Any other fans of "Games" Magazine?

Cafe Society
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Mods: I wasn’t sure whether to put this in CS or The Game Room, but since I’m focusing on the actual magazine contents, I’ll start it out here. My apologies if I guessed wrong!

As a fourteen-year-old back in 1981, I was hanging out in a drugstore/luncheonette when I first spotted Games, a puzzle magazine that seemed … different. I was already a big word puzzle fan and had purchased many magazines devoted to them, but this one was a whole 'nother story. Rather being a mere venue for the puzzles themselves, this one offered articles and features about puzzles and games. The writing was sharp and funny, and the puzzles clever and subversive.

The kicker came when my eye caught a strange notation at the bottom of each page (near the page number) – just a single letter – that I didn’t understand. Out of curiosity, my interest was piqued enough to look through the whole magazine to see if there were other such notations. There were. And by putting 'em together, I received a message. I don’t remember exactly what it said, but it was something like, IF YOU READ THIS SEND US A PLAYING CARD BY APRIL 30 AND WIN A T-SHIRT. A secret/hidden contest?! I was hooked, hooked I tells ya!

So that was my introduction to Games, which I purchased every two months – I think it was a bimonthly at the time – with its Pencilwise “World’s Most Ornery Crossword Puzzle” and the funny fake ads and its mailbag filled with creative envelopes sent by readers and its international scavenger hunt (I remember begging my mom to help me steal a Chinese menu when I saw it had the requisite two spelling errors) and its early reviews of computer games… So much fun stuff to pore over.

But about ten years later, in 1990, the magazine just … disappeared. Couldn’t find it anywhere. I lost track of it. Apparently they’d run out of money and there was some scandal, but I had no idea what happened at the time. Even when it returned in '91, I still had difficulty finding it regularly. I kept meaning to subscribe, but money was tight and I never remembered to set the money aside.

Now I think it’s still around and I’m determined to subscribe, assuming it’s still as good as it used to be. Is it? Anyone have favorite Hidden Contests or Scavenger Hunt memories? Anyone ever win a T-Shirt? What are your favorite puzzles? I still vaguely remember the name of this one guy who seemed to win every month in those early years – Kyle, I think it was? It was my first exposure to Will Shortz and now he’s made it ‘big time’.

In fact, I seem to recall someone here at the SDMB is a Games puzzle editor. Is that true? If so, do you know more about the history of the magazine’s disappearance? I’ve always been curious to know the real story about that.

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I discovered Games magazine about the same way you did, and was a longtime subscriber. But sometime in the early 90s the quality kind of tanked, IMHO. It got to be more about video games, they got rid of the Fake Ads (“Which of the pitches is full of hitches?”), print quality sucked, and the puzzles just generally seemed to get lamer. My subscription has been lapsed for I don’t even remember how many years now.

But I still have all of my old issues. :smiley: (Of the magazine, that is . . .)

Maybe one of these days if I’m passing a newsstand I’ll pick up a copy and see if my old impressions still hold . . . Shame, really.

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It’s not quite as good as it was, but I buy it occasionally and it’s still worth it. To cut costs they now reprint puzzles from the earliest issues. In addition to the main magazine, they publish “Games World of Puzzles” bimonthly, which is, as you might guess, all puzzles and no articles. That’s worth it, too.

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Another long time subscriber to Games and Pencilwise here. I still have a lot of my old issues where I never finished all the puzzles, as well as a file folder of articles I’d clipped out for future reference. I remember (vaguely) when Games folded, but I don’t recall any sort of scandal involved; IIRC I got a postcard with a short list of magazines I could apply the balance of my subscription to.

I’ve been buying the current issues when I think of it at the bookstore, and the quality of both seems to be as high as ever. There are a few types of puzzles I skip over because I don’t care as much for them, but otherwise I’m very satisfied with them

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:smack: World of Puzzles, not Pencilwise. Pencilwise was was puzzle section of Games magazine.

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I’m glad to hear it is still around, though I guess the quality is debatable. If I could find one in a newsstand I’d buy an issue and see for myself, but I can’t find 'em, so I’d have to spring for a whole subscription. Bugger. Well, thanks for the link, rowrbazzle! Looks like there’s some insider stuff there too.

Aw man, Scarlett67, they got rid of the Fake Ads? How could they? I always thought that was a brilliant gimmick – I mean, it meant I examined each and every ad in an issue! What other magazine was smart enough to entice readers to delve into their advertisers’ wares to such a degree? I know it must’ve meant giving up some potential ad space to do it, but I highly doubt Games was selling every single square inch of ad space. (If so, ideally subscriptions should cost a lot less than they do!)

LurkMeister, I envy you your collection! The whole reason I even started this thread was because I happened to find an old issue while cleaning out my closet – their 1991 return issue, as it happens, which heralded its new life after the mysterious disappearance. After I found it, I squealed with delight and completed every unfinished puzzle like a greedy drug addict who’s just found a surprise bottle in her medicine cabinet. Frankly I can’t believe I didn’t save any more of my collection. I’m usually a total packrat. I would love to get some back issues to play with, but what kinda freak would have a big Games collection without ever having done the puzzles?

Hmm. Off to Ebay!

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I was a Games fanatic, too! I discovered the magazine when I was about 14 at a used book sale at our public library and bought up all the issues they had. It was a perennial stocking stuffer, because my mother knew that even if she had no idea what else I had or hadn’t read, a new Games would be appropriate.

I’m almost done with a subscription, actually.

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I remember this exact scavenger hunt.

I pick it up now and then at the newsstand when I remember. The individual puzzles are still pretty good, but it’s lacking that overall editorial cohesiveness that made the original so memorable to me.

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I see by the Wikipedia link that my memory is off on when they killed them, but yeah.

I often kept photocopies of my favorites, one of which featured a photo of a telephone and a headline something like, “Ever wonder what the # and * are for?” It went on to describe a nifty new service where you could press # to break in to a busy line if your call was more important. How do you know if your call is more important? Just press * and listen in long enough to find out. :smiley:

Dag, now I want to go dig out my stash.

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Wow! I discovered Games right about the same time you did. Maybe a year or 2 earlier. I have been a subscriber ever since. I got my subscription cut off when they folded, and started up again when they came back.

I try to maintain some common sense about back issues, maybe 3 years worth.

I had forgotten about the fake ads. It is a shame to see them go.

One of the earliest *Games * memories I have is of a little article they did about a guy named Kyle Corbin of Chapel Hill, NC who won a bunch of their contests and was awarded multiple *Games * t-shirts. Kind of a “who is this guy?” piece. Since I was so impressed by this feat, I remembered his name. 15 or so years later, I moved to North Carolina and was going through some records for my job at a local university, and there he was (his name, anyway)!

I still enjoy the magazine. While it has changed and had its ups and downs over the years, so have I. It has honestly been one of the most constant things in my life.

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delphica - I love that you remember that scavenger hunt! Did you try to enter it too? I could only get like 30 out of 50 items, so I didn’t bother 'cause I knew there were far cleverer and more obsessive readers than I (who were also probably more able to travel – I didn’t even have a driver’s license so I couldn’t really go hunting). I seem to recall another requirement included a playing card with a ship on it. A memory I retain because that was one of the few things I had on hand.

Another annual contest that I knew I’d never enter was one where you had to solve like 26 obscure trivia questions (“Number of pips on a pair of ancient Aztec twelve-sided dice owned by Prince Qexihotlhml” or something like that) and then put the numbers together in this absurdly complex mathematical formula. That was flippin’ brutal.

Ha! That’s awesome. Of course the best fake ads were the ones that were a bit sneakier – ones that would be likely to appear in a magazine for puzzle fans. But even the offbeat ones were really a hoot.

YES! That’s the guy I mentioned in my post! I just knew his last name was Corbin but I wasn’t 100% certain, so I left it out. He was freakin’ omnipresent in the contests! Plus, he showed up a lot in the “Laundry Bag” section, which was the part of their reader mail page devoted to those who’d found “more elegant” puzzle solutions than the magazine’s published answers.

I knew the SDMB would be a great place to find fellow Games fans!

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I test-solve cryptic crosswords for them. :cool:

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Whoohoo, twickster, you’re the guy I remembered (mentioned in the last line of my OP)! What fun. How long have you been working with them? Were you a reader before you got the gig? Do you know any more about the “dark missing year” when the mag went AWOL? They’re no longer owned by Bits ‘n’ Pieces, right?

OT: I think I once started a thread on cryptic crosswords here and you were helpful in getting me to understand some of the tricks of solving / understanding the clues. Alas I’m still hopelessly poor at 'em – I don’t think my mind is ‘wired’ that way – but at least now I can take a stab at the cryptics when they appear in the Sunday Times magazine, after finishing the regular crossword, rather than letting them go to waste and just waiting for the next Double Crostic the following week. So thanks for that!

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I gotta quit skimming threads . . .

I wonder if I remember the same one . . . they wanted a (signed?) photo of Gene Shalit (I didn’t know who that was), the label from a food item that contained tamarinds and (?) (Worcestershire sauce), a page from TV Guide listing two shows/movies featuring the same actor playing at the same time, and . . . a few other items are tickling the edges of my brain.

God, I remember a lot of utter crap.

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The other two items I remember were a business card from a veterinarian with the last name of an animal (like Dr. Fish) and a calendar that showed a full moon on a Friday the 13th. I also remembered the photo of Gene Shalit now that Scarlett67 mentioned it. I think there was also something like a phone book listing from a person whose last name and the name of their street were the same. That one was a big deal, because the rules said the things had to be original, not photocopies (with some exceptions) and I had to convince my mom to let me tear the column out of the white pages.

I did enter, with a similar number of items (maybe 27?). I was about the same age as you, so yes, somewhat limited to what I could get my hands on. Now I’m wondering how many of the items would be too easy now that we have the internet.

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Candy Loving’s cover helped me through puberty.

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Yeah, yeah, that’s the one!!!

I think I made a halfhearted attempt, and maybe had about five items before I realized that I was in over my head. Being a dumb teenager and all.

I wonder if I still have that issue. I don’t recall ever throwing one away.

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Personally, I feel the quality of the magazine has declined. There seems to be a much more formula feel to it now.

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(I’m not a guy, BTW.)

Games is currently owned by Kappa Publishing, which does a lot of mass-market puzzle magazines; Games is run as a separate department from the mass-market stuff. I was working for Kappa when they acquired Games, which was, I dunno, maybe 8 or 10 years ago now. I was test-solving Games cryptics while I was working for Kappa; after I left that job two years ago, they no longer had anyone in-house who knew how to solve cryptics, so I continued doing the test-solving, but now get paid for it.

Yes, I’d been a Games reader/solver prior to the company I worked for acquiring them. I don’t even remember how far back I go with them – at least to the '70s. When did they start?

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Calculatrivia…After reading this thread before I dug out my collection and found the February 1996 issue* which had Calculatrivia IV. There were 35 trivia questions, among them:

number displayed above the cash register when Maggie Simpson goes through the scanner at the start of certain episodes of the Simpsons.

number of the CONTROL agent whose mother was played by June Dulo on the TV series Get Smart.

number of times that a major-league baseball team has had four players hit 30 or more home runs in the same season

number of Canadian islands that have a larger land area than the non-Canadian island whose highest point is the 5305-foot Mount Ossa

And I don’t seem to have the issue with the answer, so I don’t know the answers to any of those.

*packrat…who’s a packrat?