I think my favourite cover was the one with the Mario World screenshots, with all the coins making the shapes of different currency symbols.

I started buying around issue 7 or so, just before the big saturn and playstation reveals. Loved it straight away. A really early issue came with a "guide to the next gen" separate feature, with existing 3DO / Jaguar stuff and existing info on PS1, Saturn and "Project Reality"... Very exciting to a 15 year old.

Before that I'd subscribed to mean machines since issue 1, until it went single format (Sega) and EMAP / Dennis got Official Nintendo seal of approval and launched a separate mag for nintendo formats.

Got into MM in its previous incarnation as a console section in old-school C&VG.

Got into C&VG through a mean machines special issue "guide to consoles", with a history of all consoles from VCS to the mythical Megadrive and its amazing conversion of Ghosts & Goblins: Ghouls & Ghosts and Golden Axe making even the PC Engine look like a child's toy.

Edge as a print publication 10 years ago was great but.....
As a tech oriented magazine they should realize their real future is online. 
I mean seriously, who reads tech news in a paper mag nowadays?
The news is old and outdated the moment the mag hits the newsstand.

my first copy of EDGE was issue 66 with Link on the cover and Ocarina of Time and Half-Life reviewed amongst others. I think I must have subscribed shortly after that despite not owning any significant consoles at the time, although I was a far more avid PC gamer back then than I am now. I picked up issues 1-65 on eBay a few years later and still subscribe...

I agree that it is a rather pretentious publication but I think that is part of the appeal. WIRED UK has outdone it in terms of pretentiousness in recent years for my money. I subscribe to that too. EDGE has always been one of the most carefully and stylishly designed magazines that I'm aware of as well, which is another important reason as to why I still subscribe.

I have only missed 1 or 2 out of the whole lot.

I'd buy it.

Does that Ian guy who posted at the old EDGE forum keep in touch with any of you?  What was his role in the publication?

Didn't realise he had joined this place!

I liked it when edge dissected the hardware layouts of consoles and spoke to people about games.

Smacked Liz Hurley's bum with the DOA volleyball edition.

I probably started getting edge around the time TOTAL! died in 95/96. Someone choose what my first issue was please as I can't remember.

I think that might've been it, cheers.

Bollockoff wrote:

My first issue was this one. Got it when I was 15 as I remember and read it front to back on a Duke of Edinburgh hiking/camping session with the school. The writing style was so different, so much mature in my mind than other mags at the time that I didn't understand alot of the words used and I enjoyed that. So I got pretty much all of them for ten years till last year when I realised I wasn't enjoying them anymore. And most of the stuff is going online now anyway. When I was doing Year 11 GCSE English our teacher gave us an extract one lesson from EDGE. Was the DMC 3 review. I never read it but I like those MAXIMUM covers. That's how ya do em.

Holy shit man, I started with the same issue - excellent read it was too.

That period of Edge was thoroughly excellent stuff. But it wasn't just the magazine - a young reddave was at that wonderful point in life where work was paying well and there were no costs like mortgages, health insurance and pensions to worry about. Money was in plentiful supply so when Edge gave a game or a machine the thumbs up, it could be purchased. Better still, games were really becoming big business. Everyone had a playstation 2(or so it seemed) so even fellow workers who didnt know a thing about Rez could also laugh about the latest GTA or Fifa. Thats not the case so much now.

More so, Edge of that era had a swagger. It may have been somewhat misplaced at times but the magazine clearly saw itself as a vital part of the industry and acted as such. Now, it may be a well written mag at times but I feel it  lost some of that cockiness and as such isnt as interesting now.

I had a digital subscription last year but found I wasnt bothered reading it anymore. That said, I hope they can carry on - a 20 year run is still something to be impressed by.

This was the first Edge I bought:

[img]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2012/09/EDGEcov127.jpg

This was the first I worked on:

[img]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2012/09/EDGEcov131.jpg

And this was my last as a full time member of staff:

[img]http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2012/09/EDGEcov236.jpg

Ian wrote:

This was the first Edge I bought: E127.jpg
This was the first I worked on: E131.jpg

So, the first one you bought was prep for your interview?