Issues 1,2 and 3 general observations

[Rob]

As you guys know Ter sent out the first wave of the Zap! reprints and I've been having a blast going through them while I've had the time. It's a real treat, as I only ever had three issues of the original run, so most of these are new to me. Here's some of my general thoughts concerning the first few issues.

ISSUE ONE:

Even the NES wasn't popular right away.

Very true. I don't recall anybody owning one until 1987, so I was surprised later on that it actually came out in 85.

Concerning the article "What if they're had never been a video game crash?", I think that Atari would have come out with the 7800 on time, and it would have set a new standard. The Coleco would have had to upgrade or die, as the controllers are the one thing that keeps me from truly enjoying this system. I think it's entirely possible that Atari would have bought the NES from Nintendo as well. You remember that Nintendo initially went to Atari for US distribution of the NES and Atari turned them down, still stinging from the Videogame crash. Think about that- no Nintendo NES, probably the Atari 1000 or something, with none of Nintendo's attention to detail regarding the third party games that came out on it. My entire life may have turned out differently had I not had an NES as a child!


ISSUE TWO:

Couple of questions, Ter:

Did you actually own a NEO GEO at the time? I know you often write fondly of it but I never knew of anyone to actually own one originally.

Do you keep in contact or still know of the guys that wrote letters and fanzines that appeared in Zap? I'm kind of curious because it seems like I've seen some of the same guys surface on various forums through the years.

Re: Gamepro TV. I remember those two douchebags that hosted it. I actually have an episode on VHS somewhere, and you can guarantee it's going on Youtube if I ever find it.


ISSUE THREE:

...I'll be a writer for Game Trader...

Did this ever pan out?

Did Game Players fold?

It seemed like you were having a hard time finding those magazines at the time. What happened?

Re: The Double Dribble Code, Did anyone here ever get the code to work? I've never seen anyone break the backboard on that game. I thought for years that the thing was an urban legend, and forgot about it until I read that in the tricks section.

The [Sega CD] should greatly improve the Genesis...

Oh, how wrong we were!

Re; Colecovison VS the Atari 5200- Two great systems that were hampered by shitty controllers. I give the slight nod to the Colecovision as you can use a Genesis controller for most of the games. I still don't have a functioning 5200 controller. I replaced the flex circuits but can't get any of the Start/Run buttons to work, so my Wico Joystick is also useless. With the Wico, at least the games were playable.

Re: A History of The VIdeogaming Industry fanbook: Do you still own any of the printings? I had one years back and have no idea whatever happened to it. Great book for the time, but the one side page printing sucked. I'd love to get another copy somewhere, or even to read it on .pdf.

Re; The Atari Zone fanzine:

The editor sounds very young. He says he has a part time job. Who knows, he might be a 12 year old paperboy.

LOL! In another generation he would end up on a classic gaming forum trying to sound educated about systems that came out before he was born, like the Super NES.

RE: Masters of the Universe on the 2600. I agree that this is an underrated game, and the graphics are pretty impressive for the 2600.

Good stuff, Ter. I look forward to reading the next few issues.

[Carlos]

Had a chance to read any of the other issues?

[Jakenut86]

Finally had time to get to the PO and get my copies Haven't had a chance to really sit down and read em yet.

[Zap!]

As you guys know Ter sent out the first wave of the Zap! reprints and I've been having a blast going through them while I've had the time. It's a real treat, as I only ever had three issues of the original run, so most of these are new to me. Here's some of my general thoughts concerning the first few issues.

ISSUE ONE:

Even the NES wasn't popular right away.

Very true. I don't recall anybody owning one until 1987, so I was surprised later on that it actually came out in 85.

I myself didn't get one until January, 1987. However, I did play one in Macy's during the Christmas, 1985 season. Ahh, it pays to live in NYC.

Concerning the article "What if they're had never been a video game crash?", I think that Atari would have come out with the 7800 on time, and it would have set a new standard. The Coleco would have had to upgrade or die, as the controllers are the one thing that keeps me from truly enjoying this system. I think it's entirely possible that Atari would have bought the NES from Nintendo as well. You remember that Nintendo initially went to Atari for US distribution of the NES and Atari turned them down, still stinging from the Videogame crash. Think about that- no Nintendo NES, probably the Atari 1000 or something, with none of Nintendo's attention to detail regarding the third party games that came out on it. My entire life may have turned out differently had I not had an NES as a child![/quote[

Not sure if anything could have stopped the crash. 7800 on time or not, computers were taking off fast, and systems were looking too one-dimentional. But if there was no crash, things would look a lot different today.

ISSUE TWO:

Couple of questions, Ter:

Did you actually own a NEO GEO at the time? I know you often write fondly of it but I never knew of anyone to actually own one originally.

Yes, I did. The system's official US date was October 25, 1990 (some incorrectly say 1991). I got it less than a month later, for my 18th birthday on November 10th (it came a week late in the mail though).

Do you keep in contact or still know of the guys that wrote letters and fanzines that appeared in Zap? I'm kind of curious because it seems like I've seen some of the same guys surface on various forums through the years.

Some of them, but not regularly.

Re: Gamepro TV. I remember those two douchebags that hosted it. I actually have an episode on VHS somewhere, and you can guarantee it's going on Youtube if I ever find it.

I still have tons of those shows I taped on the old VCR. It's fun to watch, especially the 1990 commercials.

ISSUE THREE:

Game Trader...

Did this ever pan out?

No, it never happened. I even have an article on the 2600 I wrote for them saved.

Did Game Players fold?...

It seemed like you were having a hard time finding those magazines at the time. What happened?

Never found another issue. I apparently own the entire collection.

Re: The Double Dribble Code, Did anyone here ever get the code to work? I've never seen anyone break the backboard on that game. I thought for years that the thing was an urban legend, and forgot about it until I read that in the tricks section.

No. I don't remember where I got that code from, but I didn't make it up. I think it was in an issue of a major magazine.

[Re: A History of The VIdeogaming Industry fanbook: Do you still own any of the printings? I had one years back and have no idea whatever happened to it. Great book for the time, but the one side page printing sucked. I'd love to get another copy somewhere, or even to read it on .pdf.

I have it somewhere, I'll look out for it.

Re; The Atari Zone fanzine:

The editor sounds very young. He says he has a part time job. Who knows, he might be a 12 year old paperboy.

LOL! In another generation he would end up on a classic gaming forum trying to sound educated about systems that came out before he was born, like the Super NES.

RE: Masters of the Universe on the 2600. I agree that this is an underrated game, and the graphics are pretty impressive for the 2600.

Good stuff, Ter. I look forward to reading the next few issues.

Yeah, I wasn't far from 12 myself though then.

Yes, it was an under-rated game. Wasn't it supposed to come out for CV too? Prototype is possible.

[Rob]

No. I don't remember where I got that code from, but I didn't make it up. I think it was in an issue of a major magazine.

Oh, I wasn't implying you made it up- all the kids in my class knew about the code and knew somebody (usually their cousin) that got it to work, but nobody was able to actually do it themselves. I remember wondering if it was true or not, and I actually had an issue of Gamepro (IIRC) that had the code printed, but I could never get it to work.

Another "legend" that I actually got to work was the endless water world in SMB, where you jump backwards off the pipe and land in the infinite water level. The other one that I determined was false was the rumors of a "pie factory" or "chocolate factory" in the same game. One kid said he was able to do it, but when we all went to his house he said his NES wasn't working so he couldn't demonstrate. I volunteered to bring mine over but he weaseled out of it.

I've been debating writing a series of threads or articles concerning various video game urban legends of yesteryear. If anyone here cares to see it, let me know and I'll post a couple.

[Jakenut86]

The other one that I determined was false was the rumors of a "pie factory" or "chocolate factory" in the same game. One kid said he was able to do it, but when we all went to his house he said his NES wasn't working so he couldn't demonstrate. I volunteered to bring mine over but he weaseled out of it.

Yeah I know a bunch of secrets people have said they found but I could never do and when asked they always found a way to get out of. Like my sister once said that if you stopped in the middle of one tubes in Sonic it would take you to a dream level, but of course she could never prove it.

I've been debating writing a series of threads or articles concerning various video game urban legends of yesteryear. If anyone here cares to see it, let me know and I'll post a couple.

That would make for pretty interesting reading, I like reading stuff about old games.

[Zap!]

No. I don't remember where I got that code from, but I didn't make it up. I think it was in an issue of a major magazine.

Oh, I wasn't implying you made it up- all the kids in my class knew about the code and knew somebody (usually their cousin) that got it to work, but nobody was able to actually do it themselves. I remember wondering if it was true or not, and I actually had an issue of Gamepro (IIRC) that had the code printed, but I could never get it to work.

Another "legend" that I actually got to work was the endless water world in SMB, where you jump backwards off the pipe and land in the infinite water level. The other one that I determined was false was the rumors of a "pie factory" or "chocolate factory" in the same game. One kid said he was able to do it, but when we all went to his house he said his NES wasn't working so he couldn't demonstrate. I volunteered to bring mine over but he weaseled out of it.

I've been debating writing a series of threads or articles concerning various video game urban legends of yesteryear. If anyone here cares to see it, let me know and I'll post a couple.

I know you didn't imply that, I was just saying it in case someone got the wrong idea. I think I read it in Game Pro too.

The minus world wasn't much of a rumor. EVERYONE knew it was out and about in 1988. That secret litterally ROCKED THE WORLD. I was a Freshman in HS that year and every NES fan was talking about it for months, including a few liars who said they escaped the never-ending world.

[Jakenut86]

As you guys know Ter sent out the first wave of the Zap! reprints and I've been having a blast going through them while I've had the time. It's a real treat, as I only ever had three issues of the original run, so most of these are new to me. Here's some of my general thoughts concerning the first few issues.

ISSUE ONE:

Even the NES wasn't popular right away.

Very true. I don't recall anybody owning one until 1987, so I was surprised later on that it actually came out in 85.

I myself didn't get one until January, 1987. However, I did play one in Macy's during the Christmas, 1985 season. Ahh, it pays to live in NYC.

I didn't get one until 89, that's when my families store started renting NES games and we got a NES to be able to test em'.

Concerning the article "What if they're had never been a video game crash?", I think that Atari would have come out with the 7800 on time, and it would have set a new standard. The Coleco would have had to upgrade or die, as the controllers are the one thing that keeps me from truly enjoying this system. I think it's entirely possible that Atari would have bought the NES from Nintendo as well. You remember that Nintendo initially went to Atari for US distribution of the NES and Atari turned them down, still stinging from the Videogame crash. Think about that- no Nintendo NES, probably the Atari 1000 or something, with none of Nintendo's attention to detail regarding the third party games that came out on it. My entire life may have turned out differently had I not had an NES as a child!

Not sure if anything could have stopped the crash. 7800 on time or not, computers were taking off fast, and systems were looking too one-dimentional. But if there was no crash, things would look a lot different today.

I think even without the crash Atari would have run into some problems, their Lynx just couldn't compete with the GB and even though I love the Jag it was rushed to release and still had some major hardware bugs once released. Now if they had of taken Nintendo's offer to the rights of the NES then maybe they could have stayed in hardware.

Any ways just started to sit down to read these and so far they are really good!

[Zap!]

Any updates on issues 4-8, Rob?

[Rob]

Getting there- I've been busy as hell lately. I've read them, but haven't formulated in my head what I wanted to bring up. Bear with me.

[Zap!]

Getting there- I've been busy as hell lately. I've read them, but haven't formulated in my head what I wanted to bring up. Bear with me.

No problem, I look foward to your responce. There are mistakes in the issues, but keep in mind I was 18-20 during Zap!'s production.