COLUMN: 'Game Mag Weaseling': Mag Roundup 4/4/08

['Game Mag Weaseling' is a weekly column by Kevin Gifford which documents the history of video game magazines, from their birth in the early '80s to the current day.]

It's kind of a tiny installment for Mag Roundup (only two issues), so how about a little light reading to occupy your time? There's no web page for it, but have a look at this directory for a couple tantalizing peeks at "Arcade Alley," the column written by Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz that ran in Video magazine (a monthly devoted to VCRs and such) from 1978 and provided the first mainstream print coverage of console games in the US.

The column directly led to the 1981 launch of Electronic Games, the most well-known and celebrated of titles that ran during the pre-crash era. In this directory there's a column about the Intellivision from 1979 and a video buyer's guide from 1981 that includes all kinds of obscure computer platforms. Superbly interesting stuff.

Anyway, click on to find out about the two mags that arrived on shelves in the past two weeks.

Tips & Tricks Codebook May/June 2009

Cover: Street Fighter IV

Tips & Tricks keeps on rollin'. There are only two guides this issue (SFIV and Killzone 2), but considering the SFIV strategy's a good 28 pages, I forgive them. This is especially true 'cos there's a page within devoted to the previous 11 Street Fighter covers T&T and its predecessor, VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, printed. Wow, has it really been eight and a half years since the last T&T SF cover?

I must admit that devoting an entire coverline to "never-before-seen Game Gear codes" is nothing short of amazing. In fact, it's downright charming! Just what I'd hope from T&T. I can't tell which of these cheats are the new ones, but there are a few neat ones I'll try out the next time I have the emulator up.

Beckett Massive Online Gamer May/June 2009

Cover: EverQuest 10th anniversary issue

I just realized that I haven't seen many run-on sentences and screenshots with big JPEG artifacts on them in print mags lately. Beckett MOG to the rescue!

The cover feature would have been neat if a real magazine was tackling the subject, interviewing SOE higher-ups and giving a smart overview of the MMO business and what it takes to survive.

But no, it's just Beckett Massive Online Gamer, and so it's a 4-page text-heavy interview with the assistant lead designer, "tradeskill lead" (huh?), and "a general content designer" who's "also in charge of patches" for...some game, presumably EQ, though they never specify it in the article. And one of the interview questions is -- you better be sitting down for this one, it's a laugh riot -- "Ninjas or pirates?".

I pity the poor tree who gave part of its body for the paper this is printed on.

[Kevin Gifford breeds ferrets and runs Magweasel, a site for collectors and fans of old video-game and computer magazines. In his spare time he does writing and translation for lots and lots of publishers and game companies.]