Mean Machines was the magazine EMAP launched in October 1990 for British console owners. Its first editorial set out what it was for: “Yep, it’s consoles all the way — you won’t find anything about computers in these pages!” It covered Sega’s and Nintendo’s machines, from the Master System and the NES to the Mega Drive, the Game Boy and the Super Famicom, and within a year it said it was selling more than 50,000 copies a month. After two years and 24 issues EMAP split it in two.
How it started
The magazine told its own origin story in December 1991. In July 1990 three people met at the Studio Cafe in Farringdon to plan a new title: Julian Rignall, then editor of Computer and Video Games, the artist Gary Harrod, and EMAP’s publisher Graham Taylor. To persuade EMAP to pay for it, Rignall and Harrod spent weeks making a dummy “Issue 0” to show what the magazine would look like. EMAP approved it. The plan had included the PC Engine and Amstrad’s GX4000 console, but “we simply didn’t have enough room to cover everything”, and they were dropped, “making MEAN MACHINES a Sega and Nintendo only mag”. The first issue still listed the GX4000 among the machines covered, adding that it had nothing about it yet because no games were available.
Issue 1
Issue 1, dated October 1990, cost £1.75. Rignall was editor, Osmond “Oz” Browne art editor, Matthew Regan staff writer and Gary Harrod illustrator, working from EMAP’s offices at Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, in London. The team profile described Rignall as a former UK arcade champion and captain of the UK Video Game Team.
The welcome page promised that every review and preview would run to at least two pages, with “loads of glorious, full-colour screen shots”, and comments “from both reviewers so that you get two opinions for the price of one”. Five pages of news from Britain, Japan and America, charts of the best-selling console games, a tips section and a telephone tips helpline filled out the issue.
It sold. An advertisement aimed at advertisers in September 1991 offered them “an audited and guaranteed sales figure of over 50,000 monthly”, citing an Audit Bureau of Circulations figure of 50,098 for January to June 1991.
The split
The September 1992 issue, number 24, carried the announcement: “The greatest consoles magazine in the world is splitting up!” The editorial explained:
“MEAN MACHINES is dead! Long live MEAN MACHINES! What do I mean by this? Well, as from next issue, MEAN MACHINES is changing. There will no longer be just one issue of MEAN MACHINES on the news stands, but two! One version for Nintendo owners, and one for Sega owners!”
Nintendo Magazine System would cover the Super NES, NES and Game Boy; Mean Machines Sega the Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear. Each would have “just as many pages as a regular MEAN MACHINES mag”. Rignall was still editor on that final masthead, with Richard Leadbetter as deputy editor.
Both new titles appeared in October 1992. Sinclair User reported a “real fight” at “EMAP Towers” between Gary Harrod, art editor of Nintendo Magazine System, and Oz Browne on Mean Machines Sega, each claiming his magazine would be the best in the world. Leadbetter went on to edit Mean Machines Sega, his first editorship. He said goodbye to it in March 1997 as editor of Sega Saturn Magazine: that month saw the last issue of Mean Machines Sega, and its team merged into his.
Sources
- Mean Machines issue 1, October 1990: cover (£1.75); p. 8, “Let’s Go!!!” editorial, masthead and “Who’s Who?”.
- Mean Machines issue 12, September 1991: advertisement for advertisers, with the ABC figure for January to June 1991.
- Mean Machines issue 15, December 1991, p. 84: the magazine’s history, the Studio Cafe meeting, Issue 0, and dropping the PC Engine and GX4000.
- Mean Machines issue 24, September 1992: p. 6, masthead; p. 7, editorial “Something wonderful is about to happen…”; the house advertisement for the split.
- Nintendo Magazine System issue 1, October 1992.
- Sinclair User issue 129, November 1992: news of the launch of Nintendo Magazine System and Mean Machines Sega.
- Sega Saturn Magazine issue 17, March 1997: editorial by Richard Leadbetter on the last issue of Mean Machines Sega.