We’re approaching a big shift in the console market soon.

Cover

The cover hypes an article on the next wave of the console war.

Industry Interview

We meet Rob Chaimowitz of GT Interactive. He talks about getting into the game industry and partnering with ID – along with responding to Mike Wilson of G.O.D.’s… let’s just say extremely negative views of GT. Basically, Rob views GT like a record label, making more than a fe comparisons to label A&R what the company does.

News

The 1998 Atlanta E3 has happened, and we have the news. NextGen describes this E3 as being one with a strong showing, but without one new big thing. The N64DD is dead before arrival (though it’s still showing up in the Nintendo Power Most Wanted), but Nintendo still has Zelda and Rogue Squadron. PlayStation has Metal Gear Solid and a price cut, and Sega – is sending out Dreamcast dev kits.

Best and Worst of E3 has some big names, both with developers and titles, in the Best. Peter Molyneux and Lionhead have Black & White. Sierra has Homeworld. Remedy has their big coming out with Max Payne (currently due to be released by G.O.D, but that will change). However, there’s some vaporware too, like 3D Realms’ Prey – not to mention Daikatana. Oh, and on a sidebar, we have a note that David Lynch is working on a game – “Woodcutters from Fiery Ships”. Said game never came out – but David Lynch did write a song with Thought Gang and Angelo Badalamenti with that title as well.

We also se some more on the Dreamcast, plus VM Labs’ Project X.

The Console Wars of 1999

Speaking of which, it’s our cover story, now that E3 has passed – it’s time to get oracular.

PlayStation

While it’s on a strong footing, NextGen is calling the beginning of the End, saying “…we do not expect many top development teams to undertake more than another one or two PlayStation projects.” (wrong on that front)

Nintendo 64

Nintendo is on the edge of a knife. Early titles under-performed, and while the good titles are latching on to younger audiences, they don’t have the library to keep them coming back as they get older. Their fate lies with Zelda & Perfect Dark.

Project X

This is a wild card – on the one hand, this has no dedicated 3D accelerator. On the other hand, this has what we’d now call 4 processor cores, when most consumer-grade processors only have one. This could, on the gripping hand, make things tricky for software developers.

Dreamcast

The Dreamcast has impressive specs under the hood. It’s the first console of the next generation, though the article doesn’t get into that. This will potentially make for a strong start, but hindsight and foreknowledge reminds me of the limitations of the PC Engine as the 16-bit generation went on.

Alphas (Previews)

We get a look at a couple of Psygnosis titles – Wipeout 64 (Psygnosis going directly for F-Zero’s crown), and Colony Wars 2 (which is looking to add more diversity in mission types & environments from the first game).

Also, Homeworld is revolutionizing the RTS by taking it into space. Quantic Dream (and David Cage) have their big international debut with Omicron: The Nomad Soul, though David Bowie isn’t attached to the project yet. There’s also Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit, specifically the PC version (the console version is already out). There’s also dungeon crawler Dark Vengeance – with some persistence of the stereotype that all RPGs must be turn-based (never mind The Elder Scrolls).

We also have a selection of screen-shots of various games to highlight the current state of graphics.

Finals (Reviews)

We have, at long last, a review of Unreal, a game that not only debuted the Unreal Engine, but also (in a way) reshaped the trajectory of the First Person Shooter. Mission: Impossible shows how good checkpointing (or save states on an emulator) is important. Might & Magic 6 is shifting the series to 3D with moderate success.

The Saturn is not quite dead with Burning Rangers serving as something of a last hurrah for the console.

On some of the other titles, they hate Mike Piazza’s Strike Zone. They think MK4 and Wetrix are alright – same with Sanitarium. They think Azure Dreams & Granstream Saga to be middling and uninspired, but think Monster Truck Madness 2 and Forsaken are alright. They also really like Escape Velocity: Override on Macs.

Letters

We have push-back from NextGen’s push-back on the scapegoating of video games from the Jonesboro shooting – the writer, let’s just say, has some blinders regarding white patriarchal Southern culture, which he hasn’t taken the time to examine or challenge at the time of writing (he specifically references “Southern Belle” as a positive and not at all reductive archetype). I understand that the writer, and the people of Jonesboro, were hurting at this time, and this isn’t the best time to dunk on the problems of White Southern Culture, but he doesn’t present himself well either. NextGen’s stand is that they will have no further discussion.

Retroview

Steve Kent gives the famous Jobs/Woz Breakout story.

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