GameFan, Feb. 1996 Volume 4 Issue 2: There's little pixel art portraits of the editors in this magazine, the portraits show up often as they gave opinions on the games that were being written about. I like reading about the perspectives people had back then, when the games of yesterday were new. There's very pretty Darkstalkers and Street Fighter art on some of these pages, also. This one has a different vibe than the others from later years in the 90s, 1998 or 1999. These years are so close together, but it feels like so much changed for games in that short amount of time, especially going further into the early 2000s. There's a very dated "Ultimate Gaming Rig" advertisement on one of the pages, which I really liked. Towards the end, there's a segment about Japan, with a little blurb about video game toys. There's pictures of very 90s Darkstalkers figures, a Donkey Kong plush, and a figure of Ellis from Toshinden.

Tips & Tricks, April 1999 No. 50: The contents page has a really nice design. Harry Mason, Pikachu, an N64 controller, and a Pac-junior are all there. There's fanart of Goku in this one, drawn by a guy named Jesus, who is from El Paso, Texas. There's an entire guide for Silent Hill 1, and a "Japan Report" that talks about PaRappa, DDR, and a Pokemon bento of Farfetch'd.

Gamepro, Feb. 1999 No. 125: there's a big 2 page advertisement for the South park N64 game. At the top, there's giant red lettering that says: "The only game bigger than Cartman's big fat a**!" ... The corner is wrinkly because of water damage, I'd hope. There's a vertical 2 page spread of Duke Nukem Zero Hour, it says "I'm the good and the bad. You're just ugly." A fun ad for Street Sk8er appears, and I think about how I always thought skating was cool. I should get into it ... There's also a little fanart segment, accompanied by a cute little dog drawing. A segment about Superman N64 being delayed has Link and Darth Vader dueling on top of it. Metal Gear Solid action figures appear, which are quite awesome, and quite the frightening Crash Bandicoot is seen posing next to women in bikinis. There's a Bust a Groove theme'd flip book you're meant to cut out and staple together ... Bust a Groove actually looks quite cool. I feel like I haven't heard of it before seeing it in here. There's an ad for Glover, which I only mention because I remember it being my Computer Sciene teacher's childhood favorite. Later, there's a segment for Half Life, which I feel like I never really see PC games mentioned in these magazines. In a first look at Silent Hill, it gets called a Resident Evil wannabe. Seems as if Silent Hill has always been plagued with that comment. There's a review for the N64 South Park game, which calls it lackluster. It makes the ad at the beginning seem quite funnier now. Last, there's a segment on RE2 that talks about some of the extra outfits and modes.

Gamepro, April 1998 No. 115: Someone drew on the front with a colored pencil! There's an ad in this one for milk. Which, I did not grow up in the 90s, so I always thought the got milk? ads were trying to advertise some weird fashion or makeup or perfume brand, so when I saw it in this magazine for the first time I was wondering why it was in there. But, no, it's literally advertising just straight up milk. Which, I do agree with, milk is my favorite thing to drink when I'm playing video games, too. There's a blurb in here theorizing about what would eventually become the Dreamcast, and another about Final Fantasy 7 figures. "What kind of psycho drives a school bus into a war zone" makes an appearance, which Bill Clinton mentioned one time in 1999. There's a parody blurb about PaRappa being found dead in his "1998 sedan-style cartoon car." There is also an entire Resident Evil 2 guide, where were you when I needed you!?

Resident Evil 3 Official Perfect Guide, Versus Books Volume 9, 1999: The free poster didn't come with it, someone along the way took it for themself. There's a really cool 2 page spread of Nemesis at the beginning of the guide, and the portraits of the enemies throughout remind me of Baroque for some reason. I find that even in 1999 were the camera angles during the clocktower fight considered awkward ... The design for each page is really great, and on one is there a segment comparing Nemesis to Sagat from Street Fighter.

Gamefan's Ultimate Codebook Premiere Issue, 1999: I really like the cover, that's why I bought it. Sonic just looks pretty epic. Inside, there's a lot of fun character portraits, even Lammy is there. There's ads for Evangelion and Lain, which seeing Lain out in the wild shocked me quite badly, I clapped my hands together. There's also a cool 2 page spread ad for Resident Evil 3.

Expert Gamer, Feb. 1999 Issue 56: There's a poster for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver that you can fold out on the first page. There was some type of competition for drawing on envelopes, and some kinda absurdly funny drawings of Lara Croft were sent in. An advertisement for Guilty Gear, with the tagline "Kill Your Friends Guilt Free" makes an appearance, which Bill Clinton also famously made mention of in 1999. There's a card to sign up for Expert Gamer with a little picture of Aya Brea as a teaser for another issue. It offers "12 killer issues" for 20 dollars and "24 awesome issues" for 35. There's another one with a very 90s picture on it. I wonder how much that is in today's money... There's a walkthrough for the South Park N64 game with little figures of Kyle, Cartman, Stan, and Kenny decorating the pages. At the end, there's an advertisement of CDs for the soundtracks of MGS and FF7. There's a blurb at the bottom that tells you to call a number if you don't have internet access to order the CDs. A page later, there's an advertisment for Game Shark featuring a dog and an old lady. The dog is robbing a bank or something.

Tips & Tricks, June 2000 No. 64: There's a Code Veronica ad at the beginning, which is an RE game I have yet to play as of Feb 2025, but intend excitedly to do so. There's a stragedy guide for it later in here ... I'll have to use it. It seems like Tips & Tricks always has a nice contents page, Pikachu is with some character portraits from I-Spy and Front Mission 3. There's also a Mr. Driller ad that is pretty stylish ... Later, there's an entire page dedicated to showing some of the favorite games of the people who work on Tips & Tricks, and Ara Shirinian liked Pop'n Music in June 2000. There's an ad and a segment for a game called I-Spy Operation Espionage, which I've never heard of before. But, it looks real cool, I'd like to play it someday. There's a bit of a scribble of a fan note and drawing that says: "The world of Pokemon with hair is insane but you have hair the Pokemon with hair has. Bad hair day! Happy bad hair day!" Some drawings of Pokemon are around it. I'm not really sure what it means, but I like it. There's a cool ad for Space Channel 5 and a cool segment for Front Mission 3, which are more games I need to play ... Ahh, so many ... Anyways, there's a segment for Pokemon stadium that looks quite stylish, and pictures from an old video game tournament show up towards the end. I wonder what the guys in the pictures are doing now. Cool Zone is a segment that has ... cool things! A Code Veronica lighter shaped flashlight, a Mario golf set, and a resin figure of Jon Talbain/Gallon from Darkstalkers that was apparently bought from an anime convention. The Pokemon report has lots of fun things too, like little jam jars and macaroni. The jam nowadays is around 20 bucks, but the macaroni seems to have skyrocketed to a greedy 100 ... During the Japan report, they talk about Virtual Face. Which, that made me realize how I hadn't realized how far VR things went back.