NGamer Issue 1

Quality. Did anyone here apply for that job?

I'd have been too young- not quite 16. If it were today, I'd have applied sooner than I'm writing this reply.

Oh boy, can't believe it's been over a decade since issue 1, just about a decade since the forums opened and almost a decade since Wii launch. Things were so different back then, magazines were handily complementing online material, and we'd buy them based on cover stories or the fact they'd be the same magazine. And we'd pore over so many pages, instead of just clicking on articles we think we might like or find relevant. Good times.

I've got a stack of all my NGamers/NGCs/Nintendo Gamers in storage at the moment so I haven't been able to find my copy. And for some reason it's no longer on oldgamemags.com despite them having a section for NGamer. But here's what I fondly remember from a decade ago:

1) Return to a wider mag! It was great to see Future pour money back into NGamer after NGC got progressively smaller to the point of even losing the spine. Of course, the me at the time didn't interpret it like that, but it was positively exciting to see the flagging mag revived in such a way.

2) Kittsy's NSMB review. A fine piece of games crit as expected, Kittsy rightly pointed out that NSMB wasn't as ambitious as the 15 year old Super Mario World. And you couldn't throw Koopa shells upward.

3) The sense of humour was very much still there, and evidently led by Greener. There was a joke about how the free gifts in the magazine belonged in the bin. Hehe.

4) World of Nintendo made its debut here? And a games-filled bathtub with two naked men was making the rounds.

5) Greener's trip to Akihabara. I remember something about French maid outfits and a giant Yoshi plush.

6) Fake letters page! In the absence of proper, real letters for issue one, I seem to recall all the letters being made up templates with made up responses.

...That's all I've got for now. If anyone has a link to a digital version I can't wait to read it!

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Quality. Did anyone here apply for that job?

I think SDDowns did. I remember him saying he blew it by bringing the wrong N64 magazine with him to show Greener - think he brought along 64 Pro instead of N64). He wasn't impressed!

@fronkhead most of us are using this site.

http://www.outofprintarchive.com/catalogue/ngamer/NGamer1.html

I ripped the DVD that came with Issue 1 of NGamer last night, but the video clips were trailers and gameplay footage. There didn't appear to be any videos with commentary - I will try playing it in a DVD player tonight to see if it plays differently, but were there any NGamer DVDs with commentary from the staff? I have a bunch of other DVDs from future (you know what I mean) magazines.

Yes, I'm very sure there were commentary DVD's in later issues. I remember thinking that Kittsy was quite softly spoken, given his murderous alter-ego. I had a quick check for NGamer DVD's on The You Tube but came up... what's the opposite of 'trumps'? 'Burps'? 'Clintons'? Didn't find any, in any case.

The only NGamer DVD stuff I ever saw on youtube was when Some of the ONM guys uploaded a couple to embarrass Matthew.

They were kind of ahead of their time, with Lets Plays and features the likes of which now fill up Youtube.

ZeroJones wrote:

I had a quick check for NGamer DVD's on The You Tube but came up... what's the opposite of 'trumps'? 'Burps'? 'Clintons'? Didn't find any, in any case.

I'm going with 'Biritch' or 'Bridge'. [/research]

Yeah, well I was going to upload any to YouTube if they had some commentary on them. A lot of the games that were featured that never materialised (Wii Sports: Airplane, Project Hammer) already seem to have footage on YouTube.

Will let you know if there are any.

I gave somebody the DVD from Issue 1 as part of their Secret Santa a few years ago. I can't remember a single thing about it, other than being very impressed that it came free with a magazine of that quality. NGamer was great value for money in the early days - you could get hours of entertainment out of that magazine and DVD.

That was me!

Yeah, though to be fair it was always great value: you got a lot of words. Too many words, some might say

Guys, this is a dumb question so feel free to bypass: Are we going to be celebrating subsequent issues also? At the moment, I haven't started reading issue 2 yet, and didn't know if I should be waiting until "the time". Anyway, don't stop talking about issue 1.

Mamma the mia!

I own the paper copies of every issue from 2 onward, and intend to read each one on the ten-year anniversary of release even if no bugger else does.

I'm up for it too.

Just been browsing through Issue 2 and the "NGamer Diary" bit that outlines the month's key dates, includes both September and October. Issue 3 is advertised as coming out on October 11th, so it's fair to say we can move on to Issue 2 even though it's the October issue. Guessing the issues fall in to a more traditional monthly rollout in the future (the past).

Yeah, I remember they arsed about a bit in the first couple of issues, before getting it done "monthly" (albeit 4-weekly rather than monthly; hence the 13 issues a year; also proof that the western calendar system is broken). I'm looking forward to Ish 3 when I don't have to read it on my phone!

Issue 1 said issue 2 was coming out on the 7th, so I was planning to make the thread on Wednesday.