Before video game websites like IGN, Kotaku, Polygon, and GameRanx, there were the video game magazines. And between the likes of Nintendo Power and Game Pro was Electronic Gaming Monthly, or EGM.
Today, a new Kickstarter has emerged for The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium. The project is described as a 320 page book that covers the history of he video game industry as told in the magazine. It includes interviews with former EGM editors, developers, and some modern day influencers. It will also feature details on each issue of the magazine, as well as features on major trends and landmarks in the industry.
However, there are tons of video game related book Kickstarters like this that come out annually. Content creators like Pat the NES Punk and Jeremy Parish have successfully launched long term video game book projects, charting histories and pricing information for entire video game console libraries.
This Kickstarter has one very big offer alongside the compendium itself. They are planning to build an EGM Digital Archive, “the first official way to read every EGM ever made in one place.”
You will be able to download every issue of the magazine in PDF form, but you’ll want online access too. That’s because the archive will be integrated with the Compendium itself. Some parts of the book will include codes that allow you to cross reference directly the relevant magazine issue and page.
Now, you may wonder if this Kickstarter is on the level, and we’ve checked up on that for you too. But discussing that does require that we go back into a bit of EGM’s history itself.
EGM started publication in 1988 as U.S. National Video Game Team’s Electronic Gaming Monthly. It was founded by one Steve Harris, under Sendai Publications. In 1996, EGM was sold to Ziff-Davis, and then in 2009 it was discontinued by Ziff-Davis.
What made this closure especially painful is that the editors had finished production on their February 2009 issue, but they were not allowed to publish it.
However, Steve Harris returns to this story in May of 2009. He purchases EGM and its assets from Ziff-Davis, and relaunches it into his own company, now called EGM Media LLC. Today EGM is a video game website like the rest of us. Three of Steve’s employees at EGM Media, Josh Harmon, Mollie L. Patterson, and Michael Hobbs, are the authors of this Kickstarter.
For now, the Kickstarter does not mention of EGM Media or Steve is involved in this project, but we imagine some arrangement is in place. We would love to get clarification on that shortly, but we would also really want you to share this Kickstarter yourselves, and if you’re interested and in a financial position, to sign on as a backer too. If this becomes successful, perhaps the owners of other defunct video game magazines, like the abovementioned Nintendo Power, PSM, Game Pro, CVG, etc. also explore making their magazine archives available to the public.
While some gamers will argue that resources like the Internet Archive will secure access to these works that the copyright holders hold, the Internet Archive itself is currently down from malicious DDOS attacks today. If we can get the IP owners themselves to provide access to these magazines again, they can also renew the public interest in these products.
Because video game magazines are more than just promotional materials for video games, or buying guides for young consumers. They are cultural artifacts, that reflect not only the history of the video game industry, but also the zeitgeist of three decades. That is not just worth preserving, but worth making relevant again, today.
