GameResearch_E

-And they never would. -Yes, the Dallas electronic board game is real. Why? I don’t know.pic.twitter.com/tU6sBVoic9

GET DOWN, READER!pic.twitter.com/O88q8ejsbb

The best of video games so far. You can check out @katewillaert ‘s article on the Arcade Awards for some of the prior winners: https://gamehistory.org/first-video-game-awards/ …pic.twitter.com/FVEoDSbhN9

How much can you get wrong in two sentences? To me this seems like an obvious conflation of the Hewlett-Packard/Apple story of “started in a garage” and standard Bushnell mythmaking.pic.twitter.com/dakVKLRkeD

Ol’ reliable Atari VCS review… No, not the new one. They counted 43 official games available for the system at the time, though I wonder how this actually squares up with reality. @ubersaurus knows maybe.pic.twitter.com/AC4mp1hy2T

Here’s a story that never gets told. With great success comes great responsibility, so service stations were set up by Atari for console repairs. Never seen them mentioned again but they probably existed.pic.twitter.com/zjWbOFf68Y

Activision up next, with the world still perplexed at the concept of a third party. As noted in prior Arcade Alley columns, they do mention Activision has a distinctive style which is great to look back on today. It makes those old games feel not as antiquated.pic.twitter.com/AA6DwmFY1d

Oh don’t think I forgot you, Le Stick! Yes, the first motion controller for the Atari VCS. If you find one: Keep it away from your hands. It’s full of mercury. Also it sucks, as even noted in this blurb.pic.twitter.com/xpmkVj7eyc

Ah, the poor Channel F. Relegated to its footnote, though under Zircon it persisted to 1983. I feel like the editor chose these three games because they were the only ones they could find.pic.twitter.com/b7NYXIDKzq

The Odyssey 2 actually had a rather interesting line-up of games but was pretty doomed to obscurity by its lack of corporate support. Check out @tcwpodcast for more on the Odyssey 2: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-small-voice-of-magnavox/ …pic.twitter.com/63xFusMHhD

-Nooo… It was more like 1967 technology. -Also I like this distinction in controller types. The Odyssey controllers are only marginally better than the similar Tandy ones.pic.twitter.com/ybylRukqMk

Forever haunted by that god damn keyboard, the Intellivision early software comes out looking well in the comparison. At least if it controlled well, which the editors say it does, but what do they know?pic.twitter.com/rWK91xx9v5

This line’s interesting considering they review the Tandy Coco in this issue. It’s not quite as good, but surely is comparable right?pic.twitter.com/ft8od6pi3e

The Professional Arcade (the actual name) from Astrovision never really got its computer component either, but the BASIC support was extremely strong and led to some of the first ever indie game development.pic.twitter.com/gbXDV4Vwz6

One thing the BPA did well was offering these two-for-one carts rather than claiming 62,000 variants. Honestly this was probably the best way to provide value back in those days if you could fit it into memory.pic.twitter.com/jIioGG4abR

After the “in-depth” breakdown based on a limited selection of games, Electronic Games provides a simplified chart based on the wonky genre names of the time. Why read many word when few word do trick?pic.twitter.com/5eztZz0tDK

Also take note: This is the beginning of never -ever- using bad words to describe games systems lest the advertisers get angry.pic.twitter.com/efyI6hcA1Q

Now we’re into the big review section. Generally these are useful for finding when games came out, though for the first issue of a magazine it’s mostly playing catch-up. I’ll point out if there’s anything special.pic.twitter.com/1mSZmmhRz6

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More self advertisement.pic.twitter.com/fD65BT2THt

Call it my bias, but I think the computer reviews are more interesting because of how much more wild and unrefined some of these games are. Let me show you what I mean.pic.twitter.com/Gh8YO3COK7

First there’s a notice on how they tested their games. Guess they didn’t have money for an Apple II. Then there’s some comparison to cartridge games and how the values of play differ between systems.pic.twitter.com/Efcgj0PVC2

Following this there’s a whole story about defective units of the game Sands of Mars by Crystalware. These sorts of touches into the past are really useful for remembering the chaos of the early period.pic.twitter.com/hxsLeyDZEH

Don’t get too excited: This game is just a variant of the pentominoes puzzle game which inspired Tetris. You do get to arrange the blocks though.pic.twitter.com/ZqeJ5yJ6NY

Perhaps inspired by Activision, EG always made a point to mention a designer when they could. Fernando Herrera is one of the forgotten prodigies of the early home computer era who later worked for First Star Software. @RealBoulderDashpic.twitter.com/cr97i7Iqjn

-Avalon Hill dazzles with their box design, but for some reason they could never outpace SSI in the war game field. -Another legend to mention, my boy Nasir Gebelli. Hear him talk with @romero all about the Apple II here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3EmtTpoEa8 …pic.twitter.com/MoGePJpdJ1

This variant of Star Trader - the 1974 mainframe game - appears to be undumped. At least, I couldn’t find it. A strange fit for the CoCo but why look at it that way when instead you could celebrate that it exists! If it still does.pic.twitter.com/s92tkn083S

The arcade section is unfortunately rather bereft of interesting news, as that tends to be relegated to the coin-op trades. That won’t always remain the case though as we get into the era of legend and rumors.pic.twitter.com/8OZuhBUp91

Their look at Venture is rather interesting, reflecting on the growth of fantasy from D&D. Venture does appear to have at least lightly influenced action-adventure games of its ilk into the future. At least @gamespite is convinced.pic.twitter.com/sJN2z92nyY

Time to get really weird with the handheld/board game section! Some of these games are actually rare nowadays so getting a glimpse at some of the oddities that came out in the nadir of electronic handhelds is really interesting.pic.twitter.com/a8cHoGDOgy