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Arcade Alley

Video
Video magazine Cover 1978.png
Frequency 1977-1979: Quarterly
1980-1999: Monthly
Format 28 cm
Publisher Reese Publishing Company, Inc.
First issue November 1977
Final issue 1999
Company Reese Publishing Company, Inc.
Country North America
Based in 235 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10003
Language English language
ISSN 0147-8907
OCLC number 3428421

Video is a discontinued American consumer electronics magazine that was published from 1977 to 1999 by Reese Communications with a focus on video and audio devices. The magazine showcases new audiovisual products, analyzes current practices and trends in the field, and provides critical reviews of newly marketed products and equipment. During its early years, it competed fiercely with contemporary journals like Video Review and Video Buyer's Review—ultimately culminating in a 1980 trademark infringement suit over use of the term "Video Buyer's Guide". In March 1995, Video was acquired from Reese by Hachette Filipacchi, and in 1999 it was merged with their bi-monthly Sound & Image magazine to become Sound & Vision.

Today, the legacy of Video lies in the history of video game journalism as its regular column, "Arcade Alley", represents the earliest example of a video game column in a mainstream publication. Arcade Alley is credited with having popularized the nascent medium, leading its two main writers to create the first US video game magazine, Electronic Games.

Video was founded in 1977 by Reese Communications publisher Jay Rosenfield with a small team including editors Rena Adler and Deeny Kaplan, marketing director Thomas Koger, circulation director Max H. Wolff, and contributors including Kenneth Lorber, Dee Shannon, Wayne Hyde, and Ivan Berger and Lancelot Braithwaite. The magazine's first issue was published in November 1977 with subsequent issues appearing quarterly for the first three years until 1980 when it became a monthly publication. The last issue of each year was a special edition titled "Video Buyer's Guide" which was intended to serve as a guide to products that consumers would be using during the upcoming year, thus the special Buyer's Guide published at the end of 1977 was titled "1978 Video Buyer's Guide". The buyer's guide proved popular among readers, selling 18,440 copies in 1977 and 25,635 copies in 1978.

Competition sprang up rapidly and Video soon shared the consumer video magazine market with publications like Richard Ekstract's Video Review, Hampton International Communications's Video Buyer's Review, and United Business Publications's Home Video. Richard Ekstract was widely regarded as an imitator by Video staffers including Arnie Katz who claimed that Ekstract's later-published Electronic Fun was attempting to imitate Katz's Electronic Games.


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