Power Play (magazine)

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Power play
Power Play Logo.png
description Computer games magazine
publishing company Future Publishing House
Headquarters Munich
First edition November 1987
attitude April 2000
Frequency of publication per month
Editor-in-chief Ralf Mueller
ISSN (print) 0937-9754

The Power Play was next to the ASM one of the first German computer game magazines . It was published from 1987 to 2000 and was at times market leader in its segment.

It is not to be confused with PC PowerPlay magazine , which appeared from late 2004 to October 2007. From 2012 to 2013 there was a new edition of the magazine, CHIP Power Play , in which numerous former editors of the original were involved. At the beginning of 2014, a purely digital edition of Power Play for tablets was announced. However, it has not been implemented.

history

The Power Play emerged from the games part of the Happy Computer and appeared after a few special issues from the end of 1988 as a regular monthly supplement. From the beginning of 1990, Power Play was finally published as an independent magazine. Like the Happy Computer , it was moved by Markt & Technik Verlag in Haar near Munich, where the editorial offices were also located. The first editor-in-chief was Heinrich Lenhardt , the editorial team included Boris Schneider , Martin Gaksch and Anatol Locker , who also played a key role in the conception of the magazine. Later came among others Michael Hengst , Knut Gollert , Winnie Forster and Richard Eisenmenger added.

The serial comic Starkiller, drawn by Rolf Boyke , appeared in the magazine by 1993 . Boyke also worked as a layouter for the magazine.

The Power Play also brought out some special issues at irregular intervals. These included Power Play PC (only tests of PC games, with a 5.25-inch diskette with demos or e.g. the full version of the Atomino game ), tips & tricks specials or a special edition on the best games. Books like Die Mogel-Spiele-Power (1994) were also published with the Power Play label by Markt & Technik.

From 1991 onwards, Video Games, a sister magazine, was also published by the same publisher, although it was limited to software for game consoles. Conversely, Power Play , which initially reported on PC games as well as those for consoles, home computers and arcade machines as a multi-format magazine, developed over time into a pure PC magazine. The final step in this regard took place in issue 12/1994, when the focus on PCs was announced in the letters to the editor and the words “Jetzt 100% PC” appeared on the cover.

In the early 1990s, many editors left the publisher and made partly with their own magazines independently : Heinrich Lenhardt and Boris Schneider founded in 1992, the PC player , Winnie Forster, Martin Gaksch and Andreas Knauf called 1993 MAN AC! To life. Even after large parts of the original editorial team had left, several well-known specialist journalists began their careers at Power Play , including Stephan Freundorfer .

In 1995, the entire August issue was confiscated and destroyed by the Munich public prosecutor's office because the magazine contained advertisements for games that were then indexed. The WEKA-Verlag , to which the Power Play belonged, suffered a loss in the six-figure range.

In the second half of the 1990s, Power Play came under increasing pressure in view of stiff competition and internal problems, so that WEKA-Verlag sold the magazine to Future Verlag in the summer of 1999 . After a relaunch , the last issue was published in April 2000. The property was then continued as an online magazine until the end of Future Verlag.

Chip Power Play

The Chip-Communications-Verlag wrote a special issue at the end of 2012 in honor of the 25th birthday of Power Play . It bears the title Chip Power Play , was created under the direction of Heinrich Lenhardt and contains contemporary articles by former Power Play editors as well as contributions by other authors. The authors include Heinrich Lenhardt, Winnie Forster, Anatol Locker, Michael Hengst, Jörg Langer , Roland Austinat, Harald Fränkel , Denis Brown and Stephan Freundorfer. The contents of the magazine and the accompanying DVD related equally to current and past game themes.

Encouraged by the success of this special edition, Chip Communications revived the magazine as the quarterly line extension of its flagship CHIP . According to Andreas Laube, Head of Sales and Product Management at Chip, the publisher had sold around 15,000 copies of the special edition published in November 2012. According to Laube, many readers expressed their wish for a sequel in letters to the editor. The first regular issue of Chip Power Play was published on May 22, 2013. After just four issues, the magazine was discontinued, the last issue appeared in November 2013.

Web links

  • kultpower.de - Covers and scanned test reports of the Power Play 1/88 - 4/2000
  • kultpower.de - Archive with 36 issues as pictures ( Power Play 1/88 - 10/91)
  • archive.org - Archive with the first 38 issues as PDF with bookmarks ( Power Play 1/88 - 5/91)
  • kultboy.com - Covers, ratings and scanned reviews of Power Play 1/87 - 4/2000, special issues 1/89 - 4/98

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Power Play Issue 1, Markt & Technik: Preview (page 113): "The next issue of Power Play will be published on December 28, 1987"
  2. ↑ ibusiness.de: Power Play Digital
  3. ↑ mogelpower.de: The story of MogelPower
  4. ↑ Coverscan Edition 12/1994 "It has been suggested for a long time, now it is official: In future, POWER PLAY will only take care of PC games and CD-ROM entertainment software." Ulrike Peters in: Power Play 12/1994, page 91
  5. ↑ Kirsten Althof: PRESS: Blackened Breasts - Industry in turmoil: Computer magazines are in trouble because of advertising for porn software in: Focus from August 7, 1995
  6. ↑ dnv-online.de ( CHIP brings POWER PLAY permanently back into the press trade )