I still have issues 100, 150, and 200 of "old" EGM. They are fantastic - particularly issue 100 - and I am still trying to play through every game on their "best games of all time" lists.
I already mentioned Nintendo Power's quality going up recently. But I wanted to mention this one, since I haven't seen anyone else mention it:
It was one of my favorites as a kid. It was always very thick and informative, it followed ALL consoles, even ones like TurboGrafx-16 and 3DO; and it had a great cheats section in the back that was all kinds of useful in my pre-internet days.
I avoid Edge magazine, because it's consistently reads like first year Eng Lit student trying to justify their place on the course. Just. So. Pretentious.
I hit up the decent-to-good GamesTM, which, like most magazines these days, carry a nudge of corporate influence, but are relatively unbiased and manage to write up an undiscovered classic or stick the knife in on a overrated AAA title 8-out-of-10 times. It's as good as it gets this age, outside of the indy scene.
Retrogamer is quality, but it suffers sometimes from trying to cover too broad a spectrum (no pun meant), or, at least, pleasing too many tastes.
