Masters of the Game: Special Sweepstakes Edition (1992)

Masters of the Game was a newsletter from Acclaim Entertainment that promoted the games it, and its subsidiary LJN, published. I've got a few issues Acclaim mailed myself, all for free, though a couple that I have display $3 and $3.50 cover prices. I can't imagine anyone actually purchased them, as they're quite small, and a video game magazine with coverage of a wide variety of games for about the same price would have been more enticing. Of course, most of Acclaim's games either featured licensed properties or were home ports of popular arcade games, which didn't appeal to everyone.

This particular issue says "Special Sweepstakes Edition" on the front cover, and the back cover does have a quiz and entry form for a contest with an entertainment center as the top prize. While I couldn't find a published date within the newsletter, the sweepstakes shows a cutoff date of November 1, 1992, so I'd guess it was released in fall 1992.

The Death and Return of Superman Game Reviews

A new Superman movie hits theaters this week, as DC reboots its movie universe with David Corenswet replacing Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel. The comic book and game title "The Death and Return of Superman" is fitting in this sense as well, but that's not why I chose this particular game to scan magazine coverage of this week. I chose it because I couldn't find any other Superman video game reviews in my magazine collection. There were 11 Superman games released before the year 2000, my usual cutoff date for blog posts, starting with the Atari 2600 Superman from 1979. Surprisingly, I don't have much experience with any of them, though I think I did briefly take a look at Superman for the Nintendo 64 to see if it was as bad as the critics said, and it was. Sunsoft published The Death and Return of Superman in 1994 for both the Super NES and Genesis, and while the only magazine reviews I found are for the Super NES version, from what I've read, the games are very similar, but with different soundtracks. Both versions were developed by Blizzard Entertainment.

In the August 1994 issue of GamePro, writer "Lawrence of Arcadia" enjoyed the game quite a bit, awarding Superman no lower than a 4.5 out of 5 across the magazine's four ratings categories. I also scanned a four-page strategy guide from GamePro's September 1994 issue that features the game on the cover, and it's the only video game magazine I own with a Superman cover. Maybe it's just the timing of my magazine collection, mostly from the late '80s and early '90s, but Batman and Spider-Man saw a lot more time in the video game spotlight than Superman. Electronic Gaming Monthly's four "Review Crew" member (Mike Weigand isn't part of the scoring), rated the game a 6, 5, 5, and 5, so very average and much lower than competitor GamePro. 

[YouTube] E3 Show Dailies (1998-2012)

https://youtu.be/aDNvakY9fEk

This is a post I meant to put together last June and even had the video mostly done, but I never got around to completing it. It's basically my goodbye to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, after it was permanently canceled on December 12, 2023. Since launching the blog in 2017, I'd often post something related to E3 during the second week of June when the show typically took place. I used to drown myself in E3's plethora of video game news, in part because of my former job, but I also played way too many games across a variety of genres and platforms. Last year there were still a lot of video game events held online during the former E3 week, however, this year the showcases have been lacking. At least that's how it feels, though that could be due to my lack of gaming the past year and my aging hardware that can't play most of the newer games.

In the video I flip through some of the E3 Show Daily magazines that date between 1998 and 2012. Each year's show had three issues, and I have a random selection of them, and sometimes only one or two from a single year. I acquired them from former co-workers, as I only attended the 2003 show myself. Below you'll find photographs of the front and backs of the issues that I own. Unfortunately, I don't have the means or the time to scan them. I'm also providing links to previous blog posts about E3 and other conventions at the bottom.

Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)

The Week Before E3 Week: Part 1 (2017 Predictions)

The Week Before E3 Week: Part 2 (Next Generation's E3 1999 Coverage)

The Week Before E3 Week: Part 3 (My E3 2003 Experience)

E3 2018 Predictions

E3 2019 Predictions

Electronic Gaming Monthly #72: E3 1995

E3: The Show That Was (Next Generation #44 - August 1998)

Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

The 1992 Summer Consumer Electronics Show Recap (VG&CE - September 1992)

Tokyo Toy Show/Tokyo Game Show (TGS)

The Tokyo Toy Show: The Games of 1991 (Electronic Gaming Monthly #14)
Sega Introduces Saturn at Tokyo Toy Show (EGM2 - July 1994)

Tokyo Game Show 1998 (Next Generation - January 1999)

Tokyo Game Show Fall 99 (Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine - January 2000)

Mario in Four-Color Land (Video Games & Computer Entertainment - January 1991)

As I wrote last year on this day, Its-a-Mario Day. Every March 10th is Mario Day, not because of the day marking a special occasion but because of the abbreviation of March being MAR and 10 looking similar to "IO." Last year I went with a few magazine reviews of Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3, and this year I've scanned an article titled "Mario in Four-Color Land." Although Mario is in the title, the story from Video Games & Computer Entertainment magazine is actually about all the Nintendo-themed comic books published by Valiant from 1990 to 1991.