[ Retro Scan ] Gateway to the Savage Frontier

Wednesday, February 7th, 2018

SSI AD&D Forgotten Realms Gold Box Gateway to the Savage Frontier RPG sexy sorceress legs advertisement scan - 1991BEGIN A FANTASTIC NEW QUEST! !!!

For some reason, my brother and I never owned any SSI Gold Box AD&D games when I was growing up. I have played many of them briefly since then — and there definitely are a lot of them.

So I’m particularly interested to know what you guys think about the Gold Box games — which ones you’ve played, which are the best, etc.

[ From Video Games and Computer Entertainment, August 1991, p.13 ]

Discussion Topic: What’s your favorite SSI Gold Box game?

[ Retro Scan ] A TurboGrafx Halloween

Monday, October 31st, 2016

TTI TurboGrafx-16 Turbografx TurboExpress TurboDuo Dead Moon Ghost Manor advertisement scan - 1992Ghost Manor and Dead Moon on a Zombie Console

[ From VG&CE, November 1992, p.47 ]

Discussion Topic: What’s the scariest 16-bit era game you’ve ever played?

[ Retro Scan ] Dune II

Monday, March 14th, 2016

Dune II PC Game Advertisement Scan - 1992I just got a craving for The Spice

Dune II is to the real-time strategy genre as Wolfenstein 3D is to first-person shooters. Like Wolf-3D, Dune II wasn’t the absolute first example of its genre, but it was the first game to bring together all the distinctive elements of its respective genre into one title — in this case, those elements would later be copied and expanded upon over and over again by games like Command & Conquer and Warcraft.

That being said, I’ve only played Dune II a few times — only many years after its release. I never got into it, but I can see why it is a historically important game. Warcraft was my first modern RTS game.

[ From VG&CE, November 1992, p.4 ]

Discussion Topic: What’s your favorite Real-Time Strategy game of all time?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Super High Impact

Monday, January 11th, 2016

Super High Impact Football Game Sega Genesis Arcade Ad Advertisement Scan - 1992The NFL really needs to do something about these bone-crunching incidents

People seem to be talking about football a lot these days, and I’m not quite sure why. To appease the raving hordes, I thought I’d throw out a Football retro scan. In this case, it’s for Super High Impact on the Sega Genesis.

I’ve never been a fan of Football video games in general — my favorite is probably still Tecmo Bowl for the NES. Nostalgia for that game’s intro music alone is enough to get me to play it a couple times a year.

[ From Video Games & Computer Entertainment, November 1992, p.15 ]

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your all-time favorite American football video game from the pre-32-bit era?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Genesis Does Contractions

Tuesday, October 6th, 2015

Sega Genesis advertisement Genesis Does What Nintendon't advertisement - 1991Before the Sega Scream, there was the Sega Insult

This is a rather famous early ad for the Sega Genesis that I have never featured until now. It played upon the dramatic graphical differences between the Genesis and the NES, claiming “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t.”

It’s worth emphasizing that Sega is comparing its console to the 8-bit NES here, and not the Super NES — Nintendo’s 16-bit machine had not yet been released in the US, allowing Sega to get a jump on the next generation in the American market.

[ From Video Games & Computer Entertainment, January 1991, p.50-51]

Discussion Topic of the Week: What year did you first get a Sega Genesis? What were your first games for it?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Wordtris

Monday, August 17th, 2015

Spectrum HoloByte Wordtris Game Boy Super NES advertisement - 1992How Video Games Are Designed

[ From VG&CE, November 1992, p.59]

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite Tetris spin-off game?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Air Zonk

Monday, August 3rd, 2015

Air Zonk TTI TurboGrafx-16 TurboDuo Bonk in Space Shooter advertisement - 1992The 4-inch Michael Jordan

I remember seeing a playable demo of Air Zonk in my local Toys ‘R’ Us around the time it came out (probably early 1993). I remember it being marketed as a pack-in for the TurboDuo. Upon playing the demo, my first thought was along the lines of: “Wow, the TurboGrafx-16 is still around? They must be desperate.”

(For those of you who don’t know, my brother and I took the TG-16 plunge circa 1990 or 1991.)

By 1993, the SNES and Genesis were in full force — I owned a SNES and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was deep into Street Fighter II fever at that point. I drooled over the TurboDuo when it came out, though, and I always had a soft spot for the TG-16.

My second about Air Zonk was, “Hmm, this game isn’t very good.” So I released the controller and didn’t play it again until perhaps 20 years later on an emulator. I still don’t like it very much.

[ From VG&CE, November 1992, p.46]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Which do you like better: Air Zonk or Bonk’s Adventure?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] George Foreman’s KO Boxing

Monday, June 22nd, 2015

George Foreman's KO Boxing SNES Genesis Game Boy NES Game Gear advertisement - 1992It’s not a grill, but it’ll do.

[ From VG&CE, November 1992, p.29]

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite boxing video game of all time?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Crystal Quest for Game Boy

Monday, April 21st, 2014

Crystal Quest for Nintendo Game Boy Advertisement 1991Game Boy: The Final Frontier

Fans of early Mac games will no doubt remember Crystal Quest, which (I believe) was the first Mac game to use color graphics just after the Mac II came out in 1987.

Crystal Quest on the Mac played like a space-based Robotron: 2084 controlled with the mouse, albeit with a loose trackball feel because your ship kept moving in the direction you nudged the mouse until you corrected its course. So I’m not sure how it played in this obscure Game Boy port from 1991. Perhaps I’ll fire up an emulator right now and find out.

[ From Video Games & Computer Entertainment, August 1991, rear cover]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Can you think of any other game that started on the Macintosh then received a port to a Nintendo console?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Side Pocket for Game Boy

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Data East Side Pocket for Nintendo Game Boy ad - 1991The balls are moving and the cue ball hasn’t even hit them yet. Spooky.

[ From Video Games and Computer Entertainment, January 1991, back cover ]

Discussion Topic of the Week: In your opinion, what’s the best pool/billiards video game of all time?