Starlog's Mark Hamill Interviews (1982/83)

I've gone a bit off topic a few times the past year, and this is another time as this post is not about games or toys. However, it is related to Star Wars, which always gets an exception. Of course, I always try to post something about Star Wars on May 4th because it's Star Wars Day. As I mentioned in February, I now own a variety of Starlog issues, most from the early 1980s, when Return of the Jedi was in production and subsequently released. Within the copies I have, there are a lot of Star Wars articles, and with this post I opted to focus on the Mark Hamill interviews since Starlog interviewed him three times in less than a year, including in back-to-back issues.

Starlog #65 - December 1982

Starlog #72 - July 1983

Starlog #73 - August 1983

May the 4th be with you!

Dreamcast 25th Anniversary

Five years ago I went all out on Dreamcast coverage for its 20th anniversary in the U.S. and now I don't have a lot leftover that I can post for its 25th anniversary. Of course, it originally launched in 1998 in Japan so today is, again, a U.S. launch anniversary as Sega's final game console debuted here on 9-9-99. I'm going to post a few random scans I didn't use in 2019 and I'll provide links to the 20th anniversary posts below as well. 

From the June 2001 issue of Next Generation magazine is an article about the passing of Isao Okawa. He became president of Sega in 2000 and was the person who made the call to discontinue the Dreamcast, effectively turning Sega into a software-only company. Okawa-san actually wanted Sega to drop hardware before the Saturn launched and helped keep the company afloat using $500 million of his own money. The two other scans are interviews with Peter Moore (then Sega of America president) and Tetsuya Mizuguchi, producer of Space Channel 5 (plus Sega Rally Championship and later Rez).

All the Dreamcast posts from the week of 9-9-19:

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: NFL 2K

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine

Gaming Ads: Dreamcast

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: Press Materials

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: It's Thinking...

If you're a Dreamcast fan and new to the blog, you might also enjoy this post about Shenmue! Lastly, it's worth noting that Limited Run Games announced a variety of Dreamcast merchandise today and has begun taking pre-orders for Dreamcast trading cards.

Tokyo Game Show 1998 (Next Generation - January 1999)

Here is a look at the Tokyo Game Show 25 years ago while Tokyo Game Show 2023 is currently in progress. The four-page article below is from the January 1999 issue of Next Generation magazine. While it was published in 1999, the show -- which took place twice a year back then -- actually happened in October 1998, a little more than a month before the Dreamcast's launch in Japan. It's no surprise then that Sega had the largest presence at the fall 1998 show and the Dreamcast coverage accounts for half of this article. A few things regarding what's mentioned in the story: Blue Stinger ended up being a dud, Geist Force was canceled, Sega Rally 2 was a hit, and PocketStation never left Japan. I've also included scans of this issue's "Big in Japan" column featuring the first Mario Party, a Goemon game, and an interview about the development of the original Silent Hill game.

Yu Suzuki Interview (Next Generation - November 1995)

Happy birthday to Yu Suzuki who turns 65 today! Last year I posted a variety of Shigeru Miyamoto interviews on his 70th birthday but I could only find this one for Suzuki-san from Next Generation magazine's November 1995 issue. However, you can find numerous articles about Sega on the blog already, including one all about Shenmue which is one of my favorites from Yu Suzuki. This interview predates Shenmue and as the cover indicates, Virtua Fighter 3 was his newest game at that time. In addition to Virtua Fighter and Shenmue, he is, of course, best known for his work on many of Sega's arcade classics, such as Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run, and After Burner. 

The first scan below is from the front of the issue and not part of the interview but it does provide some highlights of Mr. Suzuki's career.

VG&CE: Alexey Pajitnov Interview and Game Reviews

A Tetris movie is going to be shown on Wednesday at the SXSW Film Festival and debut on Apple TV+ at the end of the month. It's actually more about Henk Rogers than Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. Rogers, who founded Japan-based Bullet-Proof Software in 1983, traveled to the Soviet Union in 1988 and helped bring Tetris to the world. However, this post is primarily about Mr. Pajitnov. It features an interview with Alexey Pajitnov from Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) magazine, along with the magazine's reviews of Tengen's NES Tetris, and the computer versions of its follow-ups, Welltris and Faces. In the past I've played the original Tetris (Commodore 64) and Tetris Effect (PlayStation 4) on the blog's YouTube channel, and I also own the Game Boy version and have tried a variety of Tetris releases but I never did play Pajitnov's other puzzle games. I'll add a couple similar posts during the week, one with a brief article about Bullet-Proof Software from GamePro and I'll put all the Tetris and related game ads I have into one post. The Tetris review is from the July 1989 issue, Welltris is March 1990, and the interview and Faces review are from November 1990.

 

Shigeru Miyamoto Magazine Interviews (1992-2007)

Happy birthday to Shigeru Miyamoto who turns 70 today! The title of this post might be a little misleading as the 1992 article from Rolling Stone is more about Mr. Miyamoto and Nintendo's popularity rather than an actual interview. That was a time when video games weren't quite mainstream yet and not a lot of people in the U.S. likely knew who Miyamoto was. I don't think he gave too many interviews outside of Japan back then and many U.S. game magazines didn't do a lot of interviews either. The interviews I scanned are from the first issue of Incite (12/99), the November 1999 and 2000 issues of Next Generation magazine, and Nintendo Power's June 2007 issue. As I've mentioned many times here on the blog, I grew up with Sega consoles which is why there are so many more posts about Sega than Nintendo. Despite not being able to play too many Nintendo games during the '80s and '90s other than a few Game Boy titles, I always enjoyed reading everything in the old gaming magazines and respect Nintendo's contributions to the industry. Miyamoto's accomplishments are numerous, of course, with Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda being three of the most iconic video game franchises that are still going strong today, 35+ years since they began. 

The above photos were made available to the press by Nintendo from 2001-2003. 

Rolling Stone - January 9, 1992 

Incite - December 1999

Next Generation - November 1999

Next Generation - November 2000

Nintendo Power - June 2007