archive.org is the only real website on this earth
(the kind of thing people say after doing a lot of research thru wikipedia and BoardGameGeek, of course)
Abyss
supplement zine
samples: uhhhh these screenshots are so arduous to browse. Will find better
Adventurer Magazine
sample: an eleven issue collection
Ares
samples: Issue 1 (1980) | an archive.org collection!
Asimov's Science Fiction:
good fiction mag with occasional reviews of or ads for ttrpg things
samples: a collection - honestly these are wonderful, but they can't be skimmed at all
Breakout! Magazine
samples: Issue 21 (1986)
Casus Belli - exists in French. ---- ah, yes. I understand completely
Computer & Video Game Magazine
samples: Issue 78 (1988)
i can't remember why i included this
but they reviewed every formative CRPG
some of which started surpassing the paper material as soon as the mid-80s imho
Different Worlds
Chaosium's organ
info/summaries of various issues: here
samples: Issue 40 (1985)
Dragon
Official Dungeon and Dragons stuff and beyond. years and years and years of great work
samples: Issues 251 (1998) to 280 (2001), complete and browseable - so much Rebecca Guay art during this era!
there are obviously a billion of these but they seem to be monitored on archive.org?
the scant few I found other than this collection were under the stupid library system
Fantastic Science Fiction
indescribably long running
samples: Issue for April 1980 - apparently includes a synopsis of early RPG releases
Imagine: Adventure Game Magazine
another TSR-related mag
samples: Issue 1 (1983)
link leads to a collection of the first thirty issues, or possibly the only thirty issues
Jeux et stratégie - exists in French. ---- doesn't understand a thing
Moves - described here
intimidating. wargamer stuff is kinda freaky sometimes
Nexus
not the indie superhero
samples: Vol. 2, Issue 11 (1985?)
Perfidious Albion
gloriously type-written
samples: here (1st issue 1975)
a incomplete browseable collection
Polyhedron
TSR-RPGA newsletter
samples: Issue 1 (1981)
an incomplete browseable collection with 120 items
The Space Gamer
samples: Issue 1 (1975)
link currently leads to the entire browseable collection
The Strategic Review
samples: Issue 1 (1975)
link includes six other browseable issues
White Dwarf
begins as a rpg and wargames supplement; becomes a Games Workshop brochure (good) and then a Games Workshop brochure (bad)
samples: Issue 1 (1977)
link currently leads to the first hundred issues
Ian Livingstone's "Dicing With Dragons", 1982. uhhh might have to buy it?
here's an article about it
John Eric Holmes's "Fantasy Role Playing Games", 1981, here (gotta log in)
Frank N. Magill's "Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature", 1983, here (gotta log in)
Jon Freeman's "The Complete Book of Wargames", 1980, summarized here
1979 Origins awards: results here... but there must be write-ups
A history of RuneQuest: here
Genericizing Bunnies & Burrows to work in G.U.R.P.S: here
this seems like the greatest game of all time
info about Tunnel & Trolls-related zines: here
one has a Cabaret Voltaire front cover so I am in my element
more: here. I wanna see insiiiiiiiiiide
The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society: god if only these fucking links worked
Tunnels and Trolls door game implementation: here
and... do something with this: