New Releases - 01/24

[Kiwi]

Jason is on fire with four issues of Australian PC Authority added to the site and more are incoming....

 
 

[Jason]

It's a magazine that reviewed NES games in the 1980s.  ALL video games in the 1980s were for children.  Thus all video game magazines from the 80s were mostly bought by children.  There's nothing to be ashamed of there.  Video games didn't really start trying to appeal to older crowds until the 32-bit era.
Especially in the USA, video games in the 80s were still considered toys.  Grownups had their PCs.  This isn't to say that adults can't enjoy children's entertainment.  But there's a big difference in the intended audience between Civilization and Mario/Sonic.

I ask because the computer gaming magazines I grew up with in the 80's and 90's targeted teens. The computer magazines my dad bought targeted adults but the gaming sections meant teens were catered to.

Maybe it depends where you grew up? In Australia we got both British and American magazines, so we saw both approaches. Its interesting in that some of the Commodore forums I'm on, US readers when discussing childhood magazines talk about fondly about magazines like Compute! and INFO which to me at the time as a teenager were dreary, dull magazines aimed at adults.

The UK never really saw the console crash and most games were on home computers which attracted a slightly older audience, so most gaming magazines were aimed at teenagers rather than younger kids. ZZap and other Newsfield magazines succeeded because they were mostly written by 16-18 year olds, just like their average readers, so were very relateable.

[Kiwi]

Next up from Jason are three issues of PC World (AUS)

   

[kitsunebi]

I ask because the computer gaming magazines I grew up with in the 80's and 90's targeted teens. The computer magazines my dad bought targeted adults but the gaming sections meant teens were catered to.

Maybe it depends where you grew up? In Australia we got both British and American magazines, so we saw both approaches. Its interesting in that some of the Commodore forums I'm on, US readers when discussing childhood magazines talk about fondly about magazines like Compute! and INFO which to me at the time as a teenager were dreary, dull magazines aimed at adults.

The UK never really saw the console crash and most games were on home computers which attracted a slightly older audience, so most gaming magazines were aimed at teenagers rather than younger kids. ZZap and other Newsfield magazines succeeded because they were mostly written by 16-18 year olds, just like their average readers, so were very relateable.

Maybe it's because I work as a teacher, but I think my definition of what a child is may slightly differ from some people's.  Teenagers are included in that range.  Especially anyone 16 or under.  Can a child read a magazine written for adults or vice versa?  Of course.  But that doesn't change the fact that video game mags in the USA throughout the 80s and most of the 90s were aimed at children, since that was BY FAR the biggest demographic of people playing the games.  A mag written for teens (especially one written BY teens) is still a children's mag in my opinion.  There's nothing wrong with that, especially if that's the demographic the games were targeted at, so I'm not being derogatory.  Next Generation was about the only mainstream USA mag primarily about video games aimed at adults that I'm aware of (though there are probably a bunch or more recent "retro" themed mags aimed at nostalgic adults).

And I'm not talking about computer games, nor am I talking about the almost 100% different market that existed in the UK in the 80s.  All computer gaming mags in the USA were written for adults.  It was a very different market from video games. Pick up any issue of Computer Gaming World written in the 80s and tell me you can picture anyone under 40 truly enjoying it.  

[Kiwi]

Jason submits another three issues of Australian PC Authority ...

   

[zaraned]

I love this. You know how some adults make a song and dance about how computer games/video games are for children, (some of them don't make a distinction between the two), but secretly they were the OG gamers all this time, spending all those weekend nights deep in some of that sweet, sweet Jack Nicklaus/Links/Civilization/Minesweeper/Poker action.

And now their secrecy/hypocrisy continues to this day with smartphones. They need to just own up already.

[Kiwi]

Gregorick provides us with PSM2 issues 03 and 04. Wow!!

 

[Kiwi]

Thanks to Jason another three issues of Australian PC Authority are now available....

   

[Kiwi]

Jason submits internet-au #82

[Kiwi]

Gregorick scans PlayStation Solutions #23

[Kiwi]

Jason uploaded Windows Vista The Official Magazine #24.

[Kiwi]

This weekends reading comes from Gregorick with PSM2 issues 05, 10 and 11 added to the download area.

   

[Kiwi]

After some wonderful editing to remove god awful watermarking the digital rip of Hyper #243 is now available.

[kitsunebi]

I grew up playing the NES and SNES as a kid, but I may have ruffled a few feathers suggesting that the target audience for the vast majority of their games was kids like myself AS IF THERE WAS ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.  I admit that my personal experiences living through that time may have clouded my ability to be impartial in my analysis.  So I stand corrected.  Here are a couple more mags featuring games made for only the most discerning of adults and sophisticates, like Darkwing Duck and Home Alone 2.

And how f-ed up is it that we already had video games being made about the Gulf War while bodies were still cooling on the ground?


DOWNLOAD HERE                                                  DOWNLOAD HERE

[Kiwi]

Gregorick kindly drops PSM2 issues 12 and 17 on us!!