next »

[meppi]

Time to fire up the Mega Drive love this week with the third issue of Sega Pro.
We start of with a hardware special that delves into the bowels of the upcoming Mega CD.
From there we take another look at an all-time favourite Donald Duck platformer Quackshot.
This is followed by a look at the rather unfamiliar arcade brawler Run Ark,
and our final preview article delves into one of Telenet Japan's classic: Valis III.

Sega Pro 3 - Christmas 1991 (UK)


The Mega CD (hardware feature)
Quackshot (Mega Drive)
Run Ark (Mega Drive)
Valis III (Mega Drive)

The complete magazine can be downloaded in its full resolution by clicking here,
while it can also be downloaded for tablet devices by clicking here
and also be downloaded for iPhone/iPod devices by clicking here.

[RedTop]

Good stuff!! I love these features about the MegaCD because they drew me to the magazines after I had gotten a Megadrive for Christmas. Kept reading the mags for a decade after that.

[meppi]

I never had a Mega CD back in the day, only getting one after I bought my Saturn.

I remember those full motion video games putting me off and making me scared to think that those might actually be the future of video games, like people tried convincing us about back in the day.
Glad that didn't quite pan out.

Loved Lunar Silver Star and still count it in my top 5 favorite RPGs ever, not to mention the best home version of Final Fight, until it was released on the PS3 and 360 last year.
tip: avoid the PS3 version though since it incorporated a terrible form of DRM that not allows you to play the game unless you have a working internet connection at all time.
That kind of stuff is simply unforgivable.  

[Nreive]

We return to the official and fully sanctioned digital archive of PC Player with issue 2 from January 1994.
To kick off the online preview articles, we have a feature on Westwood Studios, featuring their past (Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, Dune II), present (Kyrandia 2) and future plans (Command & Conquer, Lands of Lore II).
From there we look at the standout reviews, starting with Frontier: Elite II, the sequel to the massively popular free roaming space trading game.
Next up is Star Trek: Judgment Rites, one of the better games featuring Captain Kirk and Co.
We round off the online articles with the timeless adventure classic from Lucasarts: Sam & Max Hit the Road.

PC Player - January 1994 (UK)


Westwood Studios (developer feature)
Frontier: Elite II (PC review)
Star Trek: Judgment Rites (PC review)
Sam & Max Hit the Road (PC review)

The complete magazine can be downloaded in its full resolution by clicking here,
while it can also be downloaded for tablet devices by clicking here
and also be downloaded for iPhone/iPod devices by clicking here.

[Nreive]

We like to start of a new month with a look back at the magazines that lined the shelves 20 years ago, so it's time to look back at March of 1992.
We start of with the Mega Drive game Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, which you'll find reviewed in Mean Machines issue 18. For our second highlighted review, we take a look at Your Sinclair issue 75 and focus on Space Crusade.
For our remaining articles we selected two interviews. The first one talks to Gary Bracey, or 'Mister Ocean', who was the Software Director at Ocean Software.
Our second interview talks to former Sega US boss Tom Kalinske about Sonic 2 and Sega's next-gen 'Gigadrive' consoles.

Monkey Island 2 review (Mega Drive) from issue 18 of Mean Machines.
Space Crusade review (ZX Spectrum) from issue 75 of Your Sinclair.
Gary Bracey: Mister Ocean interview (Amiga) from issue 11 of Amiga Power.
End-of-Level Boss: Tom Kalinske interview (Mega Drive) from issue 3 of Sega Force.

To read about not only these games but the complete selection of featured magazines this month, don't forget to click the link to the full feature below.

Read the full March 1992 Back in Time Special.

[meppi]

This week we present you with some more of that classic Sega Saturn goodness in the form of OSSM number six.
We start of with the second part of OSSM's look atPanzer Dragoon Zwei, after their big feature in issue 4.
Then we move on to the cover story: SNK's incredible port of the Neo Geo originalThe King of Fighters '95. Sticking with top of the line fighting games, but this time from the Capcom side, we look at the upcomingVampire Hunter: Darkstalkers' Revenge. And last, but certainly no least, we look at an incredibly underrated gem by Game Arts that goes by the nameGun Griffon.

Official Sega Saturn Magazine 6 - april 1996 (UK)


Panzer Dragoon Zwei
the King go Fighters '95
Vampire Hunter: Darkstalkers' Revenge
Gun Griffon

The complete magazine can be downloaded in its full resolution by clicking here,
while it can also be downloaded for tablet devices by clicking here
and also be downloaded for iPhone/iPod devices by clicking here.

[sblack]

thank you for these
 one of my favourite magazines, appreciate all your hard efforts

[meppi]

You're welcome.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the maximum resolution version of this series soon, as I'm working on getting the final couple of issues ready in 2560pixel quality.

[RedTop]

Thanks again, love the back in time article and the SSM. Still got a copy of KoF '95 here... loved the use of cartridges to allow arcade-perfect ports to the Saturn.

KoF '95 was cheap too. I remember picking it up for a measily 99 guilders! Retail price was fl109,- but I got discount as a member at some video game store. Awesome days!

[meppi]

I'm surprised the retail price was that low!
For reference that's about €50 when most games used to be 60 or Nintendo cartridge games up to €80 and over.
So for coming with a RAM cartridge as well, it certainly was a steal.

Never found the game in the wild over here in Belgium though.
I was able to buy it from a little second hand store that even had lots of NES , Game Gear and Master System games!
The game was in new condition and I probably paid about as much for it.
Guess someone bought it and couldn't get into it.

It was my first KOF game as well and it did take a while for the game to finally click with me, like so many Saturn games were. But again, once it did, I absolutely loved it and bought every sequel I could get my hands on.

[blueman56]

Loving the restoration work you guys put into the magazines, fully appricated.

Just wanted to give you a heads up, I went to download the latest issue of OSSM6 and hotfile has taken the file offline.

Could it be-upped please?

 

[RedTop]

KoF'95 was actually one of only two games to use a ROM cartridge. The cartridge stored character animations so that background animations etc could be loaded onto the internal RAM. What an awesome game, and incredibly awesome to see the cart-CD combo. (I'm still a huge fan of cartridges. Nothing like slotting a piece of well-manufactured plastic into place.

I was amazed as well by the prize when I went to pick up the game (actually went to pick up two, one for a mate of mine), I believe I pre-ordered it.

[meppi]

Loving the restoration work you guys put into the magazines, fully appricated.

Just wanted to give you a heads up, I went to download the latest issue of OSSM6 and hotfile has taken the file offline.

Could it be-upped please?

 

Thanks for letting me know.
Hotfile didn't actually take those files offline.
I seem to have made that mistake myself when replacing the OSSM catalogue with the new 2560p versions.
See, I deleted all the old 1920p ones after uploading the new ones and forgot how OSSM6 was already one of the new ones, so I deleted it by mistake.
Don't have enough time to fix it right now I think as I have to leave for work in 10min, but it'll be fixed by tomorrow for sure.

KoF'95 was actually one of only two games to use a ROM cartridge. The cartridge stored character animations so that background animations etc could be loaded onto the internal RAM. What an awesome game, and incredibly awesome to see the cart-CD combo. (I'm still a huge fan of cartridges. Nothing like slotting a piece of well-manufactured plastic into place.

I was amazed as well by the prize when I went to pick up the game (actually went to pick up two, one for a mate of mine), I believe I pre-ordered it.

If I remember correctly it was a 1MB cart that they used for KOF95, right?
It sure made the system shine.
I think they even made a 3MB cart later down the line for other games which were only released in Japan.

Not to mention the 4MB cart from Capcom which brought arcade perfect versions of their CPS2 games to the Saturn. 

[meppi]

The files just finished uploading. (Thank you new ISP contract )
but Id on't have time to write the links into the code of the correct pages right now, so here are the direct download links for now:

http://hotfile.com/dl/149856727/96e12c8/OSSM6.zip.html max-rez
http://hotfile.com/dl/149857238/a32c00d/OSSM6i.zip.html iPod
http://hotfile.com/dl/149857295/42b8813/OSSM6t.zip.html tablet

[blueman56]

Ahh super! Thats great! These are amazing, can't really thank all of you involved for all the hard work and effort you put into these!

[meppi]

No problem.

[meppi]

Sorry about the lack of updates.

We should have gotten an update out last Friday, but found out at the very last second that we were missing a dozen pages for the magazine we were about to release.
We obviously can't release a magazine with parts missing, so we're looking into rectifying this problem.

[meppi]

A little late for our update since we had misplaces a couple of pages for this release and noticed this mistake too late.
But better late then never. So this week we present you with issue 3 of MEGA, the Mega Drive centric magazine.
The first featured article takes a look at the history of the Mega Drive and asks the question: When did you get yours?
Afterwards we take a look at 3 reviews. The first one being the classic World of Illusion which will soon be getting a curent gen sequel for the 3DS with Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion.
Next up is a fan favourite Amiga racer that got an amazing Mega Drive port: Lotus Turbo Challenge. For our final review we take a look at John Madden Football '93.

MEGA 3 - december 1992 (UK)


When did you get yours? (feature)
World of Illusion
Lotus Turbo Challenge
John Madden Football '93

The complete magazine can be downloaded in its full resolution by clicking here,
while it can also be downloaded for tablet devices by clicking here
and also be downloaded for iPhone/iPod devices by clicking here.

[andynick]

Nice release Meppi.  Just wanted to correct something though.  You say Mega finished August 1995, I know for a fact that it carried on a least another two months (and we're still not sure that that's the end of them!).  I have the front cover scans on my wiki.

Issue 36 - September 1995 http://magazinesfromthepast.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mega_Issue_36.jpg

Issue 37 - October 1995 http://magazinesfromthepast.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mega_Issue_37.jpg

[Nreive]

Thanks for updating that release, meppi. Phew. The delay was my fault as the batch resize process omitted those handful of files. I've been in the process of moving house since Friday morning and have missed everything that was going on - just managed to catch a glimpse of things on Sunday and uploaded the missing files.

@andynick - thanks for the update about the final issue of Mega. We've updated that final issue date a couple of times already although I don't think meppi would mind amending it one last time. It's always hard to pin down final issues of magazines that seemed to disapear, but I think we will go for October 1995 as the last issue, as that is the last one we have proof existed.

[meppi]

Thanks for the info Andy! These things are indeed sometimes extremely hard to nail down since so few sources for it.

I'm going to update those dates in a couple of minutes.
Normally I have the week off from work, so I'm gonna make the most of it and try and update a lot of catalogue pages as well as edit together several magazines so that then only need to cleaned up and restored.
That should make things a little easier when I have to go back to work as joining the pages for a magazine takes up to 6-8 hours sometimes.
It's not really helping that I'm working 2 late shift and then a night shift now.
Normally with the early shifts, even though I turned into a zombie by 4PM, I could squeeze in 4 hours of work on the scans and site in the afternoon.

With the new work schedule, I'm feeling a lot better physically due to sleeping so much better, but I have basically only the weekend to do some work on the site and scans. 

[andynick]

While i'm at it 

I notice the MegaTech pages say May 1994 as the last date.  I'm afraid that went on for at least another year!  I've got an advertisement for Issue 42 on the wiki, which was dated June 1995 http://magazinesfromthepast.wikia.com/wiki/File:MegaTech_Issue_42.jpg.  Whilst that is no guarantee it ever came out, I think it's safe to say Issue 41 would have.

[meppi]

That's incredible! I was actually joining pages of MegaTech 3 a couple of hours ago.
And it does say that issue 42 is in stores now, so I'm sure that one got released as well.

A bit of a shame really that I already got a phone call from work that I have to go in tomorrow.
The usual suspect has called in sick again, so guess who has to clean up the mess again...
Looks like work on the next couple of issues will resume at a snails pace for now. 

[Addicted to Chaos]

Man, I just got the vibe to start checking some gaming magazine scans again, so I head over here to the download section. And what do I see?... GAMEFAN!!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! Somebody please tell me this is still going on. Please, please, please.

Anywho, these days I've been into 2D scrolling shooters, then got stuck on just the Gradius series for quite awhile (never thought I'd ever like this series?)... now currently been messing with Contra series and the classic style Castlevania games. Again both Konami series... now I'm in the mood for some more classic gaming, namely from the 8-16 Bit era this time (or Arcade games from that era). So I need to start reading these great magazine scans again to see what's out there for me to play next?


...  so how are things here these days? Good, bad? Playing some great games too I hope?

I got's quite a few things I want to talk about that's on my mind gaming wise too these days... Well, I was just about to turn off my computer & sleep before I spoted this and just had to say something... well, see ya's tomorrow.

[meppi]

Well I'm sorry to be the one to give you the bad news, but the GameFan project seems to be on hold and doesn't look very good.

Perhaps the sales of the classic issues wasn't enough to justify everything that went into it with putting them up, but whatever it was, interest on the publisher side dropped off the face of the planet.
The last issue we finished never got put up for sale as far as I'm aware and that's a long time ago.
So putting in 20-30 hours of work or even more into a magazine that will never see the light of day is something that certainly screws up my willpower to do it over and over again.  

Been a bit of a morality drain on us actually with everything that happened, but I'll spare you the rather nasty details if you don't mind.

If you like Gradius, you should certainly try to check out Gradius Gaiden on the Japanese PSone and Gradius 5 by Treasure on PS2.
Those are my 2 favorites in the series.
I've been going back to classic shooters as well thanks to getting my 360 and a bunch of region-free Japanese Cave games.
ESP Galuda 2, Pink Sweets, DodonPachi, Mishihimesama Futari, etc.
As well as eagerly awaiting the UK release of Akai Katana which games out May 18th. Already have my Amazon pre-order in place!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=farzs6mYwzY

Looking at the bullet patterns and behavior as well as knowing it's by Cave I'm pretty sure this will restore my love for horizontal shooters again.

Besides these, I've been getting into games I never thought I'd like. Like Gears of War for instance, which was a huge surprise for me.
So I've been trying to broaden my horizons and check out all kinds of things I missed by not having a 360.
Lots of great stuff on there.
Trial Evolution just came out which is video game crack, plain and simple.  
And I just received my copy of The Witcher 2 as well. Wonder how that'll be.

Overall things have been pretty good I'd say.
Haven't been able to do even half the amount of work on the site or magazines that I'd like to, thanks to having to do 3 straight late shifts in a row this past month.
In the morning I have a hard enough time getting out of bed and when I come home late at night, my head just isn't in it to sit in front of my laptop to edit magazines in the tiniest details.
So I can basically only edit during the weekend, which is why it's taking so long for the next magazine to be finished.
I do have the night shift next week and a week off after that, so I'm hoping I'll finally be able to put some good time into the next batch of magazines...

[Addicted to Chaos]

Oh man, that just broke my heart... man, I'm just gonna have to buy these myself then... I'm not really familiar with checking out for this stuff when it gets out for sale though... do you guys or anyone still check regularly enough for what gaming mags still get put out for sale these days? If so, a PM to notify me would be very welcome. I'm gonna probably pay whatever it takes to try to make this complete collection happen.

Yeah, Gaiden is one of my fav Gradius' also. Still haven't gotten in Gradius V yet... I'm very fond of the Arcade versions of 2, 3, & 4. Part 3 is my most played by far suprisingly... don't really care too much for the SNES version... though I played that one probably the second most, it loses it's fun really fast due to not having anywhere near enough the depth of it's Arcade counterpart.  This series made me crack to finally get a PSP for Gradius Collection (all 4 Arcade games and Gaiden), Salamander Collection (still sealed), and Parodius (though I'm having trouble getting into this one do to it's very starnge cute 'em up style... if it was a notch less silly, maybe?).

Yeah, I've gots the X-Box 360 too, namely for it's shmups and my newfound videogame love; re-releases of must have classics! Preferably upadated somewhat at least or stuff like Mega Man 9 and 10.

I've been meaning to get my hands on Espegalda 2 and the latest Dodonpachi for quite awhile now. Pink sweets is on my mind too sice I'm a big fan of Raizing/Eighting Shooters too. Only the fact that I have to import them is what's delaying everything. Man, I wish I lived in Japan already and laughed at all the games westerners aren't getting already. (Well I'm not that evil, but you get what I mean )

That video you showed me I wasn't sure what I was gonna see. For some reason I though it was gonna be a fighting game, which I'm not in the mood for anymore... Then my head exploaded at what I seen!!!  Man, I gonna buy that just for what I've just seen!

So you not in the mood for sidescrollers anymore? Don't blame you as we don't see many of those anymore... But my moods switched from vert to side ever since my lots & lots of Gradius gaming. But moods go back and forth, so it's all good. Right now I may venture into other action gaming genres since my time with Contra series and what I've been playing non-stop these past few days, the Castlevania series. And man, I under rated Castlevania Bloodlines big time, it's easily my top fav 16-Bit Castlevania game. Even out doing Rondo for PC-Engine CD. So now I'm wondering what gaming style of games I'll get hooked on big time next? That's why I want to check by reading classic gaming mags, as I'm finding what other like and constantly recomend of the net over and over are usually well known games and I want to see what other hidden gems I may discover that maybe is greatly under rated?

And man, your caught doing heavy hours at work. I'm surprised you're even using the weekends to do what you do if this is the case.  So I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. No need to feel quilty at all if this is your case. And yeah, now I see how so many hours for GameFan was so not worth it... still breaks my heart though. 

Man, I hope things work out with your hours to be normal again soon before you burn yourself out... What can I say, I feel your pain on this matter more then anyone probably, as being a victem of overworked for a long time myself too (with one of the most intense heavy labour jobs too!). But that's another story in itself too.

[meppi]

It's been a while since I have looked up magazine sales on ebay or such.
Mainly due to having already so many series that I still have to start working on, so it makes little sense for me at this time to grab even more stuff, especially as I'm trying to save up for a new house.

Don't really know how I turned away from side scrolling shooters and focussed on vertical ones.
I used to love them in the past. Games like UN Squadron and Harmful Park to name just a couple, but also quite a lot of PC-Engine ones like Winds of Thunder and Gate of Thunder.

Akai Katana sure has me hyped though as it looks to do everything just right for me.

Yeah, work has been really tough.
Not having to do the early shift is a bit better for my health, but on the flip side I have a lot less time to do a lot of other things now.
And having a pretty physically intense job like yourself sure plays a big part.
When I get home at night, I just don't have the energy to do anything that requires a lot of focus such as working on magazines. So I just plunk down on the couch and play some games or watch a movie before going to bed.

[Addicted to Chaos]

Harmful Park, really? Meppi likes and says it's a good game? I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Never played it past the first level as it was part of testing what's out there shmup wise on the PS1 + I never completely dismiss a game until I've put plenty of game time into one. Because you never know if you'll like a game or not for sure? Had way too many games I've dismissed from first impressions that ended up some of my biggest favourites. So I never trust first impressions or people that review games while barely playing them... even beating a game once is not enough. Now coming close to mastering one is enough because that means you really understand how the game works. Plus it avoids the way to many complaints reviewers always have that a game is way too hard when really it isn't, they just need to learn how to play it still.

[meppi]

Yeah, over the past decade I've become quite wary of reviews and the people who write them.

That's one of the great things about the internet. No matter what your tastes are, you are bound to find a couple of people who share them and that way you might take a chance on certain things you'd never try otherwise.

A perfect example would be The Witcher 2 which just arrived yesterday for my 360.
Never played a PC RPG and never been really interested in them anyway.
Yet reading impressions of people who I trust got me exited about a game that I had no idea if I'd love or even like.

But I'm just done playing the game for the past 4 hours straight and only just finished the prologue.
Starting chapter 1 will be for another day as I want to cherish this one.
First impressions weren't very favorable. A bit clumsy with the battle system and I started getting overwhelmed with all the menu options.
But I decided to press on and after a couple of hours the story drew me in like a great book or film does.
Certainly a big and unexpected surprise for me, and to top it off, it looks gorgeous in places as well.

Not to say Harmful Park is one of these kind of top-tier games though.
But I really did like it and still do.
The only real problem with it is it's lack of challenge.
You really need to play it on the harder difficulty settings, otherwise it can be quite boring. At least gameplay-wise.
Sure there are better games out there for the PSone, but I really do like it.

BTW if you're looking for great side scrolling platformers, be sure to check out Chippoke Ralph no Daibouken and Umihara Kawase, if I haven't recommended those in the past.
That last one is also available on the Super Famicom and Nintendo DS in Japan.
But by all means, ignore the PSP version as it's full with glitches and bugs that ruin the game and it's physics system on which it heavily relies.

[meppi]

After months of Sega focussed magazines it's nice to look into a different direction as we explore Super Play issue 7.
Our first feature is called: Realms of Fantasy and takes a look at Role Playing Games, the Japanese way.
We then have a chat with Jez San, founder of Argonaut as he talks about creating the Super FX chip & Starfox.
And finally, we look at two reviews. The first one is for Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt, while the second one is none other than Starfox.

Super Play 7 - may 1993 (UK)


Realms of Fantasy - Role Playing the Japanese way
interview with Jez San from Argonaut on creating the Super FX chip and Starfox
Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (review)
Starfox (review)

The complete magazine can be downloaded in its full resolution by clicking here,
while it can also be downloaded for tablet devices by clicking here
and also be downloaded for iPhone/iPod devices by clicking here.