Over the years I have squandered a pretty large sum of cash on gaming periodicals. This is evident by the fact that I now have in my possesion something like 200 mags that chronicle my gaming tastes over the last 15 years. This journey of games-related prose begins in the early days of Amiga Power, Sega Power and Games World, continues through the Golden Age of the Saturn with Mean Machines Sega and Saturn Power, ventures into a land of unimaginable gaming greatness with N64 Magazine and then continues further with Dreamcast Magazine. The quality then takes something of a nosedive as we approach the more current mags, but I live in the hope that some day the Amiga Power team will reform - not unlike the Blues Brothers - and embark on a car chase through games land, crushing Nazis and saving the print mag industry from a slide into oblivion...However, I digress.
The reason for this post is to showcase some of the Dreamcast Mags that I have been able to recover for the 'Yard. Here's a rundown of the different mags:
Official Dreamcast Mag; Dreamcast Magazine; DC-UK; Dreamcast
Monthly and the ubiquitous Mr Dreamcast. I also have a large number of Dreamcast launch related mags and for this reason have accepted them in (see Total Control and EGM in the above picture). And while they are obviously now defunct, there are some excellent reviews and features, although Official Dreamcast Mag's feature on the future of gaming (in the year 2050, no less) that still features Sega Hardware was perhaps a little optimistic...However, this buffoon (above) obviously still managed to glean some joy from it.
The 'Yard's games quota has also taken another boost - the new arrivals are Unreal Tournament and Rush 2049. Unreal is a wierd one, it's intended for multiplayer action but online gaming was left out for the PAL release. This is now irrelevant though due to many of the DC online servers being shut down and I don't have a Dreamcast Broadband Adaptor anyway (thanks to Diogo for the pointer) - dial up is sooo 1999, darling. Rush 2049 on the other hand is more of the same from the Rush series - big, bold, garish, FUN racing. Superb.
Reviews will follow when I get round to it. Shcnaarf.
Once upon a time, I too had quite a substantial collection of some of the aforementioned 'DC' mags. But sadly(!) I discovered beer, drugs and dirty whores and had no more use for them. I swapped them for a friend's collection of FHM's, Maxim's and other 'lads' art pamphlets. I lost contact with that friend and often wonder if he saw monetary potential in the DC mags and swindled them out of me. Could you shed some light on this for me. On another subject, I recognise the 'buffoon'. Was his face once used as an e-fit(up) on Crimewatch?!
ReplyDeleteI got N64 magazine for about 4 years, from 98 to 02 a while after they switched to 'NGC' (god knows how they lasted between the consoles).
ReplyDeleteI have every issue of Edge from 2001- about mid 2005. I've only got about 6 issues each of DC-UK (was so great!) and ODM though, came into DC as it was on the way out.
Grimmupnorth - I don't think there's much monetary value attached to any collection of DC mags, theyre too recent and there are probably a lot still in circulation. I only keep mine because a) I paid good money for them and b) they offer some re-read value if you havnt been able to look at them for a while. I suppose there are some valuable mags out there, such as issue 1 of CVG, but as far as value goes, I don't really have an idea...
ReplyDeleteSon_et_lumiere - yeah, I used to get N64, it was probably one of the best magazines ever produced...much better than the Official mag and knocked the crap out of 64 and N64 Pro. Was never really keen on Edge though. I do have an enourmous (and ever so slightly sad) collection of both Gamesmaster and CVG stretching back to about 1996, but I dont buy any mags at the moment. I just read them in WH Smith for free!
Yeah me neither really, online stuff has kinda replaced them for me.
ReplyDeleteI tried to buy some from the only shop in manchester that still sells sticky old mags today. Even though he had crusty back catalogues of loaded and FHM, he actually stated that when offered old copies of DC magazines he says "no"...as they just "sit on the floor and get trampled on". Jesus! He reccomended Ebay or the recycling section of Asda. He had a massive jizzed on porn section but was snobby about DC mags. Pah!!
ReplyDeleteHe did also have a great life-size cut out of Lara Croft wearing an Eidos City shirt from when the only Manchester team were sponsored by them so I'll let him off...