The Mean Machines Archive

[Wil]

I remember bumping into Gary Harrod in Books Nippon just outside St.Pauls in London back then (when I was doing Anime UK mag - early 90s) and he was a nice guy and then Paul Davis and the rest of them at some anime showing at the (I think) ICA. We talked about doing some mad Jap cartoon crossover in the mags (even though we weren't much more than a glorified fanzine, really) but nothing came of it. They really knew their stuff. That's about as close as I got to EMAP.

Although they did sort of try to poach me from Future at one point. I think it was Gus Swan on the Saturn mag. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it then as I didn't think the mag was much good but it would have been nice to work in London again.

Wil

[Duddyroar]

JAPJAC - PM coming your way, matey!

[SuperDanX]

This is taking me back:-)love your site btw duddy,makes me wish i had all my old mean machines!Hint,hint;-)

[Kenneth]

Raaah, your site is too good.
I remember reading mean machines when I was in hollydays in england. I loved the mag.
Actually, in france we've got "Consoles+" which was, at the beginning, a translation of mean machines.
Didn't know the number 24 was the last one.

[Duddyroar]

Number 24 was the last Mean Machines in mutliformat form - it then split into Mean Machines Sega and Nintendo Magazine System.

Actually, in france we've got "Consoles+" which was, at the beginning, a translation of mean machines.

I visited France in the early 90's on a school trip and picked up a copy of this magazine - I was quite shocked when I opened it to see all the same cartoons and stuff! If you've got any copies of this lying around please let me know, I'd love to feature them on the site.

[sj33]

Nitpick time! Just thought I'd mention, you mention on your page that MMS became Sega Magazine, which soon became Sega Saturn Magazine. That's not actually true, Sega Magazine appeared in early 1994 as an 'extra tier' alongside MMS with largely the same staff (probably because Emap aquirred the official licence). MMS continued to run alongside SM/SSM until the closure of MMS in early '97 (or late '96? One of the two). I actually have a '96 issue of MMS here somewhere... with a preview of Sonic Xtreme!

Other than that, great stuff... makes me wanna go raid my boxes for my old MM mags.

[SuperDanX]

Id just like to add,that i think duddy's doing a wonderful job,old magazines,esp the good ones,really need to be preserved as there an important part of our gaming culture,and are too often just binned(something im guilty of myself,and usualy regret)sombody needs to be preserving these things,as the publishers dont care less about this sort of thing,which is a real waste,if for example emap printed a compaltion book including all the old mm and sold for about ?20 or ?30 id buy it!Never happen though,maybe you should look into duddy?Ltd print run,split the profits with emap?Or failing that,and with no disrespect to strider,when for crying out loud,is one of the big publisher gonna take the plunge a publish a quality retro mag?Never i guess,id L.O.V.E. a mean machines/superplay style retro mag!!!!

[Duddyroar]

Nitpick time! Just thought I'd mention, you mention on your page that MMS became Sega Magazine, which soon became Sega Saturn Magazine. That's not actually true, Sega Magazine appeared in early 1994 as an 'extra tier' alongside MMS with largely the same staff (probably because Emap aquirred the official licence). MMS continued to run alongside SM/SSM until the closure of MMS in early '97 (or late '96? One of the two). I actually have a '96 issue of MMS here somewhere... with a preview of Sonic Xtreme!

This is something Rich Leadbetter mentioned to me...rest assured it will be corrected when the site is updated!

SuperDanX - Thanks for the kind words mate.

old magazines,esp the good ones,really need to be preserved as there an important part of our gaming culture,and are too often just binned(something im guilty of myself,and usualy regret)sombody needs to be preserving these things,as the publishers dont care less about this sort of thing

Indeed. One of the best things about being a gamer in the 16-bit days was the excellent magazines, IMO. Before the net arrived they were your only link to what was happening in the world of videogames. I miss the buzz of picking up the latest CVG or MM and seeing screenshots of the latest games...and back then, a preview of a game meant it was coming out the following month usually, not three years down the line, as is the case today.

if for example emap printed a compaltion book including all the old mm and sold for about ?20 or ?30 id buy it!Never happen though,maybe you should look into duddy?Ltd print run,split the profits with emap?

Haha! Oh, I'd love that mate. I doubt very much that EMAP would do it though. They've put all the glory years behind them and seem content to release nothing but crappy gossip mags like Heat. Plus I'd never be able to get the cash to do a print run!

Or failing that,and with no disrespect to strider,when for crying out loud,is one of the big publisher gonna take the plunge a publish a quality retro mag?Never i guess,id L.O.V.E. a mean machines/superplay style retro mag!!!!

I hear you. There's already a retro magazine on the shelves - Retro Gamer. However it's gone downhill since it went from going bi-monthly to monthly, and the price is a joke - ?6 for each issue - it has a covermounted disc but I don't think I've even bothered loading one of them up. Plus it never seems to give consoles the right amount of coverage.

Strider's retro section in GamesTM is the currently the best place to get your retro fix and I think he's doing an excellent job.

[SuperDanX]

SuperDanX - Thanks for the kind words mate.
No thank you,just seeing some of the old mm covers on your site made me happy:-)

Im aware of Retro gamer magazine sadly.Thank god for striders retro pages,the only reason i buy gamesTM tbh.

[Yakumo]

I recently read your Mean Machines site in full (took a while) and must say it's a very well put together site. maybe it's not perfect but still something very nice and a great tribute to the legend that mean machines is. Well done !! Now if only a Super Play site just as good as your Mean machines site would turn up.

Yakumo

[Mad Gear]

Id just like to add,that i think duddy's doing a wonderful job,old magazines,esp the good ones,really need to be preserved as there an important part of our gaming culture,and are too often just binned(something im guilty of myself,and usualy regret)sombody needs to be preserving these things,as the publishers dont care less about this sort of thing,which is a real waste,if for example emap printed a compaltion book including all the old mm and sold for about ?20 or ?30 id buy it!Never happen though,maybe you should look into duddy?Ltd print run,split the profits with emap?Or failing that,and with no disrespect to strider,when for crying out loud,is one of the big publisher gonna take the plunge a publish a quality retro mag?Never i guess,id L.O.V.E. a mean machines/superplay style retro mag!!!!

I actually bought the whole collection of Mean Machines off ebay about 6 months back for the bargain price of ?20 or so.
It was fantastic seeing such enthusiasm about consoles and import games again. Shame Rignall had such a hard-on for the SFC .

Anyway i read em all and sold them seperately back on ebay and easily doubled my money.

Now if i could only find a complete set of Complete Guide to Consoles

[SuperDanX]

Had a compleate set of compleate guide to consoles,had,being the operative word!Binned them about 7 years ago along with my mean machines..What an idiot!Doh!

[Big Seany]

Did anyone buy the ?9.99 GamesTm retro compilation book? Is there to be another one? I enjoyed that. It kept me going when I was awake for over 24 hours whilst the wife was in labour. Some good stuff in there.

[Duddyroar]

Now if i could only find a complete set of Complete Guide to Consoles

Too right - that magazine was class (although Rignall says in his interview that creating it was a nightmare). I recently won The Complete Guide to Sega on ebay, never had it back in the day so it will be interesting to read.

I've got one issue of the Complete Guide, issue 2 I think. I had the whole set back in the early 90's, dunno whatever happened to them.

Sean - I'm after a copy of that GamesTM Retro magazine, still goes for about a tenner on ebay.

[Big Seany]

They have it in Southampton General Hospital WHSmith!!

If I see one at all, do you want me to get it?