
Update []:
My Life in Gaming and Game Sack's Electronic Gaming Monthly documentary, Pixels to Pages - The Story of Electronic Gaming Monthly, is now available to watch online for free.
The 1-hour 16-minute-long documentary was released yesterday, across both My Life in Gaming and Game Sack's YouTube channels, and features interviews with former Electronic Gaming Monthly Editor-In-Chief Ed Semrad, the late EGM editor Martin Alessi, and the one-time managing editor Ken Williams, among others who were involved in the creation of the landmark magazine.
Frank Cifaldi from the Video Game History Foundation also makes an appearance, too, giving some valuable context about what made EGM stand out from other video game publications of the time.
Some of the major topics discussed in the documentary include how EGM was originally started and its early association with the U.S. National Video Game Team, how Ed took the best video game screenshots at events (often leading to the magazine containing images of games that never saw the light of day), and its approach to reviews (including the origins and identity of the Review Crew's Sushi-X). If you're interested, you can watch the documentary below:
Original Story: Founded back in 1988, Electronic Gaming Monthly (or 'EGM' to its friends) was one of the world's most famous video game magazines.
From its first full issue in 1989 to its closure in 2014, EGM covered all of the important events in the world of video gaming, charting the NES's dominance to the arrival of 16-bit successors and the 32-bit wave that pushed the industry forward in the 1990s.
By the time issue 264 arrived on shelves in 2014, the magazine had seen consoles such as the PS2, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and Wii come and go. An internet-only relaunch took place in 2019, but at the time of writing, the last article posted on EGMNow.com is from the start of last year.
While EGM is no longer in active production either as a physical magazine or a website, it remains a beloved part of video game history for many people – as was evidenced by the 2024 Kickstarter for The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium, a retrospective book which will celebrate EGM's legacy.
It turns out that's not the only celebration we're going to be getting – the host of retro YouTube channel Game Sack has announced that he is directing and editing a documentary on the magazine in collaboration with fellow channel, My Life In Gaming.
Game Sack's Joe Redifer has confirmed that the production will not be funded through a crowdfunding drive. There's also no release date in place, but he says it will hopefully be "soon."