|
| To
kick-start this new column of features we thought it would be best to
go
back to where it all started. Everything has a beginning and
videogaming magazines are no different. No matter where you are from,
you
will bound to have read, or at least heard of, Computer
& Video
Games magazine or its
many aliases (C+VG,
C&VG,
CVG...).
C+VG
was launched in the middle of October 1981 (cover dated November 1981)
by publishing company
EMAP and is generally considered among videogaming magazine historians
as the world's very first magazine - by a mere couple of weeks, granted
- to be totally dedicated to videogaming. |
If
you are a slightly younger reader who grew up in the colourful and
glossy magazine era of the 1990s, then looking back to C+VG
issue 1 -
or any other magazine around the same era - will come as a bit of a
culture
shock. For 75p, or £2.73 by today’s valuation, the
reader was enthralled by 100 pages of computer and videogaming, most of
which were in black and white. Content included the likes of 'Practical
Programming', 'Down to Basic' and then there was the dreaded type-in
listings (28 pages of the blighters) that many an eager gamer spent
hours typing into their computer in the vain hope of actually playing a
game at the end of all the effort.
Also of note were the reviews, which were not really reviews as we
came
to know further down the years, but thinly disguised advertisements for
the games with no critical comments whatsoever. There were no ratings,
no comments on how well the game actually played and no screenshots,
just a description of the game with
some background information. As editor Terry Pratt noted in his
inaugural editorial page, a computer's "only limitation is the
programmer's imagination — COMPUTER & VIDEO GAMES is
out to push your imagination to its limits," and, indeed, we really
needed to use our imaginations in the days of screenshot-less,
non-critical review articles.
The reviews were split into three sections: 'Computer Software', 'Video
Screens' and 'Arcade Action'. Computer formats covered included the
VIC-20, Acorn Atom, Sinclair ZX-81, Sharp MZ-80k, Apple II and TRS-80
computers, while 'Video Screens' featured Philips G7000, Atari 2600 and
Mattel Intellivision consoles, and 'Acrade Action' contained the, well,
arcade action. The influence of games such as Space Invaders,
Asteroids
and Galaxian
was evident with the style of games invading all formats.
There was Alien
Rain on the Apple II, Space
Monster
on the Philips
G7000, Space
Battle on the Database and Asteroids
on the Atari 2600. In
total, there were 16 games reviewed in total and though this may sound
like a lot, they were actually allotted as little as a quarter of a
page in some instances, amounting to seven pages of games reviews in
total. Understandable, of course, with the lack of any screenshots and
such.
|
You may have
thought that with being a launch
issue C+VG would have very
little in the way of advertisements, especially as the game reviews
could be considered an advertisement themselves, but you would be
wrong. Spread over the 100 pages were 23 pages of adverts for
companies and 10 pages for games. This meant that the prominent
sections of C+VG
weren't actually the games news and reviews, taking up
3% and 7% of the issue respectively, but the Type-Ins (28%) and adverts
(38%). Of note amongst the adverts was the two page spread for
Sinclair’s ZX81, which included specs for kit
(£49.95 - £168 in today’s money) and
build (£69.95 - £236 today) versions. This
basically meant for the saving of £20 you could get the kit
edition and build it yourself. Considering the prices of other
computers on display (around £350-£650 or
£1183-£2197 today), either ZX81 edition was an
absolute bargain. Other single page ads were present for the Sharp
MZ-80K, VIC 20, and the Acorn Atom.
If you weren’t interested in type-ins or programming, the
early years
of C+VG
would have been a bit overwelming. However, there was some
relieve amongst the mass of type-ins and adverts. Keith
Campbell's 'Adventure' column was amusingly well written, and I don't
even like adventures - well, the text adventures that were around in
those days. Keith would continue to write the
Adventure column for the
next eight years, testament to its enduring popularity and appeal to
readers. There was 'Arcade Action', which had lasted the test of time
very well indeed, until the arcades themselves faded from videogaming
history. And 'Kit Korner' proved invaluable if you wanted to get hands
on
with your computer hardware assembly and soldering components!
|
C+VG
evolved through the years and decades with the format changing
along the way. Games reviews were eventually included with critical
comments on the game’s merits, as well as
screenshots in favour of an artist’s
illustrations. Mean Machines
was mothered within the pages of C+VG
before breaking off into its own separate magazine, which split into
two separate entities itself. Famous staff came and went (Eugene Lacey,
Julian Rignall, Paul Glancey, Richard Leadbetter and Paul Davies), the
magazine's readership dipped up and down, finally dwindling away during
the late 1990s due to a staff purging and re-design by the publishers
in
charge and later sold off. This was all before the big sad
finale in 2004
when the magazine was purchased by a rival publisher as part of a deal
and subsequently killed off.
Just like the videogaming scene, there are readers who prefer certain
eras of the magazine's history to others. Certainly, we have a lot to
thank C+VG
for innovations that they introduced from the off or further
down the line. C+VG,
thank you for the innovations and the legacy you
left behind. We'll all meet again in Valhalla.
|
|
