Electric Brain

Electric Brain (formerly known as PC Engine Fanatics, then Console Ma'zine) was a British video game magazine which ran from 1989 to 1993. The name Electric Brain comes from the literal translation of the Chinese word for computer.
The editor throughout the life of the magazine was Onn Lee The British Library holds copies of the Space City published issues.
History
The first issue was a handmade fanzine, created by Onn Lee, which was released in April 1989 as PC Engine Fanatics (not to be confused with the Japanese magazine PC Engine Fan) and its availability was advertised in various magazines, including The Games Machine. From issue 09, released in January 1990, the magazine's name changed to Console Ma'zine (sometimes Console Magazine in early mentions) to reflect its new multi-platform coverage, whose availability was advertised in Zero, New Computer Express, and . Electric Brain was the final name for the multi-platform magazine, and with it came a publisher and high street distribution. A brief history of Electric Brain is featured in Super Play issue 23.
Electric Brain was released at a time when there was no easy way for UK gamers to access information about Japanese gaming in an affordable or timely manner. So Electric Brain offered a way for UK people to keep up with the Japanese gaming scene. The same approach was taken by Super Play, the magazine that writer Jason Brookes went on to write for. Electric Brain also featured content not often seen in other magazines, such as the console modding guide in issue 34 which showed how to modify a Sega Mega Drive to display Japanese text and/or play games at 60Hz.
In its final form the magazine covered console gaming on systems such as NEC's PC Engine, Nintendo's SNES, Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis and Mega CD systems, and SNK's Neo Geo.
Writers who worked on Electric Brain wrote for other contemporary video game magazines: Jason Brookes was a staff writer on Super Play and is credited with infusing that magazine with its much lauded Japanese and hardcore Nintendo aesthetic, was editor of EDGE, and worked as an international correspondent for Japanese magazine Famitsu. Whilst Nick Burne contributed to Super Play. Other writers were already part of, or went on to become part of, the video game industry such as Brian Flanagan who started his career at Ocean Software.
In 1994, after the end of Electric Brain, Lee started a new self-published, magazine called GAP (Games Amusement Pleasure). The interview was next translated into English over 20 years later, partially in 2012 and completely in 2016.
The original Japanese interview was published in Famitsu #162 (1992-01-24) and was republished, still in Japanese, as part of 2019-04-25 issue of Famitsu which included a "VIP Interviews Reprinted Book", containing a selection of the most important interviews of the Heisei era (1989-2019).
Connection to Viz
The final run of the magazine featured illustrations and cartoons by Viz artist John Fardell.

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