Where I Read – Nintendo Power #21

We move on to issue 21 of Nintendo Power. Our cover story is StarTropics. The cover art is much better than last issue, with an interesting mix of drawn art with papercraft art. Again their editorial is hyping the coverage in this magazine (re-stating the table of contents). Though, they do say one contraversial thing… only it’d probably only be contraversial if the internet was more wide spread – they say that the NES port of Ultima: Quest of the Avatar is better than the PC version. I’m going to have to take issue with that. Not a big issue, but a slight one.

Letters: We get more letters about invincible NES Control Decks and Game Boys. We also have a woman with a pet racoon that she named Tanooki. For the record – Exotic Pets Are Bad!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II – The Arcade Game Guide: I’m surprised this wasn’t on the cover, considering that at this point, Turtlemania is running wild, brother! Anyway, we get some small screen shots comparing the NES and Arcade versions of the game. Basically, the sprites on the arcade version look a little bigger, and you’ve got 4-player multi-player. We get maps of some of the early areas of the game, including notes on what enemies come out when and, just as helpfully, how many there are for single player and multi-player (as, in two-player you get more enemies than in single-player). Also, we get the number of hit-points for the bosses, and again, the bosses (well, some of them) have more HP in two-player than in single-player. Anyway, we get maps of the first 7 stages. We also get some two-player strategies, including the basic stuff, like “Who uses the health power-up”, and slightly more advanced stuff, like “Which Turtles go well togeather.” We also get the 10 turtle cheat for the game. Score: Graphics & Sound – 3.9, Play Control – 4.1, Challenge & Entertainment – 4.3, Theme & Fun – 4.0. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #45

For this week’s EGM Recap we’re going to take a step back to fill another gap in the archive (hopefully I’ll be able to alternate these until all the gaps are filled). This issue I’m going back to April 1993 for issue #45 of Electronic Gaming Monthly. This issue’s of average size, about 183 pages, and our cover story is the game adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppela. Of all the Coppela films to get a video game adaptation, this is the one that needed it the least.

Editorial: Ed Semrad gives his thoughts on Winter CES, and he’s going to be a little outspoken here – you see, his game of the show isn’t Starfox, which was a cover story the previous issue, it’s Slipheed for the Sega CD. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #20

Anyway, it’s time to get started with Nintendo Power’s 4th year. This is issue #20, and our cover story is Mega Man III, and I have to say the cover art isn’t as good as some of the stuff from the previous year, particularly Rush. However, US cover art for the core Mega Man series has never looked good in general. Anyway, this issue is of average length, at 107 pages. This issue also gives us a start-of-issue “editorial” section which is, basically, re-stating the Table of Contents – except we haven’t actually gotten the Table of Contents yet (where as GamePro, which puts it up after the Table of Contents). Anyway, I’ll finally be discussing the scores they’re giving this time, as with this issue, I can finally tell what the heck their scores are! Previously they had a kind of really rough mercury thermometer thing going on, which made it difficult to tell what score they were trying to give. Now they’ve changed the scores to more solid numbers, so I can actually tell what they’re supposed to be.

Letters: The Woz Loves Tetris. No, seriously. Steve Wozniak has written a letter saying how much he enjoys playing Tetris, complete with a photograph of his high score. Also, our servicemen in Iraq for Desert Shield love their Game Boys too, which make sense because they can take a bigger beating than a Rolex and Samsonite luggage combined. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #57

Once again the EGM Recaps are going forward once more. The issue we’re covering today is issue #57, for April of 1994. Our cover story is (*ugh*), Beavis and Butthead. I grew up when that show was on the air, and I never found it funny. Anyway, it’s getting video games based on it, and if the history of comedy TV show to video game adaptations is any sign of the future, this is going to suck too. Anyway, this issue’s kind of long, at 212 pages, so we might as well get this over with.

Editorial: The price point of the N64 (still known as Project Reality) has been announced, and it’s going to cost $240. This leads to Ed’s editorial about how, basically, video game systems are expensive toys, and at this point in it’s history, I wouldn’t dispute that. I’d say the point where video game systems started to jump the gap from a “toy” to as much of a part of your home theater system as your stereo was, possibly, with the PS2, and it’s ability to play DVDs. Considering at the time the DVD format was pretty new, this helped get a lot of DVD players in people’s homes, in the same sort of way the PS3 helped get people Blu-Ray players. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – GamePro #42

We’re on to issue 42 of GamePro, the first issue of the magazines 5th volume, but not it’s 5th year (it’s been publishing for 3 and 1/2 years), which means that they’ve been doing some creative accounting in the counting. Not that any publisher would do such a thing, right DC, Marvel? Anyway, our cover story is Battletoads, and since the art assets are not provided by Tradewest or Rare, much as the art of Chester Cheetah was provided by Frito-Lay last issue. Anyway, this issue comes in a 224 (approximate) pages, though we’ve got another Street Fighter II insert so that will pad that somewhat. They had another insert last issue, but I skipped it, because if you really want the Street Fighter moves, that’s what GameFAQs is for (and Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has a move-list option on the pause menu).

Editorial: We have content! The TurboDuo’s coming out, as is the SegaCD, and they’re going head-to-head. The Duo’s got a somewhat more substancial library of games, but the Sega CD has Sega’s slick marketing machine (can you say “Sega does what Nintendon’t”?) behind it. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Quality Control – Gauntlet II

Get Gauntlet 2 from eBay (if you want the NES version)

Alright, I’ve played (though not beaten – it’s a really long game and I’ve only got 1 day to play it, sort of) Gauntlet II. Again, I’m reviewing the PlayStation Network version of the game, as that version is significantly more accessible than the NES version, and if you buy PSN version the developers actually get money and a random warm and fuzzy sensation, as opposed to just the random warm and fuzzy sensation they get for when someone buys the NES version on eBay (which, while pleasant, doesn’t pay the rent on their offices).

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #19 (Guide #4)

We have now come to the final Nintendo Power strategy guide, published in December of 1990. It weighs in at a slim 77 pages, and is covering games that support multi-tap. Well, there’s not a lot of ground to cover, so we might as well get started. Though I have to admit, for the last guide issue, the cover art… isn’t very good. I’m not sure though what they could do to replace it.

Your Friend the Multi-Tap: We get a run down of the wireless NES Satellite and the wired Four Score, as well as some discussion of multi-tap ethics, and things that can be done to make things run smoothly, such as color coding the player inputs and the controllers (red controller is always P1, etc.) Very useful stuff instead of having to pause the game and having to follow the cable to the system, at least until the PS3 and X-Box 360, where they were kind enough to give you a visual aid on your controller. Anyway, this is really useful device, some of which is obvious enough to have occured to someone else, but not to me.

NES Play Action Football: As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve played the crap out of this game as a kid. However, I never owned a multi-tap so I couldn’t play it 4 player. For that matter, I never played it 2-player either. We get a run-down of the various teams and their playbooks, as well as some notes on the various types of plays and advice for succeeding with each team. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #46

We’re taking another slight step back with the EGM recaps to fill another hole in the archive. In this case, we’re covering Issue #46 for May of 1993, with a cover story of Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition for the Genesis.

Editorial: Our editorial this week comes from Ed Semrad, and covers Review Scores, and basically re-iterating that they stand behind their review scores, even though various publishers won’t necessarily be happy with them, and that they will say what they think in their editorials, even if game publishers and developers won’t like it, instead of re-iterating the table of contents (take that GamePro).

Letters: So, the first question of the issue is “Is Street Fighter 2 coming out for the Genesis?” Well, if someone ripped the cover off your copy of this issue, yes. We also get letters saying how awesome Starfox is. Oh, and apparently their April Fool’s day joke the issue prior was a mock schedule for Atari Jaguar games (including Virtua Pong and Yar’s Revenge 2). We also get more letters in response to Phil Mushnick’s letter (this would be the Rupert Murdoch-owned NY Post’s Phil Mushnick) in the April issue. I still haven’t found the April issue, so I don’t know what he said, so I can’t re-but it on my own. However, apparently Muschnick’s main targets appear to be EA and the Madden games, and also appear to be from the perspective of someone who had never played a video game before (particularly considering the responses we get this issue all reiterate that last point). Anyway, Muschnik’s letter made the “Psycho Letter of the Month” column (which I usually don’t cover). Anyway, one of the other points that I’m picking up second hand from this column is that Muschnik feels that the Madden games encourage kids to be violent in sports – considering the enouragement given in terms of “sick hit” football videos that I recall from Middle School and High School (including ones featuring prominant ESPN broadcasters who, let’s just say, thought they were “Awesome Baby”) I’d say that it’s not Madden’s fault, or EA’s fault, but the sports media’s fault – which Muschnik is part of. Oh, and we get another letter about the changes between the Japanese Ranma 1/2 game and the US Street Combat game, a question about mature content in Japanese games being carried over to the US (particularly nudity), and the RPG Dark Wizard for the Sega CD, which is apparently supposed to come out July ’93. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – GamePro #41

Our series of GamePro recaps continues to issue 41, for December of 1992. This issue is once again pretty long, at 240 pages, and our cover story this issue is the new Chester Cheetah game. That’s correct, our cover game is an advergame, one designed to get young people to buy more junk food. You want to know the roots of the modern obesity epidemic – right here. Okay, maybe not totally, but there’s stuff there. The art, for once, doesn’t stink though.

Editorial: It’s the end of another year, which means it’s time for another year in review column. Everything’s generally favorable, which is to be expected, because this isn’t exactly a golden age for gaming, but is a pretty awesome time to be a gamer.

Mail: The first question is “Are the Turbo Duo and Turbo CD compatible?” The answer is yes, but in the most round-about way I’ve seen. So, I’m going to clarify this for you. All prior Turbo Grafx games, both CD Rom and Chip games will play on the Duo. Games made for the Duo/Super CD-Rom will require an special upgrade chip called the super system card to play on the older TG-16. There. I did in two sentences what it took the GamePro editors two paragraphs to do. Who ‘da man? We also have requests for them to switch to perfect binding instead of staple binding. Well, while Perfect Binding makes it more difficult to scan, it makes it much easier to find the issue you want on your shelf. Yes, it doesn’t lie flat on your desk, so it’s not a good gameplay reference, but that only really matters if you’re putting maps in the magazine like EGM or Nintendo Power. GamePro doesn’t do that – you have no excuse. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #18

We’ve now come to issue 18 of Nintendo Power for November of 1990, with our cover game being Dr. Mario, plus Little Nemo and Castlevania III get some mention as well. I’d like to say that while Nintendo Power doesn’t have the hard hitting game journalism of a EGM or even a GamePro, at this point in the game’s history, it’s my favorite magazine to read. Not just recap (though it is easier to recap, with the exception of the top 30) but to generally read. The magazine in general is visually attractive and, as I’ve mentioned previously, this magazine has some of the best art of the era – whereas EGM’s internal art (with the exception of advertisments) is taken from screen caps, and GamePro’s art is crap, Nintendo Power’s art (with the notable exception of when they cover Ninja Gaiden games) is a feast for the eyes.

Letters: Not a lot of feedback letters this issue. Instead, they did a call for everyone’s biggest Nintendo nightmares, and this is the best of the best… I guess. We do get a notable letter though from a woman whose son strengthened his eyesight by playing NES games, and having to track the action on screen. That’s pretty awesome. I’d love to see some research done on this (hint, hint, scientific community – though it might be less expensive to do the research if you use Wiis and Virtual Console games instead of X-Box 360s, PS3s, or actual Wii games or NES/SNES/Genesis games). Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #56

This week we’re going to continue making forard progress in our EGM recaps, instead of filling holes in the back archive, with Issue #56. This issue has an even more reasonable length, at 187 pages, and our cover story is the Star Trek: The Next Generation game, with a great oil painting for cover art. Again, I wouldn’t mind hanging this (or any of the Star Trek movie posters) on my wall. I’m letting my Trekkie bias show, but I’d say this is my favorite cover of EGM thus far.

Editorial: Winter CES has come and gone, and Sega showed a lot of games. Nintendo… not so much, though what they did show was pretty good (Super Metroid). Further, Sega also demonstrated some new technology to, hopefully, lower game costs – rather than requiring publishers to bundle a new chip in their cartridges, ala the Super-FX chip. However, this technology takes the form of what will become the 32X add-on module, intead of raising the price of the cartridge, it splits the install base, which didn’t help the publishers as much as Sega would like to. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – GamePro #40

Our GamePro recaps continue again with our coverage of issue #40, for November of 1992. Our cover story is Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (which was EGM’s cover story two months prior). The issue weighs in at about 200 pages in length, oh, and for the record, the cover art still sucks.

Editorial: Finally, we get another editorial with content. 1992 is Atari’s 20th anniversary (which makes 2002 the 30th), and so the Editorial column is taking a brief look back at Pong, before leading to a look at where we are now, and what’s to come. It’s very well written, and while it’s stuff that’s been said by a lot of people before, it’s not describing what’s been covered in this issue by the Table of Contents, so that’s a nice change right there.

Letters: First up is a letter from Fake Link. That’s right, before Twitter lead to Fake Celebrities twittering about what they eat, who they met with, etc. (along with, for example, Fake Professor Layton), we got Fake Video Game characters writing into video game magazines, though there was nothing viral about these letters. We also have letters asking for an explanation of the difference between Bits, and Bytes, along with a letter asking if the Phillips CD-I and the SNES CD-ROM will be compatible (well, if the latter came out, the plan would be that they would be inter-operable – but, as we all know, the SNES CD-Rom never came out). We also get a letter requesting that if the 16-bit section of the magazine be increased, that the 8-bit section be increased proportionally. Um… less 8-bit games are coming out. Now, in theory this would lead to longer reviews of the 8-bit games that are coming out. However, if the description of the game ends up being short – that leads to a lot of review saying (quite possibly) how bad the game is. Now, while I wouldn’t mind getting, in a video game magazine, the equivalent of Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses, such a review would probably horribly sour the developer and publisher on the magazine, and piss off the fanboys – though, if the company being soured was, an unlicenced publisher (Wisdom Tree, for instance), the damage would probably be pretty minimal. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #17 (Guide #3)

We’re now moving on to another Nintendo Power Guide, which is issue #17 overall, and their 3rd guide. – this one for one heck of an epic game – Final Fantasy, which, while all the later incarnations of the system will be (to varying values of fantasy) Fantasy games, this game will certainly not be the final game in the series.

This guide is organized incredibly well. Aside with the strategy guide organized by unofficial “acts” of the game, we also have an overworld map with notes indicating what chapters and page numbers in the guide are related to what areas. This is fantastic, and more RPG strategy guides need to organize themselves in this fashion. It’s a small thing to do, but it’s incredibly helpful. We also get some helpful “how to use this strategy guide notes” which are nice, since this is, basically the first RPG strategy guide. There is no GameFAQs, though in theory you could write a FAQ and put it up on a BBS, but considering the size of most FAQs for RPGs (which be a little more useful than a FAQ for Mario Brothers, since you didn’t have gifs and jpgs), it would take a long time to upload on your dialup modem. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #51

We’ve got another hole in our EGM coverage to fill this week, though it’s one that’s a little more recent. This week we’re recapping Issue #51 for October of 19993. Our cover story is Super Street Fighter II, and this issue weighs in at 229 pages. This also the debut their new visual look for the magazine, and they kind of herald or provide fanfare for the new look with an two-page spread of an image from Blade Runner.

Editorial: Ed Semrad has the editorial this month with his promotion to EiC, as Steve Harris has moved back a bit to just publisher instead of wearing both the publisher and Editor-in-Chief hat. This month the topic of writing is Nintendo delaying Project Reality (aka the Nintendo 64), shoving it back to 1995 – which doesn’t look very good considering how often both of Nintendo’s disk systems got shoved back over the past 3-4 years before finally dissipating like the cloud of vapor they were in the first place. At this point in Nintendo’s history they’ve become the master of the tease.

Letters: The editors of EGM were at CES and able to meet with readers, and the readers love that. Considering how good acclaim from people in general feels, the EGM staff probably loved it too. We also have some questions about playing the PC Engine version of Street Fighter II on the Turbo Express. Well, you will be able to do that, but you will need an appropriate adapter, but it can be done. However, you will need to use Select to toggle between punches and kicks. More questions wondering whether Phantasy Star 4 will come out in time or not (it will). We also have a question wondering if we’ll get more Menacer titles? Probably not – Sega only released 6 menacer games for it overall. There are also questions about getting compilations of the magazines (fortunately, Retromags is around for that – at least unless Steve Harris is able to get an archive of all the EGM magazines togeather, gets them scanned, and puts out a multi-DVD set, much like what’s been done for various Marvel titles. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – GamePro #39

We’re continuing with the GamePro Recaps with issue 39 for October of 1992. The cover story for this issue is Street Fighter II – again. The cover art is god-freaking-awful – again. Now, the copy I’ve got is 149 pages long, but it’s missing a couple pages. Apparently there was a poster in the issue, that was removed before I got it. So, I have no idea how good the poster looks, how bad the poster looks, and what was on the back of the poster. Considering the cover art quality though, the person who removed the poster just may have done me a favor.

Editorial: This week’s Editorial is all about the Street Fighter II, it’s come out on Home Consoles in Japan, and it’s due to come out in the US… eventually.

Letters: We start off with a question about how much memory can be stored on a CD. They’re talking about the disk game version of The 7th Guest taking up 2 disks holding 8000 Megabits of memory like it’s a really big deal. By the way, that’s about 1 Gigabyte – and they do (sort of) clarify the size of the game. We also have discussion on buying your own arcade machine, and the specialized retailers you need to go to get one, specifically referring to getting Street Fighter II: Championship Edition. This kind of makes me wonder somewhat, why people haven’t tried working on some sort of version of Mugen or variant of Mugen that would allow you to, basically, take your game you built in Mugen, and play it through MAME, with a MUGEN “chipset” (much like they have files for the chipsets for various Neo-Geo and Capcom boards). Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #16

Our Nintendo Power recaps continue with a standard issue of the magazine – Issue #16, for September of 1990. Our cover story is the port of Lucasarts adventure game Maniac Mansion… and I have to admit that I don’t like the cover art for this issue.

Letters: Well, we’ve gotten lots of letters from grandmothers who play NES games, now we’ve got a letter from a mom who plays NES games, though her main game of choice is Tetris. Look, Nintendo, while people have different tastes, and I will admit not everyone will like a Gears of War, adults and senior citizens will play “hardcore” games if you give them a chance, and the game is good. If they don’t like it, that’s okay too, but there will be a percentage of older gamers – moms, dads, seniors, who will play those games, and enjoy them, if they don’t suck. Hopefully, Wii Motion Plus will lead to some innovations in this game space, and lead to these games not sucking. In particular, if we do get a Wii release of Call of Duty 4 (hopefully with Wii Motion Plus support), hopefully it wil be that cross-over game.

Final Fantasy Strategy Guide (Pt. 3): You know, considering their next strategy guide issue is going to be Final Fantasy I, I hope they leave something for the special Final Fantasy Strategy Guide next issue. Anyway, we get some brief notes on the Mirage Tower and the Sky Castle. The guide itself is only 2 issues long. The rest of the “guide” is hyping their “Final Fantasy Treasure Quest” contest, which gets you and 4 friends a vacation. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #29

Yay! This issue’s EGM recap gives us an opportunity to go back and fill one of the holes in the archive. In this case, we’re going back to issue #29, for December of 1991, and what a cover story we’ve got this time – Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Link’s first 16-bit adventure. This issue is a rather substantial one though, weighing in at 255 pages. Let’s get started, shall we?

Editorial: The editorial column for this issue is from Ed Semrad, and basically is looking back at the year that was. Nintendo has finally thrown it’s not-unsubstantial hat (it might even be described as a Nice Hat) in the 16-bit ring with the SNES, and Sega’s jumped into the handheld arena with the Game Gear. Oh, and the future of gaming appears to be CD Gaming (which is more true than you’d think at the time).

Letters: Well, we get questions about whether the SNES will get a release of Street Fighter II. No, I’m sorry, it will not get a release, it will get many releases. We get a question about whether the Sega CD will be compatible with import games (nope, sorry – it’s the second system to follow NEC’s lead in blocking imports through the use of software region locking, instead of just making the Japanese cart a little too wide or something similar. We also get complaints about slowdown on the SNES – particularly with shooters like UN Squadron. The editorial staff’s speculation is that it’s got something to do with the greater popularity of RPGs on home consoles in Japan, instead of shooters. That’s not unreasonable. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – GamePro #38

Our GamePro coverage continues to issue #38 for September of 1992. Our cover story is a whole bunch of comic book games, most of them with the Marvel licence. This issue’s getting up there in length, at 163 pages long.

Editorial: Well, GamePro TV is now on cable… on the Sci-Fi Channel! That’s right, the Sci-Fi channel showing programming that wasn’t Sci-Fi, like wrestling, is not a new development.

Mailbag: We get a question about whether PC CDs will work on the SNES CD or Sega CD. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha… no. There are also questions about getting virtual reality systems (most systems run $60,000).

Cutting Edge: Now adults are getting edutainment games. Specifically, we get coverage of games designed to help people manage their diabeties. Ooohhhhkay. I think I’d prefer modern “non-games” like My Personal Trainer over this. We also get some information on Bullet-Proof Software’s Virtual Reality system, and Sony’s new home theater system, the XBR2.

Hot at the Arcades: Hook and the Addams Family movie are both getting pinball tables, plus Williams has a couple “sequels” to existing tables – The Getaway: High Speed II and Hurricane, a sequel to Comet & Cyclone. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #15 (Guide #2)

Next up is our second Nintendo Power Strategy Guide, for Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos. Unfortunately… Nintendo Power’s apparent weakness when it comes to cover art is the Ninja Gaiden games, because this one doesn’t look so hot. The photographed guy-in-black-pajamas is back, and the background doesn’t have any perspective to it at all. Look, guys, most of your cover art is great – but there’s some stuff where the photographed cover art doesn’t work that well – and this is one of those cases. Here I’d reccomend, basically, skipping doing the photographed cover art, and let one of your interior artists get a shot at the limelight.

We start off the issue proper with a semi-recap collage thing covering the last game. We also get a two page comic strip which, probably, recaps some of the content from the first cutsecene in a comic strip form… and at the very least they have the same letterer as Howard & Nester. Next up is a quick little dramatis personae, though the full sized art they have of Ryu is waaayyyy too western looking – it’s the chin, and something in general about the face structure. Everyone else looks okay though. We also get a list of the many generic monsters we’ll run into in the game, and the slightly less common power ups that will aid us along our way – including the new power of the Ninja Double/Shadow Clone, which is one of the most useful new powers in the game. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #55

So, the EGM recaps roll on, with another 2 issue gap, taking us from #53 to #55, for July of 1994. Our cover game for this issue is NBA Jam, Midway’s next big gaming franchise (though one that doesn’t last as long as the Mortal Kombat franchise. Anyway, this issue is considerably shorter than #53, running in at 231 pages – which is still a lot, but nowhere near 400 pages.

Insert Coin – Editorial: Much as Tipper Gore’s complaints about violent and sexual content in music lead senate hearings in the 70s and 80s, we now have our first set of Senate Hearings about violent and sexual content in video games. This will not be the last – we get another set of hearings after Columbine, and a third set of hearings after Hot Coffee. That’s correct – Video Games got more Senate hearings (that could have lead to federal laws censoring them) than Comic Books and Music combined, though they need 3 more series of hearings, though they need one more set of hearings to beat the movie industry. So, it’s time for Publisher Steve Harris (go Steve) to weigh on this whole mess. I agree with Steve Harris’ sentiments completely – and they’ve been expressed and re-stated by many game journalists since then, from EGM to GameSpot to GamePolitics. I’m going to put up a scan of Steve’s editorial and I encourage you to read it. I haven’t gotten to 1994 in GamePro yet, so I don’t know if GamePro takes a side on this or if Nintendo Power takes a side on this – I doubt it, as Howard Lincoln was doing his damnedest to force a victory in the Console War by kicking Sega under the bus. Specifically, he was claiming that all the violent content that people were objecting to was on the competition’s systems, notably Sega’s, whereas since Nintendo was already censoring the games that came out in the US for their systems, they basically were also already complying with the panel’s requests. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – GamePro #37

Alright, the GamePro recaps continue with issue #37 for August of 1992, with another movie licenced game on the cover – Universal Soldier, based on the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle. Remember when the Muscles from Brussles had a career? Okay, that’s a cheap shot, particularly since JCVD might revitalize the man’s career (I’ve heard very good things about it) – but basically from here, and maybe Street Fighter 2 on, the man’s career goes into a steady decline.

Editorial: Summer CES has come and gone, and they saw a bunch of new games that they’ll be talking about this issue. And no – they won’t be doing any discussion of anything other than the contents of this magazine in the Editorial section.

The Mail: We get a request for tips on older games, or more in-depth strategy guides for games that have been out for a bit, and get pointed towards GamePro’s SWATPro Magazine. For the record, I think there might still be a market these days for a “strategy guide subscription” Particularly if we can get something like the Kindle with color. GameFAQs has it’s merits, but a well laid out strategy guide with label maps and pictures of relevant areas of the game is still helpful, and might help me with situations such as, when the Flood was introduced in Halo 1, my getting lost – which actually ruined the emotional impact of the level. We also have another question about getting into the game industry – alas, the internet is not wide spread enough at this time where you can put an FAQ on GamePro’s home page with an answer to that question and put a link to it on the very front. We also get a request for more Master System coverage, since Sega hasn’t officially stopped supporting it yet (the problem is that many of the new games for the Master System are taking a hop, skip, and jump over the US and heading to Europe, where the Master System generally did well). Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #14

Well, we continue on with the Nintendo Power recaps/reviews with the first proper issue (one that isn’t a strategy guide) of Nintendo Power’s 3rd year. Our cover story is Chip & Dale’s Rescue Rangers from Capcom, which is another of the Disney licenced platformers that I haven’t played. The art is a bit of step down for Nintendo Power, but that isn’t saying much – it’s like saying “that movie wasn’t so great – for a Hitchcock movie”. It’s still better than the Ninja Gaiden cover. Anyway, the issue is, as is par for the course for Nintendo Power, about 105 pages long.

Letters: We start off with a thank you for how wonderful the Nintendo World Championships worked out. Alas, but with the exception of the World Series of Gaming (and similar tournaments) we’ll never see their like again. We also get the invention of an automatic cord winder for the NES invented by a 9-year-old-kid for the Invent America project. Oh, and once again, we get a testimonial about how borderline bulletproof the NES was – a family in the US Virgin Islands got clobbered by Hurricane Hugo, and their house was wrecked. However, the TV still worked (once they got a generator set up) – and so did the NES! God the NES was a tough system. Except with regard to the pins – and that bit was entirely Nintendo of America’s fault, by going with the VCR style design rather than the top loading design of the Famicom. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #53

So, the EGM recaps continue with issue #53 for December of 1993 (yeah, I’ve got a bit of a gap again, so you might want to mind that). Our cover story this issue is Eternal Champions for the Sega Genesis – which is one of the first games designed to work with Sega Activator, their motion controller, which is great, if you have an Activator and can get it to work with this. Anyway, the issue is pretty big, about 392 pages long.

There are a few changes with this issue of the magazine (the re-organization having officially taken place 2 issues ago. As of this issue, Ed Semrad is now Editor-In-Chief with Danyon Carpenter as Senior Editor with the new positions of the Managing Editor, with Howard Grossman in that spot, and Joe Funk as the life-styles editor. Martin Alessi is no longer on staff. Steve Harris is still on staff though as the publisher (a position he held before anyway), and hopefully he’ll still be on the Review Crew.

Insert Coin: The 32-bit Generation is beginning, with the battle lines being drawn. Sega is working on the 32X and the Saturn. Sony is still quietly working on the Playstation, preparing their revenge against their snubbing by Nintendo with all the secrecy of Darth Sidious. 3DO and Phillips have their systems, and Atari is kicking it up a notch with the 64-bit Jaguar. Additionally, there’s all the CD systems either currently on the market or coming out soon. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s just sitting pretty with the SNES on the market, and the 64-bit Project Reality system in development (which would later become the Nintendo 64). However, we do get some suggestions here, rather than just analysis, from Ed Semrad – Sega should make the CD portion of their Saturn optional. Considering that when the Playstation comes out, basically everyone goes to CD systems after realizing how less expensive it is to put out a game on disks rather than on cartridges (something PC gamers could already tell you), I’d say that advice is probably (unintentionally) bad. Continue reading →

Video games, Where I Read

Where I Read – GamePro #36

We continue with our recaps of GamePro with issue 36 for July of 1992. This issue is of pretty average length at 112 pages long – with what is probably GamePro’s first extremely awesome piece of cover art, complete with jets of blood. I’m surprised that they got away with the blood on the cover, to be honest. It’s not a perfect likeness of H.R. Giger’s disturbing design, but it still captures the intensity of the design.

Editorial: After several issues of awesome editorial columns, we’re back to spending the editorial column doing the job the cover and the table of contents are supposed to be doing – hyping the contents of the issue. Disappointing.

Letters: Of note in the letters is one letter calling for 8-bit to die already. Long live 16-Bit! Long Live 32-bit! Long Live 64-bit! Long Live Quantum Computing! *gets hit by the readers* Ow!

Cutting Edge: This issue they’re covering CD games. We’re starting off with Commodore’s console system, the CDTV, which actually came out, though nobody remembers this because Commodore died 2 years after this issue hit newsstands (1994), and the OS was already obsilete. Anyway, Commodore killed this system the next year, in favor of Amiga’s CD32, which isn’t remembered much either, because, again, Commodore died the next year. Next up is the Phillips CD-I, with a list of various games coming out for the system, including one called Guest which would actually be The 7th Guest. Continue reading →

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Category Archives: Where I Read

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #21

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #45

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #20

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #57

Where I Read – GamePro #42

Quality Control – Gauntlet II

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #19 (Guide #4)

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #46

Where I Read – GamePro #41

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #18

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #56

Where I Read – GamePro #40

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #17 (Guide #3)

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #51

Where I Read – GamePro #39

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #16

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #29

Where I Read – GamePro #38

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #15 (Guide #2)

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #55

Where I Read – GamePro #37

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #14

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly #53

Where I Read – GamePro #36