Article scanned from the EGM 1989 Buyer's Guide, also known as issue #0. This was the first video game magazine I ever bought, in late 1988. I was amazed that it contained Master System news & reviews, since the SMS was at best an "alternative" console in the USA. Just a handful of kids at school owned SMS, while nearly every other kid owned the NES. We SEGA fans had to seek each other out and stick together. But it was the following article that made my teenage jaw hit the floor, and solidify my lifelong love of gaming. When I read the following, there was fire in my veins. Another generation of gaming was coming up quickly, without any burnout or crash of the Atari generation. Dreams of futuristic dome-shaped "Mega Drives" would consume me for the following year. Does anyone know of an earlier 16-Bit article? I didn't even know gaming magazines existed when I saw this one at the toy store... late '88, I think December. It stayed on the shelves for a few months until EGM #1 came out. Pretty funny to read now, but it was pure gold to a gamer back then, when we were all in the dark (EGM included). Kind of interesting, though, that the first-ever (?) mention of Mega Drive in the Western press also mentions the CD-ROM upgrade. That comment continued to haunt me for years while the Genesis was on sale with no CD-ROM yet rumored. The "Epyx" console mentioned is what eventually became the Atari Lynx.
to bad the mega drive never had true scaling and rotation. :crying: I dont miss the cart lock option :shrug:
Yeah I remember this, at one time I had issues 1-120 of EGM and the complete run of EGM2, until I stupidly sold them for a quarter of what they're worth. Actually, I didn't read any gaming mags before EGM, anybody have any from the 80s? I read somewhere there was an old one called "Electronic Gaming" which was the precursor to EGM in the early 80s (the Pac-man, Atari era.)
I don't know of an *earlier* 16-Bit article, but the first EGM I ever saw was issue #2 in late June or early July 1989. This issue also had a 16-Bit article, but obviously it was later. It was *this* article that set ME on fire for a new generation of consoles. (the 2nd scan, that starts with 'By Steve Harris'). Aside from the then-upcoming TurboGrafx-16 & Sega Genesis, I also dreamed of even more advanced 16-bit consoles mentioned in this article--The 16-bit P.C.-Engine 2 (before it was revealed to be the 8-bit/16-bit SuperGrafx), and the supposed Namco 16-Bit 'Super System'... As well as the Super Famicom. The complete Super Famicom article from the same issue:
While I like the final released Japanese Super Famicom, I love that 1988 prototype. It's better than the U.S. SNES. more pics: _____ I also like this redesigned 8-bit Famicom, in the same style as the prototype Super Famicom another prototype Super Famicom, closer to the final design: yet another slightly different Super Famicom prototype, notice the different position of the controller ports, and the EXT port:
Follow-up to the 16-bit article in the OP EGM issue 1, May 1989 Again, the Mega Drive supposedly has hardware scaling, (haha yeah right) and a palette of 256,000 colors (they probably meant 262,144 since that's a figure that would make sense). Not even the Mega Drive's ancestor, the System 16 arcade board has that many colors, I believe it's got 1536 on-screen max, out of a 4096 pallete. Also, Gaming Gossip
the proto-SNES looks cool. I've never seen a prototype of the SNES/Super Famicom before. I wish they only released one version of it for the whole world...I think our Europe SNES is quite ugly...
most people I know dislike the US one the most. All in all I give my best Nintendo console design award to the N64, the SNES never really made me lust one just for the sake of its appearance.
