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  • ACE (October 1991)

    Source: ACE – Issue Number 49 – October 1991

    While ACE stood for “Advanced Computer Entertainment”, this was a magazine that covered gaming on the Amiga, Atari ST, PC (DOS), as well as the MegaDrive (Genesis), Game Boy, Atari Lynx and Super Famicom (Super Nintendo)…at least in 1991. The October 1991 issue includes:

    Reviews

    • Buster Douglas Boxing (MegaDrive) – Buster Douglas was the big heavyweight name after Mike Tyson but the game itself is not so great.
    • EA Hockey (MegaDrive) – The first of the EA hockey games on the Genesis. Sports games were something EA was very good at for a while.
    • F117A: Stealth Fighter 2 (PC) – A sequel to the 1989 original. While I love older games, the relatively low frame rate and low polygon count sims of old don’t hold up all that well.
    • Magic Pockets (Amiga) – Not a game I am really familiar with, this is a side scrolling platform type game for the Amiga.
    • Mega lo Mania (Amiga) – A strategy game reminiscent of Populous.
    • Microprose Golf (Atari ST) – An ok golf game for the Atari ST. This one tries to combine the best element of serious golf games and more simplified arcade oriented titles like Leaderboard.
    • Robin Hood (PC) – Another Populous inspired strategy game.
    • Storm Lord (MegaDrive) – A side-scrolling adventure that at least in looks reminds me of Ghost ‘N Goblins. However, from this review it doesn’t sound nearly as good.
    • The Simpsons: Bart vs. The Space Mutants (Amiga) – A port of the NES game of the same name. It gets a pretty mediocre review here that cites its lack of humor among other flaws.
    • Wing Commander II – Sequel to Origin’s original space combat flights sim. If you liked the original then you’ll like this one too.

    Features

    • Gore Blimey! – A sort of “best of” in terms of gore in computer and video games. Games mentioned include Persian Gulf Inferno, Lemmings, Oids, Barbarian, Technocop, Indianapolis 500, NARC, and Warzone.
    • Spaceship Warlock (Macintosh) – An interactive movie of sorts with a 1950s B movie theme for the Macintosh, a platform that didn’t see too many game releases at the time, relatively speaking.
    • Sensible Soccer (Preview) – One of the more popular soccer (football) games, at least in Europe.
    • Konsole Kick-Off!!! – Big Match, another popular soccer game for the Amiga and Atari ST, makes its way to various consoles, including the Super Nintendo, Nintendo, Sega Master System, Game Boy and Game Gear with a MegaDrive version in the plans as well.
    • In The Works – A brief look at some games currently still in development including Daemonsgate, Godfather, Grand Prix and Hudson Hawk.

    Regulars

    • ACE Games News – Upcoming games announcements including The Simpsons, Castlevania IV for the Super NES, Super Tetris for the PC (I remember playing that one on the ancient PC XTs at school), The Killing Cloud for the PC, Amiga and Atari ST (set in the sci-fi future of 1997), Crisis in the Kremlin (PC), Mercenary III, Planet’s Edge, Guardian Angels, Shoe People, Might and Magic III (PC), Super Space Invaders, Super Fulcrum (PC) and Double Dragon II for the Game Boy.
    • ACE Tech News – Amstrad releases an all-in-one PC with a 16MHz 286 processor, 40MB hard drive and 1MB of RAM. Also included are the games Links, F-15 Strike Eagle II and Prince of Persia. Also, game developers in Japan complain of a lack of developers, Yamaha releases the SY99 Synth and JVC releases what could be thought of as a predecessor to the GoPro, the Super VHS SC-F007.
    • Letters – Comments on Terminator 2, console game reviews, and consoles vs. computers among other topics.
    • Tricks ‘n’ Tactics – A detailed guide for The Secret of Monkey Island, plus hints for Supercars 2, Horror Zombies From The Crypt, Pang, Toki, Predator 2, Stormball, Navy Seals, Spirit of Excalibur, Operation C, and Wizards & Warriors.

    …and lots more!


  • The One (March 1990)

    Source: The One – Issue Number 18 – March 1990

    “The One” is a 16-bit gaming magazine that was published in the U.K. and, at least in March 1990, covered the PC (DOS), Atari ST and Amiga. This issue includes:

    • Letters – Letters from readers on topics such as the Atari Lynx, the Mike Tyson/Buster Douglas fight, music on the Amiga 500, cheats for Ghostbusters II, console coverage, and more.
    • News – News and upcoming release coverage includes Wings by Cinemaware for the Amiga, Impossamole, Speedball II, Jet Fighter, Hammerfist, Chase HQ, F-19 Stealth Fighter and more. Top games this month include Flight Simulator V.4 (PC), Chaos Strikes Back (Atari ST), and Fighter Bomber (Amiga).
    • Releases – New releases for March 1990 include Gunboat by Accolade for DOS, Amiga and the Atari ST; SAS Combat Simulator and Rock Star Ate My Hamster by Codemasters; Dragon Wars (PC), LHX Attack Chopper (DOS), Low Blow (DOS), Ski or Die (DOS, Powerdrome (DOS), 688 Attack Sub (Amiga), Flood and Centurion: Defender of the Crown by Electronic Arts; Overlander and Space Harrier by Elite for the Amiga and Atari ST; RVF Honda, Tower of Babel, First Contact and Midwinter by MicroProse; Firebird (Atari ST), Space Rogue (Amiga), and Cribbage (Amiga) by Mindscape; AntHeads (Amiga), Gravity (Amiga, Atari ST), Wolfpack (PC) and Dungeon Master (PC) by Mirrorsoft; Rainbow Islands (Amiga, Atari ST, Ivanhoe (Amiga, Atari ST), Batman: The Caped Crusader (PC), Voyager (PC) and The Untouchables (PC) by Ocean; and more.
    • Work in Progress – What’s in work from Psygnosis including Infestation, Gore, and Barbarian II plus other upcoming games including Klax, Cadaver, and more.

    • Reviews
      • E. Motion (PC, Amiga) – A puzzle game involving balls attached by elastic cords that is best played with two players.
      • Warhead (Atari ST) – A 3D space adventure by Activision which looks pretty interesting though I don’t recall playing it or even hearing of it.
      • The Colonel’s Bequest (PC) – A graphical adventure/mystery game by Sierra.
      • Conqueror (Atari ST) – A World War II tank strategy game.
      • Pipe Mania (Atari ST) – One of several similar puzzle games in which you mus connect different shaped pipes together to control the water flow before it goes everywhere.
      • Stryx (Amiga) – A side-scrolling sci-fi themed action platform game. Outstanding graphics but a bit hard to say the least.
      • Crack Down (Atari ST) – An arcade conversion of Sega’s top-down action game in which you must save the world from a mad scientist, is mutant creations and super fortress.
      • TV Sports: Basketball (Amiga) – The TV Sports line was a pretty good line of sports games before EA took over everything.
    • Tips – Tips and tricks for various games including Lost Patrol, Space Ace, Chase HQ, and Future Wars.
    • Players Guide – This month featuring Tower of Babel by Rainbird. This is an interesting puzzle game in which you have to program your robotic spiders to defeat puzzles throughout various towers.

    • Competition – Answering a few video game trivia questions could win you a Philips VCR with a built-in 3″ color monitor.
    • Demos – Various demos including those submitted by readers. This month features a Land of the Giants themed demo, an Inspector Gadget demo and a banana shaped Empire State Building among others.
    • Grafix – Some comic art create using Comic Setter with help from Dave Gibbons who was illustrating Watchmen at the time.
    • Arcades – A look at the latest arcade games including WGP (Taito), Search and Destroy (SNK), Klax (Atari), and Shadow Dancer (Sega).
    • Feature – An overview of available handheld systems including the Game Boy and Atari Lynx as well as various stand alone games including Alien Attack, Batman, Shark Attack and more. The Game Gear and Turbo Express wouldn’t be released until later in 1990.
    • Backspace – The Eighties. A Decade Part Three: This covers some of the people, companies and games that made the 1980s great.

    …and more!


  • The One (August 1989)

    Source: The One – Issue Number 11 – August 1989

    The One is a 16-bit gaming magazine that was published in the U.K. in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Initially it covered games for the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS based PCs but later expanded to cover 16-bit consoles as well. The August 1989 issue includes:

    • Letters – Reader letters about Time Scanner for the Amiga, Test Drive II and the lack of a review for the ST version, Blood Money and the lack of arcade reviews among other topics.
    • News – The latest news (at the time) includes info about Populous: The Promised lands, a Populous expansion for the Atari ST and Amiga; a Strider covnversion for the Amiga and Atari ST; a conversion of Dynamic Dux for the Amiga and Atar ST; a conversion of Chase HQ for 16-bit home computers; a civil war strategy/acton hybrid game developed by a French company; Paperboy for the Atari ST, PC and Amiga; an updated version of Jack The Ripper for 16-bit systems and much, much more.
    • Work In Progress – An article about Accolade and games in may be bringing to the British market. Some of these include Mean 18, Fight Night, Hardball, Test Drive, Test Drive: The Duel plus add-on disks, Grand Prix Circuit, Heatwave, Steel Thunder, The Cycles, Synergy and Conspiracy.

    • Reviews
      • Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Rodeo (Tynesoft) – You take the roll of Buffalo Bill in his Wild West show. This is sort of like the multi event Winter Games and Summer Games by Epxy only with a Wild West theme. Available for the Atari ST at the time of the review and coming soon to the Amiga and PC.
      • Chariots of Wrath (Impressions) – A series of mini-games connected by a ‘rescue the princess’ type story. Available for the Atari ST and coming soon for the Amiga.
      • Grand Prix Circuit (Accolade) – Accolade’s Formula 1 racer. I had a blast with this game on my Commodore 64. Reviewed here for the PC and Amiga and coming soon for the Atari ST.
      • High Steel (Screen 7) – An arcade/puzzle type game in which you build skyscrapers. Reviewed for the Amiga and coming soon for the ATari ST.
      • Ocean’s Beach Volley (Ocean) – Two-on-two beach volleyball game, reviewed here for the Amiga, coming soon for the Atari ST wtih a possible future release for the PC.
      • Quartz (Firebird) – A scrolling shooter in which the direction depends on the level. For the Amiga and Atari ST.
      • Rainbow Islands (Firebird) – A conversion of Taito’s sequel to Bubble Bobble for the Amiga and Atari ST.
      • Sleeping Gods Lie (Empire) – A 3D arcade adventure with different puzzles to solve in every kingdom (level). For the Atari ST, Amiga and coming soon for the PC.
      • Stunt Car Racer (Micro Style) – An early 3D polygon racer with stunts. Reviewed here for the Atari ST and coming soon for the Amiga and PC. I played this on the PC and it was fun but low res polygons and low frame rates kept it from being great.
      • Xenon II: Megablast (Image Works) – A vertical shooter reviewed here for the Atari ST, Amiga and coming soon for the PC.

    • Tips
      • Forgotten Worlds (US Gold) – How to activate cheat mode.
      • License to Kill (Domark) – A mini strategy guide for levels 1 to 5.
      • Millenium 2.2 (Electric Dreams) – A complete strategy guide.
      • Populous (Electronic Arts) – Codes to get you to various levels.
      • Rick Dangerous (Firebird) – A variety of tips from the designers.
      • RoboCop (Ocean) – Cheat mode for the Atari ST version.
      • Silkworm (Virgin Mastertronic) – How to activate cheat mode on the Amiga version.
      • Xybots (Tengen/Domark) – A variety of tips to help you get started.
      • Play Guide – A detailed strategy guide for Wicked by Electric Dreams.
    • Competition – Win a Sharp boom box complete with Cd player, cassette deck and of course AM/FM stereo.
    • Demos – An overview of several demos for the Atari ST and Amiga plus where you can get them (usually involving the postal service).
    • Graphics – Tips and tricks on textures, animation, color coordination and more. Plus an interview with the Bitmap Brothers about Xenon II, etc.
    • Arcades – An overview of some of the latest arcade games, including WWF Super Stars, Crime City, and Willow.
    • Feature – An article on Dave Gibbons and his artwork and future plans with the Amiga.
    • Backspace – Andrew Baybrook addresses criticism of ports of games from the ST to Amiga generally and his port of Rainbow Islands specifically.

    …and more!