big COMPUTER game!
things. This announcement came via a news post on 1up and a podcast, where each of the staffers took turns consoling each other. Soon after re-launching the official Games for Windows magazine website, Jeff Green and Shawn Elliot left 1up and Ziff Davis was bought by UGO. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Brand New Series Finale:
Who can turn the world on with his smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it's you Jeff, and you should know it. With each glance and every little movement you show it. That was the story of Jeff Green, the geezer gamer who ping-ponged his way around the 1up network. Jeff was the man behind Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, which, at one point, was known as Computer Gaming World. In this finale issue of GFW, Jeff is told that the magazine is about to be canceled and that most of his staff would be fired. He is given the option to relocate to the online 1up Network, but knows in his heart that it will never be as much fun as his old job. In the final moments he says goodbye to his favorite magazine and leaves the office one last time. He walks away with his head held high, confused at why everybody but Ted Baxter was let go.
