Source: Computer Gaming World – Issue Number 72 – June 1990

Computer Gaming World was the best and longest lasting computer games magazine in the U.S., particularly when it came to PC games. It also covered other platforms like the Amiga and Commodore 64 but only in its first few years.

Contents of the June 1990 issue of CGW include:

Features

• Scorpion’s View: Origin’s “Ultima VI” – A review of Ultima VI along with some hints. Ultima VI was revamped and quite a bit different from previous iterations of Ultima. It was also the last one to appear on the Commodore 64.

• Sneak Preview: “Keeping Up With Jones” – Review of ‘Jones’, a family oriented came that is sort of a life simulator. This was Sierra’s first game to feature VGA graphics.

• New Column: Fits and Chips – A humorous look at how games are chosen for review.

• Piloting Spaceship Earth – A look at Chris Crawford’s new game, Balance of the Planet. An odd game in which you must balance various factors to prevent disasters such as acid rain, starvation, etc.

• Avalon Hill’s “Legends of the Lost Realm” – A first person fantasy role-playing game for the Macintosh that works on any Mac with at least 1MB and a floppy drive.

• Game Technology in the Near and Far Future – This article looks at Virgin Mastertronic’s Magnetic Scrolls games as a successor to text adventures. Virtual Reality is also mentioned as future tech as well as the use of “data gloves”.

• Accolade’s “Gunboat: River Combat Simulator” – Pilot a gunboat through the rivers and jungles of Vietnam, Columbia and Panama. The missions, of course, get harder as you progress.

• Scorpion’s Mail – Hints for Wasteland, Dragon Wars, Might & Magic II, Battletech, Neuromancer, Magic Candle, Bard’s Tale I, Wizardry V and Leisure Suit Larry 3.

• CGW Test Lab: Tandy Compatibility – This article investigates compatibility problems with the Tandy 1000 TL/2 and certain games and peripherals. theTL/2 used an 8 MHz Intel 80286 processor, featured four 8-bit expansion slots and had an XT IDE-compatible hard disk interface that would not work with drives for the AT. The base model only came with a 3.5″ 720K drive though along with 640KB RAM.

• Star Games’ “Rings of Medusa” – A strategy game with a fantasy theme for the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS.

• Hitler Turns East – A review of the World War II strategy game “Second Front” by SSI for DOS based computers.

• Sierra’s “Code-Name: Iceman” – An adventure game in which you play a secret agent intent on stopping nuclear war. A U.S. ambassador has been kidnapped in the Middle East by Russian sponsored terrorists and the 7th fleet has been ordered into the area…

• The Great One Gets Greater – A sort of companion to Wayne Gretzky Hockey, Bethesda Softworks’ ‘Hockey League Simulator’ allows you to manage your own league.

• Top Ad Award Winners – An odd sort of award but here readers vote for their favorite ads. Koei’s two-page spread for Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga’s Ambition, Genghis Khan and Bandit Kings of Ancient China won out.

• Tiglon’s “Decision at Gettysburg” – A strategy game featuring the Civil War from a new company called Tiglon.

Departments

• Taking a Peek – Previews of upcoming computer games including Day of the Viper by Accolade for the Atari ST and Amiga; Harmony by Accolade for the Commodore 64, Amiga and DOS; Power Drift by Activision for the Commodore 64; Wolfpack by Broderbund for DOS; Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess by Data East for the Amiga; LHX Attack Chopper by Electronic Arts for DOS; Low Blow by Electronic Arts for DOS; Ski or Die by Electronic Arts for DOS; Future Wars by Interplay for the Amigal; Security Alert by Intracorp for the Commodore 64; Aquanaut by Miles Computing for the Amiga; Conquests of Camelot by Sierra On-Line for DOS; Battle Tank, Barbarossa to Stalingrad by Simulations Canada for DOS; Malta Storm by Simulations Canada for DOS; Waterloo by SSI for DOS and Amiga; Puffy’s Saga by Ubi Soft for the Amiga; Conflict by Virgin Games for DOS; and NY Warriors by Virgin Games for the Amiga.

• Editorial – Steve Jackson Games gets raided by the Secret Service, allegedly as part of a piracy investigation but seemed to be more about the subject matter of their latest game: GURPS Cyberpunk which, being cyberpunk themed, featured computer hacking.

• Rumor Bag – Featuring games currently in development including a sequel to Lucasfilm’s “Their Finest Hour”, The Secret of Monkey Island, Savage Empire, Quasar, an upcoming NHL game, Unreal (not to be confused with the later FPS), Warmonger and more.

• Circuit Writer (Technical Notes) – Before “plug and play” came along (which itself was so bad early on that it was frequently referred to as “plug and pray”) and before motherboards had virtually every port you need built in, adding new expansion cards to your computer could often be a nightmare of conflicting printer ports, com ports and IRQs.

• Over There (European Games Report) – While in the era of modern video game systems (starting with the NES), an import (from a U.S. perspective) is likely to come from Japan. However, in the 1980s and 1990s with computer games, imports were likely to be from Europe. This section highlights some recent European games including F29 Retaliator, Frontline, and Lost Patrol.

• Game Ratings/Hall of Fame – A list of the top 100 games as rated by Computer Gaming World. Picking a few at random, at number 49 with a rating of 8.65/10 is Zany Golf by Electronic Arts for the Amiga, DOS and Atari ST. At number 50 with a rating of 8.64 is Gretzky Hockey by Bethesda for the Amiga and DOS. At number 62 with a rating of 8.47 is Hostage by Mindscape for the Amiga, DOS and Atari ST.

• Letters – Comments on Loom, pirated software in Singapore, bugs in Harpoon and more.

…and more!