40 years ago, the Amstrad-ified Spectrum Plus 2 was about to launch, Atari was knocking out cut-price ST bundles, C64-focused developer Thalamus launched (and went on to produce numerous top-tier games), and there were numerous Amstrad PC problems and shenanigans.

Here's the Shadow of the Beast preview we did in this issue. What I like most is the spectacular art we were able to use to illustrate the page. Just phenomenally cool stuff!

Another moderately satisfied customer. Reckon I could almost make a living out of writing!

35 years ago, MM featured a Shadow of the Beast cover. Top reviews: Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehog (92%), Star Control (86%), and Zero Wing (91%), NES Captain Skyhawk (91%) and Shadow Warrior (90%), Game Gear Shinobi (90%), and SNES Sim City (94%). Holy mackerel. What a month!

35 years ago I was having fun reviewing this long-forgotten SMS classic. Psycho Fox was clearly inspired by the Mario series and packed a great challenge and some bright and colorful graphics. I liked the character too, but unfortunately he was not destined for stardom.

The US and Japanese versions of this game had really cool art. IIRC, our review cart had "Quantum Warrior" written on it with a sharpie - either a mistake by Nintendo UK, or it was going to have a name change for the UK but they decided against it at the last moment.

Thanks for the fab review. An unmarked envelope full of used notes is in the mail.

35 years ago, I was thoroughly enjoying NES Kabuki Quantum Warrior, a game I imagine few bought. Which is a shame as it was a pile o' fun - a combat platformer in which the hero uses his hair to dispatch enemies in devastating fashion. Definitely a hidden gem ninja hair combat simulator.

35 years ago, an import copy of Game Boy The Hunt for Red October floated into the office. It was a surprisingly good shooter - although it did require world class reflexes to get anywhere. I doubt if many bought it, but we certainly had fun with it back in the day.

35 years ago, I reviewed NES Shadow Gate. Yeah, yeah, it was probably good on computer when it came out four years earlier. But on NES it was horrible. Or was it? The Nintendo Power scallywags gave it 4.5 out of 5. We had an ever-so-slightly different opinion, however.

40 years ago, Commodore launched a new C64 nobody asked for with software few cared about. Meanwhile, the World Cup Carnival fallout continued, and at CES, the NES was clearly becoming THE dominant console as the US video game market bounced back from its crash two years earlier.

I've been posting a fair number of 40-year-old budget reviews this week, because at that point in time they were becoming really big biz. One of these games was an especially huge surprise - Slamball, a very entertaining pinball game that cost a measly three quid. Top stuff.

35 years ago, when EA hadn't yet become an immense, steaming bag o' corporate shite, they made some great games. Like Ice Hockey, which came hot on the heels of Madden and absolutely blew us away. No NHL license yet, but didn't need it TBH. Absolute stone cold pucking classic.

Three more budget games from the round-up I posted yesterday. One reasonable Joust clone, and two total duffers. Americana really was shoveling some serious shite.

40 years ago, budget software was becoming big business. The trouble is, you often had no idea what your £2/£3 (£6/£9 quid in today's money) was actually going to buy you - as this ZZAP! budget game round-up attests. Some absolute winners - but also some total stinkers!

40 years ago, Elite was advertising its Ghosts 'n Goblins ports. Complete with cheeky guest appearance of a Super Mario Lava Piranha in the background! Or at least, that's what it looks like. Anyway, in a surprising turn of form for Elite, this actually turned out pretty good! 😁

40 years ago, Sinclair Research canceled its flat-screen TV tech for its Pandora project (AKA Cambridge Computer Z88). Good move, because it sounded terrible. Meanwhile, Commodore cut its Corby staff by half, essentially axing its UK domestic sales/service/support capabilities.🤡

35 years ago, Mean Machines published these NES Duck Tales tips. Great use of artwork on these pages along with some really crisp screenshots. Looks good and was genuinely useful too!

35 years ago, readers were sending their drawings into Mean Machines by the sackful. Some were outstanding, such as this terrific sketch by Matt Lyon. His wonderful detail and superb use of color were so good I featured his creation as the main image on our editorial page!

Well bloody hell. Me book's got a third printing. Which just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste.

Those pretty funny anecdotes include getting frozen for no good reason, hanging out with Radiohead and REM, and spending a year or so getting paid handsomely to just kind of hang out at Bank of America. Also, tons of cool stuff about video games, if that's of interest...

35 years ago, I was having a whale of a time with Konami's The Simpsons. The first game based on what was fast becoming a TV phenomenon, this four-player beat 'em up was great fun to play and looked as much like the cartoon as any game could back then. A multiplayer classic!

35 years ago, I was enjoying another classic Mega Drive Toaplan shooter in the form of Zero Wing. Fun mechanics, excellent audiovisuals, decent music, and a very stiff challenge made this a solid entry in what was a seemingly endless parade of shooters released during this era.

Appreciate the positive feedback! Aberystwyth has barely changed in 50 years, apart from the pier, which was all rubbish ticket machines the last time I went. Such a shame as it was a great place during the Golden Age of Arcades.

40 years ago, despite having the best-selling and the most exciting new computers of the era, Commodore reported losses of £25m. Meanwhile, US Gold was facing a shitstorm over their World Cup Carnival scam, offering laughably feeble excuses for what was a reprehensible and cynical rip-off.

Here's the Starquake review from this issue. We used to call games like these arcade adventures. That's because Metroid and Castlevania were not yet around for a portmanteau to be created so they could lend their name to a genre that existed long before they did. 😁

40 years ago, ZZAP!'s team was featured on its cover. Top reviews: Spindizzy (98%), Cauldron II (94%), Starquake (93%), International Karate (91%), Raise the Titanic (88%), Spellbound (94%), Doomdark's Revenge (95%), and Fairlight (90%). What an incredible month for games!

40 years ago, Imagine was advertising its 8-bit ports of stab 'n roast platformer Green Beret (AKA Rush 'n Attack). Always liked the aggressive cartoon styling of this art. A classic era advert.

40 years ago, this combination of arcade adventure and Marble Madness-style landscapes really wowed us. Spindizzy's ludicrously high difficulty level makes your average modern Soulslike feel like a wet pansy by comparison, but this was par for the course back then. Insanely hard!

Here's ZZAP!'s take on this total ripoff POS. Of course, US Gold sent us a review copy weeks after they put the game into retail. Absolutely reprehensible business practices by Geoff Brown and co. We didn't hold back.

40 years ago, US Gold perpetrated one of the great video game scams of all time, purchasing Artic's crappy two-year-old World Cup Football and repackaging it as the more expensive (and official) World Cup Carnival. An absolutely brazen and cynical theft of kids' pocket money.

35 years ago, I was having a great time with this. It's an absolutely epic two-player vs game that really gives you the chance to own your opponent. As a single-player game, it wasn't that great. But man, playing against another yooman was absolutely tons of fun.

One of the rare times I preferred the Euro box art to the Japanese version. I mean, the Japanese art is cool and all, but it's very busy. The Euro box art is just so clear and eye-catching. It really stood out on the shelf. Totally subjective, of course. What say you?

40 years ago, there were some interesting news tidbits. How about a total BS government "tax" on tapes? FFS. So dumb. Also, the Super Speccy gaming machine Loki was confirmed as doubtful, and Wide Boy Sugar sold a buncha Speccies cheap to PST for export to the European continent.

35 years ago, the much-anticipated Sonic the Hedgehog rolled into Mean Machines' office, and lo. There was much celebration and elbowing each other out of the way so we could play it. An overnight sensation who felt like he was here to stay. And decades later, he's still a star.

35 years ago, I was thoroughly enjoying NES Ninja Gaiden. Although it was called Shadow Warrior in the UK because we weren't allowed to say the n-word lest the streets be filled with black-garbed swordsmen killing all and sundry. Anyway, the game was fab. As were the cutscenes.

This issue is the first Mean Machines that @digitalfoundry.bsky.social worked on. I introduced him in the editorial in proper Mean Machines style, which basically meant writing a ton of double-entendres, exaggerations, outright lies, and bollocks.

35 years ago, Ultraman was on Mean Machines. Not the best game, but it was a cool cover for sure! Top reviews: Mega Drive Wrestle War 88% and Block Out 91%, NES Solstice 85% and A Boy and His Blob 91%, SNES F-Zero 90%, and Game Boy Boulder Dash 90%. A very good month for games!

IK's box art. Not the greatest TBH, but doesn't really matter when a game is as good as this was. BTW, it was excellent on Atari 8-bit too, which is often overlooked.

40 years ago, this was the best one-on-one fighting game yet seen. International Karate on the C64 took its inspiration from other era beat 'em ups and improved them with top-tier audiovisuals and fast and fluid gameplay. Add in a great value price tag and you had a real winner.

40 years ago, the QL was back from the dead, but not really. Meanwhile the Amiga's initial prices were revealed. Today's equivalent of £4,500 and £5,100 for the two models. Plus VAT. Holy freakin' crap. This is why you didn't see many until the cheapo 500 arrived a year later.

Here's some interesting insight into the state of the UK games biz in spring 1991. 8-bit budget games doing the numbers, barely a full-price game to be seen, and anemic 16-bit sales because piracy was becoming rampant. This was grim reading for anyone but budget game makers.

The same month we wrote this review, we also published tips on the game. We'd basically trial-and-errored the Japanese version of the game and wrote down everything we knew about it to help gamers who might have bought it and were struggling to figure things out. Super fun game!

35 years ago, I was having a great time with this. Sim City is not a game that usually springs to mind when thinking about SNES classics, but this was not only brilliant, but also showed that consoles could do "computer" type games very well. Feels like a bit of a forgotten gem.

Early M.A.D. (Mastertronic's Added Dimension) releases featured cartoon-style illustrations and branding to help differentiate them from Mastertronic's cheaper £1.99 games. Very little difference in quality TBH. I think pricing was set by how much Mastertronic paid for the game.

40 years ago, there were some killer budget game bargains. Sequel to the popular Finders Keepers, Spellbound was a "premium" budget game at £2.99 but despite its diminutive price tag (and essentially being a Speccy port 😁), this arcade adventure was both challenging and fun.

35 years ago, CVG announced its Golden Joystick award winners. This is an excellent snapshot of UK gamers' tastes in the very early 90s because these were all picked and voted for (completely unprompted) by CVG's readers.

40 years ago, MSX 2 was big news, despite not amounting to much historically in Europe. Commodore was soon to launch the Amiga, Atari's ST-with-TV-out was also imminent, and Psion's Organiser II gave us a glimpse of a future where everyone would have a mini computer in their pocket.

35 years ago, a very young @digitalfoundry.bsky.social gave his verdict on Commodore's CDTV. Its 6-year-old tech, poor software support, and vague multimedia/education system marketing made it feel like a risky buy at today's equivalent of £1,200. Which is probably why it sold fewer than 100k units.

This is the arcade flyer I picked up at the ATEI Show where I first played SF II in early 1991. Not only did it sport a fabulous piece of art, its character descriptions and gameplay tips were invaluable at the time as this was the only source of info available for the game.