Hi! I'm looking for a hi-res version of the infamous "John Romero's About to Make You His Bitch" ad in magazines from that time, but I just can't seem to find it.

The book Masters of Doom states the ad ran in all major publications in April 1997, on Romero's website he says the ad backfired and they fired the marketing guy, Mike Wilson, in December 1997. I searched every big game magazine in that time window and couldn't find it. I've looked upon CGW, PC Gamer, Next Generation, EGM, GamePro and a few others.

Am I missing something?

Does anyone remember seeing it in a specific publication?

I know I saw it at the time, and I'd swear it was in either EGM, PC Gamer or GamePro. I was going to suggest PC Accelerator, but in looking it up, their first issue was in '98, so that's unlikely. (also, jeebus, PCXL in hindsight... any younger folks reading this post: Think about that infamous PSP licking photo, except that was the whole fucking magazine. That and terrible "humor". Not everything about gaming in the 90s was great)

Edit: Just flipped through a scan of PCXL #1, and yeah, no dice. Also, fuck, it's worse than I remembered. I love poring through old game magazines, but I intentionally avoided most of the writing in this. Yeesh.

That ad is hilarious. We live in such a different time now, but even back then that thing getting greenlit was mind blowing.

SUCK IT DOWN, BITCH.

I went through the archives of all of those, some multiple times by now. I'm really starting to wonder if it ever really happened.

(You can check the archive here, if you'd like. http://retrocdn.net/Category:Shared_magazine_scans )

I definitely saw it appear in PC Gamer in the US, which was the only PC gaming magazine I was subscribed to during that time period. No access to scans though, I'm afraid.

This has become my obsession now. I *know* I saw this ad in print. Surely it wouldn't have achieved the infamy it did if we're all misremembering and the ad never actually got printed. Especially given that it was just one of *many* ill-advised game ads in its day.

I have got to find this ad in a scan. This is bizarre.

Whenever this comes up, I have to remind people that the GBA version is ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD!

All I ever really knew about Daikatana was getting an issue of PC Zone which came with a promo disc full of Eidos stuff alongside the usual demo disc. Obviously there was either a demo or a preview video of Daikatana among other stuff, but the main thing I remember was the menu video, a silhouette of two men on a coach in front of a TV that had very short lo-res clips of the games on the disc, and at one point Daikatana comes up & they go in this absurd accent that was somewhere between Brummie & Scouse "Daikatana? What's Daikatana?"

I think of that annoying voice every fucking time someone mentions Daikatana, & I just needed to share my pain.

I saw it in PCZone at the time.

I have definitely seen that ad, like recently while looking through a bunch of scanned games magazines. Cannot remember specifically which one.

I was looking through a lot of PC Gamer UK magazines around the time Gary Whitta was editor. Also read a lot of CGW and EDGE.

This was the top result when searching "daikatana ad"

@colossalghost: I think OP meant seeing the ad in an actual magazine, rather than the ad itself. I really like the ad though. The 'suck it down' part makes me laugh so hard.

@dudeglove: That's what I thought. Especially knowing the exact time frame it could have ran. But nothing still.

The fact that tons of people told me they remember seeing it for sure in magazines such as PC Gamer UK, EGM, CGW and the fact that I've searched all of those way past and before the possible time window is making me really start to question reality and everything I once held as truth.