Computer Gaming World Issue 45

Features:

• Scorpion's Tale: Space Quest (While the second game in this series has just come out, Scorpia's offering assistance to those custodial officers who haven't yet plucked up the courage necessary to beat the first)
  
• The Best Starfighter (David M. Wilson compares Urudium, Delta Patrol, Magnetron, Parallax, and Sanxion)
  
• Ready or Not, Here They Come! - Computer Games in 1988 (A full-fledged report on the Winter C.E.S.)
  
• Voices of the Future: Science Fiction pundits from A - Z predict the future of computer games. Features entries from:
  • Douglas Adams
    
  • Isaac Asimov
    
  • Steven Brust
    
  • Harlan Ellison
    
  • Alan Dean Foster
    
  • Harry Harrison
    
  • Jerry Pournelle
    
  • Roger Zelazny
    

  [*]A Proud Tradition (Johnny L. Wilson evaluates SSG's latest military sim, Halls of Montezuma)

  [*]Sneak Preview: Wasteland (CGW offers a first look at Interplay's new post-apocalyptic property)

  [*]Scorpion's Mail (A hold-over from the now-defunct Computer Game Forum mag, Scorpia provides some extra hints and advice for Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna, Beyond Zork, Ultima IV, The Bard's Tale, Might & Magic, The and The Lurking Horror)

  [*]Mind Over Anti-Mater (Yung Min Choi braves the new frontiers of space in Skyfox II)

  [*]Once More Into The "Breach" (Joseph S. McMaster has a few things to say about Breach, Omnitrend's sci-fi adventure wargame)

  [*]Titans of the Computer Gaming World: SSI (Bob Proctor continues Charles Ardai's column with this biography of Strategic Simulations, Inc)

  [*]Expulsion of the Terrorpods (Everything you need to know about this top-notch action/strategy hybrid courtesy of Hosea Battles, Jr.)

  [*]CGW Hall of Fame (CGW has established their Hall of Fame for titles which have consistently been best-sellers. The first nine inductees are Ultima IV, Wizardry, Ultima III, and The Bard's Tale for the RPG category, then Kampfgruppe, M.U.L.E., Mech Brigade, Chessmaster 2000, and War in Russia for Strategy category. Inductees to the hall of fame are then removed from the Game Ratings voting lists to allow other games a chance in the limelight)

Departments:

• Taking a Peek:
  • Card Sharks (C64/128)
    
  • The Graphics Studio (Amiga/Apple IIGS)
    
  • Plasmatron (C64/128)
    
  • The Train (C64/C128)
    
  • Ports of Call (Amiga)
    
  • Wooden Ships & Iron Men (C64/C128)
    
  • Ikari Warriors (Apple II/IBM)
    
  • Kid Nikki (Apple II/C64/128)
    
  • Speed Buggy (Atari ST/C64/128)
    
  • Dungeon Master (Amiga/ST/Apple IIGS)
    
  • Oids (Atari ST)
    
  • Sherlock: Riddle of the Crown Jewels (Many)
    
  • MISL Soccer (C64/128/Apple II/Amiga)
    
  • Trust and Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot (Mac)
    
  • Dondra - A New Beginning (Apple II)
    
  • Panzer Strike (Apple II/C64)
    
  • Sons of Liberty (Apple II/Atari 8-bit/IBM)
    
  • Decisive Battles of the American Civil War: Volume 1 (Apple II/C64/128)
    

  [*]Letters

  [*]Reader Input Device

  [*]Boot Hill (Need to sell one or more games? Looking for new opponents? Look no further than this department!)

  [*]Game Ratings

Notable Stuff:

• The reference to Psalm 9:1-2 appears on the masthead.
  
• Oh God...the phony California valley-girl speak used on the Kid Nikki preview in 'Taking a Peek'? Just...stop it, guys, just don't even go there. WTF were you thinking?
  
• Apparently MISL Soccer is available for the Amiga twice, according to 'Taking a Peek'?
  
• Is it just me, or are the letters this issue particularly bitchy in tone?
  
• Russell Sipe shares an amusing anecdote on page 15. He attached his business card to a pack of balloons and released them in California after the Winter CES. A week later, he received a call from some farmers in Texas who had found a deflated balloon bearing his card out in their field...over 700 miles away.
  
• Harlan Ellison is (surprise, surprise) curmudgeonly in his views on computer entertainment, calling it "an oxymoron". I'm sorry, is this not the same Harlan Ellison who assisted with a PC adaptation of his own novel I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream in 1995? If being an asshole was considered a legitimate form of currency, Ellison's net worth would eclipse Bill Gates's by a factor of 10.
  
• Scorpia gets to drop the hammer briefly on page 51, with her "Do Arcade Sequences Have a Place in Adventure Games?" editorial. In short: no freakin' way, man! A pox on the (software) houses of all who implement this 'feature'.
  
• The Wizardry series has all three remaining titles (after the first was retired to the Hall of Fame) present in the top 10 this issue.