/vr/ - Retro Games

>>8015173
"Share, like & subscribe your friends" lol

>>8015178
What's with this counselor thing ? Even adults wanted to be that? It's scary how naive people were back then and makes you wonder what are we naive about right now.

>>8015363
>i get to play video games
>i get to help people play video games
>i get tot write about video games
>AND i get paid?
Think about it anon.

Issue #11.

>>8015385
I get your point yes, i was going to say how it's not realistic and sustainable, but at the time there was no way to know it. That and the naivety

>>8015517
I don't think anyone in 1990 figured a device best used for playing Oregon Trail would be the ultimate death of the printed media for video games.

More later.

>>8015171
First issue I got with my subscription and free copy of Dragon Warrior. Still remember the day it showed up in the mail.

>>8015181
That leaning guy was supposed to be K.G. Beast? I never knew that.

As a non burger I appreciate you OP for taking your time to post these. I always love reading old vidya magazines, they're true time machines.

>>8015517
Nintendo Power counselers were Nintendo of America employees who did other things, such as testing. Writing once a month for a magazine wasn't their only job.

>>8015204

CENTAUR MARIO

>>8015261

Did they ever explain who "pros" and "dealers" are, and how their "picks" were gathered? I have never understood that.

I think the "players" are people who filled out survey cards included in the magazines and sent them in... is that right? I sort of remember cards like those. Maybe that was only for the occasional awards ceremony thing they did once in a while though? I don't know. I didn't participate much in that stuff.

>>8016424
Pro are presumably the NoA staff, while "dealers" are retailers. Our local magazines used to have lists of readers' top 10 games, editorial's top 10 and top 10 best selling games too.

So we've got Gameboy coverage now? What was the first issue to include Gameboy?

>>8015376
Wonder what's at that address now?

>>8016916
Issue 8, big feature on Tetris >>8001374

>>8015504
There is no way Ninja Turtles is #1. Who is voting on these?

>>8015180
Our local Nintendo mag bought a bunch of material from Nintendo Power, especially early on. Here's their coverage of Batman, which consists of (most of) Nintendo Power's map of 1-1 plus a couple random Nintendo Power screenshots to illustrate the other levels, each with a very basic level description that also seems based on Nintendo Power's.
Plus a screenshot of the level 1 boss to illustrate level 5.

>>8017380
At least the first page of their coverage was unique.

>>8017358
That game was absurdly popular. Here's the top 15 list from Norway just after the game debuted.

>>8017869
And here's the Best Game of 1990 reader poll results:

>Best graphics & sound
>1) Mega Man II
>2) Duck Tales
>3) TMHT

>Best challenge
>1) TMHT
>2) Mega Man II
>3) Bionic Commando

>Best controls
>1) TMHT
>2) Mega Man II
>3) Batman/Tetris

>Best protagonist
>1) Mega Man
>2) The turtles
>3) Uncle Scrooge

>Best game
>1) TMHT
>2) Mega Man II
>3) Duck Tales

Rate our taste

>>8015261
>Dragon Warrior is in the Top 10 for Pros and Dealers
>barely even cracked the top 25 in players
And this is the DQ game with the most intensive western shill campaign

>>8018318
Because NES DW1 is a legitimately terrible game, the series doesn't get good until 3.

>>8017358
Contrary to popular belief and revisionism, TMNT on NES was a very popular game. There even was an NES/TMNT bundle in some countries.

>>8018318
Most readers were young kids. At least Dragon Warrior made it onto their list, more ploddy and "adult" titles like Nobunaga, Shadowgate and Ultima did not.

>>8015363
Ever read the counselor profiles? Look at the ones in this issue.

Jeff Hazard beat fucking Dragon Power. Ever play Dragon Power? It's that rebranded Dragon Ball game for Famicom, and it's beyond unfairly hard. Tom Davis in the next issue there is so good at The Guardian Legend he maxed out the score counter. There are also counselors who have beaten games like CastleQuest. These people weren't just hires at NP, they were hardcore gamers. They fucked games sideways.

Everyone wanted to be a counselor since it wasn't just a cool job, it marked you as one of the best. Back then most game competitions were local, so winning one only gave you local bragging rights. Being a counselor? You could brag about that nationwide, and people would know what you were talking about if they had an NES.

>>8017358
Players+Pros+Dealers=result. Notice the page 2 pages after. TMNT barely beat out SMB2 for Players, and was TOP rated by Dealers. The Pro's already got tired of it and it's sitting at 28 for them. But 3,081 pts + 4,238 + 435 gives us the 7,754 points to put TMNT on top. The Top 30 is a mix of what players like, pros like, and what is selling well.

>>8018374
Yep. Back in the days, video game journalists had to be expert fucking gamers. You're expected to answer questions about how to beat the final boss, you're expected to get all the passwords, you're expected to know the damn game inside out well enough to do your actual job.

What the hell happened?

>>8018318
DW1 tanked hard. It's why Nintendo was giving away copies of the game via Nintendo Power subscriptions.
Which in turn had the effect of actually making the series somewhat popular in the west, and we ended up getting 2, 3, and 4.

>>8018383
A combo of money and cheat devices. Cheat devices meant the journo's didn't have to be experts to be able to get screenshots of the entire game anymore. With that bar suddenly lowered, hoards of wanna-be journalists and writers flooded into the field. This was happening around the same time the Genesis was getting massively popular, and consoles had fully recovered from the '83 Atari failure. So naturally money was pouring in from everywhere to try and get in on the action.
Most videogame magazines in the US prior to 1990 were focused on computers, with the exception of a few limited run Atari-focused mags. Then in the early 90's with the rise of cheat devices, suddenly you saw a number of "third-party" videogame magazines focused on consoles appearing everywhere. I say third party, since Nintendo Power and Sega Visions were made by the companies themselves. Advertisers and publishers alike were overwhelmed with money from companies looking to market to the gamers looking for cheats and maps.
So now you have a lot of competition, and they don't have to become experts in the games to show the maps. And your employees are grumbling about why do they have to work so much harder than other videogame journalists. This only goes one direction.

>>8018348
This. Back then you knew at least one kid who had a copy, if you didn't have your own.

>>8017875
Shit taste. Mega Man 2 is a timeless classic that is often regarded as the best classic MM game, TMNT is regarded as shit remembered for only being made fun of by James because it barely had anything to do with the show and was too hard for kids to play.

>>8017875

Good taste in graphics and sound. In controls, not so much. TMNT is a little bit awkward to control. I think it's a good game but I wouldn't call it better than Mega Man 2. It has too many flaws.

I guess the children of Norway were caught up in turtle mania just like the Americans were. I like the game but it doesn't quite deserve the huge popularity it apparently had.

Did Japan even care about or know about Ninja Turtles? I never see it referenced in any of their stuff.

>>8015596

Haha X-Men not doing so well on the Power Player Meter. Three points in every category are still more than it deserves though.

>>8019120
>I guess the children of Norway were caught up in turtle mania just like the Americans were
Turtles was huge in Sweden as well, probably pretty big in Denmark and Finland too.
It was the time of Turtle Power, because ninjas were cool, and TMNT put fun spins on it.

>>8019121
The first TMNT game was released as "Ninja Legend of the Super Turtles" becaue the franchise hadn't been established there yet. Konami mostly grabbed it because of its international sales potential.

>>8019121
Wasn't the arcade game pretty well enjoyed there, or am I smoking something

>>8015178
based NintendoMan
wonder what he is up to now?

>>8019121
Looking at Japanese wikipedia:
>In Japan it was aired as "Idol Ninja Turtles" from May 6th to July 15th 1991 on NHK BS2, then released on VHS with a different cast by Towa Video between 1991 and 1992. A dub by yet another production company was aired on TV Tokyo from June 6th 1993 to September 27th 1995 under the title "Mutant Turtles".

NHK BS2 is a premium satellite channel your average kid wouldn't have, so it took a while for it to catch on properly there. But they did get it.

>>8019293
Ok thanks. Sounds like they weren't too impressed. Probably because they are surrounded by ninja media all the time so what's one more?

>>8019305
All the "radical" 90s American hip slang shit didn't translate well into other languages too, so a lot of the original feel of the cartoon got lot in international dubs.

bump

Literally the pinnacle of literature.