EA Sports Vol. 2, Issue 1

This is a 20-page magazine from EA Sports that I believe was distributed as an insert with an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. I also own Vol. 1, Issue 1 which has lower quality paper and Michael Jordan on the cover, but I chose to scan this one instead because it is football-centric and this is Super Bowl weekend. Although John Madden is EA's primary football guy and this issue features some John Madden Football articles, the issue's cover is not of John Madden but of Bill Walsh, who endorsed EA's first college football video game. I am including every page of the magazine, including ads, though you can find the same ads in the Electronic Arts albums posted back in 2017. However, I provide slightly larger article pages than I previously did in the past, and I matched the ads to that size as well, so these are bigger than my other ad scans.

As I said, it's Super Bowl weekend and at this time of year I do often put together a video or blog post with a score prediction, which is really just a complete guess as I'm not an expert and I don't analyze anything. Last year I picked the wrong winner in a game that went into overtime. Two years ago I was a single point off from guessing the exact score between these same teams. Philadelphia makes its second Super Bowl appearance in the last three years and Kansas City returns for the fifth time in the last six years, and is going for a three-peat! I did pick against KC last year and maybe I should learn from my mistakes but I'm leaning toward the Eagles pulling out the win. Either way, I'm expecting a close, high-scoring game, and I'll go with the same score I guessed two years ago but with a different outcome: 38-34 Philadelphia.

Electronic Arts Takes on the Video-Game Market (Video Games & Computer Entertainment - August 1990)

Today Electronic Arts (EA) is a juggernaut video game publisher but it was strictly a computer game developer and publisher for eight years before releasing its own games for consoles. Before 1990, other companies had licensed and ported EA's computer games to consoles. This article from Video Games & Computer Entertainment magazine was written shortly before EA's first video game releases for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis. Of course, we now know how significant EA's decision to make console games was and it entered the market at a great time, as 16-bit consoles elevated the gaming industry and EA's sports titles would eventually take the company to another level. One oddity about EA's Genesis cartridges is that they are about three quarters of an inch taller than the standard size and its earliest releases used cardboard boxes instead of the nice clamshell cases. That is likely a result of EA not actually having a Sega license at the time as is mentioned in the interview with Trip Hawkins at the end of the article.

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. 

1990 Electronic Arts Distribution Catalog

This is the complete 1990 Fall - Winter 1991 catalog from Electronic Arts Distribution. Being a distribution catalog, it doesn't only feature games published by Electronic Arts (EA). As indicated on the first page, EA worked with numerous publishers, such as Sega, Ubisoft, Parker Brothers, Ocean, Lucasfilm, and many others (company abbreviations legend is at the bottom of about every other page). Admittedly though, it's not the most exciting catalog to view due to it having very little color and not many box images. There are some colored screenshots in the middle and a few small photographs, including one of Michael Jordan. 

Those symbols next to a title are indicating the platforms it is available on (shown on the top bar): Triangle = IBM and compatible, Circle = Commodore 64/128, Square = Atari ST, Diamond = Apple IIc/IIe/II+, Heart = Apple IIGS, Star = Amiga, Plus = Macintosh, and Circle/Star = Atari 8-bit. You may have noticed the platforms are all computers and while there is a mention of the NES and Sega Genesis in the catalog, the reason this is all computer software is because Electronic Arts wasn't involved in the console game market until 1990.

Year 4: December Update

Star Wars Galaxy #77
(Artist: Ralph McQuarrie)

Most holidays go uncelebrated for myself since I don't live near family and rarely travel, plus this year is especially difficult for that. I spent the 25th watching all eight episodes of The Mandalorian season two which had some fun surprises since I was able to avoid spoilers going in. Earlier this year I watched The Clone Wars animated series which I hadn't seen before and I do recommend it as at least a couple characters from that show up in The Mandalorian. The holidays also had me posting about Star Trek ornaments (boring?) that topped off a three Star Trek post month. I did attempt my first Instagram post with a photo of the Star Trek tree, however, it didn't seem to want to take the full photo (dimensions too long perhaps), just a portion of it so I deleted the post. I'll figure this smartphone stuff out one day.

December tends to be a slow month for gaming though there was one big release and it went sideways. I don't talk much about M-rated games here but it's worth noting that Cyberpunk 2077's console versions have technical problems and some retailers are offering refunds. If you want to play it try the PC version (physical release is a code in a box) or wait a few months to see if things improve. The video game awards show took place this month as well and awards are so subjective, especially when it comes to gaming, that they shouldn't be taken too seriously. There were 24 awards categories for games (other awards for eSports, most anticipated, and performer/streamer) released in 2020 and The Last of Us Part II won seven of those. Ghost of Tsushima and Final Fantasy VII Remake took a few too so the PlayStation exclusives cleaned up. 

I don't have too many things to bring up this month so let me mention Chuck Yeager. The retired Air Force officer and first man to break the sound barrier passed away on December 7th. He accomplished a lot in his 97 years though I mention him here because of his involvement with computer games. As someone who read a lot of gaming magazines in the late '80s/early '90s that when I hear his name I can't help but first think of flight simulator games despite having never played those featuring his name on the box. There is a great magazine ad for Chuck Yeager's Flight Trainer (1987) that you can find in the Electronic Arts (EA) ads article that I'll repost here along with a review of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat from the October 1991 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment. EA also published Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0 (1989).

While the posts have slowed significantly this year, the blog has just about made it through four years as January 2nd will mark the 4th anniversary. As I've mentioned more than a few times, it was slower in part to a 2020 games project I undertook which won't take up much of my time now even though I still have some gaps to fill in. However, I should put more time into getting important things done in my life in 2021 rather than making many YouTube videos, and I should play less games. I actually only completed three games in 2020 because I was playing 30-90 minutes of every physical game release instead (that's more than 250 games). To put my 2020 completion rate in perspective, I've finished at least 15 games every year since 2008 and as many as 41 in 2009 (43 if you count replays). Too many hours spent playing games? Probably, even if it does help get me through each day and improve my knowledge of games which in turn makes me better at my job for as long as I work on a game database for a living. Thanks for reading!

-Jonathan