Next Generation Magazine: Preserved & Remembered in Philadelphia

I’m pretty sure that, on a semi weekly basis, John Freeborn and I discuss the idea of opening a video game museum in Philadelphia. I mean, come on. We have every other kind of museum you could think of. There’s even a museum about The Three Stooges. Why NOT a video game museum?

During the past few months, my pal John has moved quite a bit, before settling down into his new (gorgeous) house. And in the midst of all the shuffling about, he came across his epic Next Generation magazine collection and decided that, instead of throwing it out or putting it up on eBay, he’d give a bunch to me.

Freaking. Awesome.

He posted a bunch of the covers on his blog, many of which have headlines that are fairly hilarious considering how dated they are. On his blog, he writes a bit about the magazine.

The magazine went from 1995 to 2002 and was unlike any video game magazine of the time. It was more grown-up, when video games were still just for kids. The paper was higher end and the design was smart and clean. Imagine if WIRED made a video game mag, that’s what it would be like, smart. They would often show detailed schematics of systems, talk about technology and its effects on people and they treated video games like an art. The rest of the world came around to this view, but it took years. Next Generation was ahead of its time. Read more at Wikipedia.

Thanks John. These mags will have a special place in the eventual museum.

Next Generation Magazine Covers @ John Freeborn’s Blog