GamesMaster Magazine - Issue 2! Retro goodness!!

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We generous lads brought you a feature on the first ever issue of GamesMaster Magazine a while back and it's had lots and lots of interest, so we thought; why not whip out the second issue and let you filthy perverts have a gander inside it's freakishly sexy pages?

The date; Feb 1993 - I was still in year 7 at secondary school, just about recovered from a Sega Master System overdose over Christmas - which I'd strangely spent in Ireland at my mothers friends house. I'd become a recluse that festive period - not only because I'd just got the Sega Master System I'd also been gifted the eye-watering, all time greatest Arsenal football top, 'The Bruised Banana'.

Arsenal's 'Bruised Banana' top

Back to school in the new year and I'd finished issue one of GamesMaster magazine and put in a word with my local newsagent to reserve me a copy each month, when one fine winters morning, whilst buying supplies for the day which lay ahead (Panda Pop, Transform-a-Snacks & a Chomp) I was met with the words 'Your magazine is here, would you like it?'








YES!


I was greeted with issue 2 of GM Mag - 140 pages of 8 & 16-bit eye-candy. The front page teasing me with the captions 'Win 10 years worth of games!' & '20 pages of tips' & '3D SPECIAL ISSUE' screaming at me - I needed 10 years of games! I could not eat until I'd witnessed 20 pages of tips and I sure as hell wouldnt sleep until I'd had my fix of the Chaos Engine 3D poster and free glasses!


What lay in the pages was more colourful, more splendid, more amazing and much, much more wonderful than anything I'd ever seen.

Amiga screen shots of battered SFII characters! I couldn't wait to get my hands on this game. You see, each Saturday a group of us would nip down to the local swimming pool armed with our spending money (For lunch and transportation.. from our beloved parents).. we'd generally all have a swim for a bit, then rush to dry off, get changed and run to the sweet shop just up the road from the pool to spend our cash.


This sweet shop not only supplied sweets in jars which you'd point to and ask for a quarter of (a rapidly declining art even at that point), but at the rear of the store there were three arcade machines.


The first was Final Fight, the second, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - seeing the word NINJA rather than HERO in the UK was blissful - but the most fought over arcade in the store... Street Fighter II.


Now with GM Mag 2 in hand I could stare at stills of it all day long. It was like obtaining an Argos catalogue in the run-up to Christmas.


As if the above wasn't exciting enough, the reviews in issue 2 were outstanding. To this day I look at gaming mags, see what is being reviewed and generally raise an eyebrow at the thought of having to sift through pages and pages of utter pony to find one decent game. However, GM Magazine issue 2 has nothing but pixelated pleasure throughout.

Check these cool as a polar-bear nutsack charts for the best sellers over the Christmas 1992 period; Sonic 2 on the Mega Drive, SF2 on the SNES, Sonic 2 on the Sega Master System (Which I still believe is slightly better than its 16-bit brother version .... a bit), Sensi Soccer for the Amiga, Super Mario Bros for NES, Sonic 2 - Game Gear, Super Mario Land 2 on the Gameboy & Switchblade 2 for the Lynx.


This is why retro gaming is so damn huge these days, 19 years on from the publication of this magazine.






Which reminds me - myself and my best pal at the time, Matt, both got Sonic 2 on the Sega Master System that Christmas and somehow he had got a few levels further than me pretty quickly. This may not sound all that shocking but he has about as much co-ordination as my cat once had when he got his head stuck in a yoghurt pot.


Matt was one of those people who possessed a skill I've only ever seen girls possess (Sorry girls, but this is factual information).. you know.. that video gaming skill where they try flinging their hands to one side to make the character move in that direction quicker? Or when playing an FPS and trying to stealthily peek around a corner actually physically moving your head to see around the graphic which lies in front of you.


Anyway, I digress.


The magazine is heavily geared towards helping our less capable video gaming friends to complete their treasured games, filling the latter pages with Action Replay codes, hint, tips & cheats galore.

I never actually wrote in to GamesMaster, nor did I ever try to get on to the TV shows brilliantly titled 'Consoltation Zone' but plenty did and I'd sit there watching these peculiar children thinking 'are you serious?' - It was the foundations of the bitter, resentful creature I have now become.

Is it any wonder that this magazine is still going as strong as ever?
If you come across a copy of any of the earlier issues please, please snap them up. Hug them (gently), cherish them, touch them with clean hands.
Whatever you do look after them. Quite frankly there isn't a gaming magazine out there which means as much to some of us UK lads and lasses.

 I leave you with this Road Rash 2 advertisment (Who says magazines have too many ads?!)

Article by Jamie @ TGS
jamie@thegamesshed.com




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