Friday, May 20, 2022

Building a Better World (Video Games & Computer Entertainment - December 1989)

This 1989 article from Video Games & Computer Entertainment is a discussion about the game Populous with its designer Peter Molyneux. Populous was developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts across many platforms, including PC (DOS and Windows), Mac, Atari ST, Amiga, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and even Game Boy in Japan. Japan also received a TurboGrafx-16 version while Brazil and Australia surprisingly saw Sega Master System releases. Although I own the Genesis version and it is fun, I expect it's much easier to play on a computer, especially as the difficulty increases through 500 levels. Players act as a god and lead people to victory by eliminating the opposition through combat and world manipulation, such as raising and lowering terrain, causing floods, and triggering earthquakes. Molyneux would later found Lionhead Studios where he helped create Black & White (2001) which has similar themes and gameplay to Populous. To the right is the magazine's Amiga review of the game that appears in the same issue. 


Wednesday, May 4, 2022

[YouTube] Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Pop-Up Book



This post is a lot like the previous one except it's based on the second Star Wars film rather than the first. In the video I flip through the book that was  published by Random House in 1980 and read what little text there is. Based on The Empire Strikes Back, it doesn't feature the whole movie, just a small number of select scenes and, as I mentioned in the previous post, Han Solo is nowhere to be found, outside of the Millennium Falcon at least. Perhaps a carbonite scene would have been too negative for a kid's book. Lando Calrissian was also snubbed even though there is a page at the end that would have been perfect for him as he could have popped out of the Falcon's hatch to rescue Luke but for some reason Luke leaps onto the cockpit. I don't own a Return of the Jedi book so this will be the last of the Star Wars pop-up posts. May the 4th be with you!












[YouTube] Star Wars Pop-Up Book


This is probably my first post about a book and it will be followed by another post about a book. Both are "pop-up" books about Star Wars as today is May 4th, also known as Star Wars Day. In the video I flip through the book that was published by Random House in 1978 and read what little text there. Based on the first Star Wars film, it doesn't feature the whole movie, just a small number of select scenes and one is out of order as there is a two-page spread of X-wings dogfighting TIE fighters outside of the Death Star ahead of Luke rescuing Leia. Although we see the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo doesn't make an appearance here or in The Empire Strikes Back book. The images are a mix of scans and photos since I can't scan the items popping out of the pages. May the 4th be with you!