A Day in the Life of a Video Game: A Visit to Sega (Sega Visions - May/June 1992)

What better way to kick off Vault 1541's 10th year than a post about Sega. Unfortunately, the main reason I thought to add more Sega to the blog today was due to the recent news that Sega co-founder David Rosen passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 95. Being a businessman, I don't believe he was involved in game production and is likely the reason that he doesn't appear in my magazine collection, as most of my issues do predate his retirement in 1996. Sega was a big part of my childhood and I still enjoy its games today, so I wanted to post something about Sega in his honor. Some related posts you might also enjoy include the Sega of America ads post, Sega Visions' History of Sega article, and Letters From Sega. This article from the May/June 1992 issue of Sega Visions could actually apply to any company; it's a general overview of how each department contributes to a game's development. However, while it isn't the most interesting piece, it does have a good variety of photos to check out.

Playmates: A Force to Be Reckoned With (Collecting Toys - August 1994)

When I posted the Gang of Five article from the August 1994 issue of Collecting Toys, I mentioned I was actually scanning something else when I stumbled across that story. This is what I'd initially planned to post back then. It's about the toy company Playmates, best known for its Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) action figures. I've shown a few of the toys in posts about the Star Trek Generations Enterprise and TMNT merchandise. As you'll see in the article, TMNT is the property that turned Playmates into a major player in the toy industry. Along with TMNT and Star Trek, it also had toy lines based on Exo Squad and seaQuest DSV in the '90s, and it began publishing video games in 1994, such as Earthworm Jim. Playmates Toys Limited is still in business today and just this week announced that its TMNT licensing agreement with Viacom will not be renewed when it expires at the end of 2026. It had also returned to Star Trek action figures in 2022, but due to poor sales, it ended production of those in 2023.

The Commodore Games That Live On and On (Compute!'s Gazette - December 1987)

This is an article scanned from the December 1987 issue of Compute!'s Gazette that details the top three best-selling Commodore 64 games from 13 major publishers: Access Software, Accolade, Activision, Avalon Hill, Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Epyx, Firebird, Infocom, MicroProse Software, Mindscape, SubLogic, and Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI). That's 39 games covered across only four pages, of which I've played a dozen on C64 and one on another platform.

Gaming Ads: Backfilling #21

It's been one year and two days since my last ads update. Browsing comic books from the 1980s has led to the acquisition of some good retro game ads, and for this post I'm adding five from Atari and three from Mattel Electronics.

FAO Schwarz: The Holiday Book 1999

I typically scan an old video game holiday catalog near the end of each year but this time I'm going with a toy catalog from FAO Schwarz. This 1999 holiday book features Stuart Little on the cover and is just over 100 pages when counting the front cover and foldout. However, I only scanned 39 pages, focusing mostly on holiday items, electronics, and popular brands, such as G.I. Joe, Star Wars, and Barbie. Skipped items primarily include toddler toys and plush. Also, one page is out of order as I placed page 50 at the end because it helped make the side-by-side pages match better and it made more sense to have the Furby product scans next to one another. If you're not familiar with FAO Schwarz, it is a toy store founded in 1862 with a flagship store in New York City, which can be seen in the film "Big," where Tom Hanks dances on the floor piano. It sells a variety of toys, some on the pricey side, and numerous exclusives with many marketed as limited edition collectibles.