This is a commercial for Hitachi’s H2 model of the MSX, Microsoft’s unsung hero of Japan’s gaming past. The soothing tones, the brilliant whites, the computer-generated animal…this is the future, people. The distant, star-gazing future! Where video games are so advanced they’re sold not on discs, or downloaded over communications networks, but put on cassette…
In 1989, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii for an interview. The two spoke about practically everything, from game design to their latest titles (like Link to the Past) to the future, but what I found most interesting was the pair’s ideas on making games about teaching. Both had…
Howard & Nester was a comic staple of Nintendo Power for much of the magazine’s run, but there’d always been one storyline kept out of the public eye. Until today. This issue was never intended to run in the magazine; instead, it was specially made and given to former Nintendo of America icon Howard Phillips…
While there are plenty boutique arcades and bars across the world that are home to old Asteroids cabinets, and private collectors who own working versions of Centipede, they account for barely a drop in the ocean of the total number of arcade cabinets manufactured in the 1970s and 80s. We’d like to think those machines…
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You might not have played the game, but if you’ve ever walked into a video game store in your life, you’ll recognise the face: that of the Chessmaster, star of 1986 game The Chessmaster 2000. That first game, developed by The Software Toolworks, would lead to a series that would span decades, with the last…
I do love me some arcade marquees. The colours, the hand-drawn art, it’s all so very Roger Dean. This set are from Namco, before the company merged with Bandai, and could just as easily have worked as the logos for mid-80s thrash bands. Which is equally awesome. Namco Arcade Logos [VGJunk] Total Recall is a…
While in most areas the SNES and Mega Drive were similar enough, Nintendo’s one secret weapon – that Sega couldn’t match – was its Mode 7 technology. Allowing different “layers” on the screen to be rotated, it was usually used to move the “ground” separately from the background, and is perhaps most famously employed in…
On August 30, 1987, the very first Street Fighter game was released by Capcom. Making today the series’ 25th birthday. My God. How depressing. Not for Capcom or Street Fighter, of course. For them, it’s party time. But for most of us who grew up button-smashing our way through combos, it’s a stark reminder that…
In the mid-80s, thanks to the success of platforms like the C64 and MSX, video game machines that could double as personal computers were hot. So it’s understandable that, ahead of Nintendo’s entry into the North American console market, the company was thinking that its first US machine might need to be more than just…
The year was 2001. Rather than battling evil computers on white-washed spaceships, we were instead still living on Earth playing PC games, and stuck in that awkward phase between the pre-WoW Blizzard and its post-StarCraft efforts. That phase is perfectly illustrated here in this cover feature in the sadly now-defunct CGW magazine, giving the world…
Assassin’s Creed is easily one of the most successful and genuinely new properties to emerge from this console generation. But were it not for a few key changes here and there, things could have ended up entirely differently. Edge has a great feature up detailing the story behind the making of the first game in…
Howard Phillips might not be as big a name in Nintendo history as men like Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and Gunpei Yokoi. But his story is just as interesting, and the story of his role in the company’s American invasion of the 1980s is one all Nintendo fans should enjoy. Speaking with Phillips – who…
I’m not normally one to indulge in “TOP TEN THINGS OF THIS THING” lists, but when they involve badass box art from 1980s and 90s PC games, I can’t help it. Topless Robot put together their list of “10 Insanely Badass DOS Game Boxes”, and it’s good reading, mostly because they know the worth of…
If you’ve got the capability right now, whether on GameCube, Wii or even PC, go put Wind Waker on. And just look at it. Soak up how a video game released almost a decade ago still looks like it could have come out yesterday. Once you’re done, ask yourself “how did Nintendo do that?”. Then…
It’s easy to forget now, but back in the 1990s, many video games had the same price on the sticker they do today, which when you account for inflation reminds you that they were super expensive But just why did games cost so much? This infographic from a 1995 issue of British magazine Super Play…
“Saaaayyyyy-gggaaahhhhh” and Lucasarts’ efforts might be the most memorable, but a ton of console games of the 1990’s had great little intro screens, not for the games themselves, but for the publishers releasing them. Sometimes they were clever, sometimes they were funny and sometimes, in the case of EA, they’ve barely changed at all. Console…
Sega ran some pretty awful commercials during the early 1990s, but that doesn’t mean everything you saw on TV with the Sega logo on it was dreadful. Take this 1993 Genesis ad, which…well, it’s great. Really great. [via Albotas]
Today brought reports that, after a publishing run of 24 years, the famous Nintendo Power magazine is no more. If true, it’s a sadder day than most involving the closing of a game publication, because for many Nintendo Power was more than just a magazine. It was a piece of their childhood. Those who are…
Sleeping Dogs has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. Part of the game’s appeal is the fact it’s set in Hong Kong, which raises the question: why aren’t more games based around one of the world’s most iconic and populous cities? The answer may well be that this old thing scared…
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