The Electronic Gaming Monthly Compendium

The EGM Digital Archive is almost here—along with a quick project update and some questions answered!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Mar 18, 2025 at 04:50:33 PM

Hi everyone! We’ve got a quick update on the project, along with answers to some recurring questions we’re getting that we’d like to put into one convenient place.

Apple IDs

We are still waiting for responses from approximately 200 backers who used Apple IDs to set up their Kickstarter accounts. Obviously, we don’t want you to have to alter the way you have your accounts set up, but we also can’t get the backer survey to you unless we have a valid email address that is not an Apple relay email.

So, this is a quick request to any of you who have not yet received your backer survey, and who use an Apple ID as your account email on Kickstarter: Please reach out to us either by sending a direct message via Kickstarter or by sending an email to [email protected]. You can also use both of those methods to send any other questions you may have about this in case you’re not sure if it applies to you or not.

Additionally, we still have about 1400 other backers who have not sent in their surveys yet.  There’s still a bit more time to do this, but for those who are entitled to have their name in the book, time is running out! If you have the survey but haven’t gotten around to filling it out, now is the perfect time to do so. If you still haven’t received it or can’t find it, do not hesitate to reach out so we can escalate your request and have it either re-sent to you or send you a link where you can access it. We just want to make sure everyone gets their information into us on time!

With that out of the way we’d like to give you some updates on The EGM Compendium book and Digital Archive:

Book Update

We received dummy mock-ups of the book last week and they were, in a word, “stunning!” We’re really excited to get the printed dummy books which are coming next week and are the next step in the process. They let us confirm the quality of printing on a chunk of the book pages that we provided to the printer. This is the normal process on any printed item. As we noted in our update in January, we are currently on schedule to get the full book to the printer in June, and should have the final printed copies off the press 2-3 weeks after that date.

We have internally discussed releasing the digital version of the book (which will obviously be done in advance of the printed version) earlier so everyone can see it—however, some argue that it will take the wind out of the sails of the book’s big reveal. We’re open to hearing from our backers what you think the best approach should be, and welcome your input. Let us know want you’d like to see happen in the comments!

EGM Digital Archive

On the Digital Archive front, we’ve please to say that we have the site up and running across desktop, tablets, and mobile, and are going through the final internal tests. While the experience is best on desktop—as many archives of media or information are—it is still a nice experience on mobile and tablets as well, and it was important to us to go the extra mile to make it work for all readers. We are planning to roll out the Beta version of the Digital Archive in the next couple weeks to our backers. The version you get will include all 264* issues of the original Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, and enable you to do detailed searches of content based on the game titles, platforms, publishers, writers, and more! You’ll also be able to view and read all 5,703 reviews that appeared in the magazine and sort the reviews by score, title, and reviewer (among other things).

* So that we don't spoil the fun of you receiving your print copy, EGM #237—aka the infamous "Lost Issue"—won't be up just yet.

Literally thousands of hours have gone into indexing the issues so you can easily find anything you’d like to read from the magazine’s entire 25-year run. We do want to be clear, however: While we’ve come a long way in achieving that goal, there are still some instances in which you might find the searchable metadata is not yet fully fleshed out. We’ll be filling any of those holes after launch, but we felt like the site was at a point where it’s time to get it in your hands so you can start enjoying it. As well, issue downloads won’t be available at launch, as there’s a couple of things left to finish up before we turn those on, and upgrades to the Digital Archive that came through stretch goals—such as the inclusion of EGM2, or the option to read text versions of articles—is also still to come.

To give you a sneak peek at the Digital Archive, here’s a short video where I run through many of its major features in action, so that you can get a feel for how it all works and what you’ll be able to access later this month.

Some Additions to the FAQ

While we have addressed a lot of the most pertinent questions in the FAQ (which you can read here), we are continuing to get some recurring questions that we’d like to highlight in this update, and which we will further emphasize in the FAQ going forward.  Some of the main points include:

I just backed the project and haven’t received my survey yet. What gives?
Late pledges will receive their backer survey as long as they’re not using an Apple ID on their Kickstarter account (in that case, as noted above, you’ll need to send us a valid direct email to get the survey to you) within 3-5 days after backing. This is something that’s out of our control, as it takes a short period of time for Kickstarter to forward the information for your order over to BackerKit, and for them to then generate and email the survey. If you back the project and don’t see the survey after a week, however, please message us and we’ll get it squared away.

When is the book shipping?
As we noted in our update back in January (and reiterated in this update above), The EGM Compendium book is now on track to release in July.  We are taking the extra time to add some additional features, boost up the page count, and give you even more insight into the history of gaming as chronicled in the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly.

When are the other rewards shipping?
We are currently planning to ship all of the printed items—all editions of the book, Lost Issue, EGM #265, and poster—together in July. The enamel pins and rolled posters will be sent separately at around the same time. The reason for this is that we intend to mail the printed materials out as fourth class postage using the USPS. Fourth class is a special postage designation that allows us to send printed materials like books and magazines at a special rate and allows us to provide tracking for each shipment so that all of you can follow exactly where your shipment is from the moment it leaves our hands until it gets into yours.  Unfortunately, this kind of shipping can’t be used if things other than books and magazines are included (like enamel pins) so it ends up being easier for us to ship these things separately to the group that is entitled to receive them.

And Finally…

Last but not least, a quick shout-out to all of you, our backers, who have willed this project into existence with a huge outpouring of support that has catapulted The EGM Compendium into the fifth-most funded book (in any category!) of all time on Kickstarter! To say we continue to be blown away by the response is an understatement, and we can never say “Thank You” too much.  So, thank you again.

Feel free to reach out to us at any time if you have any questions, either by dropping a comment or sending a message via Kickstarter.  

The BackerKit Survey Is Out—Here’s What to Do if You Didn’t Get One
over 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 10:20:33 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Use your Apple ID with Kickstarter? Read this to make sure you get the survey!
over 1 year ago – Mon, Feb 10, 2025 at 03:53:09 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Everything You Need to Know About the Upcoming BackerKit Survey
over 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 07, 2025 at 04:22:19 PM

Hello again to our wonderful EGM Compendium community!

We’re preparing to send out our BackerKit survey, with the first batch of emails expected to go out Wednesday, February 12th. In case this is your first time backing a project on Kickstarter or using BackerKit for a campaign, we wanted to run down exactly what you can expect, and hopefully answer any big questions you may have.

Let’s start with timing. As I said above, we expect to start sending out surveys this coming Wednesday, with a randomly assigned 5% of backers at each pledge level getting them first, per BackerKit policy. This "Smoke Test" is to verify we have everything set up properly. If there’s any kind of issue, it’s better to catch it when only a handful of people are responding, rather than having to fix problems with thousands of you at once!

After we’ve confirmed all is good with the initial batch, we’ll send out surveys to the remainder of the backers, which we expect to happen on Thursday, February 13th. So if you don’t get the survey on Wednesday, don’t fret. It’s coming, and it’s coming soon. We’ll post a quick note here when the survey has gone out to all current backers.

What if you’re a late backer showing up to the campaign after the survey has already gone out? Don’t worry. BackerKit automatically imports new Kickstarter Late Pledges every few days, and sends out surveys to anyone who hasn’t yet received one. So if you back the campaign after the survey goes out, you’ll get yours via email within a few days.

We’ve mentioned this a few times in previous updates, but just to reiterate: The BackerKit survey will automatically go to the email associated with the Kickstarter account you used to back the campaign—the same one where you should be receiving this update right now.

If for whatever reason you haven’t receive the survey by Monday, February 17th, when you (and we) expect you will, please leave a comment here or reach out and we’ll investigate to make sure you get it. (And please double-check that it’s not in your spam folder first!)

As for what to expect from the actual survey, it’s quite simple on your end.

First, you’ll confirm your general location—your country and state or province, as necessary.

Then, if applicable to your pledge tier, you’ll get a few short questions to answer based upon the tier you supported. This includes things like what name you’d like to appear in the book (plus a backup name if you’re worried about someone sharing your first choice), and a contact email if one is required for your rewards.

Next, if you purchased any add-ons through Kickstarter, you’ll see a list allowing you to confirm they look correct. On the next screen, you’ll have a chance to modify your order by including other add-ons that weren’t part of your original pledge. Some of these will be familiar from the Kickstarter campaign, but we’ve added a few new ones in response to backer feedback, too. For example, you can now add a print copy of EGM #237 ("The Lost Issue") if you didn’t pledge for one initially (or, if you did, you can add a second copy if you’d like one to read and one to collect). You can also pledge for an extra print copy of the upcoming, all-new EGM #265 (or a first copy, if the rest of your order is digital).

Backers in the Special Collector's Edition, Quartermanniac, and Special Collector's Edition II Turbo tiers who want to upgrade their EGM Covers Poster to a larger 27"x39" size, shipped separately from the rest of their order rolled in a tube, can now optionally choose that as an add-on, too.

And finally, if there’s enough interest, we’ll be offering some new wearable EGM merch, so keep an eye out for that on the add-on page as well.

If your add-on selections require any additional information like a name in the book or contact email, you’ll fill out a few more basic questions to provide those details.

Next, you’ll enter your shipping address. For those backers who may be moving between now and when the book delivers, don’t worry. You’ll be able to return to BackerKit and update your address (as well as other aspects of your order) until we lock everything closer to the ship date (and we’ll give you some advance notice before that happens).

As the final step, if you have any outstanding balance as a result of new add-ons, you’ll need to provide your credit card information to BackerKit. Please note, however, that you will not be charged until we collect funds, closer to shipping.

And if you don’t have any outstanding balance, all you need to do is click to confirm, and you’re all set!

Finally, we wanted to offer one additional note to avoid confusion: The BackerKit survey will not include any of the questions related to backer voting for features and other content in The EGM Compendium or EGM #265. We didn’t want filling out the BackerKit Survey to be a long or complicated process, and we want to keep that fulfillment data separate from the voting data.

We’re in the process of setting up the voting on Google Forms now, and we’ll be sending out links to you via a Kickstarter update separately within the next few weeks.

We’re excited to start the BackerKit process with you and take this important next step in getting The EGM Compendium into your hands! Thanks again to all who have shown their support to EGM and the campaign—it is appreciated!

Dig deep into the past with The EGM Compendium Digital Archive
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 04:45:57 PM

In order to craft a book like The EGM Compendium, we’ve put a lot of time, effort, and care into going back through every issue of EGM to create a detailed database on the games, industry personalities, writers, and articles that helped fill their pages. All of that data was essential to our goal of making sure that The EGM Compendium would be as definitive of a look back as possible at both the magazine’s decades-long run, and the games industry as a whole during those years.

Before even getting to EGM² or the various additional materials we’re adding to the Digital Archive, we’ve been looking through just over 40,000 pages across EGM’s 264 issues, and filled out over 21,000 rows of information about the content they contained. With so many pieces of individual data to sift through, we knew we needed to build tools to properly contextualize it all. In doing so, what we found was that we were also creating a powerful resource unlike anything else available, not just for gaming magazines but for any magazine ever.

Once we open up access to the Digital Archive, you’ll be able to go back and read through the pages of any of EGM’s issues in digital form, or additional materials like Buyer’s Guides and EGM² once they’re added. More and more in recent years, we’ve seen too many examples of video game magazines or sources of gaming history suddenly going away, so we consider the preservation of EGM’s print run a vital piece of our efforts.

The thing is, while letting you go back and read those issues digitally is important, there’s also so much more we can do with the platform we’ve created. The Digital Archive isn’t just about reading that content from EGM’s past—it’s also about searching for and finding it in a powerful new way.

At a base level, once logged in to the Digital Archive, you’ll be able to browse a list of every issue of EGM, pick any that you’d like, and then get an overview of what that issue contained. Press a button to jump straight into the news or rumors sections, check out a rundown of its reviews (complete with editors’ names and scores), or scroll through a list of features and previews to find the exact one you want to read—all before even looking at a single page of the magazine itself.

If you don’t know where to start, you can head over to one of our pre-built Indexes. There, you can dig through the archives for everything we’ve cataloged relating to a specific console, every time we interviewed a particular developer, all of the work of your favorite editor, and more. Most importantly, all of those options aren’t just focused on the biggest, most expected names and brands—we’ve also cataloged all the way down to those companies, game releases, writers, or interviewees whose appearance you might never have noticed when having so many pages to look through.

And, perhaps most exciting of all, we’ve built a powerful search engine to let you hone in on articles to an incredible degree. Want a list of the many times that Mortal Kombat showed up on the cover of EGM? Simple. Want to check out every preview we did for a Final Fantasy game where we talked to famed creator Hironobu Sakaguchi? You got it. What to see every Sega Genesis title that saw its U.S. localization canceled between the time we received the game for review and when the issue with said review hit? Yes, that’s an actual thing—and you can find the one game that fits that specific criteria using the Digital Archive.

For us, preserving the long history of EGM as a print publication isn’t just about making sure the issues themselves aren’t lost to time—it’s also about making sure that everything written within them isn’t lost in the shuffle. All of that comes through a huge amount of effort we’ve put into hand-cataloging the editorial contents of each issue, even when the details required to do so didn’t come easily. There have been more than a few times when a game only ever existed in the pages of EGM as a singular screenshot with no text to go along with it. To the extent that we’ve been able to, we’ve worked to track down names, platforms, and company details for even those small inclusions, so that you’ll be able to find them through search and on the issue page.

We can’t wait to tell (and show) you more about both the Digital Archive and The EGM Compendium itself, and we can’t thank you enough for your support in making sure that the long, rich history of EGM is accessible and modernized in a way that will help it endure into the future.

QUICK UPDATE ON BACKER KIT: Before we head off into the weekend, we also wanted to give you a quick update on the implementation of BackerKit. We are now planning to deploy the form that will allow you to provide your mailing address and other information pertaining to your reward tier (e.g., the name you want to appear in the book) sometime in the next two weeks. We will provide another update when this happens.

Please note: EGM Digital Archive design and functionality subject to change.