Mean Machines
EMAP's console magazine, when consoles arrived
EMAP's console monthly ran from October 1990 to September 1992, covering the Mega Drive and Super Famicom era for a British readership that had spent the decade on home computers.
Mean Machines ran from October 1990 to September 1992, published by EMAP — the same house as Computer and Video Games, Sinclair User and CU Amiga.
Its subscription coupons route cheques to EMAP plc, PO Box 300, Peterborough — a different address from the Clerkenwell one the eighties titles used, and a reminder that by 1990 EMAP was a public company running magazines from more than one place.
The timing is the point
Mean Machines launched in October 1990 into a British market that had spent a decade on home computers. EMAP had covered the Spectrum, the C64 and the Amiga through the eighties; this was the same publisher deciding that consoles now needed a magazine of their own.
It is also — inevitably by now — an October launch, which eleven of thirty-nine British computer titles of the period share.
⚠ The run held here ends in September 1992. That is the extent of this library’s holding and not necessarily the magazine’s end; Mean Machines continued in successor titles beyond what is held.
See also
- EMAP — the publisher
- Computer and Video Games — the EMAP stablemate that covered consoles too
- Magazine distribution — the October pattern