It took the new blog from my former colleague Tiffany Martin to point out how much stuff is in the Computer Magazine Online Archive. The default search engine is terrible, and it takes a few tricks to find what’s there. But it does mean I will soon be adding links to my CGM articles listed in my portfolio above.
The article layout is terrible – as well intentioned as the site is, it’s clearly a bit of a rush job and only goes back a few years. Some of the credits are just to “staff”, but I know I wrote the Caesar IV review. But it does mean that I can point to some of my favorite pieces from when I was a freelancer for the best PC gaming magazine there ever was.
Like Bruce Geryk’s brilliant column on Seven Cities of Gold.
Julian Murdoch’s character study of controversial developer Derek Smart.
Any of Brett Todd’s mod columns. (The man is very good at this sort of thing and did for PC Gamer for a while, too.)
And Tom Chick’s review of Shadow of the Colossus – still something I love to read.
And other stuff. Bauman, Long, Wand, Sones, Yans…not all names still active in the business but colleagues forever.
Here’s hoping that Polaris Media can clean it up and get the entire thing up and working right soon.
Good find! Did the CGW archives all end up online? Last time I checked, they were missing a number of years, including my ‘golden years’ of the early 90’s.
Quirky search is right! I was able to find a bunch of stuff I did, though. Going to have to link everything up eventually at my currently dormant blog.
Thanks for the heads up! Though it makes me sad… because the stuff linked there is so much better than much of what you can read today, especially on the web. :(
“Thanks for the heads up! Though it makes me sad… because the stuff linked there is so much better than much of what you can read today, especially on the web.”
I echo that statement! The cliche of “this brings back memories of the good old days” applies here. The transition from paper to electronic was inevitable, but there is something about reading computer stuff in a magazine. I do not know if that should be viewed as an irony or a paradox. Mostly the reasons for missing the magazines like CGM, CGW/GFW, and PC Gamer (back before they downsized) is the quality of the material. You knew there was intelligent and relevant thought in those articles, and that is not an indictment now on the quality of the work of those writers who went from paper to electronic (not their fault the magazines folded or voluntarily chose to go electronic). It just felt more tangible and frankly, it was something to look forward to in the mailbox every month.
If it’s any help I also want to volunteer this link to the search because it’s cumbersome to find it.
Search Link
The search is sucky, and the only way I found any of the articles was by looking through my game stacks and checking individual games I recall reviewing. Of course, some of them are not up (too old).
I’m just so happy that there’s something out there to remember our work at CGM even if it is clunky and incomplete.