The first issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly ran back in May of 1989. But even those of us who read it probably don't still have the issue on their nearest coffee table. Now Retromags has gone back in time, stolen some poor kid's reading material and posted it out of spite. Well, that, or they paid a bit too much for an antique issue after months of searching, spent hours retouching any signs of aging in Photoshop and then made it available to us in PDF for free. You can go with whichever version of the story best reaffirms your faith in humanity and the power of the human spirit. We'll be catching up on the latest rumors about Mega Man 2.
Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 001 (May 1989) [Retromags via GnomesLair]







Comments
You mean not everyone kept theirs in mint condition? FOR SHAME!
I used to subscribe to that magazine a long time back. I remember when EGM used to be really the best magazine out there for gamers, and it was hundreds of pages long -- well before the Internet era.
@DugDawg: Ah, print news back before the intarwebs, as the kiddies call it.
That's classy. Check out the super-cool realistic Mega-Man! Hyper MEGA!
@DugDawg:
I too miss the days when gaming magazines were longer than a mere, trifling 50 pages.
Man, EGM was awesome back in the day, i couldn't wait for every new issue, but as the years kept going by so did the number of pages dedicated to ads, until i remember there was an ad for EA sports that was about 12 pages, it wasnt a feature or something, it was an AD!!! thats when i decided to stop buying it..
Wow that takes me back. Boy did Mega Man look stupid on that box art.
I will download this it will be a relic that I can blow up as art, my grandkids will ask; "What is that?" I will say a magazine. They will scowl in confusion of why we would want to use paper to transmit information.
Downloadable Edge #1 is what I want. The best gaming magazine there has ever been, the fairest and the toughest of games. No other media, online or off, can quite give the same seal of approval the ridiculously rare 10/10 means.
Plus you know its good when the back is just full of game industry jobs showing that is for industry types as well.
Still the best magazine you can buy.
Unlike Game Informer, which they practically have to give subscriptions aways.
Technically that's not the first issue of EGM. The 1989 buyers guide is. I recently had the first issues of EGM and sold them on Ebay for 90 dollars. You can see them at my blog.
[blogs.ign.com]
I have a bunch of game informer magazines from 2000-2001. Gosh I love the articles on the dream cast right before it failed.
@lifeinthefridge:
I have mine too, refusing to part with them.
This just shows that no matter what happens to the game industry, there will always be some things that stay the same. Usually promotional art/ box covers generally make the game look more graphically superior than it actually is.
I still buy Edge from time to time if I've missed the bus, but I still get most of my gaming-related-news from Kotaku.
Got some old Zzap54 magazines in the basement
Rumors from Capcom reveal a sequel in the works. Some say its Mega Man 2 but our sources are telling us Duck Tales 2 could also be a possibility
*64
God that cover was horrible. It's still not MegaMan 1 bad, but seriously, what the crap? Some weird guy shooting people with a pistol? Seriously, you'd never know what a truly awesome game is in that box.
Oh, and wow, I can't believe EGM has been around that long!
I erm...
I still read magazines, especially EGM.
@Thorax: EGM gives thousands of subscriptions away. I got mine through partnership between Joystiq and EGM. It actually garners them more money, because if they can show they have a high readership, they can charge more for ads.
I wasn't even born when this came out... only by a few months, but still. I feel so young.
The earliest EGM that I still have laying around is from '92...And its far from mint condition. It spent too much time in my backpack bringing it back and forth to school.
Ive actually been considering subscribing to egm for a while now. Its either that or gameinformer...
For all I know it maybe my copy hehe
Worst box art. Best Mega Man. Epic soundtrack (done well by the Minibosses).
EGM's good, but GamePlayers was the best gaming mag ever.
If anyone has issue 80 on hand, turn to the back page. You'll see an image of me at 12 years old wearing a tutu.
I was a pretty big deal. People knew me.
@vanderblade: I was referring to how when you buy an Edge card at Gamestop they give you a 12 month subscription to GI.
Game Informer is still a sad, sad mag in my opinion. They get great exclusives but the writing always feels like an afterthought.
[img150.imageshack.us]
i still have that issue. it's in a box, torn up to hell, but i still have it.
1) I still have the very first issue of PC Gamer. Now THAT was my magazine...sigh. I miss it so.
2) You think THAT Mega Man is bad? Have you SEEN the box art for the very first game? That cover is for Mega Man 2.
Wow, actually remember that magazine cover!!!! Old school!
I love the 1UP team, but the podcasts are where they really shine. I buy EGM from time to time, but really it's so thin that I'm usually done before I leave the newsagents...
The UK is lucky to have two top-notch gaming magazines in EDGE and games(TM), I wouldn't miss an issue of either.
The trick to print media these days is definitely to ignore news -- it's all about the articles.
@jfx316: Me too. Mine's not torn to hell, but there's no way I could call it "mint."
MMm mmm, CBZ comic book reader file goodness....
WTF is up with the captcha on rapid share? You have to match letters with melting cats and you have to avoid the ones with the dogs or you get it wrong and there's no handicap option. Then on top of it all, they smudge the hell out of the letters. Seriously it's like playing a mini game from hell just to download a file!
Pretty cool. I started buying EGM with #12, which had an awesome, awesome, AWESOME Ninja Gaiden II cover that was just a well-chosen screenshot. Funny how a screenshot from an 8-bit NES game puts almost all their other covers since then to shame.
Too bad EGM isn't fit for toilet paper these days...I have no problem reminicing about the first 8 or 10 years though.
Oh, and I do have the first issue of GamePro...they were handing them out at a Toys R Us. The cover text simply said "NINTENDO - SEGA - ATARI." It did have a preview of SMB3 though, which was unheard of in US magazines at the time since Nintendo Power was the only game in town. As horrible as GamePro turned out to be, I do give them respect for being the first fairly well done magazine to succeed in getting "hot newz" outside of Nintendo's own mag. The only other viable Nintendo Power competitors at the time were utter crap like "Video Games & Computer Entertainment," which never had anything to get you excited...it was just crudely constructed maps for Platoon or a horrible error-filled guide to Friday the 13th.
Or.. you know, you could own it like I do:
[andy.hadagoodday.com]
Can anyone do me a favor and post that PDF somewhere else?
I can never get that damn cat captcha to work for me...
Sendspace anyone? Thanks
i feel bad for throwing out all my egms, i had from issue 15 to current.
Nice. I love going back through ludicrously old issues of gaming mags. Pure nostalgia rush.
Mega Man 2! my fav MM of all time. my mom had to fight hordes of angry parents to get her mits on it. great memories indeed.
Since when has MegaMan ever had a handheld gun? Cause the covers of MM1 and MM2 seem to imply that he does.
Gnome got linked by Kotaku!
Nice one mate :-)
Sorry guys Next Generation Magazine is the best mag ever next to oldschool Nintendo Power.
For those of you who downloaded it, check out page 14...
It's a stand-up Nintendo custom arcade cabinet like thing. It was 18 years ahead of it's time, with what the mame arcades being popular now.
Holy crap! The monthly contest on page 19 gave the lucky winner 50 games! That's a lot back in those days, heck, it's a lot today.
Next Generation was good, but I preferred Gamefan. Great times within those pages...
Also, although I'm not a PC fan, PC Accelerator was always a great read.
@zanzibarlegend:
[andy.hadagoodday.com]
I'm only missing #5, 7, 27 through 31 and 97.
I get EGM every month... read though it once, and then use it as my new mousepad for my glass desk. Mmhmm... new mousepad every month. Exciting.
Damn, $4.95? In 2008 I think $4.95 is a lot for a magazine, can't imagine what people thought of it back in '89.
@kylo4: Shoot man, trade in some of those food stamps and you'll be able to afford it.
What's this 'magazine' you speak of? Also, there was no internet at one point? What did you do? Watch TV!? Bah!
I pretty much have every issue of EGM from that issue up until the late 1990s.. I bought them all at the store, and they're pretty far from mint (hey, I read them), but at least they're mine.
Actually even though they like to dismiss it as a "pre-EGM newsletter", I think that the issues of Electronic Game Player (EGP) are the definitive first issues of EGM proper. It had everything.. Quarterman, the same editors, layouts of the early EGM's. It's only difference is pretty much in name.
[smg.photobucket.com]
@eastx: What's that implying, I'm poor? $5 is a lot for a magazine. I'll spend $10 on an album though, or the $5 it cost me to buy Jerry Maguire on DVD, but not $5 on a magazine.
I still have a few older magazines in my collection (I have an issue of EGM from 93 that has an article on the Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle game). Another one I kept was the Sept. 95 issue of Diehard Gamefan (the issue that had an article that, because of it's racist content, got the article writer canned reeeal quick). Mostly kept Gamefans, the yearly specials, and pretty much all the Official Dreamcast mags (also have a number of Japanese game mags dating back to 1990...).
i have most of the gamefan mags. think i'm still missing a few, but i find one every so often. fun to look through them. i remember all the neogeo info i used to get from them.
Retromags is an awesome project. There are some great issues on there.
I recommend Super Play to anyone, it's a surprisingly mature read for a Nintendo magazine. And features one of the best cover arts I've seen on a magazine.
[www.retromags.com]
And to think, all that time I was buying Nintendo Magazine System...
I let Sushi-X have 2nd round. It's true.
When Mega Man was depicted like that on the cover, it's no wonder not many people leave it out in the open.
i didn't know megaman used a pistol??????
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