The Weirdest Ads in an Issue of GamePro from 30 Years Ago
We never had a subscription to a video game magazine when I was a kid. I had to make do with copies of Nintendo Power borrowed from the library, or the occasional treat from a grocery store checkout aisle. The very first instance of the latter was in 1994, when my family took a trip across the…
The Horror of Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue
“Educational” games were all over the road in the late 80s and early 90s. Sometimes they’d just be a cartoon rabbit trying to get you to do math problems, and sometimes they’d have you driving across the country to try and teach you geography. But one game of the time stands out in my memory —…
How One Man Brought RPGMaker 2000 to the West
When I was younger, the RPG Maker series didn’t have nearly the same western presence as it did today. I don’t even remember how I initially heard of the software, but it was probably through some forgotten anime forum. Back then, the RPG Maker series wasn’t being published outside of Japan, except for a few translated releases in Taiwan…
MindMaze Was the Original Wikipedia Rabbit Hole
During the mid-90s, there was a curious period of time during which home computers were becoming more and more common, but the internet was still in the early stages of mass adoption. More school-age kids had computers in their home than ever, and we were using them to write up papers and do research. But…
Throwback Thursday: Hello Kitty Big Fun Deluxe
In the early 90s, my family purchased our first home computer. My sister and I had played around with our dad’s work computer before, finding way too much amusement in generating pie charts on DOS software. But the home computer was different — it was a “multimedia machine,” a popular term at the time to…
I Covered My Entire Body in Gamer Goo
This piece was originally published at Fanbyte in May 2019. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard about Gamer Goo. I was at home, tweeting about Gamer Goo. The jokes soon dried up like so much Goo in a Gamer’s hand. But unbeknownst to me, Gamer Goo quietly persisted, partnering with big names…
Explaining All of the Fake Games From Wayne’s World on the SNES
Say it’s the 1990s and you’ve been hired to make a video game based on the 1992 smash hit Wayne’s World for the SNES. Well, it’s going to be a platformer, because it’s the 90s. But what’s the structure for the game? Maybe you just have Wayne and Garth traveling through areas inspired by the film,…
The Influence of Hilma af Klint on Destiny 2
Visual design is important on two levels in video games. On one level, design conveys mood and atmosphere. On the other, it represents mechanics and interactions. Of course, these aren’t completely distinct — an ominous mood may encourage a player to advance through an area more carefully, for instance. Effective and memorable visual design in…
‘Crosscountry Canada’ Was My Oregon Trail
This piece originally appeared at Fanbyte in April 2022. When I first moved to the US in the late 2000s, I’d occasionally hear people talking about an old game they played in school called Oregon Trail. I had no idea what it was, because in Canada — or in Ontario, at least — nobody I knew…
Video & Arcade Top 10 Was Twitch Before Twitch
This piece originally appeared at Fanbyte in May 2022. Video games weren’t nearly as much of a part of the culture back in the 90s as they are now. Seeing someone playing a game on TV was a big deal — so an entire show about people playing games was huge. Americans had Nick Arcade, which I…