Yes! Ich konnte mir für meine Retro-Sammlung jetzt auch eine eigene Bonus-CD der GameStar 03/05 sichern. Bisschen zerkratzt, aber 2026 nimmt man ja, was man bekommen kann. Soweit ich weiß, war das hier der letzte physische Release des "Dirty Little Helper '98", bevor das Programm im Jahr danach endgültig eingestellt wurde.

Hier gibt's das ISO: https://archive.org/details/gamestar_0305-bonus

#Retro #RetroComputing #RetroGaming #GameStar #CDROM #DLH98 #DirtyLittleHelper #2000s #WindowsXP #WinXP #90s #90er

til the english term 'scuttlebutt' (as in: 'So, what's the scuttlebutt today?') originated from the Age of Sail. it has literally the same expressive meaning as water-cooler gossip.

thank you Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections: Stowaway!

compare this to the wikipedia entry for scuttlebutt - a dry factual kernel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttlebutt

#multimedia #cdrom #edutainment

when i was a kid with my first 2x cd-rom drive, buying a cd-rom in a retail box was a $100+ CAD affair. so at my house that never happened.

all of my software on CD were either pack-ins that came with the computer, or from cheap multi-disc compilation packs like Sirius Software's 5ft10 pak.

one of those pack-ins was a copy of Encarta '94. it had a nondescript jewel case without cover art - just a green MS certificate of authenticity. i never knew what the retail box looked like, until today.

holy cow is it beautiful. the box is a hardcover flip-open activity book, designed for kidhands to pull open and rifle through. visually, it models the Dorling Kindersley UK educational books - I assume they did the graphic design.

the user manual is a thick kid friendly comic book. there's even a separate manual that teaches kids how to write a book report and *then* an entire section of proper citations and giving research credit.

MS was a big, big place in those days. its educational division was more or less walled off from the rest of the murderous beast, and it shows. this program is thoughtful, beautiful, and suffused with craftsmanship.

i'm right in the middle of retooling the Multimedia HyperGuide podcast, and now i have to do an episode on Encarta. it's so damned well made. in the mean time, feel free to listen to previous episodes here:
https://podcast.vga256.com

#multimedia #cdrom #win31 #win95 #retrocomputing #podcast

Lustig! Ich hab das originale Diablo natürlich auch schon seit Jahren in meiner Sammlung auf GOG.com, aber ich habs gerade auch nochmal hinbekommen, es unter 86Box und Windows 95 von einer alten Heft-CD der GameStar 1/2001 zum Laufen zu bringen. Gibt dem Ganzen nochmal extra Nostalgie-Punkte! 😎

#GameStar #HeftCD #Diablo #RetroGaming #Retro #Gaming #90s #CDROM #Win95 #Windows95 #PCGaming

Retro Gaming Ads Blast – Part 42

Welcome back readers, fellow geeks and electronic gaming fans!

In this edition of the Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) series, we will take a look at another batch of retro gaming print ads from the 1980s to the 1990s.

For the newcomers reading this, Retro Gaming Ads Blast (RGAB) looks back at the many print ads of games (console, arcade, computer and handheld) that were published in comic books, magazines, flyers, posters and newspapers long before smartphones, social media, the worldwide web and streaming became popular. To put things in perspective, people back in the 1980s to the 1990s were more trusting of print media for information and images about electronic games and related products.

With those details laid down, here is the newest batch of retro gaming print ads for you to see and enjoy…

1. Space Duel Arcade Flyer

When the 1979 arcade classic Asteroids achieved massive success for Atari, the company went on to make ports of it on different platforms as well as follow-ups in the arcades. The first follow-up Asteroids Deluxe had a positive reception but never reached the huge impact of its predecessor. Since Asteroids Deluxe was well regarded for improved visuals and higher level of challenge, Atari went on to make the 1982 follow-up Space Duel. To promote the game, Atari’s artists made fascinating original artworks for both the arcade cabinet and the arcade flyer itself. Apart from looking great, I noticed the spaceships of Space Duel’s art looks similar with those of Xevious (a Namco arcade game distributed by Atari in America) and I can only speculate that the same artist made those.

2. Midway Auxiliary Show Monitor Print Ad

As video arcades in America became massively popular with people and became a major economic sector, it was not surprising that crowding became a trend especially whenever a very popular game attracted both players (waiting in line) as well as onlookers. Midway, which was an arcade giant in the 1980s, came up with their own concept of a specialized secondary display called the Midway Auxiliary Show Monitor designed to let onlookers watch a video of ongoing gameplay without physically standing by the player. As the print ad above shows precisely the use of the monitors, those were used at trade shows or in arcades with a setup to make turn the single-player experience into a makeshift show for the people nearby. Back in the 1980s, there was indeed a spectator approach to the arcade experience but players had to deal with the disturbance of many onlookers standing near to see the on-screen action. At the very least, Midway’s concept and hardware was a bold attempt to solve overcrowding.

3. Sega Genesis North American Print Ad

While the Sega Genesis has always been identified with 1990s console gaming in America, the console was officially launched there in August 1989. At the time, Sega of America was not too creative nor aggressive when it comes to marketing the Genesis. The above 1989 print ad showed a lot of screenshots to promote the games, showed the console with a TV and a few peripherals and a text description that emphasized the Genesis as the so-called ultimate dimension in game play. Considering how dynamic and aggressive Sega’s marketing of the Genesis and games became a few years later when Tom Kalinske became the CEO, it is not surprising that this old ad has been forgotten.

4. The Punisher NES Print Ad

By the year 1990, The Punisher became one of Marvel Comics’ most popular figures and the character had two monthly series published. As such, an actual video game featuring the character was made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and to promote it, three screenshots were shown, a brick wall with stylized short messages was shown and a hand-drawn art of the Punisher was displayed. As seen in the screenshots, elements from The Punisher comic books were displayed such as shooting and fighting the criminals. Considering how wholesome the NES audience was at the time, this print promotion of The Punisher game looks odd although it is a fact that entertainment products featuring violent entertainment properties or characters were made and marketed towards children less than 12-years-old. Remember the Rambo animated series and video games of the 1980s?

5. Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters Arcade Flyer

After achieving both critical and big-time commercial arcade success with Lethal Enforcers in 1992, Konami proceeded with the sequel Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters which was released in arcades two years later. While the 1994 game used 2D sprites and digitized photographs like its predecessor, Konami used the 19th century Old West as the setting making it totally different from the 1992 original. To promote the game and emphasize the Old West setting, Konami came up with this arcade flyer that showed actors in cowboy costumes with a background that looks like a cowboy movie set. Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters went on to become successful in the arcades and it later got ported to game consoles.

6. Wipeout XL Print Ad

1996 was a tremendous year for console gaming. As Nintendo launched their highly anticipated Nintendo 64 console (N64) that year, game publishers came up with new games that further utilized the features of both Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Wipeout XL was a sequel sci-fi racing game exclusive to the PlayStation and developer/publisher Psygnosis went all-in promoting the game with a lot of creativity and energy. They came up with this 2-page print ad to make gamers excited while creatively informing them what features, rave music and fun gameplay it has. On face value, this print ad looked more like a dazzling article.

7. Nights into Dreams Print Ad

If there is anything notable about the history of the Sega Saturn, it is the fact that there were no new dedicated platform games of Sonic The Hedgehog released for it which is very odd as the Sonic platform games on Sega Genesis were big sellers, critically acclaimed and even made their mark on pop culture. During the mid-1990s, Sonic Team (which had Sonic game creators like Yuji Naka and Naoto Ohshima) were laser-focused on making Nights into Dreams (stylized as NiGHTS into Dreams) which was an all-new intellectual property that allowed them to utilize the 3D capabilities of the Saturn while making room for their creativity. Sega knew Nights into Dreams was special so they came up with this 2-page print ad which had an eye-catching display of screenshots of the game on the left (with the Saturn in the middle) while using the other half for descriptive text and explanations (with the special Saturn controller in the middle) to grab people’s attention. This old ad from 1996 is a mixed bag for me as the left side was captivating to see while the description on the right side requires some effort to read properly due to the small size of the text.

8. Super Mario 64 Print Ad

What is arguably the most memorable video game released in 1996 was Super Mario 64 which was not only a fully featured launch game of the Nintendo 64 console, but also the first-ever Super Mario platform game made with 3D polygons complete with a large 3D environment that can be explored a lot. There was a huge anticipation for this game by both gamers and the media, and whenever it was previewed before release, it drew lots of crowds and many ended up being very impressed and wanting more. Nintendo knew they had some very special under the production and direction of Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. As such, Nintendo had an ambitious marketing campaign that includes print media, video advertising on MTV, Fox and Nickelodeon and even sending video tapes to thousands of Nintendo Power magazine subscribers. This 2-page print ad was part of the campaign and it had a fine visual design that strongly emphasized the iconic Mario in polygonal form in most spaces, leaving the screenshots in the bottom. This old ad from 1996 never looks outdated and its clean approach is really effective in helping people understand that something great would be launched along with the N64. Both the console and this game sold a lot of copies ultimately and it remains one of Nintendo’s biggest achievements ever.

+++++

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catching up on important developments in the world of multimedia this morning with a 10/10 espresso

when i was 16 there was nothing more exciting than going to the Coles bookstore and dropping $10 on a new issue of CD-ROM Today! The coverdisc was dense with game demos, shareware, educational, reference and productivity applications. my love for edutainment games comes purely from its coverdisc.

best of all, it was a win+mac hybrid, so i could take it to school and play *different* games on the classroom mac LC. i can’t think of a single magazine that had such excellent well-rounded taste in every genre of multimedia

#multimedia #cdrom #vintageApple #macintosh #coffee

it's hard to imagine that back in the mid-90s, the stiff and strait-laced MS had an entire department for making kids multimedia

their edutainment department was mostly independent of the rest of the monster, and produced some really unique educational software. Dinosaurs is one of their best - the combination of high production value, solid paleontological detail, and skeumorphic interfaces makes for a totally memorable experience.

i found this non-interactive demo buried in the program. i heard one of the former MS developers mention recently that scenes like these were built in Macromedia Director, and then nested within the program (built in C/C++) using a Director runtime.

you might notice the weird random b+w noise around the window, and in some of the background. that's a byproduct of the team using indexed palettes to handle the hundreds of compressed images. every single image was run through DeBabelizer to extract its index, and then averaged with other images to find shared colour palettes from 256 colours. the team had to make sure that the colour palette chosen never intruded into the "safe palette" used by the window frame, titlebar, and background. obviously, this one paletting error snuck past QA.

#dinosaurs #multimedia #cdrom #win31 #win95 #macromedia

Harry McCracken's article about the life and death of multimedia cd-roms provides a good retrospective of its glory days.

i wonder how many people today can remember a time when they did not have to be suspicious or skeptical about facts they were reading, because it was written by a team of editors with research and writing standards?

https://www.fastcompany.com/91128052/history-of-cd-roms-encarta-myst

#multimedia #cdrom #softwareHistory

Was ich an SimCity 2000 besonders schätze: Praktisch jede beliebige, billige SC2K CD-ROM für Windows enthält nebenbei auch eine komplette Fassung der DOS-Version mit allen Erweiterungen und Szenarien. Bei vielen anderen Spielen muss man die erst mühsam suchen.

Das Ganze läuft hier bei mir gerade einwandfrei in 86Box, PC-DOS 2000 und dem frisch installierten TEAC CD-ROM Treiber.

#DOSGaming #PCGaming #90s #90er #SimCity #SC2K #Maxis #RetroGaming #Retro #Tech #CDROM #Simulation #RetroComputing

Just added a TEAC CD-ROM diskette from 1997 to my collection of DOS drivers. This one needs about 14KB of memory, which is a bit more than other drivers, but still significantly smaller than what the Creative Labs CD drivers takes up. Not such a big deal, since I can still load it into the system's upper memory.

Link: https://archive.org/details/teac_20240914

#DOSGaming #MSDOS #Drivers #RetroComputing #Retro #PCGaming #90s #90er #IBMPC #CDROM