Family Computer Magazine

Family Computer Magazine, nicknamed Famimaga (ファミリーコンピュータMagazine, ファミマガ), is an discontinued Japanese video game magazine that focused on video games and consoles developed by Nintendo. It was published by Tokuma Shoten.

Overview
Family Computer Magazine was the first magazine dedicated to Nintendo hardware and software. Uniquely from the other magazines that would follow such as Famicom Tsushin (Famitsu), Famimaga was edited in traditional Japanese style with right-to-left binding and vertically written text.

Originally, it had a strong focus on arcade games ports with multi-page features and developer interviews, and readers could answer questionaires on what arcade games they wanted to see ported to Famicom. This focus faded as arcade games become more technically complex and harder to port, and also because of the original software for Famicom became more common. One of the most famous features was the ”ultra techniques”, which consisted of various tricks, secrets and even bugs. Among these was also included a false ”lie technique”, which readers were asked to identify. Sometimes the game developers restricted what could be published as ”ultra techs”, often because of the coverage of bugs could be seen as hurting the quality of the game. Famimaga also featured serialized mangas, including Diskun's Manga Topic starring the Family Computer Disk System mascot.

During the early days, the magazine staff collaborated with Nintendo in editing instruction manuals for Family Computer Disk System games. They also wrote several strategy guides, most notably Super Mario Bros. Complete Strategy Guide, which sold over a million copies and was released in English as How to Win at Super Mario Bros. exclusively for Nintendo Fun Club readers.

Famimaga began to lose readers due to the low popularity of Nintendo 64 in Japan, the readers switching to competing magazine Famitsu, and the financical difficulties Tokuma Shoten was facing. Named Famimaga 64 at the time, a weekly spin-off magazine Famimaga Weekly was launched to boost the magazine sales, but it was discontinued after six months. The merged May/June 1998 issue was the last one released. The staff then formed their own editorial department Ambit and began to edit the successor magazine Nintendo Stadium. This magazine changed publishers from Tokuma Shoten to Mainichi Communications, the publisher of Nintendo DREAM which it was intergrated into.

To commemorate the release of Nintendo Classic Mini Family Computer console, Famimaga was revived as Nintendo Classic Mini Family Computer Magazine (ニンテンドークラシックミニ ファミリーコンピュータMagazine). It is a mook containing information on the console, the games included in it, and the ”Ultra Technique” and manga sections. A DVD-ROM supplement contains over a thousand pages of PDF scans of Famicom era articles and strategy guides. The ”Mini Super Famicom Special Issue” (ニンテンドークラシックミニ ファミリーコンピュータMagazine ミニスーパーファミコン特集号) was released to commemorate the release of Nintendo Classic Mini Super Famicom console, with the DVD-ROM containing over 2000 pages of PDF scans of Super Famicom era articles as well as a separate strategy guide for Star Fox and the previously unreleased Star Fox 2.

Nintendo DREAM extras
As Ambit was formed by the people who edited Family Computer Magazine, Nintendo DREAM would occasionally release Famimaga-themed supplements in form of booklets containing reprints of old articles. One was released in honor of the Famicom's 30th anniversary, and three more to parallel with the Nintendo Classic Mini revival issues.