Vintage Gaming Magazines in PDFAres, General, Dragon, and more

This evening while stumbling around the World Wide Web and thinking about one of my favorite gaming and fiction magazines from the early 1980s--Ares Magazine from SPI and later TSR--I discovered that Archive.org has posted PDF scans of all 19 issues of the magazine, complete with scans of each issue's games.

For me, this is a treasure trove bringing back fond memories. I had a nearly complete collection of the magazine but stupidly left them behind 16 years ago when we moved across the country. Ares was responsible for me buying SPI's Dragonquest and Universe roleplaying games, along with Delta Vee, War of the Ring (two copies mind you!), and many other games back in the day.

To me, Timothy Truman was Ares art!

I clearly remember spending countless evenings playing some of the mag's excellent solo games: Wreck of the BSM Pandora, Voyage of the BSM Pandora, Rescue From The Hive, Return of the Stainless Steel Rat, Damocles Mission, and Nightmare House.

While some of the 2-player games were dogs in my mind, others I also enjoyed. Albion, High Crusade, and Star Trader come to mind. Ironically, I had the same problem back then that I have today--finding someone to play against without having to twist their arms. So  back then, playing multiplayer games solo was the order of the day, outside of our weekly roleplaying games at least.

So have a walk down an old fellow's memory lane and check out what it was like in the halcyon days of gaming. Check out PDF versions of Ares Magazine!

More Gaming Magazines
Looks like Archive.org was busy the other month because they have also scanned the following other gaming and related magazines: The General. Dragon, Space Gamer, Omni, Starlog, and a lot of others. Wow! Check out the list at their magazine page.