New Releases 03/24

[kitsunebi]

Games for Windows #8 is available HERE.

[Kiwi]

Thanks to Hubz five hard to find issues of the Australian arcade title Cash Box International have been added to the site.

   
 

[Kiwi]

Jason gives us three more issues of Australian PC User to add to the collection.

   

[larare]

As someone who remembers these times (and magazines) well I would say they were very much a part of the late 90's/early 00's lads mags culture. Nearly all British mags around this time were on a race to the bottom for edgy and problematic blokes nonsense. It certainly wasn't just targeted towards teenagers though, guys in there 20's were certainly a target too and lapped it up.

The way that women and minorities were represented during this period was pretty abhorrent. From page 3 girls sitting proudly on newsagents shelves to overly-sexualised beer adverts on tv it was hard to escape. With the slow decline of lads mags (eventually leading to campaigners getting covers changed or removed from shelves) and the rise of the internet a lot of these commonplace things in gaming magazines disappeared but that PS2 era is pretty bleak. It's also worth noting the effect that the extremely repugnant tabloid press had on nearly every facet of British life around this time (as IloveCats100 points out above).

I have previously pointed out how shocking I found some of the content in the PSG 24-7 issues I scanned but have seen similar stuff in PSM2, Play and others. From bizarre racial epiphets to reviews of pornography to straight up nudity it seems crazy to me that these mags (primarily aimed at children or teenagers) were printed at all. I would like to categorically state that my scanning of these materials is in no way an endorsement, purely preservation. They do serve as an interesting time capsule into that period of British life and one that thankfully, it seems most have moved past.

PSXPro 20 . . . 

[gobbins]

As someone who remembers these times (and magazines) well I would say they were very much a part of the late 90's/early 00's lads mags culture. Nearly all British mags around this time were on a race to the bottom for edgy and problematic blokes nonsense. It certainly wasn't just targeted towards teenagers though, guys in there 20's were certainly a target too and lapped it up.

The way that women and minorities were represented during this period was pretty abhorrent. From page 3 girls sitting proudly on newsagents shelves to overly-sexualised beer adverts on tv it was hard to escape. With the slow decline of lads mags (eventually leading to campaigners getting covers changed or removed from shelves) and the rise of the internet a lot of these commonplace things in gaming magazines disappeared but that PS2 era is pretty bleak. It's also worth noting the effect that the extremely repugnant tabloid press had on nearly every facet of British life around this time (as IloveCats100 points out above).

I have previously pointed out how shocking I found some of the content in the PSG 24-7 issues I scanned but have seen similar stuff in PSM2, Play and others. From bizarre racial epiphets to reviews of pornography to straight up nudity it seems crazy to me that these mags (primarily aimed at children or teenagers) were printed at all. I would like to categorically state that my scanning of these materials is in no way an endorsement, purely preservation. They do serve as an interesting time capsule into that period of British life and one that thankfully, it seems most have moved past.

Well said. As someone who was smack bang in the middle of the target demo during this era, I too remember it well. The Official PlayStation Magazine was wonderful and (largely) informative throughout most of the PS1 era. The PS2 era is when it really took a nosedive. My primary console during this period was the Xbox, and for the most part the OXM UK series was pretty respectful, at least when contrasted with the shite OPM2 UK were publishing. Still though, back then I lapped it up! Obviously nowadays it's merely a fascinating window into the distant past. In no small part thanks to your scanning efforts - I have archived many of these magazines and often finding myself frequently flicking through them. OPM, OPM2, PLAY UK, OXM, GamesMaster, EDGE, and more. It's such a guilty pleasure. I always seem to find something new, something shocking, something outright absurd that I never noticed before. Cracking stuff! But yes, this is a time capsule that's best left sealed and observed from a distance while pinching your nose.

[Kiwi]

Hey, she might have been the winners Mum just doing what she could to help her son win the contest!!

Seriously though, if I were a parent of a kid looking at these mags I'd be far more concerned about the pages upon pages of adult advertising in Xbox/PlayStation mags encouraging readers to call 1-900 numbers to talk dirty or to purchase seedy roms full of images of woman doing things their wife wouldn't. Or shouldn't.

Sure, a bit of saucy probably isn't kind of what you'd expect in a console or PC magazine perhaps, but have you ever read American mags of the same era? OMG a LOT of them are so sterile because, well, that population tended towards productivity type apps, as kitsunebi has quite rightly pointed out a few times in the past, so those mags were boring as heck to gaming oriented folk.

I think gaming mags needed to be different in the UK because there were lots of titles vying for the consumer dollar. Future had the "official" mags which always attract people who think because they are official they must be good, so smaller publishers had their work cut out trying to claw market share. Invariably a few of them went down the racy path.

Of course some went too far indeed. Atari World did a computer porn article which evidently included an image of a woman playing with her dog in totally the wrong manner, and the publisher got shit for that one and the mag only lasted a handful of additional issues before folding as the negative press was a mag killer. That was 1995. Take CVG issue 69 with the exposed nipples on the "Game Over" ad. To this day I think the game publisher created that ad specifically to put into issue 69, for obvious reasons. That was in 1987 so "racy" has been around a LONG time.

Social mores have changed. People have become more politcally correct because, well, you can't call anyone anything nowadays without offending someone, so younger people seeing these mags don't have any idea of the world back then.

This issue is also a problem movie companies grapple with for older movies etc. Look at Fu Manchu movies from the 1950's calling people all manner of derogatory terms. But if you chop it all out it no longer represents accurately the movie it was when it was released. Companies like Disney are still trying to work out a way forward with some of their older titles.

[Kiwi]

Another four issues of Australian PC User are now available thanks to Jason.

 
 

[Kiwi]

Gregorick brings us STATION #02 ....

[Kiwi]

.... and he also brings us X-360 #39.

[Kiwi]

Also incoming from Gregorick we have Essential PlayStation #12. Ahh!! Rollcage ... what a wonderful game.

[Kiwi]

Three issues of Play Meter scanned by Hubz have been added to the download area. Gotta love the arcade specific mags!!

   

[Kiwi]

Hubz scans of Comptiq are up next with issues 13 - 15 now available.

   

[Kiwi]

Jason gives us another two issues of Australian PC User ...

 

[Kiwi]

Something a little different today with ten issues of GameRoom added to the download area.

       
       

These are OCR'd PDF's so very small. Remember to right click "save as" if your browser insists on inline opening them.

[Gregorick]

Social mores have changed. People have become more politcally correct because, well, you can't call anyone anything nowadays without offending someone, so younger people seeing these mags don't have any idea of the world back then.

Just for the record I have now found four different gaming mags from the 90/00s that have a feature called Japs Eye or similar. Makes me shudder every damn time.

My post may have focused a bit more on the sexual side of these mags but the xenophobia and derogatory terms went hand in hand with that.