Tamitha's Blog

Advertisements and Magazines

My first step starting this whole thing is informing myself on what the North American market was like for Sega in late 1989. According to a double-page advertisement I found, it looks like Hang-On was still the pack-in game for the Base System, along with Hang-On & Safari Hunt for the Master System. There were a decent number of games shown too.

But I mentioned wanting to find some magazines — so that's where I'd begin. Was there an equivalent to the Nintendo Fun Club in 1989? Sega Visions wouldn't start for another year. As it turns out — yes, there was! The Sega Challenge started in late 1988 and ran 3 issues before being renamed to The Team Sega Newsletter. It was a quarterly magazine presented by Sega of America, and would be a big help in grounding myself.

I imagined that a friend might have had these magazines laying around, and maybe Tam borrowed them. Excitedly I read through them, right up to the April '89 issue #6. Reading them, I also found out about some promotional VHS tapes Sega put out exclusively to subscribers for just $7.00, called “The Sega Games Preview” and “The Sega Games Preview II”.

Of course I had to find those, and Youtube did not let me down!

Here's where it gets weird!

It turned out that some of the same people working on The Team Sega Newsletter also worked on Electronic Game Player magazine, a bimontly rag that started with the January 1988 issue. It professed to be written by the “US National Video Game Team”, and after 4 issues was relaunched with the Electronic Gaming Monthly 1989 Buyer's Guide.

I felt like I'd stumbled onto some hidden knowledge. Not only was the first official Sega magazine tied to the first ever American esports team, but it was also connected to Twin Galaxies and the creation of Electronic Gaming Monthly!

I could feel my brain melting. EGM was a constant presence in my life as a kid, providing the MTV Generation is a ton of info and screenshots on games that we couldn't get anywhere else. Anywhere, that is, other than GamePro magazine. GamePro landed on store shelves in May 1989 with a virtual explosion. While the Team Sega newsletter and EGM were pretty text-heavy, GamePro hit hard with larger screenshots, wild page layouts, and a ton of attitude.

Building a library

I had a ton of reading to do, to get caught up to September 1989. And very quickly I learned a few things. First, the Team Sega Newsletter and early Electronic Game Player were pretty dry reading for a kid. I'd say they were definitely targeted to an older audience. And EGM had a strong focus on Nintendo titles, which surprised me since it came from many (or all?) of the same people that worked on the Sega mag. GamePro, even with their sizable Nintendo coverage, gave more expansive coverage to Master System titles.

If you want to follow along with me, I've linked every magazine I've read in the paragraphs above. Just make sure to stop with The Team Sega Newsletter Issue 6 (April '89), Electronic Gaming Monthly Issue 3 (Sept/Oct '89), and GamePro Issue 3 (Sept/Oct '89).

Genesis?

Of course, by fall of 1989, a lot of attention was on the upcoming Sega Genesis, too. I wonder what Tam would have felt, reading these magazines hoping for a Sega for her birthday. The amount of magazine space Nintendo got was almost obnoxious as I flipped through the virtual pages, and the hype for the Genesis makes me wonder. Would she have been disappointed?

Back then I had no concept of console generations. My Atari 7800 played Atari 2600 titles just fine, even with a different controller. I bet I would have assumed the same thing of the Genesis. And it did launch with the Power Base converter! And, really, looking at the North American launch lineup of Genesis games, the Master System didn't look that far off.

My kingdom for a good platformer

I knew Tam would get Hang-On & Safari Hunt as the pack-in, and a mail away offer for Double Dragon. I'd want to pick one more title — preferably a platformer. Platformers were my lifeblood back on the NES, and honestly probably still are today. Funny to think that it all started with a Jumpman clone on the C64 published by EA, called “Wizard”.

By fall of '89 there were a couple of options available to me. There's the ever-present Alex Kidd in Miracle World, an early release for the system. But by Tam's birthday the sequel – Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars was already out, and the graphics looked vastly improved. There was also Quartet, a sort of early “run 'n gun” title. Another option was Wonder Boy — better known to NES gamers as Hudson's Adventure Island. Zillion, a smaller more methodical game was out also. I've heard it compared to Impossible Mission for the C64.

I decided I'd pick between the two Alex Kidd Games. I'd read the magazines, but my final decision would be made the way I made all my choices back then. I'd look at the game boxes and see which looked and sounded more exciting.

Between these two options... which would you have picked?

...Yeah. I picked Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars, too.

The decision had been made. Terran Tam would get a Sega System for her 8th birthday, with Hang-On & Safari Hunt, Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars, and Double Dragon!

#TerranTam

Introduction

Gaming is an expensive hobby. Honestly, it always has been. Particularly if you suffer from FOMO and feel a compulsion to always have the latest hardware and flitter from game to game, with an ever-growing backlog.

And as more and more games go open-world, the playtimes have increased. Pete Hines of Bethesda claimed he spent about 40 hours in Starfield running side-quests before spending an additional 50 hours “catching up” with the main story. Now on one hand 130 hours is an incredible value for your money. Not to mention Baldur's Gate 3 just released with its almost 50 hour main story runtime and a near-infinite amount of replayability.

Don't get me wrong — these are good things for a lot of people. But for those of us who have full-time jobs that leave us emotionally burned out and can only devote a few hours a week to gaming, it could take literal years to experience everything these games have to offer. And in the mean time all your favorite franchises are still trucking along, and more and more short-form indies release every single day.

It can get really overwhelming. I have about 110 hours in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and I can confirm the majority of that was just spent on completing the main storyline. There's so much more to do in the newest incarnation of Hyrule... but I haven't picked it back up since finishing the story. 110 hours! And I have friends who are like, “Wait, you stopped playing? But there's so much more to do.”

Nostalgia's a powerful emotion

I started to feel nostalgic about my childhood with 8-bit and 16-bit games. I only ever owned about a dozen cartridges for each platform, but going to a rental store on a Friday night and planning my weekend never got boring. It's something that Redbox and Gamefly could never replicate.

I almost never finished the games I picked up in a weekend, so special titles sometimes got their rental extended, or the games got re-rented multiple times as I returned to them. But renting also served as something of a “try before you buy” system. Games I really, really loved I would ask my family for as a birthday or Christmas present. I will never, ever forget being given a ton of Birthday money one summer, visiting my dad and his family, and going on a mini KB Toys shopping spree, picking up several carts all at once. I remember grabbing a Game Genie for SNES (with just the coolest lock-on technology), along with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and the original Mega Man X — two games I had rented so frequently that my mom had probably paid for both multiple times over.

Renting games also let me experience a ton of games, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Manhattan Project, Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Uniracers, or NBA Jam. And sometimes the games I got to play weren't great, like Mega Man Soccer or Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. But I got to play them and try them — which I never would have done, if not for being able to rent them.

And now in the US, if you try finding a “rental store” in the US you'll find furniture or equipment rental. Look up “video rental” and you're most likely to find Redbox kiosks — and Redbox pulled out of renting video games years ago. The last video rental franchise I'm even aware of – Family Video – was another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here and now

So here I am, wanting to play some games but not dedicate hundreds of hours to each title — while also needing to curb my spending. I've wasted way too much money that I frankly don't have just to add titles to my backlog — a promise that I'll get to them. Eventually. Maybe.

Over the years I've built up a collection of retro console virtual libraries – aka ROMs – but have rarely dove deep into any of them. Part of it is I don't just want to replay the same games I played as a kid, and also there are literally hundreds of games on those old consoles, but I have no idea what would interest me. All I really have are the file names. No manuals, no boxart. No aisles where I could pick up a box and look at the screenshots and little plot blurbs like we had when I was younger.

There are Youtube channels devoted to classic gaming, but so many talk about the same games despite the vast differences in age and geography. I even realized that a lot of the UK Youtubers I watch have all taken to talking about Nintendo games... even though Nintendo was never that popular there.

It's actually kind of frustrating. Like I said, there are hundreds of video games on each of a dozen or more consoles. How do I dig in and learn about other games and figure out what I might want to try out? How do I figure out what system I should start with? — And then I remembered.

Remember magazines?

Before Twitch, before Youtube, before G4 — hell, before TechTV, we had video game magazines. Whenever I joined my Mamaw or parents grocery shopping, they'd usually drop me off at the magazine rack and I'd flip through the new issue of GamePro or EGM, looking at the previews and reviews of the hottest games coming out. When we could afford it I'd even get subscriptions to Nintendo Power.

How cool would it be if I could pretend like I'd gone back in time and immerse myself in these classic magazines? To read each one month-to-month, matching up with the real world so I didn't like, hyperfocus and burn out? But what magazines? Where would I find them? And, what era of gaming should I start with?

A quick Google search later and I found Retromags. My first thought was to take the current year and go right back to the start of console gaming for me — with Atari. It's September 1983 and I've just turned... 2? Well, it makes for easy math. But I found a distinct lack of magazines from 1983 devoted to video games. Makes sense — the US gaming market had basically dropped out in what's been called the “US Video game crash of 1983”, and would last through 1985. What would happen in 1985 to change the market?

Nintendo storms American shores

Well... Nintendo would happen. The test launch of the NES started in October, 1985. The nationwide launch would follow in September, 1986. I thought back. I was 5 when the NES came out... that's when I'd entered 1st grade, and was playing C64. I actually wouldn't get a NES for... by my math... about 3 more years. I was actually given an Atari 7800 first, because that's what my family could afford at the time. I was super thankful for it – but also envious of the kids who had NESes and were playing games like Super Mario Bros, The Goonies II and Ikari Warriors.

I knew the name Nintendo from the Atari 2600 ports of Mario Bros., Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. DK and DK Jr were pretty fire games for the Atari — and don't let anyone tell you otherwise! But I also saw what they looked like on the NES and wow!! I wished my Atari games could look like that!

The begging and wishing continued, until I got a NES of my own. I couldn't remember if it was a birthday or Christmas present, but what has turned into a life-long love affair with Nintendo started then — in 1989.

But what if...?

If you're around the same age as I am, you might remember the fierce rivalry that sprung up between Nintendo and another company around the same time, particularly in the US. Sega released their “Sega System” (later known as the Master System) in North America in 1986, but the rivalry would really heat up at the end of 1989 with the release of the Sega Genesis. I remember some kids at the time “outgrew” their NESes and upgraded to the Genesis, which had a ton of Western-developed arcade ports with fast action and rockin' FM audio.

I thought... what if, all those years ago, my family had gifted me a Sega Master System instead of a NES? What if I grew up with Alex Kidd and Sonic the Hedgehog, instead of Mario and Mega Man? And by 1989, video game magazines had sprouted up like The Sega Team Newsletter, Electronic Game Player, and even GamePro!

Perfect, perfect perfect. I thought it would be a lot of fun to share my research and experiences on my Fediverse accounts, hoping it might inspire others to go on the same journey with me. Maybe I'd uncover some classics (or some real stinkers) and I'd have something new to talk about with everyone. I imagined this was all happening in an alternate universe... My friend @jordanlafordan@tenforward.social asked if this imaginary Tam was more a Kelvin AU or a Terran/Mirror Universe Tam! I laughed so hard at the idea — first I said Kelvin, because I mean, I'm not evil. But then the idea of “The Evil Sega” corrupting my childhood and I couldn't stop laughing. Terran Tam was born!

Next time... on Star Trek

But before I could really start, I had to download some of the magazines I'd found and start flipping through. 1989 Tam was about to get a Sega for her birthday, and I needed to know what games were available. What would she ask for?

...To be continued?

#TerranTam

I don't have a big plan to use this blog regularly or anything, but it's nice to have it available and to host it “in house”, too.

I'm a little nervous about opening it up to others right now just because I know it's possible to attach images and videos and such — but I also have no idea how one does that.

*Ohhhhhhh... so that's how you do it.*

You don't actually attach images, but you can link them from another site using markdown. Great! Then I shouldn't have to worry about the space this blog takes up. I was worried about object storage and all that.

So... yeah. I guess that's a thing.

This is a small heading (h3)

Something super cool about this is if I do ever sit down to create a game, I can use code blocks on here, too.

10 PRINT "Hello World"
20 GOTO 10