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It was reported earlier this week that Games magazine finally shuttered. It has been a zombie, surviving on reprints for a long time. Lord knows, the last time I sold a puzzle to them was probably a decade, ago. But Games was such a crucial point in my development as a puzzle maker. On Facebook many of my puzzle community friends have been mentioning their first issue. I can remember mine, I was traveling with my father back from the Midwest, and he picked up a copy at O’Hare. On the cover, it had photographs of impersonators of famous people, and you had to do figure out which were the real deal and which were the fakes. (It turns out they were all fake.) On the flight hope back to Boston I was hooked.
It’s a fascinating thing to think back now how Games really entertained almost all generations. I couldn’t have been much older than 8 or 9 at the time, but it was clearly a magazine for adults. Yet there was enough content in there for everyone to be fascinated with. Almost every page had some sort of magic that really sparked the imagination.
I got a subscriptions shortly afterward and I would mark my favorite puzzles, usually the easy ones, more often than not some sort of logic-based brainteasers. And then, I would try my hand at making the exact same puzzle, however in my own style. These were terrible, terrible, terrible, puzzles. But it didn’t matter because I loved doing it. I wanted so bad to be in Games magazine, that it became a bucket list goal.
It’s funny when I look back I was always more fascinated with the glossy page puzzles more so then the Pencilwise section. In fact I think my favorite two sections were Your Move, (where the readers sent in puzzles), and Wild Cards. Both were succint, creative, bite sized puzzles. I loved Your Move especially because I knew that if I were to ever get into Games magazine that would be the page that I would be on first. As I got older, I slowly gravitated toward more of the pencil puzzles, although, curiously, I never really did any of the crosswords until much, much later. They never spoke to me then. I was always preferring the wackier variety word puzzles.
I had finally sold my first puzzle Games in 1996. Will Shortz had long since left and began editing the New York Times crossword. Mike Shenk also had moved on and started Puzzability. Peter Gordon to Sterling Publishing. Nancy Schuster was gone. Henry Rathvon and Emily Cox and Henry Hook had stopped selling too. At the time I had sold the puzzles, Susan West and Francis Heaney were the creative forces behind it. So, yes, it really wasn’t Games magazine but damn it it sure as hell said Games magazine on the cover. So, I’d made it. Bucket list entry ticked off. Boom.
To all involved in that classic run: I don’t think I’ll ever be able to put into words how much your work shaped me and guided me to my career now. Thank you. Games is dead. Long live Games.
Do you have a link to where you got the news about Games closing down? I don’t see it at gamesmagazine-online.com, kappapublishing.com, or Google.
Thanks,
Brendan, are you sure the news didn’t relate to “Computer and Video Games” magazine? See:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27486867
Lovely reminiscence and tribute to Games.
Here’s the link to the online version of Games which is ongoing
http://gamesmagazine-online.com/
Back to the puzzle, I finished Monday’s hard in less time and completely correct before I flamed out incorrectly with this one. Perhaps lulled into a false of security by the “Easy” rating–effective ruse!
The website of Games Magazine doesn’t look to me like one of a magazine that’s shuttered. Nonetheless, Games Magazine was highly influential to me as a kid in getting me into puzzles (as was Dell Math Puzzles & Logic Problems). I really, really hated when they expanded the answers section *in the middle of the magazine* by exactly *one page*, meaning one page of answers is facing the first page of an article. The bonehead who did that should be fired. I remember seeing a really old Games issue with the answers at the back like a normal magazine; that’s where they belong. Perhaps the bonehead who moved them away from there should be fired, too. Actually, I think there are some people on BoardGameGeek who think Games jumped the shark when they increased the puzzle content; the fact that I’ve always known Games as a puzzle magazine (with games in it) and not a game magazine shows how young I am.
Regarding this specific puzzle: lovely theme. 54A was my favorite entry. Alas, I’m a terrible crossword solver, so I had the wrong letter at the intersection of 12D and 19A, and the NE corner eluded me. I really should stick to logic puzzles instead of trying in vain to learn words. 🙂
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