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Worth Reading: Joe Rybicki's Ziff-trospective

Posted by Bob Mackey

I know, I know; the whole Ziff-Davis/EGM/1UP thing is old news. By this point in time, you've probably heard quite a number of behind-the-scenes accounts of the antics behind Electronic Gaming Monthly, so much so that you may actually feel like you once worked for Ziff-Davis yourself. Rest assured that these feelings are natural and will pass with time. Until then, I must admit my intentions for revisiting the UGO-Gate well are pure, and actually inspired by the recent release of Retro Game Challenge. If you weren't aware (and you really should be), RGC features several issues of a fictional, in-game magazine very much inspired by the unprofessional (in the kindest sense of the word) enthusiast mags that made up the gaming press from roughly the late 80s til the late 90s. And, with the end of EGM just a month ago, RGC couldn't have come at a better time; it's a great reminder of the childlike wonder video games used to be about before we'd seen everything and become so jaded. So what better time than now to read an account of a ragtag bunch of professional enthusiasts with a penchant for property damage during the heyday of the gaming press?

Joe Rybicki's Zifftrospective (Part Two here) is just that: a tale of olden times, where all it took to earn a living wage in the gaming press was a smile and a willingness to be exploited. Rybicki's account of his time at Z-D covers the years 1996 to 1999, back when EGM's HQ was located in the suburbs of Chicago. To some of you who've heard multiple EGM oral histories, the tales of frathouse pranks and violence towards inanimate objects may have gotten old--but it's always nice to hear a fresh perspective. And besides, you know all of this stuff is going on behind-the-scenes in Retro Game Challenge's GameFan Magazine. Why else do you think that publication gets a new EIC every year?

Related Links:

On the End of EGM: A Personal Story
1UP and the State of Games Journalism
Dear 1UP: This Girl Loves You

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Posted Feb 20 2009, 04:00 PM

Filed under: 1up, bob mackey, egm, games journalism, ugo entertainment

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About Bob Mackey

For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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