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JHD

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Posts posted by JHD

  1.  

    I utterly love this stuff! Thank-you for sharing. 

     

    I am fairly certain that my Parents had this cookbook (though they were teenagers when it was published, so presumably it came from my Grandparents).

     

    On 3/10/2024 at 4:16 AM, StrykerOfEnyo said:

    I thought there was a 7-Up videogame that I missed somehow, then I realized the year of the publication:)

     

    There is a 7-Up game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Spot

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  2. Personally, I most enjoy the magazine content that is not directly about games. For example, articles about how to get into the industry (job opportunities/requirements, discussions of various training programs), company profiles, interviews with major figures, etc.

     

    I also like the detailed strategy guides, but only for those games that I have, so just a small subset of the total  

  3. As a former professional librarian, I love technical discussions like this! I have struggled many times this problem, especially when the library holds only a few scattered issues of a periodical or (as very often happens), the publisher itself makes a numbering error. 

     

    Normally a volume consists of all of the issues published in a year, with the issues numbered sequentially therein; a volume can have from just 1 to 360+ issues (some daily newspapers used this numbering scheme). With irregular frequency publications, volumes may not be annual, but they are always sequential (e.g. Volume 1 is from 2015, volume 2 is from 2018 with nothing having been published in between). I have only ever seen whole numbers (numbered consecutively from Issue 1 to end of publication) with video game magazines. 

     

    My only contribution concerns the dating of issues. Can we learn anything from the release dates of the games covered in the magazine?  I once encountered a British game magazine with no dates listed anywhere (cover, masthead, copyright). Almost all of the games reviewed had been released within a few months of each other, however. Thus I was able to make a best guess as to when that issue was published.  

    • Like 3
  4. I recently unearthed my collection of ~150 physical cartridges from my storage unit where they have been languishing since 1998.

    I have an original 2600 (several different models, in fact), but nothing that I can easily connect to a modern TV.

     

    As soon as the 2600+ became available on amazon.ca, I placed my pre-order. With tax, it came to Cdn$172.49. There is no delivery charge. 

  5.  

    While privacy legislation (e.g. FOIP in Ontario) does not apply as there are no state actors involved, published material is explicitly excluded from the purview of the legislation in all Canadian jurisdictions. Therefore there is no legal requirement (or basis) to make redactions to something that has been published and made publicly available.

     

    Some years ago, I was a regular contributor to some (non-gaming) hobbyist magazines. I am no longer interested in that subject matter, but I am not embarrassed to admit that I once was. 

     

    As for home addresses, young teenage me had a letter published in a 1984 issue of Hot Coco inviting people to contact me about text adventure games. I moved elsewhere in the late-1990s, and my Family sold the house in 2001. I do not much care that someone can discover where I lived 40 years ago. That very same address was also published in other sources in conjunction with my Father's business and a non-profit once operated by my Grandfather. (Heck, someone once showed up at the door seven years after Grandfather's death asking to meet with him.) 

     

  6. The feature article on video games reads very much like advertising copy -- just pick any system, they're all excellent -- but it was interesting to see the original prices for this stuff.

     

    There is a Parker Brother's advertisement that shows "The Incredible Hulk" game as forthcoming in July (1983).

     

    I was surprised how very many advertisements there were for various brands of cigarettes. 

     

    Thank-you, @Phillyman and @E-Day for making this magazine available.  

  7.  

    I have been to Ottawa many times, but I was last in the Main Library around 2000.

     

    I have just checked the online library database, and it looks like these printed catalogues are no longer available. ☹️ I was hoping that they would have continued to grow the collection to cover the debut of the 2600, Intellivision, etc. 

  8.  

    They cannot be disbound or scanning, but the Ottawa Public Library has bound copies of Eaton's catalogues from the 1970s onwards. When I was last there (quite some time ago), the collection did not extend into the 1980s -- so no video game listings -- but this is something else to be aware of.

    (And I use the 's intentionally even though the firm itself later abandoned it to better appeal to the Francophone market.)

     

  9.  

    On Saturday, I bought a handheld Famiclone, complete with a ridiculous number of built-in games (many with nonsense Engrish titles and limited playability). I found it in the Christmas gifts section of a local discount store for Cdn$22.

     

    I have several Famiclone systems already; I cannot pass up a unique model if it is sufficiently cheap.    

  10.  

    I bought an NES Classic several years ago when they were new, but for various reasons it was in storage until just a few months ago. It is now setup in my living room, and I have been playing the original Final Fantasy.

     

    Since I did not have an NES when they were new (indeed, I was in University when FF first reached North America), this has no nostalgia for me, but I am still really enjoying this game. I played it before (on an emulator), but I did not get very far. 

  11. I am still trying to get a handle on the geographic distribution of this magazine.

     

    In the earliest available issues (2001, 2002) there was a contact for Advertising Sales with a Calgary telephone number. By 2003, this was gone and the only advertising contact listed was in Toronto.

     

    Almost all of the advertising was for new game releases (Ubisoft had multiple ads in every issue) and Blockbuster -- apparently the distribution partner. There was nothing for local/regional businesses, with the exception of a single ad for Microplay (which has only a very limited retail presence outside of Ontario).

     

    Obviously this does not answer the question about how widely this title was distributed, but it supports the idea that it was largely limited to Ontario. 
     

    An article referenced in the first post states that:

    Quote

     

    Total Gamer was available for free at Blockbuster, EB Games, and Microplay locations across Canada

     

    Well, that effectively answers my distribution question. As noted, Microplay did not have a presence in Alberta, and EB Games did not open its first store in Edmonton until about 2004*. I never went to Blockbuster, so that would explain why I never saw this magazine BITD.

     

    *They took over the space from a different video game retailer. My friends and I joked about the very long time that it took to convert the premises from a  video game store to a different video game store. 

  12.  

    I am very happy to see the scans of PlayStation: The Official Magazine. I am wondering when Playstation 2 coverage effectively ceased? I am somewhat reluctant to download multiple issues that have no content that is of interest to me. I see that the PS 2 continued on the masthead through, at least, 2009, but the system was approaching the end of its commercial life at that point.

     

     

  13. Was this a free publication like The Computer Paper?

    The archived website mentions that it had distribution through Blockbuster and other places, but I do not recall ever seeing it anywhere. I lived in Edmonton between 2001 and 2005, so not exactly a small town, and I was actively interested in gaming at this time so I would have picked-up a copy had I seen it anywhere. 

    I wonder if "national" circulation meant that it had distribution in Toronto and Montreal (and maybe Ottawa). 

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