Game Players

From Magweasel

Game Players
Editor Tom R. Halfhill, Matthew A. Firme, Leslie Mizell, Mark Higham, Chris Slate
Categories Console/PC games and hardware
Frequency Bimonthly (1989), monthly (1989-96)
First Issue Apr/May 1989
Final Issue
— Number 		September 1996
69 (listed as 88)
Publisher Signal Research (1989-91), GP Publications (1993-95), Imagine Media (1995-96)
Country USA

Game Players (spelled Game Player's until 1991) is the multiplatform magazine in the stable of Signal Research publications that launched in the late 1980s. Along with VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, it was the one of the only magazines at the time to include both PC and console game coverage.

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History

The history of Game Players can be divided into two parts, based on its two separate publishing runs.

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The first era (1989-1991)

Signal Research was founded in 1988 by Robert Lock, the former publisher of COMPUTE!, who set up the outfit in Greensboro, NC, the same town as his old company. After releasing a series of successful Nintendo magazines in 1988, Signal founded Game Players as the flagship of a series of publications and media about all forms of games, including videotapes on soccer training.

The magazine, much like early issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly, was heavily text-oriented with only a few screenshots and other art. This gave it an extremely bland look that was improved upon only slightly in later issues, making it look outdated compared to the competition in 1991. This led to the curious situation of Game Players (the alleged flagship magazine) being outsold by its Nintendo sub-magazine, Game Players Nintendo Guide.

In October 1991, Signal defaulted on a loan from one of its venture-capital investors, thanks to over-optimistic sales expectations, mounting printing costs, and the 1991 recession. The company made a last-ditch attempt to save itself by canceling three titles, but this didn't stave off its creditors, and it was officially foreclosed in February 1992.

This means that the October 1991 issue (which, ironically, is a redesign-launch issue) is the last known edition of the first era of Game Players. A November 1991 issue was almost certainly completed, but it is unknown whether it was actually published. If anyone has it, we'd like to know.

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The second era (1993-1996)

The Game Players multiplatform title was resurrected in 1993 with the merging of Game Players Nintendo Guide and Game Players Sega Guide, the two surviving magazines of Signal Research, which was bought out by its creditors in 1992 and renamed GP Publications.

The two magazines were continued mainly so the creditors could find a buyer for them, and they found it in Chris Anderson, founder of Future Publishing in Britain. Searching for an entry into the US magazine market, Anderson bought GP in 1993, eventually leaving the UK to work at GP full time and moving the outfit to Burlingame, CA.

Under his guidance (which had already began with the Nintendo and Sega mags), Game Players became a far more professional and well-written magazine. Writers like Chris Slate, Jeff Lundrigan, Mike Salmon, and Bill Donohue turned GP into a reader-oriented magazine filled with offbeat and engaging humor -- a very UK-like product in the US marketplace.

The magazine changed names to Ultra Game Players in 1996 in tandem with a large-scale redesign.

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Issue Index

Index of Game Players issues
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Hol
1989 v1n1 v1n2 v1n3 v1n4 v1n5 v1n6
1990 v2n1 v2n2 v2n3 v2n4 v2n5 v2n6 v2n7 v2n8 v2n9 v2n10 v2n11 v2n12
1991 v3n1 v3n2 v3n3 v3n4 v3n5 v3n6 v3n7 v3n8 v3n9 v3n10
1992
1993 v6n6 v6n7 v6n8 v6n9 v6n10 v6n11 v6n12
1994 v7n1 v7n2 v7n3 v7n4 v7n5 v7n6 v7n7 v7n8 v7n9 v7n10 v7n11 v7n12
1995 v8n1 v8n2 v8n3 v8n4 v8n5 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79
1996 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88

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