Game Player's Nintendo Buyer's Guide, Volume 1, Number 1, circa March/April 1989

Item — Location: Game Players

Identifier: MAG-GAMEPLAYERS-NINTENDO.V1N1

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Scope and Contents

From the Series:

The library's physical collection includes every known issue of Game Players in its various forms. Our digital library currently includes all but one digitized issue of the magazine (Game Player's PC Strategy Guide, Volume 3, Number 1, January/February 1990).

From the Series:

Game Players was originally published as the Game Player's Guide, which alternated between covering Nintendo games and MS-DOS PC games. After four issues, it was relaunched as three separate magazines, covering Nintendo, PC, and general gaming, respectively. Several spinoff magazines followed, covering other platforms.

All three editions of Game Player's magazines restarted at Volume 1, Number 1. This has led to confusion about the correct publishing order for these early issues and the running issue count for Game Players as a whole.

Based on our knowledge, this record is our best attempt at the correct publishing order for each iteration of Game Players. The issue titles and numbers have been reproduced as they were originally printed.

From the Series:

This collection also includes two issues of the Game Player's Consumer Electronics Expo show guide, distributed at the event. Six issues are believed to exist, one for each CES held from 1989–1991 when Game Player's was published. The library has digital scans of all six issues.

Dates

Publication: circa March/April 1989

Creator

Signal Research (Publisher, Organization)

Note on Publishing Date

According to an advertisement in Game Player's Guide, Volume 1, Number 4 (p.19), the first issue of Game Player's Nintendo went on sale on March 14, 1989. We estimate that this issue was published during March/April 1989, in line with the bimonthly release schedule that the rest of the Game Players series adopted at this time.

While the first printing of this issue lists a copyright date of 1988 in the masthead with no publishing month or "Display Until" date, the second printing lists a copyright date of 1989; sweepstakes dates in an advertisement (p.9) suggest it was published before April 1989, corroborating the March/April 1989 publishing window.

Historical Note

This is the first issue of the relaunched Nintendo edition of Game Player's. The magazine's numbering restarted with this issue. As a result, two separate Nintendo editions of Game Player's are labeled Volume 1, Number 1, which has led to confusion between the two issues.

This issue was re-printed under the name "Game Player's Buyer's Guide to Nintendo Games."