GameDoctor

Excellent list. I often have trouble tracking down my own books because Prima listed a lot of books that never got published to my knowledge though I see them on eBay and in site listings. Ken Vance and I wrote strat guides for games like Panzer Dragoon and The Tick that I've never seen -- if they exist at all. The last strat book I wrote was for Acclaim's WAR ZONE. The book was also published by Acclaim which was just starting its own strat book division. WAR ZONE was kind of offbeat in that it contained lots of information on pro wrestling as well as that particular WWF/WWE game.

Happy belated birthday Bill!

I'm so sorry that I couldn't be here on the day itself as I remember vividly how excited triverse was about the thought of presenting you with the very first compilation of the Kunkel report.

Really looking forward to the next one.

Me too -- I finally got a Les Paul guitar for my 59th birthday (been wanting one since I was 16) and got to see my old Kunkel Report columns reprinted on this most excellent site, so now I'm actually looking forward to the big 60. Again, thanks to everyone on this site for their hard work, interest and best wishes. I hope that at least some of you will make it to this year's VGXPO in Philly this fall so I can meet you in person.

I just wanted to thank everybody who put their efforts into making this all happen. I always remembered the "Kunkel Report" columns fondly but I haven't read most of them in well over 15 years so it was almost like stepping into a time machine. In re-reading the columns, I am pleased that the obsession with swords & sorcery as the dominant paradigm in the design of adventure games is over. There's a lot more sci-fi, but there are also exactly the type of western, war and other genres that I had hoped to see when I wrote that column. There are even games based on organized crime, espionage and assassin cults; we have urban gang banging, platoon-level combat, western quests and a satisfying selection of other subject matter instead of the old parade of agitated elves, serial spellcasters, dyspeptic dragons, souped-up swords and magical medallions. I think that diversity has been a good thing.

And I'm hardly surprised that Virtuality is the answer to a trivia question as opposed to an arcade staple. In fact, VR itself never quite became what it was supposed to be. I've always been told that the primary reason VR never caught on in the entertainment world had more to do with insurance than gameplay. One way or another, it only took one or two cases of people in non-tethered VR headpieces stumbling down the stairs or toppling off a terrace for the safety folks to insist that the player be tethered to their computer or console. Whether this was in arcades, where heavy headpieces and lockdown player cages assured that no player would ever either hurt themselves or forget for so much as a second that they were in a crude facsimile of "reality."

However, VR wasn't just about putting on eye and ear pieces and pretending to interact in a simulated plane of existence. Arnie Katz and I once had the pleasure of meeting the visionary Jared Lanier who brought a bunch of his VR materials up to the Electronic Games office back in the 80s. All you needed for Jared's brand of VR was a video camera, a monitor and a computer. He turned on the camera and monitor and you could see yourself in the same room you occupied in "reality." The only difference was that in the room on the monitor, you could slo see a variety of musical instruments which the user could "play" by manipulating them using the position of the instruments on the monitor as a guide.

Sound familiar, fans of Wii Music?

In any case, I have quite a few more columns and I am flattered that the good folks at Retromags are interested in posting them.

--Bill Kunkel

It has been a long time in the making, and is a work in progress, but the time has come, Retromags.com is proud to release with full cooperation and endorsement from the original author himself, Bill Kunkel, the first 6 "The Kunkel Report" columns that were published in the 2nd publishing run of Electronic Games (sometimes referred to as the 90's EG).

A quote from the press release announcing this great gift that Bill Kunkel is giving to anyone that wishes to read his work:

Here is the first Kunkel Report, published in the first issue of Electronic Games from the 90's, October 1992.

Below will be links to the remaining 5 releases along with a CBZ file for those interested in downloading them all at once.

The Kunkel Report:

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

CBZ file with all 6 releases in one for your convenience available here.

Also, for those that don't know, it is Bill's birthday today. If you wish to tell him happy birthday we have the forums here available for that and for discussion of anything related to Bill's work.

Happy Birthday Bill!

The work that went into collecting these works by Bill was a widespread effort and could not have been done without the help of many people, #1 on that list is Bill himself, had he not done the work and been willing to release it for anyone to enjoy we would not be doing this. Next up, Ter, owner of Zap! and the Retromags Team, it has been a team effort and this is what happens when everyone works together. Thank you to everyone that helped with this effort and please support the people that made this and future releases possible.

I just wanted to thank everybody who put their efforts into making this all happen. I always remembered the "Kunkel Report" columns fondly but I haven't read most of them in well over 15 years so it was almost like stepping into a time machine. In re-reading the columns, I am pleased that the obsession with swords & sorcery as the dominant paradigm in the design of adventure games is over. There's a lot more sci-fi, but there are also exactly the type of western, war and other genres that I had hoped to see when I wrote that column. There are even games based on organized crime, espionage and assassin cults; we have urban gang banging, platoon-level combat, western quests and a satisfying selection of other subject matter instead of the old parade of agitated elves, serial spellcasters, dyspeptic dragons, souped-up swords and magical medallions. I think that diversity has been a good thing.

And I'm hardly surprised that Virtuality is the answer to a trivia question as opposed to an arcade staple. In fact, VR itself never quite became what it was supposed to be. I've always been told that the primary reason VR never caught on in the entertainment world had more to do with insurance than gameplay. One way or another, it only took one or two cases of people in non-tethered VR headpieces stumbling down the stairs or toppling off a terrace for the safety folks to insist that the player be tethered to their computer or console. Whether this was in arcades, where heavy headpieces and lockdown player cages assured that no player would ever either hurt themselves or forget for so much as a second that they were in a crude facsimile of "reality."

However, VR wasn't just about putting on eye and ear pieces and pretending to interact in a simulated plane of existence. Arnie Katz and I once had the pleasure of meeting the visionary Jared Lanier who brought a bunch of his VR materials up to the Electronic Games office back in the 80s. All you needed for Jared's brand of VR was a video camera, a monitor and a computer. He turned on the camera and monitor and you could see yourself in the same room you occupied in "reality." The only difference was that in the room on the monitor, you could slo see a variety of musical instruments which the user could "play" by manipulating them using the position of the instruments on the monitor as a guide.

Sound familiar, fans of Wii Music?

In any case, I have quite a few more columns and I am flattered that the good folks at Retromags are interested in posting them.

--Bill Kunkel

Bill has been a wonderful person to work with before, during and after that interview took place. He really is one of the best journalists that our hobby has seen. I know I can trust the Retromags members to show him the respect he deserves. For those that are too young to know who he is and what he has done, you can take a look at the fact that magazines like Gamepro and Game Informer and EGM and all others were started because without Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz to start it, gaming magazines would probably be totally different than they are.

For some great reading why not check out Electronic Games #1, Electronic Games #17 and the Video Games and Computer Entertainment section of the downloads for articles that Bill has written.

I am constantly amazed at the number of folks who actually remember stuff I wrote 30 years ago, much less that they care. This site is a true gift to game lovers everywhere and I hope I'm able to add to the content that has already been transported to this site. I've often commented that stuff I wrote in the 80s and 90s in print is still around and still being read, whereas tons of material that I produced for websites since the 90s have disappeared because the site went down. One of the virtues of hard copy, I guess. But scanning that hard copy to the Web is the best of all possible worlds and I'm proud to be a part of this site and I do indeed plan to stick around.