Source: Video Games – January 1983
Video Games is one of a number of short-lived video games magazines from the early 1980s. The video gaming magazine industry was born right around the time of the video game crash so many didn’t survive those early days. The January 1983 issue includes:
Features
- Video Games Interview: Bill Grubb & Dennis Koble – They left Atari to start up their own video game company in 1981. Two years later, Imagic is challenging Activision for the TV-game software crown. A candid conversation with two of the founders.
- Zen and the Art of Donkey Kong – While the Chinese were worshiping dogs in 1982, we went nuts over a “stupid monkey” from Japan. Mark Jacobson has a few thoughts on the Donkey Kong phenomenon.
- Confessions of a Pinball Junkie – Roger C. Sharpe has seen the enemy and it is video. The author of Pinball! yearns for the good old days when a flipper was a flipper, a bumper was a bumper, and every ball had a life of its own.
Special Section
Video Games’ Holiday Gift Guide – ‘Tis time to take out hte old checklist and do your Christmas shipping. Have a few video gamers on your list? Don’t leave the house until you see the stocking stuffers we’ve assembled.
Departments
- Hyperspace – A few words of hype from the editor.
- Double Speak – Some words of advice from our readers.
- Blips – Analyzing Tron, Larry Kaplan calls it quits, coin-op ads on the tube, Custer’s Revenge, the Who takes on video, Rawson Stovall makes his move, Firebug gets hosed, free games at Beefsteak Charlie’s.
- Book Beat – Phil Wisewell’s bark is as mean as his bite in “Rating the Latest Video Games Books.”
- Soft Spot – Does Ken Uston ever sleep? Nooooooo! He’s too busy writing about video games. Some of his favorites – and least favorites – are the subject of this article. From Ken Uston’s Home Video ’83.
- Coin-Op Shop – Hey, buddy can you spare a quarter? John Holmstrom knows the feeling after prowling the arcades for new, improved games. Have you ever heard of Q*bert? He has.
- Score! – New department! Results of the first interstate video game face-off, the Astrosmash Shootoff and the world’s “largest” Pac-Man contest. Plus, some of the latest greatest scores.
- Hard Sell – ColecoVision and Vectrex are as good as home game systems come. Reviews by Mike “How to Beat the Video Games” Blanchet and Perry “Stand Alone” Greenberg.
- Bull’s-Eye – David Leibowitz returns with more words-to-the-wise from a Wall Streeter’s point-of-view. Topic: computers.
- Comic Relief – Last time we heard, the bugs were ready to hook themselves a live one. Take Two: “The Zydroid legion.” By Matt Howarth and Lou Stathis.
…and more!
