Off the Rack

Electronic Games - Nov. '83 - Porn Not Included

Back when we were teens, my best friend and I used to sneak into my big brother's room when he wasn't around and rummage though his smutty magazines, mostly Playboy and Penthouse because those were considered classy (he even had the one with Vanessa Williams)! Of course being the crafty kids that we were, we knew we had to somehow disguise our fap-mags in case my mother happened to wake up from her out-of-sight-out-of-mindedness and stopped to ask us what nefarious schemes we were up to. The easiest trick, of course and known to all kids everywhere, was to slip another, more benign magazine's cover over the skin-rags thereby camouflaging them from prying judgemental eyes. There were quite a few varieties around to choose from as magazines were plentiful and still roamed the land in great herds - you see it was the 80s and there was nothing else to do but read by candlelight or play Trivial Pursuit. But just any old magazine wouldn't do since something like People or Newsweek was still likely to be picked up by an unsuspecting adult for his or her personal perusal, at which point, the proverbial jig would be up and we'd be sent to Catholic school as punishment. Luckily, I had one magazine on hand that always drove grown-ups away en masse and caused panic-sweats in the technologically shy. The magazine was called Electronic Games (not to be confused with the later publication, Electronic Gaming Monthly) and it was the perfect prop for our playmate purposes. It was an easy matter to pop the binding and slip that cover with some dork playing Space Invaders over the image of whatever scantily clad young lady that was being featured in that month's Playboy and thus grant us safety from any inquiring elders. We used this little trick for years and eventually, the name "Electronic Games" became synonymous to me and my friends with bare naked ladies sporting staples across their bellies. Ah, the salad days. Years later karma would get the best of me when I'd discovered that my mother had recklessly thrown away my entire collection of tech mags, which I was quite fond of. I'm still bummed about that.

Electronic Games magazine was created in 1981 by the publishers of Video Magazine, Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz, just when the first video game boom was beginning the America. As the first monthly periodical to feature video and computer games as its central topic, Electronic Games quickly became the de facto standard for stats, reviews and exclusive announcements until the end of its run in 1994. Thankfully, the wonderful and increasingly-relevant Internet Archive now hosts nearly the entire collection of issues and has made it available to anyone who'd like to relive the early years of video game publications. Want to find out which home gaming platform had the best version of Pole Position, Joust or Mr.Do? Well then put your time-travel helmet on and click the link…

CLICK HERE TO READ ELECTRONIC GAMES ON THE INTERNET ARCHIVE