40 years ago, charity compilation Off the Hook was being... um... compiled, major software incompatibility issues between the Speccy 48k and 128 were being discovered, and Commodore was negotiating with financial institutions to dig itself out of its huge financial hole.

Had a lot of fun on this podcast talking about one of my all-time favorite games that I also just happened to be a bit tasty at playing.

World book day, innit, so here's mine. "This book chronicles a lot of the games we grew up with, right through to some modern classics. It is beautifully presented and written with the knowledge and passion you'd expect from the author." Lee C. www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/...

35 years ago, the Amiga and ST were enjoying their heyday. Games like Renegade's GODS (a new company established by the Bitmap Bros) showcased the audiovisual capabilities of these systems. Definitely an interesting time, with both 16-bit computers and consoles going toe-to-toe.

35 years ago, CVG checked out this 1st-generation entertainment VR system - the Virtuality 1000 SD. The assumption was that it was destined for arcades, but it was far too expensive and impractical for that. And weirdly enough, VR remains kind of expensive and impractical today!

Here's that Midwinter II: Flames of Freedom review. A quite remarkable and sophisticated game for its era, mixing FPS, vehicle combat, and diplomacy/strategy. A classic 16-bit release.

35 years ago, CVG's cover game Midwinter III scored 96% on ST. Other top reviews: Amiga SWIV (93%), PCE Jackie Chan (88%), C64 Last Ninja 3 (94%), SMS Pacmania (86%), MD Gynoug (91%), SNES Pilotwings (94%), and PC Red Baron (96%). An astonishing breadth of games and platforms!

35 years ago, I wrote this Pilotwings review. I thought it deserved a higher rating than this, while Matt felt the game's high level of difficulty made it somewhat frustrating - so we met in the middle at 90%. Either way, this was THE game to show off your SNES to your mates!

40 years ago, Commodore's Amiga launch was touted but was still many months away, Activision bought text adventure specialists Infocom, BT bought Odin and did nothing with them, and good old British go-slow nanny state modem approval BS was causing problems for manufacturers.

40 years ago, Imagine was Ocean's arcade conversion label - and it was making full use of the large-scale deal they'd signed with Konami. This ad showcases no fewer than five ports of classic era coin-ops. Hyper Sports and Ping Pong were both especially good.

40 years ago, Quicksilva was advertising Max Headroom, a game based on the prescient TV show starring Matt Frewer as both a reporter and the eponymous Max, a computer recreation of his personality stuck inside a machine. Game wasn't great. TV show was seriously cool, however.

40 years ago I was playing Accolade's Hardball, a remarkable C64 title that not only set the standard for sports sims going forward but also established the template for modern baseball games. Their television-style presentation and detailed strategic gameplay started here.

40 years ago, Ocean was advertising Street Hawk, the hugely delayed game-of-the-failed-TV-series. It had already been marketed for well over a year at this point, but it finally arrived on Speccy and Amstrad. It was pretty damn bad, but at least we were spared the C64 version.

35 years ago I was enjoying R-Type on SMS. The devs made the right sacrifices (slower speed and sometimes flickery graphics) to ensure that despite its flaws, it was a surprisingly accurate and - more importantly - fun recreation of Irem's legendary coin-op. An SMS classic!

40 years ago, Sinclair turned its back on microdrives and decided to go with proper disc drives for its 128. A decision that was sadly too little too late. Meanwhile Commodore managed to lose $50m over Xmas while ol' barrow boy Sugar was coining it in thanks to the Amstrad 8256.

35 years ago, the C64 still had a bit of life left in it, as evidenced by games like Last Ninja 3. Its audiovisuals and general presentation were terrific, although its gameplay was a bit Marmite-y. I was never a big fan of the series TBH, but totally get why some really love it.

35 years ago, I was playing Nemo, a very cute and fun hidden gem of a platformer that I rarely saw in the wild. It was definitely released, but was very hard to find in arcades. I was also playing Robocop II, which was fine but like the movie, wasn't a patch on its predecessor.

Precisely five years earlier, Ocean was doing the same thing with these mid-80s properties. However, while in 1991 Ocean's standards were generally fairly reasonable, in 1986, they peddled some serious crapola. Some versions of these games were absolute tripe.

35 years ago, Ocean owned the rights to some of the coolest IPs of the era. NARC and Chase HQ were a terrific pair of coin-ops, and Total Recall and Robocop were both seriously great blockbusters. The quality of the actual games was mixed, but those IPs were top class!

This review of me book made my day. [An unmarked envelope full of used notes is on its way, Al. 😀]

Here's that Duck Tales review. Eggsellent game. You'd be quackers to miss it. Etc, etc, etc.

35 years ago, Mean Machines featured NES Duck Tales on its cover. We rated the game 90%. Other top reviews: SMS California Games 93% and Pac-Mania 90%, Game Boy Contra 91%, NES Gauntlet II 90%, and Mega Drive Gynoug 88%. Bit of a quiet post-Xmas month, but some goodies to be had!

40 years ago, the Spectrum 128 arrived but with the market already swamped with 48k systems and at today's equivalent of £544, it wasn't seen as a great upgrade. Meanwhile Commodore was fending off bankruptcy questions. Sure. Everything was fine. Nothing to see. Move along.😄

35 years ago, US Gold was peddling its back catalog of games either as budget titles or - as in this case - compilations. This one is the very definition of "mixed bag." All popular period arcade games, but depending on system, their quality ranged from mediocre to pretty decent.

35 years ago, I was seriously surprised by PGA Tour Golf. I hadn't played a golf game this fun since Access' Leaderboard many years before - and this one was even better. Subsequent iterations improved on the formula, making them absolute multiplayer classics in my book!

Here's our Mercenary review from this issue. Playing this first proper open-world game was a truly incredible, milestone experience as I'm sure those who also played it at the time will agree. Gaming evolved a quantum leap overnight. An astonishing achievement for a 64k system.

40 years ago, this Chris Foss style ZZAP! cover was based on Novagen's legendary Mercenary. This Gold Medal progenitor open-world game scored an incredible and well-deserved 98%. Other top reviews: Arc of Yesod (91%), Hardball (93%), Germany 1985 (97%), and Uridium (94%).

40 years ago Amstrad made a new PCW. Exciting! Meanwhile Sinclair was market leader in 1985, yet lost money and was looking for a buyer. It was also selling its mini TV, which was about to be made redundant by Casio's new LCD mini TV. Those LCD screens will never catch on...

40 years ago I was playing Uridium. It had (for the time) excellent graphics and felt technically slick and polished, giving it an authentic arcade feel that was very important to us way back when. However, these days its ridiculous difficulty level makes it hard to truly enjoy.

Had a lot of fun talking in detail about Defender on this podcast. Real nerdy stuff. It's currently only available via Patreon, but will be available to listen to for free in a month or so. I'll repost when that version is available.

35 years ago, CVG reviewed Pilotwings and gave it the full-on props it deserved. I was also playing it, but we decided to hold back Mean Machines' review for a few months as we wanted to pace our import coverage (and also stop Nintendo UK whining about too many import reviews)!😁

35 years ago, Japanese animated movies were just beginning to become a big thing in the UK - largely off the back of the huge period interest in Japanese video games and culture. Helping fuel that fire were blockbusters like Akira - which the CVG team covered in this news piece.

35 years ago, Casio was advertising its most cutting-edge scientific calculators in gaming magazines - because schools were finally enabling their students to use these things in their math classes while also typing 8008135 and tittering like fools...

35 years ago, the Mean Machines team was playing SNES Actraiser - one of the best early releases on the system. The game (import only at this point) had a lot of Japanese text, but we figured out how to play it - and then put together these tips to help other players out.

40 years ago, Atari and Commodore decided to compete over the education market, and both of them ended up losing. Meanwhile, the Amiga was stunning CES Show attendees, Sinclair was having a fire sale with the Plus and QL, and Tatung announced a Speccy emulator for the Einstein.

35 years ago, the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) published this infamous anti-piracy ad encouraging people to snitch on those peddling dodgy software. You'd get £1000 if your info led to a successful prosecution. Just like these two righteous tossers. 🤣

35 years ago, I was playing Capcom's Duck Tales on NES. Shades of Mega Man difficulty, a distinct lack of checkpoints, and tricky-to-master ass-bounce mechanic made the game pretty damn challenging, but if you had the skillz, this was a really fun platform adventure. The audiovisuals were great too!

35 years ago, the handheld war was on. The Game Boy was already kicking ass while Sega's technically superior, full-color system was about to hit the streets. Meanwhile, Atari had just dramatically cut the price of the Lynx, ensuring 1991 would be a vintage year for handhelds.

35 years ago, Mean Machines published these fabulous Final Fight tips, with illustrations created by Gary Harrod. A great example of the kind of top-class artwork and indeed stellar screenshots (just look at those lovely scanlines) mags featured back in the day.

This 35-year-old ad is interesting. Special Reserve began importing PC Engines and advertising them with tiny little quarter-page ads in CVG. By Feb 1991, they'd become a full-on distributor of official consoles, and had a terrific range of games, as this impressive ad attests.

40 years ago, Commodore launched the niche and pointless 128D and Atari was allegedly working on a new ST with improved graphics, essentially admitting that their existing ST couldn't compete with the Amiga. Meanwhile, Pawn on ST was impressing people with its fab graphics.😜

Burnout 2: Point of Impact - Featured in our book - The Games Of A Lifetime A video game time machine that takes you on an incredible journey from the very dawn of the industry, through the decades to the present day. Out now: www.bitmapbooks.com/collections/... #booksky @jazrignall.bsky.social

Here's Mean Machines' top review of February - the absolutely superb Mega Drive Castle of Illusion. Just brilliant all round. Top class graphics, lovely sounds, super-appealing character, and excellent gameplay. Total stone cold classic, this one.

35 years ago, SNES Final Fight was on Mean Machines' cover. Other top reviews: Mega Drive Castle of Illusion (95%), ESWAT (87%), and Crack Down (84%), and NES Gremlins 2 (87%) and Dr Mario (88%). A wee bit of a post-Xmas game lull, but Castle of Illusion was an absolute cracker!

Here's our review of Gynoug. Yeah, it was mechanically identical to every other horizontally scrolling shooter available at the time, but its action, audiovisuals, and gameplay were absolutely top-notch.

35 years ago, Mean Machines printed these tips for Mega Drive Gynoug, one of the best shooters of the period. The illustrations were done by mag designer Gary Harrod, and the end result looked pretty damn awesome!

35 years ago I was playing this old Master System gem you've all probably forgotten about. It just looked cool, felt really smooth, and was great fun to play. Definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the SMS and have never played it.

40 years ago, publishers were allegedly working on Spectrum 128 software, but in reality the market never really came to fruition. Meanwhile, it was Amiga vs. ST at CES, and Commodore once again posted a loss despite making some of the era's best-selling and greatest computers.

Here's our review of The Eidolon. Amazing stuff from Lucasfilm Games that was technically brilliant and great fun to play. BTW, the illustrations were taken from the outstanding original premium manual that came with the disk (and not the shabby cut-down cassette instructions).

40 years ago, The Eidolon was ZZAP!'s cover story, scoring an impressive 97%. Other top reviews this month: Fight Night (93%), Bounder/Metabolis (97%), Revs (96%), and Desert Fox (87%). A small, but absolutely superb selection of post-Xmas wares it must be said.