Breaking it all Down

Posted on June 11, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – GamePro #29

Continuing with our GamePro recaps, I’ve got another substantial gap in the archive, this one 11 issues wide, taking me from issue 18, to issue 29, for December of 1991. Our cover stories this issue are GamePro’s upcoming TV show and Bart vs. The World for the NES. This issue’s also 173 pages long (approximately), shorter than contemporary issues of EGM. Though, if I keep getting gaps like this, I’ll end up risking getting ahead of EGM. Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. So, as quick historical note – over the course of this 11 issue gap, the SNES came out, taking the 16-bit console war from a 1-on-1 competition between NEC’s TurboGrafx 16 and the Sega Genesis to a 3-way dance. Further Tengen and Nintendo’s differences had become irreconcilable, with Atari/Tengen leaving Nintendo forever, in favor of the Genesis and Game Gear. Read more

Posted on June 10, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Quality Control – Cobra Trangle

So, my Quality Control for this issue is Cobra Triangle from Rare. This is, basically, a speedboat racing/shooting game. There’s no story to the game. Basically, you go through a series of about 25 stages, cycling through a 8 different stage types: Reach the end of the stage with boats trying to stop you, reach the end of the stage with obstacles (like whirlpools and log jams) trying to stop you, reach the end of the stage while jumping over whirlpools, (and for variation) collect as many power-ups as possible within the time limit, keep as many people as possible from being taken by enemy boats within the time limit, hit as many targets as possible while making your way to the end of the stage, take a number of mines to goal within the time limit, and defeat a boss within the time limit.

Being that 5 of these level types require you to either kill things, or have you fending off attack while completing the goal, the game is kind enough to give you some power-ups, using a Gradius-style power-up bar, with options for a speed boost, missiles (which actually work a little more like a split attack) and temporary invulnerability, among others. Read more

Posted on June 9, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power Issue #6

Moving on to our next issue of Nintendo Power, issue number 6, for May and June of 1989, bringing the magazine’s first year to a close. Our cover story is a 10 page feature on the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game. Being that this issue is 119 pages long, that’s not insignificant. We’re also getting additional coverage of Bayou Billy, more coverage of Ninja Gaiden, and the results of the Nester Awards voting.

Letters: Not as much of interest this time, though we do get a compliment for the excellent service from the Nintendo Game Councelors. Read more

Posted on June 8, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue #39

We’ve got a 1 issue gap in my EGM issue count. Specifically we’re missing issue 38. No biggie. Unlike this issue, which is over 200 pages long! (You see what I did there?) Our cover story is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV – except now it’s coming to the Genesis. The FTC said “Mr. Lincoln tear down this wall!” and (though it was to avoid major financial damages) he did. This issue was published October of 1992. Our first ad of the issue is for Konami’s port of King’s Quest V for the NES. That’s right we’re still getting NES games even though the SNES has been out for quite some time.

Insert Coin – Editorial: EGM has done it’s second major re-structuring of it’s run, particularly with some new columns and so forth, as well as changing some of the look of the magazine. However, they’re still committed to provide the best of games journalism. Read more

Posted on June 5, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Quantum of Solace

So, at Bureau42, we’ve already reviewed the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, and I’ve played the game (though I hadn’t seen the movie and the time), and reviewed that for Bureau42. However, until recently, I haven’t seen the movie. Thanks to the wonders of Netflix, though, I’ve finally rectified that, and so now it’s time to give my thoughts. I liked Casino Royale, and thought the game was decent. How does the movie hold up?

The Premise:

Picking up a few minutes after the end of Casino Royale, 007 has taken Mr. White (the representative of “The Organization” from the previous film) to a MI6 safe house, only for M and Bond to soon find out that White’s Organization has a deeper penetration than they suspect, not only in MI6, but in other intelligence organizations as well. Bond ends up on the trail of White’s organization, in an attempt to find out their aims and who is in charge of the thing.

(I am, of course, refraining from using spoilers in the Premise – as it is above the cut).

Posted on June 4, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – GamePro #18

Well, I’ve got another gap in my GamePro issues, with our next issue being 8 months ahead, with issue 18 (or rather Volume 2 Issue 6). This issue was published in January of 1991, and weighs in at about 148 pages long. This is their annual sports issue, though their last one was about 11 months ago. I guess they either didn’t want to wait until February and possibly miss the super-bowl, or all the big sports games were coming out this month, and they didn’t want to be behind the curve – reasonable.

We get a pair of similar ads for a couple of fantasy RPGs for the NES – Dungeon Magic: Sword of the Elements from Taito, and Swords & Serpents from Acclaim.

Editorial: GamePro’s looking for a few good critics, and by a few I mean 250 new staff members. These staff members will be asked several times a year to evaluate games based on their rating system of Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Challenge, and Fun Factor. In return – you get GamePro swag. Uh-huh. Read more

Posted on June 3, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Quality Control – Hudson’s Adventure Island

Hudson’s Adventure Island (originally released in Japan as Master Takahashi’s Adventure Island) is an interesting game. Having never played any of the Wonder Boy games (the game series that Adventure Island is a clone of), I came into this positively cold, not knowing what to expect. I have to say that it’s not the best game I’ve ever played, nor the easiest, but it is interesting. I managed to actually record some video of a play-through this time around – I’ll get it up on my vodPod sidebar once GameTrailers is finished processing it.

The Premise:

You play as Master Higgins (in the Japanese version, it’s Takahashi), a guy whose girlfriend has been kidnapped by an evil chieftain while on vacation on a tropical island, and you have to go to rescue her. Read more

Posted on June 2, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #5

Why couldn't the cover have been like this?

Cover for Nintendo Power #5

So, we move on to Nintendo Power’s 5th issue, for March and April of 1989, with the cover game being Ninja Gaiden. I must admit the cover image isn’t as good as the images of the past 4 issues. It’s a guy in stereotypical Ninja black pajamas holding – I’ve got no freaking clue what he’s holding. If anyone who worked on this issue of Nintendo Power is reading this and you know what he’s holding, please let me know in the comments. This issue weighs in at about 106 pages, with a new section related to game previews in addition to the “reviews” (aka Strategy Guides) we’ve gotten previously.

Mail Bag: Well, as we reach the end of Nintendo Power’s first volume, we’re coming to one of our first notable changes in the magazine, one that I would say brings it more in line with most other video game magazines – they’ve moved the letters column to the front of the magazine. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it does a have a psychological impact – putting the focus early on to reader feedback, and their responses to the feedback. There are a lot of letters here from parents, and from senior citizens as well. Again, let it not be said that Nintendo consoles have, in the past, been unable to appeal to the moms and grandmothers demographic through hardcore games. We also get an letter from an honest-to-god educator (Steve Gibbs, an English teacher) praising Nintendo, particularly Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2) for promoting critical thinking skills. Read more

Posted on June 1, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue #23

So, as some of you may have heard, EGM, like the Undertaker, cannot stay dead for long (which is, by the way, a good thing). Steve Harris, former EIC of EGM during the era of the magazine which I am currently recapping, has got EGM back from Ziff-Davis, and will start publishing new issues later this year. Does this mean I’ll be stopping my recaps, which I started in remembrance of EGM? Nope, because there’s a lot of history to cover, and, frankly, I like to think this recap series has branched out into something bigger, focused on the history of video game journalism in general. So, with that in mind, we move on to EGM issue #23, for June of 1991. This issue is about 133 pages long, and our cover story is a preview of the upcoming Hudson Hawk licenced game, with Bruce Willis getting his first appearance in a video game. Read more

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Alexander Case

Quick update about posting schedule

As you who have been reading my blog for some time have probably been aware, I normally do my EGM updates on Sunday, Nintendo Power Recap on Monday, a Quality Control for the Nintendo Power issue on Tuesday, a Gamepro Recap on Wednesday, and then possibly another Quality Control on Friday.

I’m going to bump this back a day, to give myself a bit more of a weekend, and a more standard working schedule. You’ll still be getting my updates, I’ll just pushing things back a little bit for a more reasonable schedule.

Posted on May 28, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Quality Control – Wall Street Kid & Stock Market Simulators

So, in my most recent recap of GamePro, I decided to pick for my Quality Control for that issue (since they haven’t started including review scors yet), Wall Street Kid, a stock market simulation game for the NES. In the course of looking for the game, I found various articles about the game, including reviews at SomethingAwful, and by Seanbaby. The general consensus about the game is that it’s bad. Really, really bad. Mind-numbingly bad. So, after coming across these, and having second thoughts about my pick, I started thinking about Stock Market Simulator games, Business simulators, and the way those fields have gone. Read more

Posted on May 27, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – GamePro #10

Today we move on to the fourth of our GamePro recaps, skipping over a couple issue (since I don’t have that issue) to issue number 10, for May of 1990. This issue has some horrifically fugly early 90s-late 80s cover art, which almost made my eyes bleed. I really hope that GamePro’s cover art improves soon. The issue is about 100 pages long. The cover boasts 14 new game reviews, and I sincerely hope that they actually are reviews this time, instead of just glorified previews, which are incapable of taking a stand on a game and saying whether or not the game actually has problems.

Editorial: The editorial staff has learned that adults are playing video games as well, and thus they would like to welcome them to the magazine, and as they run a tips and tricks column (and as adults are apparently using lots of the pay tip lines), they feel confident that their more mature readers will find them helpful. Well, if their reviews and other content don’t improve, adults are probably going to drop them like they’re hot, and go to EGM instead. Read more

Posted on May 26, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Quality Control – Skate Or Die (NES)

In the annals of skateboarding games, the first game most gamers, even those who grew up in the 16-bit generation of gaming, think of when they think of skateboarding games is Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. However, when you get to the 8-bit generation, the signature skateboarding game of the time, and the first game to be exclusively focused on skateboarding (technically the first focused “extreme sports” game) is Skate Or Die! for the NES. Coming out in 1989, while it is not the first game to depict skateboarding (an honor held by California Games), to a certain degree this is one of the first major sports games that were based off a real-world sport but not one that was either an Olympic sport or team sport. Read more

Posted on May 25, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #4

Nintendo Power #4 Cover

This week we move on to the fourth issue of Nintendo Power for January & February of 1989. Our cover story this issue is their coverage of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. According to the cover there’s also an feature about 3 upcoming football games, and the Captain Nintendo fanfic (I’m not going to dignify it as “serialized fiction” continues. This issue clocks in at, about, 110 pages, same as last issue.

Wrestlemania Strategy Guide: We’re starting off the issue with a strategy guide for WWF Wrestlemania, featuring basically most of the really major wrestlers from 1989’s Wrestlemania event (Wrestlemania V), and by really major I mean Bam Bam Bigelow, Andre the Giant, Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ted DiBiase. Okay, not most of the really major wrestlers, but a lot of characters for a game on an 8-bit system. They have different power-ups for different characters, like Ted DiBiase’s money, Hogan’s crucifix (which is referred to as an “Golden X” because we can’t offend people with Christian imagery), and so on. Each characters also have their own different move lists, all of which have their own differences, that generally fit with the real-life wrestlers styles (Andre not having any top rope moves for example), through there are some odd elements like Hulk Hogan being able to do drop kicks but not having any leg-drops, Bam Bam Bigelow not having any front grapple moves, and so forth. Also, there aren’t any signature moves in this game, and no way to win by submission or knock out (which there was a precedent for at this time in the WWF – Ted DiBiase’s Million Dollar Dream). Read more

Posted on May 24, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 37

EGM Issue 37 Cover

Alright, we continue with our EGM recaps with issue 37, for August of 1992. And our cover game for this issue is a biggie – Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Plus the list of previews for a boatload of other games. The issue clocks in a slightly more reasonable 149 pages – though fear not, this will later skyrocket to an old-school Computer Shopper level tome in the future. Our first ad of the issue is for the NES port of King’s Quest 5. I’ve played the NES’s more seminal adventure game (Shadowgate), and I have to say that adventure games don’t work too well on the NES, particularly ones like King’s Quest where you can die over, and over, and over again. This issue also features the debut of it’s Game Doctor column.

Insert Coin – Editorial: Our editorial column for this issue is discussing the system war. Oh, and they actually call it that, a System War. On the one hand, Sega’s price point for the Genesis is currently a little lower than the SNES’s price point, after a long series of price slashes by both sides, which is probably annoying the crap out of retailers – or to be specific, the clerks in the stores who have to re-mark the price over, and over, and over again. As of the printing of this issue the SNES runs $99.95 ($151.91 adjusted) It doesn’t help that both sides are over-estimating their sales figures, and since we don’t have the NPDs yet to give an actual verifiable figure, any estimates coming out of anyone has to be taken with a grain of salt. I don’t recall if Babbage’s had started putting out sales figures at this time. Read more

Posted on May 21, 2009May 21, 2009 by Alexander Case

The Handly Case – This Is How Liberty Dies (or is at least Badly Wounded)

One of the news stories I’ve been following recently is The Handly Case, which is an obcenity case in Iowa – the state which was sufficently progressive enough to legalize gay marrage (an act I support), involving Christopher Handley for posessing recieving child porn – in the form of a Hentai (porn) Manga (or Japanese comic book) containing sex involving people who are underage.

I’m not going to defend Lolicon here. For starters, Lolicon isn’t my thing – and in any case, if the material was prosecuted as being obcene for an entirely different reason (bondage material) that still wasn’t my thing, it’d be hard to defend it – because it’s hard to defend a kink that’s not yours, especially to a someone who doesn’t have that kink (and besides, if they already have that kink, you don’t need to defend it to them). I’m going to refrain at this time from going into my kinks anyway because they’re irrelevant (and if you really care what they are, you can post a comment and ask – this doesn’t mean that I’ll answer, but I’m not getting into them in this blog post).

I’m also not going to get into the free speech reasons why this case is bad, because, frankly, Neil Gaiman did it better than I possibly good. I strongly encourage you to Neil’s post, because it’s excellently well written, and explains why you can’t slack off in the defense of free speech – because unfortunately, if you let icky speech be outright banned in a particular medium (video games, comics, film, etc.) it becomes easier to ban speech you support. This doesn’t mean you can’t marginalize certain types of icky speech (hate speech, NAMBLA), but banning icky speech outright bad (note: I’m not defending actual photographed and filmed child porn as icky speech – a crime must be committed in its creation, thus making it by its nature illegal – though I find the prosecution over sexting absurd, but I’m digressing – just read Gaiman’s essay.) Read more

Posted on May 20, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – GamePro #8

Cover for GamePro #8

This week we’ve got GamePro Issue #8, for March of 1990. Our page count has dropped a little bit to 85 pages. On the bright side, the cover art isn’t total crap anymore. Nothing new on the opening ads – just the same ad for Demon Sword we had last issue.

Editorial: GamePro’s Editorial columns are still, well, less talking about the state of the industry, or what they will be doing in the future, but instead telling you things you could have learned if you paid attention to the Table of Contents. I must admit that I always found GamePro to be inferior to EGM in most respects. Read more

Posted on May 19, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Quality Control – Blaster Master

Blaster Master is a game I’ve heard abunch about when I was a kid, and when I ended up accumulating a bunch of bookson video game strategies – none of which were officially licensed, including a few written by Jeff Rovin, who would later go on to write Tom Clancy’s Op Center series. The game interested me, though often the books I was reading didn’t have pictures to show me what the game looked like, so I had to make assumptions on what the game looked like.

So, when Nintendo Power #3 had a preview of Blaster Master, I felt like it was woth giving it a try. The premise of the game is fairly simple. Your pet frog is mutated by radioactive waste and goes down a giant hole in the ground. You chase after him and fall down the hole yourself. There is no sign of your pet frog nearby, but there is super-high tech tank nearby, which you hop into to rescue your pet and hopefully bring him back to normal. Read more

Posted on May 18, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #3

We move on to Nintendo Power’s third issue, and it’s first holiday issue, for November and December of 1998. Our cover story for this issue is Track & Field II, and the page count has come back up to about 110 pages. As always, the magazine moves straight to the features and strategies from the page after the table of contents.

Track & Field II Strategy Guide: Well, right off the bat, the game’s got a bunch more events than the original Track & Field. For example, we’ve got fencing, archery, swimming, pole vaulting, high-dive, shooting, horizontal bar, canoing, and taekwondo. The controls of the game look fairly simple, for example, in fencing one button controls attacking, one controls defending, and then the D-Pad handles movement and combining one direction with a button performs a certain attack or defense. It isn’t exactly Street Fighter, but it’s got a bit of complexity to it. Anyway, we get strategies (and the controls) for each event. Read more

Posted on May 17, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue #36

This week’s installment of the EGM reviews takes us forward to Issue #36 for July of 1992. Our cover art for this issue is Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight in Batman Returns – new Batman movie, new licensed games. A trend that would continue until The Dark Knight, which didn’t have any licensed games on consoles (phones don’t count). Our page count (for this issue) is 133 pages, though on the cover they bill “over 160 pages” – so unless my copy is missing an ad-insert, something is up. If anyone knows if my copy is missing pages or if it’s a misprint on EGM’s part, please let me know.

Anyway, our first ads are for Super Castlevania IV again, and then an ad for the Toxic Crusaders games (as in the film by Troma) for the NES, Game Boy, and SNES. What I want to know is this – with Nintendo’s draconian licensing policy for content in games, how the hell did a game based off a Troma movie get on a Nintendo console. They became famous for their use of over-the-top gore to the deliberate point of comedy, as well as grotesque character designs. Read more

Posted on May 14, 2009May 13, 2009 by Alexander Case

On Vacation – Sort Of

So, today I will leaving on my grand vacation. From today, Thursday, May 14th to the following Thursday, I will either be in Hawaii or on my way to/from Hawaii. Fear not, dear readers, for I have scheduled content to come up on the site on the course of my vacation, so you needn’t worry about 7 days of dead air. There may still be dead air on Saturday, but my Where I Read posts and my Quality Control posts will continue apace. Once I get back, and once I have some digital pictures I can put up, I’ll try to get a post togeather with an accounting of my vacation or something.

Posted on May 13, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – GamePro #7

Cover art for GamePro #7

For our next issue of GamePro we skip ahead a few months to issue #7 for February of 1990, billed as their “Insane Sports” issue, which, as you can tell from the cover art, has the dumbest cover art in the history of video game magazines. The issue is about 100 pages long. Our first ad for the issue is for Demon Sword, a Swords-and-Sorcery style adventure game, with one of the most absurdly stupid swords I’ve ever seen in the history fantasy art. To counter act it, we have an ad for Wizards & Warriors II, featuring Fabio on the cover! All things considered, this cover art isn’t too bad. Oh, and we get ads for Operation Wolf, Goal (Jaleco’s soccer game), Stealth ATF another NES Flight Sim, and a 3 page Genesis ad. That’s 8 pages of ads before the actual magazine has started. Read more

Posted on May 12, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Quality Control – Life Force

The box art for Life Force

So, for Issue 2 of Nintendo Power, I picked for my game of choice Life Force by Konami, which was billed as the spiritual successor to Gradius.

To be frank, it has a lot in common with Gradius – both in terms of the ship design, most of the weapons in the game (laser, missile, option) and the power-up system in general. In general, the game controls pretty well, though I’m playing this with the X-Box 360 controller rather than the the NES controller, so I have an Analog Stick to work with. Anyway, the weapons work very well, and the game’s new weapon, the pulse cannon, works significantly better than the similar weapon from R-Type.

Ultimately though, if you want to make a good shump, what you need is good combination of solid controls, good level design, good weapon selection (and the weapons don’t have to be original, necessarily, they just need to be useful), and good enemy design – with both the generic enemies and the bosses, and both in terms of their movements, and in terms of their attack pattern (how do they move, do they fire bullets, if so how many bullets to they fire, how fast do they travel, and so on). Oh, and you can’t have slowdown. Read more

Posted on May 11, 2009February 16, 2025 by Alexander Case

Where I Read – Nintendo Power #2

Now, onwards with our Nintendo Power recaps with Issue #2, covering Castlevania II, which was the first Castlevania game I ever played. This issue is about 105 pages long, which is actually a drop in the page count from last issue, which is different for most gaming magazines. Normally the second issue is longer than the first issue (but not always).

Bionic Commando Strategy Guide: So, we have a strategy guide for the original version of Bionic Commando, which has been since been remade for the X-Box 360 and PS3 as Bionic Commando: Rearmed which you can get through X-Box Live Arcade, and through the Playstation Network. I’ve already purchased that game, and it’s decent (though it’s hard). It’s one of the first action platformers I recall that was non-linear in it’s path to the conclusion (Capcom would later borrow the map system from Bionic Commando for their second G.I. Joe video game), and it didn’t let you jump – but instead it gave you an alternative in the form of your grappling arm, as opposed to, say, Robocop which did precisely jack. In the course of my discussion of this game, I’ll go over any differences I observe from the NES version of the game to the re-make. Read more