E1M1 Magazine Review

E1M1 advertises itself as the world's first old-school shooter magazine. Titled after the naming convention of the likes of Doom (Episode 1, Mission1), this publication began life as a Kickstarter project back in October 2020, raising over £10,500 against a goal of £1,500 in order to create the first three issues, each 72 pages in length. A second Kickstarter ended in February 2021, raising over £13,400 against a goal of £5,000 for a second batch of three issues, now expanded to 80 pages a-piece. I admit, I missed the first Kickstarter and when the second was on-going, I'd already pledged for a couple of others and didn't have the funds for it. I did, however, start following E1M1 on Twitter and when they announced about a month ago that they had physical copies to buy, out came the piggy bank and I bought the full set of physical magazines for £50 plus p&p.

Nothing beats hardcore gaming mags resting of a tasteful(!) woollen blanket...

They arrived within a few days, well packaged as a bundle with each individual magazine in plastic sleeves. A nice touch was that each magazine had been signed by some of the team behind it. 

Physical quality is good, paper quality is a perfect match for the fan art illustrations as well as the text and screenshots, and the staple binding is secure enough to avoid worries about the pages coming loose. There is a heft to each issue that reminded me of 1990's gaming magazines. Modern day equivalents just don't have that. Maybe that's just me, but I think it gives a nice nostalgic feel to the magazine. 

The artwork is evocative and suites the tone perfectly.

Getting into the magazine itself, and it is well laid out, with white text on black background that works well with the numerous screenshots and backgrounds included. Every few pages you have fan art which varies between good and brilliant - I am not an artist by any means but none of the illustrations disgrace their inspiration or the publication. 

Content includes previews, mod reviews, rail reviews (on-rail shooters count for inclusion in this mag and I can't say I blame them. I have reviewed a number of these at retrovideogamer.co.uk for the 3DO and when the developers get it right, they can be great fun), retro reviews, new games reviews, top selection pieces (best multiplayer levels, most embarrassing ports etc), feature pieces on specific titles and interviews. All in all, a great deal of variety all linked together by the theme of old-school shooters. 

Reviews are scored out of five stars and are honest almost to a fault. This ties in with the tone of the writing and you really get the voice of each contributor coming through. True, that does at times come across as more like a pub conversation than a "traditional" magazine review, but I like that. It allows the author to demonstrate their passion in the subject, which is what E1M1 is all about, a passionate love letter to a gaming genre that still has fans today, despite modern day tastes. 

Great review, mostly forgotten platform.

Reading through the six issues took me quite a while as every page is worth reading. Certainly, with mainstream mags, I tend to cherry pick the articles and sections I read, but with E1M1, each page deserved to be perused, and I have followed a few developers on Twitter based on previews and reviews in E1M1. The retro reviews were eye opening, titles that I had never heard of before and have now been added to the list of games I will be looking for (time and money permitting). I especially loved the two retro reviews for the Nokia N-Gage, a handheld console that, despite its faults, I managed to own twice.

Are there any faults with the publication? Minor one, yes. Firstly, there seems to be a few typo's, especially in the latter three issues. Nothing major, just a missing space here and there, inconsistent spelling, that kind of thing. I am not negging them for that though. Regular readers of this blog will know that I write this in a very rickety glasshouse. Typo's happen and with every post I release on here, I always look forward to my good lady reading it and pointing out the mistakes that a good half dozen separate editing passes have missed. Secondly, there is a printing issue with the second batch where a tiny number of pages have a printing error that makes the text fuzzy. It doesn't prevent you from reading the article, just something that should be noted for the next batch of issues. If I am being really really picky, some of the smaller screenshots haven't scaled that well, but since these are effectively thumbnails anyway, it's not a problem either.

One of the pages with printing issues... it's still very readable and isn't a big problem at all.

Hold on, did you say next batch of issues? Yes. There was a game creation jam announced in issue 4 that mentions an issue 7. Given the success of the previous Kickstarters and the fact they have physical copies for general sale (plus digital copies if that's your thing), I'm confident there shall be more to come from E1M1 and this pleases me greatly. With high quality and honest writing, good fan art and a sense of overall style that suits the genre well, I really have enjoyed reading these issues. Will I be contributing to any future Kickstarter? Hell yes. Should you? If old-school shooters are your thing, give it a try. You can download sampler pieces for free from their website here, as well as digital copies of the existing issues for £7 each or physical bundles for issues 1-3, 4-6 and 1-6 for £25, £25 and £50 respectively. Also check out the E1M1 Full Mag magazine album, 23 original tracks inspired by 1990's shooters and videogames movies. It's bloody impressive. 

E1M1 is another niche physical publication that fills a gap in the market and if that genre appeals to you, I really do recommend you check out the samplers. You may decide to push for the full set of currently available issues. I know £50 is a hefty chunk of cash but, for me, what you get in your hands justifies that price. Much like Archive, Amiga Addict and SAM Revival, this is never going to be about massive readership numbers or newsagent sales. What it is though, is a heart-felt celebration written by fans for fans, and that level of passion is patently displayed on every page. Well done for the first six issues, I look forward to many, many more.