It’s official. Ziff Davis has sold its 1UP division to Hearst’s UGO Entertainment, and is shutting long-running print magazine EGM in the process.

EGM received a company memo coming from Ziff Davis containing “gee you did good but we gotta go now” kinda words and it was finished. There was not even a farewell issue. I’m not counting but what was 25 years? I think you owe it to the fanboys who grew up supporting EGM for a final issue.

I grew up reading EGM and maybe you reader did too. My friends Jepoy, Glen, Mike Abundo and Mark grew up wanting to become EGM contributors. The news was like hearing an old friend pass away.

I remember my very first EGM was about Mortal Kombat. I treasured it and went to school proud to say that I knew stuff that nobody else knew about Mortal Kombat. My buddies were EGM fanatics too and bringing an EGM to school was considered “uber kewlness”

What was EGM known for? No let me rephrase that. What do I love about EGM?

Despite continuous news of controversial editorials, pictures and constant rumors that EGM is losing money and is going to fold up any moment I’d like to remember the good times with EGM.

EGM was founded by Steve Harris and under the helm of long time editor Ed Semrad the magazine did something in the Philippines that no other magazine until now has ever done. Beat GamePro.

Did you know that Major Mike (yup the battletoad Mike Weigand) originally came from EGM)

Dan Hsu my favorite EGM contributor, my era watched him evolve from crazy writer to crazy EGM editor.

Jeremy “Norm” Scott, the artist of “The Adventures of Hsu and Chan” which literally brought back excitement to the magazine.

The Quarterman section considered until now as the authority in gaming gossip.
The Smarch issues. The best issues because of the free CD’s
Tricks of the Trade section which was once considered the best source of exclusive cheat codes.

Seanbaby’s “Rest of the Crap”, which highlighted crap games like “Britney” and “That’s so Raven”.

April Fools! What are the most memorable April Fools?

•1992: The legendary Sheng Long code for Street Fighter II in which players had to complete near-impossible tasks all the way through the final boss, M. Bison: Once there, the player could neither touch nor be touched by the boss for ten rounds, but at the end of this period the character Sheng Long would jump into the screen, destroy M. Bison, then challenge the player, this is EGM’s first (and possibly most infamous) prank.

•1998: “All Bonds” cheat in GoldenEye 007

•2000: The announcement of the new game system Giga Intellivision from Mattel, complete with “Sense Heightening Interactive Technology” (S-H-I-T), which was supposedly more powerful than the then-upcoming PlayStation 2′s Emotion Engine, complete with the tagline, “Feel it, Sony”. Because the same issue came with the announcement of the mature-rated Conker’s Bad Fur Day from Nintendo, additional controversy arose because many people believed that the Conker announcement was, in fact, the joke.

•2001: Issue included a small article in which the writers announced that Sega had found a warehouse full of old Sega Neptunes and was selling them on a website. The site referenced redirected to an online shopping site, where internet users were greeted by an “April Fools!” after adding the product to the cart.

•2002: Super Smash Bros. Melee’s “Unlock Sonic and Tails” code, where players had to defeat 20 opponents in Cruel Melee mode. The prank went widely believed for months, to a point where rival magazine Nintendo Power had to create a blurb to try and explain the origin of the rumor. It also ended in retribution for readers who wanted their favorite Sega characters duking it out with Nintendo’s characters, which would seem like a play on their rivalry back in the 1990s. After the prank was revealed, EGM held a contest where those who sent in videos of their Cruel Melee battles with over 20 KOs would win a copy of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. In the November 2006 issue (#209), an article named “the BIG ones” suggests Sonic will reappear as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which turned out to be true.

•2003: The topless cheat for Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball in which you were supposed to go to a career mode and reset the game while at the same play no beach volley ball and return to the menu and in the suit-selection menu there would be a topless feature, this confused many people, some attempted it and sent several angry letters.

•2004: A small false preview for a The Lord of the Rings Kart-Racer that EGM claimed for it to be one of the first games for the PSP. There was a small clue in the fake game-screen, it showed the lap times that the total time would add up to 4/1/04 subliminally saying April Fools Day.

•2005: EGM told readers if they preordered the upcoming realistic-looking Legend of Zelda game (which would eventually be called The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) they would receive a copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker with updated graphics equal to those of the new game, accompanied by a screenshot. Anime Insider believed the prank and published a small article telling people about the supposed preorder deal in the video game section, and many readers of the magazine were left infuriated that they had asked game stores about it only to get a puzzled look in return.

•2006: A report stating that Apple was making a portable gaming device called the iGame, as well as an idea that Apple will sell games for it. However, Apple now sells games for the iPod as part of the iTunes Music Store, which eventually did prove some of the article true.

•2007: A preview for Mushroom Kingdom Hearts, a new game in the Kingdom Hearts series, exclusive to the Wii and the third installment into the Kingdom Hearts Series (fourth if the side-story Chain of Memories is to be counted). The game would star numerous Disney characters as well as exactly 41 characters from Nintendo properties such as Mario, who would be a playable character.

•2008: A preview for Lego Halo , which provoked many angry letters from people accusing Bungie (the makers of the Halo series) of encouraging small children to play violent video games.

That felt good.

Here’s to a great Gaming Icon! Goodbye EGM!

Goodbye Sushi X! Sniff.

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