I haven't really kept up with CGW in many years.. And it seems November 2006 will be its last issue before being renamed as 'Games for Windows: The Official Magazine' (bleh)
On August 2, 2006, Ziff Davis Media issued a press release detailing their plans to halt circulation of Computer Gaming World. As part of a joint-venture project with Microsoft, Ziff Davis will launch a new magazine dubbed Games for Windows: The Official Magazine in Fall of 2006. The new magazine will replace CGW as part of Microsoft's Game's for Windows initiative and will also feature an online components targeted towards the magazines readership. In their press release, Ziff Davis indicated that much of Computer Gaming Worlds's core content and staff will be transferred to the new magazine. Because of these announcements, Ziff Davis's actions appear more on the order of a rebranding of CGW, rather than an actual cancellation. It remains to be seen whether this strategic marketing alliance will prove useful to both parties involved.
Anyway.. Not sure how the content has been lately but back in the early days it was a good read. You can now download the first 100 issues in PDF format beginning with the first issue from Nov-Dec 1981. If you weren't areound back in those days (and that was almost a bit before my time) this is a good place to learn about the history of computer games. Or if you were it should be nice for some good ole nostalgia.
Nice. Every issue of Dragon magazine is constantly posted to the newsgroups but you never see old (years old) computer magazines posted there typically.
Scrolling through that link, I can remember several of those early covers : )
Hope you got them while you could.. FileFront going bye-bye March 30th.. Link no longer works. Well, it works just doesn't get you to where you wanted to go.
Online file sharing portal FileFront is to be closed by current owner and former 1UP publisher Ziff Davis, it has been confirmed.
A message posted up on the site reads: “We regret to inform you that due to the current economic conditions we are forced to indefinitely suspend the FileFront site operations on March 30, 2009.
“If you have uploaded files, images or posted blogs, or if you would like to download some of your favourite files, please take this opportunity to download them before March 30th when the site will be suspended.
“We would like to give a warm thank you to all of you who have been part of the FileFront communities we have built together. Your support has had a meaningful impact for all of us here at FileFront. Again, we want to give you a sincere thank you for your support over the years and wish you all the very best.”
FileFront was retained by Ziff Davis following its sale of games website 1UP and monthly magazine EGM. The closure of FileFront leaves the company with just two tech brands – ExtremeTech and PC Magazine.
FileFront has been acquired by the original founders of the site and will NOT be suspended as previously announced. This is NOT an April Fool's Joke.
After learning about Ziff Davis Media's plan to shut down FileFront at the end of March, the original founders of FileFront made the decision to buy it back from Ziff Davis Media.
We're happy to announce to the gaming community that as of today, April 1st, 2009, FileFront is a completely independent company again and is no longer part of Ziff Davis Media. All previously suspended services should be active and working again. We thank Ziff Davis Media for their cooperation and willingness to keep the site and community alive.
Due to the very unfortunate timing of this event and related announcements on March 24th and April 1st (April Fool's Day), we'd like to make it perfectly clear that:
1) The March 24th announcement about FileFront shutting down was NOT an early April Fool's joke and Ziff Davis Media had every intention of shutting down FileFront by the end of March.
2) This announcement about the original founders buying back FileFront from Ziff Davis Media is also NOT an April Fool's joke.
3) We're making this announcement on April 1st because the deal was completed today and we want to bring all services back online immediately.
4) We would NEVER shut down FileFront as an April Fool's joke.
5) We are happy to be back!
FileFront has existed in one form or another (originally as FileLeech and Voodoo Extreme's downloads) since 1997. In the last 12 years, FileFront has become the gaming community's most comprehensive and trafficked library hosting millions of files for thousands of games while requiring no registration and providing uncapped download speeds. We look forward to improving FileFront and serving the gaming community for years to come.
5 July 2012 COMPLETE!
Well, after almost exactly a year and a half and 33,544 additional scanned pages, the CGW scanning project is now complete. Every single issue of the magazine's 25 year run is available online, from #1.1 in November 1981 to #268 in November 2006. The total, including the two issues of Computer Game Forum: 40,982 pages!
