Before the internet, gamers turned to magazine stands to learn more about their favorite titles. Now the world wide web has made it possible for you to own those retro publications again. The Video Game History Foundation is working to preserve vintage video game magazines with a subscription service that puts certified copies in your hands.
Video Game History Foundation
The “Blind Box” Vintage Video Game Magazines subscription service (which we first learned about thanks to Digital Eclipse editor Chris Kohler) is offering a way for gamers to get their hands on original publications. All while helping to ensure even more old issues survive. Here’s how it works according to the foundation:
“In our attempt to build a complete set of video game magazines in our research library, we’ve accumulated a few duplicates. Since these are no longer needed, we’ve decided to deaccession them and offer them up for sale to the general public, while supplies last.”
Video Game History Foundation
You can make a single purchase for $20. That gets you one “randomly selected” magazine produced anywhere from 1981 to 2010. (And they are truly random. You can’t request a specific magazine or year.) Each copy comes in a protective mylar bag with an acid-free board. All issues also include a certificate of authenticity. Or you can save 25% and join their subscription service. You’ll keep getting vintage issues every month for $15 until they run out of them.
Your purchase will also fund their operating costs. “Every cent of these sales goes directly toward expanding and maintaining” the foundation’s library of video game books and magazines. They also have plan to turn the collection “into a public resource.”
Did you know that most of the proceeds from our mystery box vintage magazines gets funneled right back into video game magazine preservation?
— Video Game History Foundation (@GameHistoryOrg) June 16, 2021
Not only are you getting cool old magazines in the mail, you've also paid off the @Retromags operating costs for the rest of 2021! pic.twitter.com/UQAGWFvk8g
The organization’s supporters have already covered VGHF’s expenses for the rest of the year, making this our new favorite way that the internet has helped us learn more about our favorite former titles. Reading about them in a magazine was always more fun.