N64 Gamer
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| N64 Gamer | |
|---|---|
| Editor | Steve O'Leary Narayan Pattison Troy Gorman Peter Hart Steven Farelly |
| Categories | Computer and video games |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| First Issue | 1997 |
| Company | Next Media Pty Ltd |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | |
| Website | none |
| ISSN | unknown |
N64 Gamer was an Australian video game magazine that ran from 1997 until 2002 and was published by Next Media. It was tremendously popular, especially among teens and young adults, for its extremely sarcastic and ruthless humour.
In 1997, N64 Gamer printed a picture of Elle Macpherson, nude, inserted into a screenshot from the game GoldenEye 007, captioned with "Write us, and we'll send you the nude code." They received over 40,000 requests.
Throughout the magazines existence, the editing and writing team developed a significant fan base. Evidence was seen in the kind of responses recorded in the magazines letters section 'Troy's Mailbag'. This popularity was developed by the personalised style of writing, and the monthly editorial page, with paragraphs from each member on a specific topic. From this, relationships and rivalrys between writers developed, the most prominent between Arthur Adam and James Ellis in the 1998 to 2000 period.
Contributing to this popularity was the kind of characters each writer adopted. As each member assumed a role, it provided the reader with a sense of 'team' and particularly a sense of pride in the Nintendo 64 video game system, as the magazine was prominent during the 'Game Wars' between Nintendo and Sony (prior to the entrance of Microsoft). An example: Narayan Pattison, the most prominent editor of the magazine, assumed a dominant role in his 'payouts' and teasing of fellow writers, and his frequent references to the television cartoon South Park were effective with readers watching the same show, then in its infancy. This kind of humour made the magazine a comedic publication, on equal terms with its gaming relevance. This was vitally important for its sales, as Nintendo dwindled in the face of a rising Sony PlayStation.
Fans of the magazine still exist today, though 5 years since the leaving of Narayan Pattison from the team. References to the publication appear on numerous gaming forums around the internet, both mainstream and alternative. However the most prominent tribute to N64 Gamer is found on the 'Super Happy Site' forum: Super Happy Site Where a section has been devoted to the search for the N64 Staff, which features information provided by ex-N64 Gamer staff, such as Narayan and Troy, titled The Search
The popularity seems to end after the year 2000, when the editing team was led by Stephen Farelley and Kosta Andriadis. Though comedic, it struggled in the wake of the previous team. The magazine soon went out of publication.
Pattison, Gorman and Farelley have been seen writing for other publications, including an editing role at a PlayStation magazine for Pattison
[edit] History
N64 Gamer was initiated in 1997, under the leadership of Steve O’Leary, with the tag line “Australia’s only unofficial N64 magazine.” This was an obvious reference to its only competition, the official Australian Nintendo magazine ‘Nintendo Magazine System’ (NMS). Issue 1 consisted of Steve, Narayan Pattison, Mithra Denewald and the fictitious Robert Garcia (an early glimpse of the magazines humour).
The magazine gained popularity for its non-biased reviews, which were naturally going to occur in an official magazine (hence the tagline), its quality and (at this point) its subtle use of humour.
As the months went by, new staff was brought onboard, some staying, some leaving. The most memorable, was more than Likely Troy Gorman. Familiar staff was already starting to depart, such as Mithra, ‘allegedly’ due to tensions between him and Narayan brought about by a Goldeneye death match. It turns out that this was not the case; Narayan and Mithra are in actuality brothers and Mithra left to pursue a career as a developer at Perception in Sydney. As Narayan was acting as Deputy Editor, by issue 14 he had taken over the editorial page and was Editor by issue 15.
This was definitely a turning point for the magazine, which made it timeless classic, as opposed to just another gaming magazine. The one obvious difference was the style of humour. It went from mild to absolutely abrasive, with strong sexual innuendos (the magazine once gave a step-by-step guide on how to ‘sex a gerbil’), ongoing jokes about ‘German scheizer videos’, toilet humour, sarcasm and anti-humour. This can be seen particularly with the use of captions. Another prevalent change was the relationships the writers were trying to create between them and the reader. This was achieved by making the characters of each personality more obvious and present within the entirety of the mag. The letters section was changed to ‘Troy’s Mailbag,’ with the line “we don’t pay him any money and he doesn’t have any friends so please be kind and write to him. Opening letters makes him feel special.”
As characters became an integral component of N64 Gamer, fun rivalries were built between writers and it was common that they would pay each other insults in reviews, captions and anywhere else imaginable (this was also done under Steve’s reign, but to a much lesser extent). It was as if the reader knew the staff in person. The magazine was now selling for its humour and characters, just as much for its Nintendo 64 content. It could be argued that Narayan breached the conventions of what was acceptable for a children’s/teenage/young adult magazine and could be said that he allowed pure chaos to rule the pages. However, it is evident that he knew what he was doing, as he created a strong readership and a loveable magazine.
Narayan Pattison left the magazine to work elsewhere in issue 29. His final editorial was summing up the significance of his 15 issue reign and his enjoyment working for the magazine since issue 1. His departure signified the end of a generation in several ways. The obvious being that the magazine was now heading into a new generation in the terms of the leadership of a new editor, but also that there were no staff left from issue 1 now working for the magazine.
After Troy’s mere 3 issue stint as editor (with his final editorial being a play on Narayan’s), the magazine had lost its consistency and eventually all of its familiar crew, including the art co-ordinator, Sarah Bryant. In the coming months, the well structured, well designed magazine had changed rapidly. It looked like a rushed effort and long time readers could pick this up immediately.
As the N64’s game production rate declined, so did the quality of the magazine. It is fair to say that the magazine was in turbulent times, as there were fairly limited game reviews and the familiarity of the beloved crew was wearing off, due to many departures.
Peter Hart, which has since been revealed to be a pseudonyme used by Troy, filled the void for a short lived one issue and was then followed by a completely new crew, under the leadership of Steven Farelly. This was a difficult thing to take on, especially to even attempt to attain the attention of fans of the original mag (or the Narayan/Troy controlled mag).
At this point, the magazine focussed heavily on the Nintendo Game Boy and Pokémon and also the Game Cube, as its release date grew closer (eventually released on May 17, 2002). As the content started to differ from the N64 itself, the magazine came to a halt and re-emerged as ‘Nintendo Gamer.’ After 5 years (1997-2001), 41 issues and 5 editors, N64 Gamer ceased to exist. Subscriptions of N64 Gamer were kept and subscribers started receiving the new magazine as of August 2001.
