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Radd Reads - New Series where I read and play through GamePros from 1995


NorrinRadd

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I had a subscription to GamePro from 1994 to 1997 or so. Basically from the 16bit era right through the passing of the torch to the 32bit era. It was an amazing time to be reading GamePro and magazines in general because that was basically the best source for game news, and screen shots. The 32bit consoles were basically bordering on voodoo magic in terms of graphical power, and all you could do was read the magazine, decipher the tiny grainy images (sometimes taken off a screen) and imagine how cool the game was going to be. I actually have a lot of nostaliga for the games I imagined in my head. Games that never actually existed in the way I pictured them, or lots of times, games I never even played period.

I decided it would be a good idea to capture that weird fleeting nostalgia, and hammer smash it together with the cold hard reality of what the games actually were in a new series where I read through the magazine (scans), and load up many of the games to directly check them out as they pop up in the issue. It's fun to rip on games and call them bad with all this hindsight we have now, but I try to only dip my toe in the realm of making fun, and really just try to enjoy that a lot of these games were basically going blindly forward in an industry that was still very much the wild west. Even a bad game from 1995 is still almost a pioneer if you choose to view it that way. Sometimes though, the bad games just need a good future spanking, which I am happy to provide as needed.

I can't think of a community that would probably understand or enjoy this series more than all of you. The community here is doing such a good thing, and doing such great work to preserve these magazines that were such a huge part of the gaming and gamer world just before the internet took over.

I do the shows live every Sunday, at 9:30pm PST, and next week is August 1995, which is a full E3 breakdown. That year's E3 was absolutely on fire with the new consoles dropping and the old consoles fighting for relevance should be a good one. I try to make every episode an event, rather than just another stream.

If it sounds up your alley, check out some hype videos I made:


And check out the latest full episode, with a full July 1995 breakdown of current events at the start, to really set the mood:


I stream live on Youtube and Twitch every Sunday at 9:30pm PST. I'd love it if any of you stopped by and hopped in the chat. I'll always be down for request or two :)

https://www.twitter.com/Norrin_Radd22
https://www.youtube.com/NorrinRadd22
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  • 2 weeks later...


Back at it! We will determine, once and for all, which version of Killer Instinct is the best. Arcade, SNES, or... Game Boy?

Also, for some additional context, Mortal Kombat the Movie was coming out this very same month. That really puts this magazine in to a time and place context. It was a great time to be gaming, I tell ya.

Also, for gosh sake, I forgot to change the magazine image in the video itself. Rookie mistake...

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Huge emphasis on Twisted Metal in this episode. This was the issue that broke my brain as a kid to a point where I actually bought Twisted Metal before I even owned a PSX (to play at a friend's house who did have one). I just knew I wanted to be a part of it. Playing it again here, it actually delivers almost exactly on what the article in the magazine with Producer of the game. Impressive considering what the editors of the magazine were saying  about Primal Rage. Big discrepancy in accurately describing a game, haha.

 

 

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