Posted on by Alexander Case

Nintendo Power Retrospectives: Part 108

Very light issue this time, as this issue is covering a lot of other games that we’ve already covered.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

[Where I Read] NextGen Magazine #1

It has been a long time since I did Where I Read for a video game magazine, as much of the work I had been putting into my read through of Nintendo Power has been going into the Nintendo Power Retrospectives, and the second magazine I’d been covering – Electronic Gaming Monthly – has made something of a return. However, with my coverage of Nintendo Power for the show having reached 1995, I feel like I’ve lost some perspective on where the game industry was at this point, so I’ve decided to launch a read-through of another magazine, that is contemporaneous for where we are in gaming in the N.P.R.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Computer Gaming World V. 1, #1

CGW Issue 1 CoverI’m taking a break from Analog Computing this week to instead take a look at the first issue of Computer Gaming World, for November-December of 1981.

We start off with an ad from SSI, hyping their port of their Civil War Strategy game “Battle of Shiloh” and the World War II game “Battle of the Bulge: Tigers in the Snow.” It’s kind of interesting. Nowadays we’re used to strategy games which will take either larger battles or even campaigns and allow the player to control them from the strategic level all the way down to the tactical level, like with the Total War games. Whereas here, on the other hand, you’re either on the strategic level, or the tactical level. If you’re on the tactical level you’re controlling a fairly generic fight or only one battle, and if you’re on the strategic level you’re either controlling a massive battle (like the Battle of the Bulge), or you’re controlling an entire theater of operations. Read more