Ed Semrad was actually a pen name Andrew Baran used to write reviews under for EGM. He passed away back in July of 2009 from cancer. I miss the magazines of those times and before.
These are the best episodes! I was a child of the 90s and would love to sift through my EGM and GamePro magazines. I remember being especially hyped for promotion on metal gear, resident evil, devil may cry and the list goes on. and awesome Christmas tree!
Great episode!!!! I got Castlevania III and Super Mario III for Christmas that year! My older brother got Little Nemo: The Dream Master. All awesome games! In 1991, I got the Sega Genesis, with Sonic the Hedgehog packaged in. My older brother got Phantasy Star II. GREAT memories!
I have that mag! Loved the game of the year awards. Glad they had a crap ton of different categories instead of just all-around Game of the Year. Fun to read.
Chazza534 I don't see why its such a big deal honestly. Pot is a plant, and when lit on fire produces an effect that gets people high. That's the truth, and yet the government cracks down on it like a psychopath in a video game... Much like shrooms...
+Chazza534 XD I was just saying the US government is overreacting. personally, I don't smoke, and generally don't care if people do or do not partake in the smoking of green herbs.
YES !! Dude I remember I was around 9 or 10 and I has this EGM magazine that I packed around and I would ambush my mom while she was cooking dinner and kept showing her the pictures and world map screenshot of Super Mario World and telling her how awesome the graphics looked. The closer Christmas got the more I showed her hoping to embed it in her brain that Santa HAD to bring me a Super Nintendo. Those graphics were the be all end all, graphics would NEVER get any better than that I thought at the time. Needless to say I got the SNES that Christmas morning, I remember spotting that long rectangular box under the tree and went straight for it but my parents made me open all the other gifts first and I was forced to save the big box for last. I can still remember the sound that the styrofoam made as I slid the contents of the box out and smell of the plastic bags that held the SNES goodness. Holy Fuck, such great memories man. Thank you soooo much for this video giving me such an awesome trip down memory lane.
I used to go to the library just to read magazines like that and Nintendo Power. Best part was that these mags were brand new. My library was awesome haha
I love hearing about your nostalgia stories keep it up! I used to love reading video game magazines, I don't buy them anymore, but I kept most of the ones I bought and I'm getting that feeling to check them out.
I've been watching all the old GamesMaster episodes to get my nostalgia gaming fix lately. Watching the reviews and news really is awesome and give that reminder of how amazing new games coming out used to be back then. Can't beat a good nostalgia trip! :) Great to have magazines like this for a nice blast from the past.
I remember drooling over the videogames in the JcPenny Christmas catalog. One year I begged the hell out of my parents for Sonic & Knuckles and got it!
I remember wanting a Sega genesis for Christmas which came with Sonic & Knuckles in the early 90's which I was ecstatic when I got both of them which I played religiously.
I'd love to see more videos like this; looking back at the old game mags and buyer's guides. I think I still have one or two around from around '93-'94. It's fun to go back and see how different things were back then--seeing how we speculated about games and things that we thought would be awesome but are now almost forgotten.
Always love the video game stories. You know looking through magazines like that make me wish I could of held on to any of my old video game magazines that I bought at the drug store back in the day.
Johnny! You should do a "12 Days of Christmas" (or something) and read the '91 EGM VGBG, then the other ones that followed. I know the 1990 was special to you, but I'm sure you can go back to the other years, or just read the other ones. :)
I have a good memory of my first time getting a video game system. It was 1994 Christmas me and my mom just moved back to Chicago from Cincinnati about a year or so before we were living in a residential hotel at the time just moved there from a shelter. That Christmas changed my life forever. I got a brand new Super Nintendo Entertainment System with Donkey Kong Country bundled with the system. That Christmas changed my life forever and I was introduced to video games. I still fondly remember that Christmas and I will love it but it wasn't the biggest Christmas I had. One Christmas a few years later I not only got a Nintendo 64 with Banjo and Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing but I also got a brand new Nintendo Game Boy Pocket with Donkey Kong Land 3 and Ducktales 2. That is my favorite Christmas of all time.
I love going back and looking at magazines!! My favorite one is the ducktales nintendo power issue. It was my first video game magazine! And the funny thing is I bought it at a garage sale for 10 cents like 6 months after it was released!
Aww man old vidja mags make so incredibly nostalgic. Mags these days are just reviews, previews, and interviews. Game mags used to be so much more, and they even had a good sense of humor. Good times.
I remember reading a 1991 Christmas Sears catalog and obsessing over pics of Super Mario World and Sonic The Hedgehog. The early days of the 16-bit wars. Great video, how the industry has changed.
Oh man, this episode brings back lots of memories for me as well! On another note, I'm surprised you haven't done a video on Xenoblade Chronicles X yet.
Speaking of endings, I just did 100% of New SUper Luidi U, all big coins, and all it did was say "Congratulations you got al the big coins" and I am standing there.
To this day, I still go through WishBookWeb's Flickr archive of various scans of Christmas catalogs. Especially the Sears Wishbook and JC Penney ones. Still finding so many games I wish I had (on top of toys like those kickass slot racer tracks). These things were such a part of my childhood, and now I have friends asking me to find scans of various Toys-R-Us Christmas catalogs to relive their childhood memories of the Holidays. Sometimes nostalgia can be a wonderful thing.
the hot steam from a shower works well to eliminate the smell of cigarettes ,i used to do it once and a while also .1991 was alot of fun, thanks for another great episode!!!
There's a beta Super Mario World screenshot in that magazine too. The giant bullet bill is a different sprite and doesn't have his mouth. They even still call it Super Mario Bros 4! I wish I had all my old EGM's/Gamepro's/Nintendo Powers/etc too. I still have some. And remember those old old Kodak/Game Players NES VHS tip videos?
Great memories! That was back when EGM were kings and their opinion was the gospel as far as we were concerned. Oh, the heady days that would come from then on.! The 16-bit generation was so exciting. Great times:)
hehe that was kinda funny man, had similar memories from when I was a kid. thx for sharing with us. videos like this are the reason your my fav gaming channel! you are authentic and passionate, not like some sell outs that are out there. keep it up!!
I got Ys Book I&II at Christmas too but the Wii's VC-version (2008, I was.. 15 years old I think). After all the new games I got that one retro-download was the most enchanting gaming experience of that whole year, it blew me away right from the start. 18 years after its release.
I remember having this issue and being a huge sega fan boy, I remember bragging to all m friends the grades the Genesis got. I remember in and around that time getting Srider, Super Monaco GP and Thunder Force III.
First game to really grab my attention back in the day was "Moonwalker" on the Genesis/Mega Drive. No surprise I'm sure (hover my name) but the music and graphics back then amazed the shit out of me, around the same age as yourself Johnny.
It's weird looking at that stuff. I was 6 years old in 1990, so about 10 years younger than you. I had an NES, but the SNES came out when I was starting to get old enough to enjoy games. I didn't really get heavily into games, and buying magazines till I was in my teens, and by then it was N64. So much nostalgia.
I loved the revenge of shinobi ending after all of the struggle of battling through the levels you finally get to save your girlfriend or have vengance right in front of you if didn't beat Neo Zeed in time it was an epic conclusion !
I have that issue as well. I was wanting the Turbo Duo console with Y's 1&2 as a pack in game for my 8th grade graduation and had to beg my parents for one.
The best games for me that came out in 1990 was Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior II! Lol look at the low scores they gave the Gameboy! I'm not a handheld person so I agree with them but it went on to sell so many units. That's kind of funny. Christmas 1990 was awesome for me as well, it was my senior year in high school and it felt like the last one to really enjoy as still being a kid. I was looking forward to Dragon Warrior II and I got it, I was so stoked I played it for hours before the end of the year already. Lol I probably made it through half the game by the time it was time to go back to school. I can remember being excited back then as well for the SNES and all the things to look forward too the next year. 1991 was a great year in gaming too. If I had to pick my 5 favorite years in a row for gaming it would be 87-92. 1990 smack dab in the middle of those kick ass years. Loved em.
Funny thing is that back then at that point I was 7 and still didn't have the NES. I was rocking that Master System baby!! I think I got the NES the following year Christmas of 1991.
EGM always put this "Best of" issue at the end of each year. I was highly upset when they stopped publishing it since this was the most anticipated issue of the year. It was a buyers guide/game award all in one....Wow you definitely brought back memories. I Remember the 1st time EGM did this, I believe it was 1987. Best graphics in a game was actually Phantasy Star in all its 4mb glory. Ironic isn't it lol.
I'm not surprised to see Natsume listed there. Nowadays, we mostly think of "Harvest Moon" (which they're only the publisher of in the west) when we think of them, but they had already made many great games for the NES and SNES by the time the first HM dropped on the tail end of 1996. We just don't think of them very much because many of their greatest titles (like "Shatterhand" and "Shadow of the Ninja") were published under other labels and others (like "Chojin Sentai Jetman", a game that uses the "Shatterhand" engine) were never released outside of Japan.
two memories for me that stick out, are the year mega cd got released, and I had thunderhawk, road avenger, and I saved up for weeks to pay for fight fight cd, awesome. another time few years later I got illusion of gaia + breath of fire for Christmas, breath of fire was very very good, massive rpg.
Child wakes up Christmas morning, opens his gifts. Does not get Y's Books 1 and 2. Cries as he walks to the bathroom and locks the, while lighting up a cigarette.
![Quando Rondo - Life Goes On [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eIf3fhMXAow/mqdefault.jpg)
Ed Semrad was actually a pen name Andrew Baran used to write reviews under for EGM. He passed away back in July of 2009 from cancer. I miss the magazines of those times and before.
These are the best episodes! I was a child of the 90s and would love to sift through my EGM and GamePro magazines. I remember being especially hyped for promotion on metal gear, resident evil, devil may cry and the list goes on.
and awesome Christmas tree!
Johnny you've got the best Christmas episodes on RUclips
This was really good , ate my breakfast while watching this.
You should definitely make more Christmas videos.
+Intimidation That's exactly what I did lol
ShyBoy6ty9 Absolutely! I love eating and watching videos lol
+Intimidation what did you have for breakfast??!
Scrambled eggs with melted mozzarella cheese on Italian bread.
Intimidation Not bad!
I still have that magazine too!! (I'm 39). I saved a lot of gaming magazines from that time...great memories!
i really like these episodes. im still very into games as years ago. i was born in 1984, so happy to been born in the 80s. and have seen the 90s too.
Wow, when you showed that magazine, it really flashed my memory!
Great episode!!!! I got Castlevania III and Super Mario III for Christmas that year! My older brother got Little Nemo: The Dream Master. All awesome games! In 1991, I got the Sega Genesis, with Sonic the Hedgehog packaged in. My older brother got Phantasy Star II. GREAT memories!
I have so much nostalgia for EGM; getting a new EGM in the mail was just as exciting as getting a new game back then.
Loved this video, such a throwback to my childhood as well
I have that mag! Loved the game of the year awards. Glad they had a crap ton of different categories instead of just all-around Game of the Year. Fun to read.
I have a mag like that..., but for the year 2000, EGM'S buyer's guide, i still like to read it, it takes me back to a different era.
great video! I wish I still had my old gaming mags. Would love to thumb through them and reminisce..
hahah It was just cigs I smoked! Not pot! not there's anything wrong with that!
nice video, always love the bgm as well.
+HappyConsoleGamer lol i've always suspected when you talk about your 'smoking' that you liked to dabble in a little greenery :P
Chazza534
I don't see why its such a big deal honestly.
Pot is a plant, and when lit on fire produces an effect that gets people high.
That's the truth, and yet the government cracks down on it like a psychopath in a video game...
Much like shrooms...
+ultris07 haha i didn't say it was a problem at all, i actually smoke it myself from time to time :)
+Chazza534 XD I was just saying the US government is overreacting. personally, I don't smoke, and generally don't care if people do or do not partake in the smoking of green herbs.
I Love this episode man, Gold! ,and also that Christmas tree is badass
YES !! Dude I remember I was around 9 or 10 and I has this EGM magazine that I packed around and I would ambush my mom while she was cooking dinner and kept showing her the pictures and world map screenshot of Super Mario World and telling her how awesome the graphics looked. The closer Christmas got the more I showed her hoping to embed it in her brain that Santa HAD to bring me a Super Nintendo. Those graphics were the be all end all, graphics would NEVER get any better than that I thought at the time.
Needless to say I got the SNES that Christmas morning, I remember spotting that long rectangular box under the tree and went straight for it but my parents made me open all the other gifts first and I was forced to save the big box for last. I can still remember the sound that the styrofoam made as I slid the contents of the box out and smell of the plastic bags that held the SNES goodness.
Holy Fuck, such great memories man. Thank you soooo much for this video giving me such an awesome trip down memory lane.
I used to go to the library just to read magazines like that and Nintendo Power. Best part was that these mags were brand new. My library was awesome haha
I love hearing about your nostalgia stories keep it up! I used to love reading video game magazines, I don't buy them anymore, but I kept most of the ones I bought and I'm getting that feeling to check them out.
loved watching and reading about upcoming games in magazines. back then this was all we had before the days of the internet. :)
I've been watching all the old GamesMaster episodes to get my nostalgia gaming fix lately. Watching the reviews and news really is awesome and give that reminder of how amazing new games coming out used to be back then. Can't beat a good nostalgia trip! :) Great to have magazines like this for a nice blast from the past.
I love these personal memory videos. They really set your channel out, a joy to watch as always!
Apparently EGM is still around, I'm happy to hear that, it's one of the last remaining old school gaming magazines.
I remember drooling over the videogames in the JcPenny Christmas catalog. One year I begged the hell out of my parents for Sonic & Knuckles and got it!
I remember wanting a Sega genesis for Christmas which came with Sonic & Knuckles in the early 90's which I was ecstatic when I got both of them which I played religiously.
it's my birthday today and your video just pop up in a nick of time and it is great video
Happy birthday!
+ExperimentalPhantom Happy birthday!
Rebekkah Grant thank you :)
Crogomu thank you :)
+ExperimentalPhantom Happy Birthday!
I love the way you talk about your memories. It's always great to hear someone passionate about old games.
Great video, so nostalgic!
I'd love to see more videos like this; looking back at the old game mags and buyer's guides. I think I still have one or two around from around '93-'94. It's fun to go back and see how different things were back then--seeing how we speculated about games and things that we thought would be awesome but are now almost forgotten.
Miss EGM's yearly buyers guide. Hell EGM's issue dedicated to dreamcast made me want one the Christmas year it came out,which I did receive :)
wow thanks for sharing this memory :D In 1990, I was 3 years old hahaha
I love when you talk about your 90's memories.
Seeing a Christmas related video with you makes me excited to watch the special with you and Rob-man! Can't wait!
NostalgicConsoleGamer...
Always love the video game stories. You know looking through magazines like that make me wish I could of held on to any of my old video game magazines that I bought at the drug store back in the day.
Johnny! You should do a "12 Days of Christmas" (or something) and read the '91 EGM VGBG, then the other ones that followed. I know the 1990 was special to you, but I'm sure you can go back to the other years, or just read the other ones. :)
awesome video hcg loved watching that. makes me want to buy some old magazines to go through. u should do more videos like this.
the 1992 and 1993 versions of that guide are scanned on retromags but I don't have the 1991!
I have a good memory of my first time getting a video game system. It was 1994 Christmas me and my mom just moved back to Chicago from Cincinnati about a year or so before we were living in a residential hotel at the time just moved there from a shelter. That Christmas changed my life forever. I got a brand new Super Nintendo Entertainment System with Donkey Kong Country bundled with the system. That Christmas changed my life forever and I was introduced to video games. I still fondly remember that Christmas and I will love it but it wasn't the biggest Christmas I had. One Christmas a few years later I not only got a Nintendo 64 with Banjo and Kazooie and Diddy Kong Racing but I also got a brand new Nintendo Game Boy Pocket with Donkey Kong Land 3 and Ducktales 2. That is my favorite Christmas of all time.
damn, all that rareware goodness
+markasscop Arev Yeah that's my favorite memory of my Christmas during my childhood 😄.
Wow great video! You really had me glued to my screen the whole duration!
I bet that EGM Magazine smells like Pert Plus and Cigarettes lol!! Great vid man, I love reading my old Game Fan mags.
I love how cozy your videos are
Loved this video. Great stuff man.
This was a great video!! I loved the buyers guides
Always great to look through these old mags for sure ;)
man strider was my favorite genesis game, It was so freaking fun..I never did beat it tho
Seeing that gorilla tech made me nostalgia jizz everywhere
Awesome trip down memory lane... Thanks!
What a great video! Nothing better than Christmas memories..ahhh...
Great episode. Totally made me remember how much I wanted a turbo cd and Ys 1 + 2 that Christmas.
I've still got some gaming magazines for the 90s, I should dig those up again and flip through them!
Love those magazines from late 80's early 90's, like C+VG,EGM,Game Pro, Mean Machines etc. So many memories from that time as a teenager :)
I love going back and looking at magazines!! My favorite one is the ducktales nintendo power issue. It was my first video game magazine! And the funny thing is I bought it at a garage sale for 10 cents like 6 months after it was released!
Aww man old vidja mags make so incredibly nostalgic. Mags these days are just reviews, previews, and interviews. Game mags used to be so much more, and they even had a good sense of humor. Good times.
I remember reading a 1991 Christmas Sears catalog and obsessing over pics of Super Mario World and Sonic The Hedgehog. The early days of the 16-bit wars. Great video, how the industry has changed.
Oh man, this episode brings back lots of memories for me as well!
On another note, I'm surprised you haven't done a video on Xenoblade Chronicles X yet.
I never had a game genie , I used to borrow one for weekends , great fucking weekends!!!
back in the day cheat software was very dominant
90s FOR LIFE
Speaking of endings, I just did 100% of New SUper Luidi U, all big coins, and all it did was say "Congratulations you got al the big coins" and I am standing there.
😂
To this day, I still go through WishBookWeb's Flickr archive of various scans of Christmas catalogs. Especially the Sears Wishbook and JC Penney ones. Still finding so many games I wish I had (on top of toys like those kickass slot racer tracks). These things were such a part of my childhood, and now I have friends asking me to find scans of various Toys-R-Us Christmas catalogs to relive their childhood memories of the Holidays.
Sometimes nostalgia can be a wonderful thing.
You should make this a regular recurring video theme. Looking through old magazines like this is really fun.
Great episode Johnny! Do make more of these!
the hot steam from a shower works well to eliminate the smell of cigarettes ,i used to do it once and a while also .1991 was alot of fun, thanks for another great episode!!!
There's a beta Super Mario World screenshot in that magazine too. The giant bullet bill is a different sprite and doesn't have his mouth. They even still call it Super Mario Bros 4!
I wish I had all my old EGM's/Gamepro's/Nintendo Powers/etc too. I still have some. And remember those old old Kodak/Game Players NES VHS tip videos?
I spent a lot of time with my dad playing Super Monaco GP, good memories of that game.
Great memories! That was back when EGM were kings and their opinion was the gospel as far as we were concerned. Oh, the heady days that would come from then on.! The 16-bit generation was so exciting. Great times:)
hehe that was kinda funny man, had similar memories from when I was a kid. thx for sharing with us.
videos like this are the reason your my fav gaming channel! you are authentic and passionate, not like some sell outs that are out there.
keep it up!!
I live in Winnipeg, we had "Consumer Distributors" also, it be cool if you showed off the old catalogs
Its funny, i also did the "magazine cutout thing" too. lol Nice vid!
I got my NES on the 1990's Christmas. It was the best Christmas morning of my life.
So I guess I know how you felt.
I got Ys Book I&II at Christmas too but the Wii's VC-version (2008, I was.. 15 years old I think). After all the new games I got that one retro-download was the most enchanting gaming experience of that whole year, it blew me away right from the start. 18 years after its release.
I remember having this issue and being a huge sega fan boy, I remember bragging to all m friends the grades the Genesis got. I remember in and around that time getting Srider, Super Monaco GP and Thunder Force III.
First game to really grab my attention back in the day was "Moonwalker" on the Genesis/Mega Drive. No surprise I'm sure (hover my name) but the music and graphics back then amazed the shit out of me, around the same age as yourself Johnny.
Hell cool stuff. All these things are still cool now a days.
It's weird looking at that stuff. I was 6 years old in 1990, so about 10 years younger than you. I had an NES, but the SNES came out when I was starting to get old enough to enjoy games. I didn't really get heavily into games, and buying magazines till I was in my teens, and by then it was N64. So much nostalgia.
Love your stories dude! Keep it up.
I loved the revenge of shinobi ending after all of the struggle of battling through the levels you finally get to save your girlfriend or have vengance right in front of you if didn't beat Neo Zeed in time it was an epic conclusion !
I loved my Gameboy as a kid, but have to admit being blown away by a demo of Blue Lightning at my local video game store.
Woah Johny, i was born two months after your 1990 xmas :P
You. Are the best. You literally make my life better.
I'm pretty sure I read that issue every time I was on the toilet that year. You should do more episodes where you leaf through magazines.
I remember reading that magazine. But I was only like maybe 8 years old. Those were the days.
I have that issue as well. I was wanting the Turbo Duo console with Y's 1&2 as a pack in game for my 8th grade graduation and had to beg my parents for one.
Everytime I hear someone even say the words "Splatterhouse" I feel so good. It's so underrated...
The best games for me that came out in 1990 was Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior II! Lol look at the low scores they gave the Gameboy! I'm not a handheld person so I agree with them but it went on to sell so many units. That's kind of funny. Christmas 1990 was awesome for me as well, it was my senior year in high school and it felt like the last one to really enjoy as still being a kid. I was looking forward to Dragon Warrior II and I got it, I was so stoked I played it for hours before the end of the year already. Lol I probably made it through half the game by the time it was time to go back to school. I can remember being excited back then as well for the SNES and all the things to look forward too the next year. 1991 was a great year in gaming too. If I had to pick my 5 favorite years in a row for gaming it would be 87-92. 1990 smack dab in the middle of those kick ass years. Loved em.
cigarettes... right....lol great vid! Love how ur so candid!
This is a great video.
Funny thing is that back then at that point I was 7 and still didn't have the NES. I was rocking that Master System baby!! I think I got the NES the following year Christmas of 1991.
One of the few moments you wished you were born earlier so you could experience these great gaming moments :'( ;)
my favorite episode in recent memory
EGM always put this "Best of" issue at the end of each year. I was highly upset when they stopped publishing it since this was the most anticipated issue of the year. It was a buyers guide/game award all in one....Wow you definitely brought back memories. I Remember the 1st time EGM did this, I believe it was 1987. Best graphics in a game was actually Phantasy Star in all its 4mb glory. Ironic isn't it lol.
I was 16 as well. We had some good games back then
You should do a video like this but for that thick Sears Wish Book
"ed" was Ed Semrad. EIC of EGM for a very long time. Big guy in the world of video games journalism. A pioneer.
I'm not surprised to see Natsume listed there.
Nowadays, we mostly think of "Harvest Moon" (which they're only the publisher of in the west) when we think of them, but they had already made many great games for the NES and SNES by the time the first HM dropped on the tail end of 1996. We just don't think of them very much because many of their greatest titles (like "Shatterhand" and "Shadow of the Ninja") were published under other labels and others (like "Chojin Sentai Jetman", a game that uses the "Shatterhand" engine) were never released outside of Japan.
I love those memories videos!
I bought every EGM mag from that era, never missed one, my favorite. I always agreed with Sushi-X reviewer, remember his reviews?
two memories for me that stick out, are the year mega cd got released, and I had thunderhawk, road avenger, and I saved up for weeks to pay for fight fight cd, awesome. another time few years later I got illusion of gaia + breath of fire for Christmas, breath of fire was very very good, massive rpg.
Thumbs up if you played the hell out of Dragon Spirit on NES like me :D
+AllwaysRight1 Are you from earth?
The year before I was born!!! :)
LOL> I had that same magazine. It's so weird how covers stick with you, I guess reading the same magazine like 50x over and over helps.
Child wakes up Christmas morning, opens his gifts. Does not get Y's Books 1 and 2. Cries as he walks to the bathroom and locks the, while lighting up a cigarette.
makes some of us feel old :P