Computer Gaming World began as a magazine for people who played wargames on their computers. Its first issue, dated November-December 1981 and priced $2.75, led with “The Future of Computer Wargaming”, reviewed SSI’s submarine game Torpedo Fire and ran a tournament for Robotwar, in which players programmed battling robots. It was put together in Anaheim, California, by Russell Sipe, who wrote in his first editorial that people had told him a magazine on computer gaming was “OVERDUE”. Twenty-five years later it was the leading American magazine about PC games, owned by the publisher of PC Magazine, and it ended by becoming Microsoft’s official Windows games magazine.
Fast facts
- Founder: Russell Sipe, editor from 1981, then editor-in-chief and publisher.
- Publisher: Golden Empire Publications, Anaheim, 1981 to 1993; Ziff-Davis from 1993.
- First issue: Volume 1, Number 1, November-December 1981, $2.75, bi-monthly.
- Frequency: six issues a year at first, nine a year by 1986, monthly from 1988.
- Editors-in-chief: Russell Sipe; Johnny Wilson by 1994; George Jones by 1999; Jeff Green by late 2001.
- Circulation: “25,000 readers”, by the magazine’s own count, in January 1984.
- Renamed: Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, announced in August 2006; the last issues under the old name appeared in late 2006.
A wargamer’s magazine
Sipe wanted CGW to be “a forum for an intelligent dialog between gamers, designers, manufacturers and retailers”. The first issue promised that each issue would “evaluate computer games, give advice on strategy and tactics, announce new products”, and it paid contributors 2 cents a word. Its guidance for reviewers set the tone for what followed: “Try not to spend too much time in describing the fiction or setting of the game (readers can read ad descriptions as well as you)”, and spend “the bulk of your time evaluating the strong and weak points of the game”. The issue opened with an advertisement from SSI for two new games “for the Apple and the TRS-80”.
It was a small operation. Suzanne Sipe ran operations, Kirk Robinson was assistant editor, and a subscription cost $11 for six issues. In September 1982 an editor’s note compared CGW’s economics with those of the big computer magazines: “Our circulation is about 100 times smaller”, so its “cost per ‘book’ at 40+ pages is about the same as their cost per ‘book’ at 200+ pages.” By January 1984 it counted 25,000 readers. The magazine was published nine times a year by 1986 and monthly from 1988.
Scorpia and the Hall of Fame
In July 1983 CGW introduced “A New Column…”: a walkthrough of the adventure The Serpent’s Star, “as told by Scorpia”. Scorpia was already known on CompuServe’s games forum, where an article two months earlier had printed her online replies to stuck players. She wrote about adventures and role-playing games for CGW for the next sixteen years, into 1999, in walkthroughs and in reviews under the heading “Scorpia’s View”; in January 1994, for example, she was not persuaded by Activision’s Return to Zork.
In March 1988 the magazine opened the CGW Hall of Fame, “formed to honor those games that over the course of time have proven themselves to be long term top rated games by the readers of CGW”. Readers’ ratings put a game on the list; the staff chose which to induct, and an inducted game was “retired from the current Game Ratings List”. The charter inductees included Ultima III and IV, Wizardry, The Bard’s Tale, Kampfgruppe, M.U.L.E. and Chessmaster 2000. The magazine looked beyond computers too: in November 1988 its video game awards named Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda the best adventure.
Johnny Wilson and Ziff-Davis
Johnny Wilson joined as assistant editor in 1987, was associate editor by January 1989 and editor from 1990, with Sipe as editor-in-chief. In October 1993 the magazine announced that “Ziff-Davis Publishing Company has acquired Computer Gaming World, the number one computer game magazine”. Ziff-Davis already published PC Magazine, PC Week, MacUser and Computer Shopper. The announcement promised that CGW would “maintain its editorial direction, location and staff”, and quoted Ziff-Davis’s president, J. Scott Briggs, calling “publisher Russell Sipe and editor Johnny Wilson” “among the most respected voices within the computer game industry”. By mid-1994 Wilson was editor-in-chief and Sipe publisher. Sipe handed the publisher’s job to Jonathan Lane in 1995, and by 1996 the masthead listed him as the magazine’s founder.
The Ziff Davis years
George Jones was editor-in-chief by May 1999, and Jeff Green by November 2001. Green had come to CGW about 1996 from a job editing modem reviews for a Macintosh magazine. Writing in the 200th issue, in March 2001, he remembered reading “Johnny Wilson. Charles Ardai. Martin Cirulis. Scorpia. Month after month, I read their articles in Computer Gaming World and marveled at their writing”, and thanked the writers and editors “who, over the years, helped give CGW its heart and soul”, beginning with Russell Sipe.
On 2 August 2006 Ziff Davis and Microsoft announced that CGW would be replaced by Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, which would “carry on the editorial, production and art staff of Computer Gaming World”. Wikipedia, a secondary source, counts 268 issues of CGW, the last dated November 2006. The new magazine lasted until April 2008, when Ziff Davis ended the print edition with its April/May issue and moved Jeff Green and three other editors to its website, 1UP.com. The company’s chief executive, Jason Young, said that “PC gamers and marketers have made the online space their home”.
Sources
- Computer Gaming World vol. 1 no. 1, November-December 1981: cover ($2.75), staff list (Editor Russell Sipe, Asst. Editor Kirk Robinson, Operations Suzanne Sipe), statement of publication (bi-monthly, Golden Empire Publications, Anaheim; subscriptions $11 for six issues), contents, “From the Editor…”, “Writing for Computer Gaming World”, SSI advertisement.
- Computer Gaming World issue 6, September 1982: editor’s note on circulation and page count.
- Computer Gaming World issue 10, May 1983: article on CompuServe’s gaming forum, with messages from Scorpia; issue 11, July 1983: “A New Column…”, The Serpent’s Star, “As told by Scorpia”.
- Computer Gaming World issue 14, January 1984: “the circulation of CGW (25,000 readers)”.
- Computer Gaming World issues 25 to 40, 1986-87: “published nine times per year by Golden Empire Publications”; issue 41, November 1987: Asst. Editor Johnny Wilson; issue 46, April 1988: “published monthly”.
- Computer Gaming World issue 45, March 1988: “The CGW Hall of Fame” and the charter inductees.
- Computer Gaming World issue 55, January 1989: Editor-in-Chief Russell Sipe, Associate Editor Johnny Wilson; issue 67, January 1990: Editor Johnny Wilson.
- Computer Gaming World issue 111, October 1993, p. 178: the Ziff-Davis acquisition.
- Computer Gaming World issue 120, July 1994: Publisher Russell Sipe, Editor-in-Chief Johnny Wilson; issue 130, May 1995: Publisher Jonathan Lane; issues of 1996: Russell Sipe listed as founder.
- Computer Gaming World issue 114, January 1994: “Scorpia’s View” (Return to Zork); issue 177, April 1999: Scorpia’s column; issue 178, May 1999: Editor-in-Chief George Jones.
- Computer Gaming World issue 200, March 2001: Jeff Green’s column; issue 208, November 2001: Editor-in-Chief Jeff Green.
- Computer Gaming World 2004 issues: statement of publication naming Ziff Davis Media, Inc.
- Engadget, “Goodbye Computer Gaming World, hello Games for Windows magazine”, 2 August 2006 (web, secondary). https://www.engadget.com/2006-08-02-goodbye-computer-gaming-world-hello-games-for-windows-magazine.html
- Wikipedia, “Computer Gaming World” (web, secondary): 268 issues, the last in November 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Gaming_World
- Shacknews, “Games for Windows Magazine Goes Online-only”, 8 April 2008 (web, secondary): the end of print, Jason Young’s statement, the staff moving to 1UP. https://www.shacknews.com/article/52120/games-for-windows-magazine-goes