[YouTube] Star Wars Pop-Up Book

https://youtu.be/FE4Z1U37RQ0

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!

Year 6: April Update

As I mentioned in the 5th anniversary post, I wasn't going to keep up with monthly updates this year but would do one once in a while. Not a whole lot has been happening the first four months of the year though; I've not played many games or made many videos. I mentioned LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga video game a few times over the past couple of years and it did finally release. I've not had a chance to play very much yet, just the opening level of the three available episodes. From the start you can choose  to play A New Hope, The Phantom Menace, or The Force Awakens while the other six need to be unlocked. It looks great and considering how much content is here, if you like LEGO games and Star Wars this is a must play. One negative is there is no online option, only local co-op for two. Here is some gameplay footage I took for one of my other YouTube channels: LEGO Star Wars.

In video game news this year Microsoft is attempting to acquire Activision, Sony purchased Bungie, and now there are murmurs of Ubisoft potentially being taken over. E3 2022 has been canceled and supposedly will return next year bigger and better. Some companies might still hold events that week regardless, such as an Xbox and Bethesda showcase on June 12th. The Intellivision Amico is still in limbo and might never see the light of day at this point. One surprising bit of news is that Atari purchased the Mobygames video game database for $1.5 million. That database is primarily driven by user submissions and I'm not sure what use Atari has for it.

I came across a cool toy recently that released last October from Playmobil. It made an A-Team toy featuring the iconic van and all four characters. Like LEGO sets, Playmobil toys aren't cheap and this one is priced at $89.99! If you're interested in this awesome TV show from the '80s you might want to check out my 2018 blog post here: The A-Team. 

May the 4th is just days away so I might have a little Star Wars coverage coming soon. I'm also contemplating a video on The Incredible Hulk, similar to the Batman and Superman/Wonder Woman posts. Thanks for your continued support!

-Jonathan

Press Start: Trip Hawkins Interview (EGM #79)

These are scans of the "Press Start" news section from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) #79 published in February 1996. The main portion of the article is an interview with Trip Hawkins primarily about DVD technology when it was new. If you're unfamiliar with the name, Mr. Hawkins is one of the founders of Electronic Arts who also started The 3DO Company. I should post more interviews as they tend to be interesting reads 20+ years later, especially when people make predictions about where the game industry is headed and Trip is on-point here. There are a variety of smaller news bits mixed in across the four pages that involve the PlayStation, Saturn, and Neo Geo.

Play Ball! (Collecting Toys - June 1995)

The 2022 MLB season started a week ago and I forgot to put together a baseball post so here one is now. This is an article (which shares its title with a previous blog post) scanned from the June 1995 issue of Collecting Toys magazine about old baseball toys author Earl Shores played with as a kid. They're all from the '60s and '70s, and I'm not familiar with any of them as they predate myself a bit. Before I had electronic games I did play a baseball board game that included trading cards and at the Funspot arcade during the '80s I'd play the classic pinball-style baseball games which, unfortunately, the arcade no longer had on display when I visited in 2018.

1988 Accolade Catalog

Accolade was a fairly significant computer game company in the late '80s when it released games like Hardball! and Test Drive. This catalog highlights those games among many others, including one of my favorite miniature golf games. There are also a couple t-shirt offers here though I wonder about those designs, a simple company logo or Test Drive shirt likely would have been much more popular.

Taito: The Arcade Leader Brings it Home (Commodore Magazine - May 1989)

This is an article from the May 1989 issue of Commodore Magazine that focuses on Taito's arcade to home game ports. There aren't a lot of images in these scans, unfortunately, but plenty of text, the majority of which is of the writer comparing the arcade games to the Commodore 64 versions. Early in the article it is interesting to hear how Taito held off on Amiga conversions at the same time because the quality would have been high enough to draw business away from the arcade games. While founded in Japan, Taito was actually started by a Ukrainian businessman and you can read a bit more about the company history in the Taito America ads post.