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I make no secret of the fact that I am a huge fan of http://hardcoregaming101.net. It's probably my favorite site for video game reviews out there. Ever since I submerged myself in the world of both collecting video games, as well as become increasingly interested in their history I have read and re-read the majority of HG101's articles. It is an amazingly thorough and impressive wealth of information.
Over two years ago HG101's editor, Kurt Kalata began editing a monumental project -- a definitive guide chronicling the "golden age" of graphic adventure games. As one might expect, the resultant tome is something to truly be awe-struck by. It certainly aspires to live up the "101" part of the site's namesake. Certainly if there was a class about adventure games, this could be your text book.
Weighing at just under 800 pages, I am honored to announce that at least one of those pages is penned by myself. Kurt graciously allowed me the opportunity to write the small section on Scooby-Doo Classic Creep Capers, a truly wonderful Maniac Mansion-style game for the Game Boy Color. Faithful readers of the blog no doubt have seen me mention it before. So of course it means a great deal to me to be part of this amazing project.
For those of you interested, the book can be ordered through Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Har...TF8&qid=1305828364&sr=1-3
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So I thought I'd finally announce on the blog that I'm now a contributor to GameSpite Quarterly. Perhaps you longtime readers may recall that one of my earliest blog posts was talking up the amazing first issue which was devoted entirely to the history of the Game Boy. Well, number eight is all about the PlayStation. And it's a gigantic book filled with plenty to keep you busy with.
The article I wrote about Battle Arena Toshinden can be read here: http://www.gamespite.net/...s/G8-BattleArenaToshinden
I also wrote brief write-ups on Policenauts, RPG Maker, Strikers 1945, Thrill Kill and the first two Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games. The books can be ordered in paperback or hardcover here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2108683
To celebrate the launch of the Game Boy Advance in 2001, Nintendo Power magazine decided to start a series of quarterly special editions known as Nintendo Power Advance. These quarterlies were significantly more expensive ($14.99) than the monthly magazine, and as you might have guessed -- focused solely on the Game Boy Advance. Sadly for we GBA enthusiasts only four volumes were ultimately released. And though certainly the reviews may have been a bit biased, each issue is actually a really awesome little time capsule of the year that was the GBA's first.
Generally speaking, each issue would feature in-depth walkthroughs and strategy guides for a handful of major releases. Then they would have a "buyer's guide" that would give half-page previews of upcoming titles. Sprinkled throughout would be various GBA-related news, advertisements, tricks & tips. So let us take a journey through the magazines' short lifespan.
[img width=385 height=500]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v1.jpg[/img]
Volume 1 (aka: the Premier Issue) (130 pages) was intended to announce the arrival of the Game Boy Advance system. Accordingly, the issue opens with an article entitled Introducing Game Boy Advance which offers an "actual size" picture of the new handheld, along with a breakdown of its specs, features and various accessories that were already available.
The featured games in this issue were:
Super Mario Advance
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
Rayman Advance
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon
The Buyer's Guide features:
Earthworm Jim
Super Dodge Ball Advance
Pinobee: Wings Of Adventure
GT Advance Championship Racing
Bomberman Tournament
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Tweety And The Magic Gems
Hot Potato!
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
Fire Pro Wrestling
Top Gear GT Championship
Army Men Advance
ChuChu Rocket
Konami Krazy Racers
Iridion 3D
[img width=399 height=510]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v2.jpg[/img]
Volume 2's (130 pages) cover featured Mario Kart: Super Circuit. It also came with a subscription card that offered "Your Choice Free!" of either a Mario Kart: Super Circuit T-shirt, a pair of Nintendo Power Advance headphones or a Pokemon Crystal Version Player's Guide. (Note: If anyone has those headphones, I'd like them for myself.) This issue is of particular interest to me due to the inclusion of a full moves list for the entire roster of Super Street Fighter II, which is easily one my all-time favorite GBA releases.
The games featured in this issue were:
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Advance Wars
Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival
Jurassic Park III: Park Builder
Lego Bionicle: Quest For The Toa
This volume also includes a section entitled Sports Arena which features:
ESPN Final Round Golf 2002
High Heat MLB 2002
The Buyer's Guide includes:
Mega Man Battle Network
Namco Museum
Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor
Final Fight One
Fortress
Klonoa: Empire Of Dreams
Tang Tang
Lady Sia
Snood
Lego Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge
Pac-Man Collection
Back Track
F-14 Tomcat
Driven
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
[img width=394 height=524]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v3.jpg[/img]
Volume 3's (138 pages) cover is dedicated to Golden Sun, Nintendo's very own 16-bit RPG retro throwback. And if that doesn't get your RPG mouth watering, the issue also features a section on the GBA re-release of the SNES cult-classic Breath Of Fire. The issue comes with that same subscription offer (still want those headphones).
The games highlighted in this volume were:
Golden Sun
Wario Land 4
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
Breath Of Fire
Though the issue contained less featured games upfront, it seems appropriate due to the vast coverage required of two RPG's. The issue also added considerably more bulk to the Buyer's Guide this time out which included:
Tekken Advance
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits
Disney's Donald Duck Advance
Jackie Chan Adventures
Spyro: Season Of Ice
Columns Crown
Tom And Jerry: The Magic Ring
Road To Wrestlemania
Spongebob Squarepants: Supersponge
Rampage Puzzle Attack
Cruis'n Velocity
Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX
Madden NFL 2002
Monster Rancher Advance
Midnight Club Street Racing
Planet Of The Apes
Mech Platoon
Alienators: Evolution Continues
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Tiny Toons Adventures: Buster's Bad Dream
Super Bust-A-Move
Hot Wheels: Burnin' Rubber
ESPN Great Outdoor Games: Bass 2002
Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles
[img width=413 height=550]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v4.jpg[/img]
The fourth and final volume was unique in that it only featured one game. Volume 4 (130 pages) served as a complete strategy guide to Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. In fact the first 100 pages of the issue were spent offering in-depth walkthroughs for each level and breaking down the enemies, power-ups and minutia of my personal favorite Mario Bros. sequel.
The final Buyer's Guide included:
Sonic Advance
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo A-Go-Go
Razor Freestyle Scooter
E.T. The Extraterrestrial
Puyo Pop
Nancy Drew: Message In A Haunted Mansion
Moto GP
M&M's Blast
Batman Vengeance
The Flintstone's: Big Trouble In Bedrock
American Bass Challenge
An American Tail: Fievel's Gold Rush
Dokapon
Motocross Maniacs Advance
Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars
Salt Lake 2002
Sheep
NBA Jam 2002
Inspector Gadget: Advance Mission
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
Jonny Mosely Mad Trix
Disney's Peter Pan: Return To Never Land
Ecks Vs. Sever
Bomberman Max 2: Red Advance and Blue Advance
Mike Tyson's Boxing
Monsters, Inc.
Planet Monsters
Zone Of The Enders: The Fist Of Mars
Chessmaster
Guilty Gear X: Advance Edition
High Heat Baseball 2003
Breath Of Fire II
Sadly there was no Volume 5. Looking back it's unclear why. Perhaps it was the elevated price tag, considering that the same games were probably at least somewhat featured in the far cheaper monthly Nintendo Power magazine? Perhaps there weren't enough people like me who were interested in free Game Boy Advance headphones? Whatever it was, it wasn't a waning interest in the GBA system, as an overload of games would be released for the handheld over the following six years. And these four brief volumes of Nintendo Power Advance serve as a great overview of a year when one of the absolute greatest handhelds of all time was still in its infancy.
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GameSpite Quarterly No. 1: (Game Boy) x (20 Years) = Retrospective
If you are not aware of http://www.gamespite.net, then I suggest you put on your reading glasses, direct your browser in that general direction and set aside a serious amount of time to think about retro-games. It's a fantastic website that offers thoughtful, funny, brainy, and at time brutally honest essays on games of yore. What's even more wonderful is that in the Spring of 2009, GameSpite began a quarterly campaign to compile their website essays into journals that share a common theme. And the premier issue was dedicated to our friend, the Game Boy.
Now in theory, you can read pretty much the entire contents right on the website (save for a handful of the bonus essays that were only included in the more expensive hardcover edition). However, holding this little book in your hand is really something special. You see, this is the first time I've seen a claim to condense the Game Boy's 20 year history into a single tome something of a reality. What makes the book work so well is that it doesn't allow nostalgia to distort the history into something it wasn't. In fact, there are are essays on all of the Game Boy's primary threats and they are completely forthcoming about the Game Boy's hardware inferiority in each case. Likewise, it is not just the "classic" games that are mentioned, nor is it the "overlooked gems"-only; there are chapters about games that we may all remember playing or that seemed important at the time that are total duds.
Each essay is generally short (usually less than 5 pages) and covers a specific topic: be it a game, accessory or competitor. But the book as a whole works both as a brisk primer for those just getting into Game Boy collecting and as a wonderful recollection for those of us that have been interested for the past 20 years.
Games picked apart:
Baseball
Battletoads
Bionic Commando
Castlevania: The Adventure
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Daedalian Opus
Donkey Kong '94
Final Fantasy Adventure
Final Fantasy Legend II
Final Fantasy Legend III
Gargoyle's Quest
Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
Heiankyo Alien
Kid Icarus: Of Myths And Monsters
Kirby's Dream Land
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Mega Man (series)
Metal Gear Solid
Metroid II
Nemesis
Ninja Gaiden Shadow
Operation C
Picross
Pokemon Red/Blue
Street Fighter II
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins
Tennis
Tetris
Wario Land II
The book also includes essays on the Game Shark and Game Boy Camera as well as competing hardware such as Atari's Lynx, Sega's Game Gear, SNK's Neo Geo Pocket and Bandai's WonderSwan. All in all, it's a fantastic read. Highly recommended.
A part of what makes collecting videeo games so much fun is that getting a package in the mail is exciting. It's always been this way for me. And it goes back to those elementary school days when I would receive my monthly issue of Nintendo Power. Each magazine would be filled with rumors, reviews, tricks & tips about all the latest Nintendo games. And of course there would be feature-length walk-throughs, with screens cut and paste (literally! cut and paste!) of entire levels. Back before the days of the internet and it's endless FAQ's, all we had was Nintendo Power and our friends on the playground.
Two years after the release of the Game Boy, the editors of Nintendo Power released a book that served as an inventory of every Game Boy game released up until that point along with some collected walkthroughs.
[img width=500 height=500]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61KTJNY7DKL._SS500_.jpg[/img]
Game Boy: Nintendo Player's Guide (1991, 176 pages) is a must-own piece of history for any Game Boy enthusiest. Although I generally tend to stay away from FAQ's, I feel like the walk-throughs contained in these pages are fair game. There's something extremely fun about an old-school paper walk-through straight from the nerdy writers at NP. The back of the book contains cover art and brief reviews of over 130 Game Boy games, which makes for a truly great pick-up-and-thumb-through coffee table (or bathroom) book.
The games that receive In-Depth (generally 6-8 pages) reviews and walk-throughs are:
Batman
Castlevania: The Adventure
Cosmo Tank
Days Of Thunder
Dr. Mario
Double Dragon
Duck Tales
F-1 Race
Final Fantasy: Legend
Fortified Zone
Gargoyle's Quest
Golf
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Kwirk
The Hunt For Red October
Nemesis
Operation C
Quarth
Revenge Of The Gator
R-Type
Solarstriker
Solomon's Club
Super Mario Land
Super RC Pro-Am
Sword Of Hope
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan
Tetris
Ultima: Runes Of Virtue
[img width=500 height=500]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ASSTENR6L._SS500_.jpg[/img]
Three years later, a companion book was released entiteld simply Super Game Boy (1994, 72 pages) which is a little less necessary, but certainly interesting. It mainly focues on the concept of the various color palettes that were made available through use of the SNES Super Game Boy adapter. However it also contains some extended analysis (usually 4-6 pages) for some games that were released after the first book, and especially ones that contained enhanced features for use with the Super Game Boy.
Games outlined:
Alleyway
Donkey Kong
Dr. Mario
Kirby's Dream Land
Kirby's Pinball Land
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Metriod II: Return Of Samus
Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Tennis
Tetris
World Cup
Yoshi
Okay book club, let's read and discuss!
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