Computer Gaming World Issue 58

Features:

• Desert Rats (M. Evan Brooks reviews this WWII simulation which focuses entirely on the Africa Campaign)
  
• The Need for Speed (Jetfighter: The Adventure has just landed. Daniel Hockman finds it 'outstanding')
  
• "Tomcat" on the Prowl: A Briefing For Activision's F-14 Tomcat. (Brad Bombardiere files this report on the aforementioned flight/combat sim for the C64/128)
  
• Annals of Rome: Datasoft Markets An "Ambitious" Game (Not content to review WWII-era sims, M. Evan Brooks also slipped on his sandals to and toga to see if he had what it took to build an empire of his own)
  
• Scorpion's Mail (The barb-tailed bardess of RPGs delivers a plethora of hints and tips for the following games):
  • Manhunter
    
  • King's Quest IV
    
  • Wasteland
    
  • Leisure Suit Larry II
    
  • Ultima IV
    
  • Ultima V
    
  • The Bard's Tale II
    
  • The Bard's Tale III
    
  • Future Magic
    

  [*]Slay Ride to Justice: Techno-Cop From US Gold (David M. Wilson takes the law into his own hands to review this Terminator/Mad Max/Dirty Harry hybrid)

  [*]Keeper of the Flame: Scorpia Waxes Eloquently About The Magic Candle (Pretty much what the title says...)

  [*]Computer Cavalcade of Sports (The biggie of the magazine. Wyatt Lee leaves no sporting genre untouched as he helps readers to make the best selection for their gaming dollars):

  • Earl Weaver Baseball 1.5
    
  • Sporting News Baseball
    
  • Basketball Challenge
    
  • Fast Break
    
  • Pure Stat College Basketball
    
  • T.K.O.
    
  • Reel Fishin'
    
  • Rich Tauber's Bass Champ
    
  • John Elway's Quarterback
    
  • John Madden Football
    
  • California Pro Golf
    
  • Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship Golf
    
  • Power Play Hockey
    
  • Wayne Gretzky Hockey
    
  • Downhill Challenge
    
  • The Games: Summer Edition
    
  • The Games: Winter Edition
    
  • Winter Challenge
    
  • Test Drive II: The Duel
    
  • Suzuki's RM250 Motocross
    
  • International Soccer
    
  • MISL Soccer
    
  • Serve and Volley
    
  • Take Down
    

  [*]Captain Blood (Kevin C. Rohrer reviews Mindscape's latest adventure game, finding it difficult but perfect for veteran adventure junkies)

  [*]The Great One Digitized: Bethesda Softworks' Wayne Gretzky Hockey (Before they made their big splash with the Elder Scrolls series, Bethesda made sports games. Johnny L. Wilson is happy to keep it out of the penalty box)

  [*]"Californy" Or Bust: Sierra Revisits the Gold Rush (Is it a historical simulation? An adventure game? Michael Chaut thinks it's a bit of both)

  [*]Scavenger Hunt Results (175 people entered, and one won. Good job, David Daniel of Redlands, CA on winning that 3-year subscription!)

Departments:

• Letters (Gillman Louie, CEO of Spectrum Holobyte, contributes to this issue's letter column with a hard-numbers look at the cost of piracy to the Atari ST community, Gordon W. Meyer donates a set of CGW mags to his local library in the hopes of increasing the magazine's exposure.)
  
• Taking a Peek:
  • Design Your Own Train: Macinooga Choo-Choo (Mac/Apple II)
    
  • Bionic Commando (IBM/C64/Amiga)
    
  • Street Fighter (IBM/C64)
    
  • Trump Castle (IBM/C64/ST)
    
  • Guerrilla War (IBM/ST/Amiga/C64)
    
  • Lancelot (IBM/Mac/C64)
    
  • Time and Magik (Amiga/Mac/ST)
    
  • Hole-In-One Miniature Golf (Amiga/C64/ST)
    
  • Double Dare (IBM/C64/Apple)
    
  • Hollywood Squares (IBM/C64/Apple)
    
  • Contra (IBM/Amiga)
    
  • Jackal (IBM)
    
  • War in Middle Earth (Amiga/IBM/Apple IIGS/ST)
    
  • Captain Fizz Meets the Blaster-Trons (Amiga)
    
  • Ancient Battles (IBM)
    
  • Purple Heart (C64)
    
  • First Over Germany (C64)
    

  [*]Rumor Bag (Parody-named author 'The Honorable John Spire' regales readers with what might be after a covert operation to spook central: Washington, D.C.)

  [*]Inside the Industry:

  • Dynamix Joins Roster of Mediagenic Affiliates
    
  • Mindscape Inks Licensing Pact With Mirrorsoft
    
  • Lucasfilm Receives Jean Renoir Humanitarian Award
    

  [*]Conversions Received (A simple listing of games converted to other platforms received by the magazine. They may or may not be covered in future issues)

  [*]Back Issues (The awesome '5 back issues for only $10' continues...)

  [*]Reader Input Device

  [*]CGW Hall of Fame:

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

  [*]Game Ratings (The wait is over! The new letter-grade rating system has been adopted, converting the old 9-point rating scale to a 12-point one. There are now also six different categories--Strategy, Simulation, Adventure, Role Playing, Wargames, and Action/Arcade--as opposed to the original three)

Notable Stuff:

• The reference to Psalm 9:1-2 appears on the masthead.
  
• The computer conversions of Jackal and Contra are complete wastes of time. They are not only inferior both graphically and musically to their arcade counterparts, but also can't even hold a candle to the NES versions which came out earlier than these home computer ports.
  
• I'm sorry, I can't help it: the ad for Sargon on page 11 still cracks me up with how terrible the artwork is.
  
• Captain Blood is an astoundingly beautiful work of art for its time. Seriously, go look at some footage of it in action on YouTube. Complex as hell, but still gorgeous today.
  
• The Computer Cavalcade of Sports entry on Wayne Gretzky Hockey just points to Johnny Wilson's review of it elsewhere in the issue. Why bother including it on this list?
  
• One of the questions asked in the Ad Scavenger Hunt involved a person's name spelled backwards in a certain ad. Only...oops! Sir-Tech never ran the ad in question, so CGW received quite a plethora of interesting guesses on this one. They were good sports about it.
  
• CGW also neglected to announce what prize, if any, was to be awarded to the winner, so they awarded a three-year subscription to the magazine. Not a bad prize at all!
  
• CGW also misspelled Scavenger as 'Scavanger' in the title of their contest. Time to execute another proof-reader.
  
• Next month promises a bunch of new additions to the Hall of Fame. What will they be...?