Computer Gaming World Issue 59

Features:

• War In Middle Earth (Chris Lombardi reviews Melbourne House's effort to bring Tolkien's works to the computer screen, giving it a passing grade but adds some reservations about its low difficulty and small replay value)
  
• What Do the "Sim"ple Folk Do? (Johnny L. Wilson gets the honor of reviewing Will Wright's masterpiece of city design, SimCity)
  
• First Over Germany (Hosea Battles flies a mission to drop virtual explosives on Germany for this review of SSI's B-17 bomber sim)
  
• CGW's Top Ad Award Winners (The votes from January's contest have been tabulated, and the envelopes prepared! Fractional Page's top vote earner went to First Row Software Publishing for their ad showcasing The Honeymooners, The Twilight Zone, and Star Empire, while the Full Page winner was none other than New World for their massive, five-screenshot piece for Might & Magic II)
  
• Street Lethal (David M. Wilson puts on his muscle shirt and takes to the streets for an up-close-and-personal look at a trio of vigilante-justice-themed games: Bad Dudes, Double Dragon, and Renegade)
  
• Sodan Impact (Kevin Rohrer unsheathes his broadsword (giggity!) for a walk through Sword of Sodan, a side-scrolling barbarian-style action fighter)
  
• Prophetic Gift (Dennis Owens glances into his crystal ball to review Activision's Prophecy for the IBM, an experience he describes as being the most exciting RPG he's ever played on his computer)
  
• Scorpion's Tale: Guardians of Infinity - To Save Kennedy (Scorpia reviews and provides hints for this mammoth adventure game where the player is tasked with traveling back in time from the year 2087 with five inter-temporal agents in an effort to prevent the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy)
  
• Silent Running (Lt. H.E. Dille orders down periscope and tubes flooded for his review of EA's 688 Attack Sub, which he contends is a strong candidate for his own personal game of the year)
  
• Seems Like Old Times (D&D co-creator Dave Arneson takes a trip down (missing) memory lane to discuss ICOM's Deja Vu II: Lost in Las Vegas, the sequel to their original graphical adventure, Deja Vu, on the Macintosh)
  
• Under the Ice (M. Evan Brooks strikes out to sea to review this futuristic game of submarine combat from Lyric Software)
  
• Scavengers of the Mutant World (Interstel's nuclear wasteland-set RPG is no match for Scorpia, who skewers it with a 'not recommended' rating for multiple failings and annoyances, including its instant perma-death scheme which overwrites your saves as soon as one of your party members dies)
  
• Hoplites On Parade (Fresh from his undersea excursions, Lt. H.E. Dille goes topside to review Ancient Battles, the first entry in the new Encyclopedia of War series from Case Computer Simulations)
  

Departments:

• Letters (Scorpia is the focus of this month's letter column: Softworks' David R. Malmberg writing to add a couple of things to her review of his Adventure Game Toolkit, and Jon Van Caneghem of New World Computing uses the rest of the column space to blast her for her opinions on Might & Magic II. Scorpia gets in the last word with her reply, reminding Jon and the rest of her readers that ultimately her job is to point out flaws as well as good points, and in the end her goal is to help consumers make the best possible decision about where they spend their money).
  
• Taking A Peek:
  • Police Blotter (Apple II)
    
  • Ghosts 'N Goblins (IBM/C64)
    
  • Search For the Titanic (IBM/Apple IIGS/C64)
    
  • Presumed Guilty! (IBM/C64)
    
  • Robocop (C64)
    
  • Super Hang On (Mac)
    
  • Distant Armies (Amiga)
    
  • Project Firestart (C64)
    
  • Kings of the Beach (IBM)
    
  • Mind-Roll (C64)
    
  • The Honeymooners (IBM)
    
  • Candyland (IBM/Apple II/C64)
    
  • Chutes And Ladders (IBM/Apple II/C64)
    
  • Boot Camp (C64)
    
  • Prospector in the Mazes of Xor (Amiga)
    
  • Tanglewood (Amiga/Atari ST)
    
  • Combat Course (Amiga/Atari ST/C64/IBM)
    
  • Hostage (Amiga/Atari ST/C64/IBM)
    
  • International Team Sports (C64)
    
  • Baal (Amiga/Atari ST)
    
  • Hometown, USA (IBM/Mac/Apple II/C64)
    
  • Chess (IBM)
    
  • The Fidelity Chessmaster 2100 (IBM/Apple II/C64)
    
  • Hidden Agenda (IBM)
    

  [*] Inside the Industry

  • LucasArts is working on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
    
  • Wright Computer mail-order software may have gone out of business
    
  • Microprose dishes up info on Sword of the Samurai, M-1 Tank Platoon, and F-15 Strike Eagle II
    
  • The Philips CD-I is about to face some stiff competition from the soon-to-arrive PC Engine and FM Towns
    
  • Cinemaware bought some licenses from Mirrorsoft, and will be marketing Speedball in the US
    

  [*]Reader Input Device

  [*]CGW Hall of Fame (new additions in bold):

  • Kampfgruppe
    
  • Gettysburg
    
  • M.U.L.E.
    
  • Mech Brigade
    
  • Chessmaster
    
  • War In Russia
    
  • Empire
    
  • Earl Weaver Baseball
    
  • Ultima IV
    
  • Wizardry
    
  • Starflight
    
  • Gunship
    
  • Ultima III
    
  • Might & Magic
    
  • The Bard's Tale
    
  • Pirates
    

  [*]The Top 100

Notable Stuff:

• The reference to Psalm 9:1-2 appears on the masthead
  
• You could buy a one-time $10 license from Softworks which allowed you to publish and sell your adventure that you made with their software without paying any royalties, even (as the company states) if it becomes more popular than Zork.
  
• Maybe winning the CGW Top Ad Award for Might & Magic II soothed some of the rectal trauma Jon Van Caneghem felt compelled to disclose to the CGW readership in the letter column?
  
• Project Firestart is an epic experience on the C64, a survival horror adventure with an Alien-style twist. Seriously, if you are at all into Commodore gaming, this is one title to look out for.
  
• CGW couldn't decide on a title for their War In Middle Earth feature, so they gave readers 3 options and asked them to write in with the one they liked best.
  
• Wilson ends his review of SimCity by stating, "We want them to [...] develop SimCounty, SimState, SimNation, SimPlanet, SimUniverse[!]" What was tongue-in-cheek at the time of his writing went on to become a reality, first with SimEarth in 1990, then later with SimLife in 1992 and (to a lesser extent) Spore in 2008.
  
• Julian LeFay provided the soundtrack to Sword of Sodan. He would later go on to lead the development of the first two Elder Scrolls titles, Arena and Daggerfall.
  
• While you can acquire tons of gear and equipment in Prophecy, you have no way of getting rid of it once you've acquired it. By the end of the game, your characters could open the largest armoury the world has ever seen.
  
• I hate to keep harping on poor Jon Van Caneghem here, but all he has to do is look at Scorpia's treatment of Scavengers of the Mutant World in this issue to see what a real lambasting looks like.
  
• God, that Sargon artwork on page 45 never ceases to amaze me. When will this freshman-level art production get retired for something that might actually sell video games?
  
• Page 53 features a reprint of an article that appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on December 20, 1988, proclaiming the presence of more educational computer software in the form of games than readers might suspect.
  
• The new Hall of Fame additions promised last month have arrived: Earl Weaver Baseball, Pirates, and Empire all take their rightful place upon the CGW throne. Getting kind of crowded up there, isn't it gang?