Future publishing was a great believer in the power of a free gift either stuck to the front of their magazines, or in the bag with the magazine. Almost every issue of N64, NGC and NGamer came with at least one Free gift, and occasionally there might be two or three with the magazine.
Along with the usual tip books there were a lot of unique free gifts given away over the years, and while we could never cover every one of those, Here are some of our favourites.
The Poster Magazines
The poster magazines that came free with issues of N64 and NGC are probably different from any other poster magazine you have ever seen. They are designed to look like a fictional magazine from a games universe. For example the Lylat Wars magazine was named Gentleman Space Adventure Quarterly and Metroid Prime's Magazine was a sales brochure offering trips to the planets from Metroid Prime.
Each magazine had a cover page, an introduction page (written by the editor of the fictional magazine), a couple of articles and a 4 page pull out feature, normally with a mapped guide to the game or something similar.
All in all, these are very funny reads and quite a departure from the normal contents
VHS Tapes and DVD's
Issues 1 and 5 on N64 magazine and the first issue of NGC all came with VHS tapes, containing footage of upcoming games. For the redesign of NGC and the Gamecube's launch this was translated into DVD form, which included all sorts of added extras.
For NGamer, they devised a DVD to be included with every issue, these were seen as a way of producing more content for the magazines, with previews and reviews of games as well as features - the kind of things you would now find on Youtube. The staff often commentated over the footage of the games, which included Matthew’s humorously bad attempts at playing the Wii’s virtual console games.
Unfortunately the majority of the NGTV videos have been lost to the depths of time, however if you have any of these DVD’s we would be happy to hear from you.
The Fridge Magnet
Probably N64 magazine’s greatest free gift, the FuSoYa fridge magnet was a word game where you had to make up a small game review, with a selection of words provided for you. These words included all the N64 magazine staff’s names along with various humorous words. This was also a competition based around this in issue 22, where they asked readers to send in their funniest review for the chance to win an N64 and a game.
The Wii Wheel (Worth Seven Pounds)
This free gift gained a life of its own in NGamer folklore - after it came emblazoned with the strapline “Worth Seven Pounds”. It definitely was not worth seven pounds however. The wheel was made from a shoddy black plastic, which barely fitted the Wii remote inside, and creaked when played with. The joke “Worth Seven Pounds” was reused throughout NGamer’s life, as a sarcastic comment for things that weren’t really worth their price.
Double game guide +
Named as it had Two full game guides, and a number of other tips, and ran from issue 12 of N64 magazine almost till the end. These guides often contained brand new information not included in the core magazine’s How To pages, and were an easy access guide when you needed it.
Individual Game guides and Compendiums were also included with several issues of N64, NGC and NGamer, and the Double Game Guide + was also revamped for several NGamer Issues.
Your Say
What free gifts do you remember from the magazines you bought? Are there any you still use today? Have your say in the comments.