GamePro Issue #1 - May/June 1989
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- čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
- Episode 49 - The premiere issue of GamePro, from May/June of 1989. A multi-platform magazine based in the Bay Area of California, it started out as a bimonthly periodical, but switched to monthly after just 3 issues. GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly were the two most-popular multiplatform gaming magazines in the 1990's, covering both sides of the 16-bit console wars. GamePro also had an associated TV show in the early 90's, called GamePro TV and hosted by J.D. Roth. While EGM targeted teenage gamers, GamePro went after a younger crowd, featuring shorter, more easily digestible articles and cartoony graphics.
This first issue, as expected, primarily covers the Nintendo Entertainment System, but also touches on the Sega Master System, and to a much lesser extent, the Atari 7800 ProSystem. In the earlier days of the magazine, GamePro had not yet taken on the "kiddie" persona, and featured longer-form editorial content and scoreless reviews.
Show notes:
- I used a lavalier mic to record this entire episode. It isn't terrible, but I much prefer the sound that I get out of my AT 2020 mics.
- I recorded all of the game play footage for this episode using a RetroPie-equipped Raspberry Pi plumbed into my Elgato. Normally I'm not a fan of capturing emulator footage, but I think it's OK for these magazine readthroughs, and it's a lot more convenient.
- This issue of GamePro was generously donated to the show by "Brian" from Ottawa, Ontario. Thanks, Brian!
All the usual crapola that no one reads:
Official Classic Gaming Quarterly t-shirts:
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Homepage:
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All video game footage featured on Classic Gaming Quarterly is recorded from actual game hardware, unless otherwise noted. As of episode 35, it is recorded in RGB using an XRGB Mini Framemeister and an Elgato Game Capture HD. Prior to that, it was recorded in s-video using am RGB to s-video encoder and a DVD recorder. All videos are edited on a Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro X.
Most box art featured in CGQ videos comes from The Cover Project (www.thecoverproject.net). Check them out for all of your video game insert needs. Other box art and magazine scans come from Matt Henzel Video Game Obsession (www.videogameobsession.com). Many, many other photos appear thanks to Wikimedia Commons and Evan Amos.
Theme music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod: (www.smartsound.com/royalty-free-music/incompetech)
#CGQuarterly #LetsRead - Hry
The name of the game you're looking for pictured with the Contra code is Jackal for NES.
Pinning your comment to the top since you were the first of several people to correctly identify the game. Thanks!
You need to go back and play it! Great game with excellent Konami music!
called it in about 2 seconds... ahhhhh, smug mode.
Easily one of my favorite NES games. (Especially since you're such a huge fan of 2p Co-op) The gameplay is very smooth and tough, but fair.
Jackal is one of the best NES games.
"The President was kidnapped by ninjas" is the most 80s sentence ever.
Just a month or two before I was born (cool year that 1989 :P). Really enjoying these let's read episodes! They're informative, nostalgic, and relaxing.
Man this takes me back. I had EGM, Gamepro, Nintendo power, Gamefan, Game Informer, Xbox magazine and Sega visions. Which I use to love reading at school with my friends. It's funny looking back when it seems just like yesterday.
I'm 38 the dude in the magazine looked 50 lol. Keep up the great work man.
Yes....a new classic gaming quarterly magazine review. Perfect with my morning coffee!
Ive been watching your "lets read" vids all day! Its like being back in study hall ignoring my school work and checking out the goods!
I've recently discovered your channel and have fallen down a rabbit hole re-living my old Video Game Magazine memories with a nostalgic glee. I spent most of my younger years reading about the games that I would never have the money to pay for. EGM was a favorite of mine and I thank you for helping me re-live those memories. I especially want to thank you for mentioning the podcast 'A Life Well Wasted' about the fall of EGM. Fascinating listen. I thank you for the hard work and I appreciate it. Cheers, Jason
Hearing toys r us going bankrupt really hits hard.
If you were into games in the 80s and 90s you literally had to beg your parents every week to go to the stores to be the first to hear or see the latest games.
You really were surprised to see what was newly released or judge what game to buy just by the box art.
I actually saw this coming many years ago when they were liquidating everything from PlayStations to N64s
Thank you for the throwback memories! I definitely remember having this magazine and playing or wanting to play many of these games!
love these let's read
So cool that you go through the whole magazines. Great channel!
Excellent video, really dig the game play footage you've added over when discussing each title.
I've just recently discovered your channel, and I love these magazine readings. Some great history and I enjoy hearing your childhood stories. Please keep it up!
13:15 Guy looks 50. And he also looks like a taller George Costanza.
Cahhhstanzaaahh
As always, great job! Enjoyed this episode! Informative! Thorough! Nostalgic!
I was looking for a video like this. Thank you very much.
I loved Power Drift at the arcade. It blew me away when I was younger. I was lucky in that one arcade by me had the hydraulic sit down cab that moved and made the game much more intense. :)
Awesome work man, please Keep them coming. Appreciate the post-production value.
This is my first time watching one your magazine reads. I typically lay down and just listen to them. Good stuff!
Thanks, George!
Good to hear from you man hope your summer was eventful enough, they sure go by fast for all us dinosaurs.
Yup. The older I get, the faster the time flies by. :(
Awesome video, brought back some great old memories. I'm a gradius fan but i loved R-type on the Master System.
I love these videos. I hope you keep doing more!
A man who acknowledges the 84 crash properly. Kudos to you
I gotta tell you how much I enjoy your channel. It's one of very few that I have set to get notifications on. Great commentary on an issue I remember well! Thanks!!
Thanks!
I'm always excited when I see you posted a new video. I'm not a huge magazine fan as I only had Nintendo powers growing up so those are my only attachment, but it's still fun listening to you go through it and throw in all these tidbits of information you have. Also seeing the old ads is always quite nostalgic.
YES YES YES YES !!! The #2 Reason why i subscribe to your channel. love this series so much. Please don't ever stop making these read thoughts. They bring back sooooooooooooooooooooo many memories for me.
I'm glad others enjoyed Lolo back in the day. It's not the same if you play it today. Playing a puzzle game in the early 90's was mystically different. It was a battle between you and the programmer...one on one.
Holy shit balls...I remember going into Barnes and Nobles, Borders or any of my local stationary stores and just gravitating towards GamePro! How did I forget about this gem of a magazine!!!! It was so much fun, walking into a store, and just checking out what's new, any codes, upcoming titles, etc.
Keep up the good work, listening to your magazine coverage is starting to become a real therapy for me. Being 34, and having lived the 90s playing video games and following the evolution of consoles, I was constantly looking forward for the "better graphics" console... ahhh nostalgia!! Can't believe how many souvenirs you are reminding me of... good job!
Wow super interesting! Hope you do more of these!
Awesome video as always Chris!
This reminds me that I still want to capture all of the episodes of GamePro TV from my VHS tapes before they turn to dust.. I think that's what happens. Or maybe they just blow up after a certain amount of time. Either way.. It's on my list of stuff to do!
That would be sweet! Gotta love J.D Roth.
Hey man, recently found your channel and I really enjoyed this and the EGM read. Subscribed, thanks!
Hell yeah been waiting on some new content for a while.
Dude, I absolutely love your videos. Very informative, nicely edited and I dig the way you discuss/explain topics or subjects. Very clear and with no packed in bullsh*t. Keep up the great work. You're awesome. Thank you for the amazing content.
Thanks!!
I love those little rants you go on when you say ( not to go to much off topic ) the stories are so interesting DO MORE :-D
Thanks for another "let's read" video! I really really enjoy these, it's fun to see what kind of coverage games got back then and what kind of content these magazines had besides game reviews. I also like the way you both show the magazine and talk about some of the games featured and give some background/opinions/footage on them. I hope to see more "let's read" vids soon!
Thanks! They are definitely going to be a permanent regular part of the channel. Glad you like them!
Love these videos. Please keep making them.
Thanks! I will, don't worry. They're a lot of fun to make.
We got this for free when we bought Mario 2 at toys r us on my 11th birthday. April 15, 1989
I love your let's reads and your channel in general. Keep the good content coming.
Thanks!
thanks for sharing Classic Gaming Quarterly
I truly appreciate your channel
Thanks!
I had a Gamepro subscription for years. Loved that magazine and my classmates had debates over which game mag was better. Nerdy I know.
For me it was EGM because it was my first magazine. But now I wish I would've had access to Gamepro too.
If that's considered nerdy then add me and my friends growing up to the club lol
I had similar experiences. I use to always run to the magazine stand in my local Vons to check out GamePro everytime we shopped. I finally subscribed to GamePro and EGM magazine in late 93' or early 94'.
Love the format of these videos. You may be the only CZcamsr who does this; awesome concept and highly interesting!
I loved playing Power Drift at the arcades. I didn't recognize the name but I definitely recognized the game in motion.
CGQ, I'm very pleased that you have been reading these classic magazines. Keep up the great work!
It's ironic that I'm watching this video in 2018 just after Toys 'Я' Us closed its doors for good. I did outgrow you and so did many others.
This just made my day!
I swear... that went by way too fast!!
What a coincidence! The name of the game you were looking for is Jackal, same game I mentioned to you a few months back as being one of my favorite NES games of all time. I didn't notice it till now because the day you released the video I listened to it while driving, so I could not see what game you were referring to. Just came back now to re-watch it and noticed the screen shot right away. Try Jackal, I think you would like it, especially in 2 player mode with a friend. That game brings back great memories for me.
I love Your work, man. The Quality of Your Videos is (in any terms) outstanding; very well researched and very enjoyable.
Thank you, sir.
Great episode!
Great video! Really a step-up from your previous Let's Read episodes. I really enjoyed the in-depth look at and footage of some of the games that were featured in the magazine and the nicer camera. Also, haha, I feel you on the age thing. I'm 37 and sometimes I can't believe some of the people that are my age or similar.
Also, I was going to mention but forgot to that the mystery game was Jackal but I see it was already revealed.
I bought this magazine when it was on the stand. There was a contest or "tell us what you think to the editor" to tell game pro how they could approve. I mentioned to stop posting Atari content as it was obsolete basically. I owned a SMS at the time about 20 games. Game pro sent me a free NES game in 1989
Always look forward to your videos. I have a box full of these puppies(94 thru 98)
Love your "Let's Read" segments. I'm not sure if you invented it, but you certainly perfected the format, in opinion. I remember first seeing it and thinking "who'll care about these stained old mags?" But man, what a blast of nostalgia! I loved NP, GP and EGM, and seeing these covers, reviews and especially adverts again is more fun than I thought.
Thanks! I'm honestly not sure where I got the idea to make these videos, but I'm quite sure that I didn't invent the format. Anyway, glad you like them!
Power Drift was the best. It also came in a big cabinet like AfterBurner that would basically be a cockpit and move you up/down/side to side.
Love your content mate
The light gun was an UZI. Played the heck out of Operation Wolf in the arcades and got the NES version as bribe from my big sister for doing her chores. It was 40 bucks at Babbage's.
I loved Shadowgate. One of the best and most underrated 8bit soundtracks.
The company Kemco/Seika had a toll free tip line at the time of Shadowgates release and I think everyone there knew who I was I called them so much.
Definitely glad to hear that! I would have been on the horn with those guys daily.
Tha knk you... my heath and mknd have not been well so thank you for taking me back to this era
Great video. Wow, Narc. That game was everywhere back in the day and the arcade version was the most violent game I had ever seen then. The enemies’ bodies would blow apart when you shot them with rockets, complete with blood and guts. Blew my mind. Lol.
CGQ these read throughs are awesome. Keep up the good work.
Pic is for Jackal on NES, also made by Konami. It also let you steal a life if one player got a game over. Thanks for these vids, I used to own a lot of these mags
Love your content!
Thanks, Justin!
HOPE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HAD A MERRY XMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2018 MY FRIEND.
Thanks man, you too!
Love your videos!!
Thanks, Carly.
One of my fave gaming magazines growing up. They were almost always right about games they gave a 5.0 fun factor!!
Christmas of 1984 I got one of those Atari 2600 "Jr" systems from my grandma. She got one for my cousins too. She bought like 14 or 16 games, and we split those up, too. It still runs 33 years later, though around 10 years ago I gave it to a friend of mine whose bigger VCS had died. He lives in Seattle and says his daughters started playing on it when they were little, which makes me feel good. I was 6 when I got it, and they were upwards of 3-6 years old when they started with it.
That's awesome. She must have cleaned out some clearance bins, as in 1984 that stuff was selling for pennies on the dollar.
I'm loving these magazine reviews but i really wanna see another game launch story.
Excellent video.
The mystery military jeep NES game looks to be Jackal.
R.I.P. Gamepro. That was a great era in gaming.
I just bought a pretty clean/totally intact copy of this off eBay today for $70.
That's a uzi great video always surprises me I can watch a long video🕹️
42:00 "I don't know what's going on in this last picture. There's two pirates fighting"
I've never in my life been more intrigued.
Yeah, another episode. Love your magazine read-thru's....
Great verbal delivery.
So many CZcamsrs fail on this, and your narration is really good.
You're not obsessed with having your face on camera like so many other CZcamsrs. Good stuff, man.
Thanks, man. Glad you like the show.
This was a cool blast of nostalgia. I liked how CGQ took his time to go into some detail about every page but at the same time not rambling. By the way, if you beat the bonus stage on Shinobi in the arcade a bunch of weird s*&% comes down from the ceiling. I think they're fans or birds or something. I don't think it gives you anything too cool. Maybe a free man? The trick to beating the bonus stage is smashing the fire button as fast as you can and moving back and forth....I thought that bonus stage looked awesome as a kid.
Hey buddy, I remember some things about the history of video game mags. I bought this issue of Gamepro at Toys R Us (in Maine?) in June of 1989. I recall buying one or probably two magazines before this that I think were focused on Nintendo. They may have the words Buyers Guide or maybe Strategy Guide in the title. Games shown included Monster Party, Blaster Master and Ninja Gaiden.
I had a NES Power Glove back in the day. It sat in a glass case at a local store and they wanted $89.99 for it. So it sat and sat in that glass case, probably 4-5 years. Then one way I walked by the case and I saw it had a sale tag for $19.99 and I bought it on the spot. The first game and only game I ever tried to use with it was Mike Tyson's Punch Out. Yikes. Beating Glass Joe was tedious and took me an embarrassing 2-rounds because of the poor response of the Power Glove. It took me 3 rounds to beat Von Kaiser and then I managed to knock Piston Honda out in the 1st round but shut it off because it was clearly going to be a train wreck. I know it was early motion capture technology so it was bound to be buggy, and I never used it again. I sold it off along with a ton of other things just to get a Super Nintendo, F-Zero and one extra controller. I must admit, it was pretty cool to look at and of course after the movie the Wizard people thought it'd be something special but that faded pretty fast. The UForce, saw it at stores but never was tempted to try it let alone buy it.
I remember alot of us were sent this free (or perhaps it was given away at store, can't recall, only that it was free). I made it into gamepro on the highscores list later on by sending in VHS tape...i think for Gradius...crowning gaming achievement!
Please do more these videos
I know this is super late but I just found the channel, Ninja Golf!!! Back in the early '00s I found a sealed copy for 5 bucks; best reason to track down a 7800 hands down. Still kicking myself for selling it during some financial troubles. I'm sure I didn't get much for it then.
I love both the Wonder Boy and Adventure Island series, but man, the Wonder Boy sequels are soooo great. It may sound weird but, the Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap remake on the Nintendo Switch was one of my favorite gaming experiences so far on the console...
Fun fact: the Japanese version of Contra did in fact have some story! They removed it for the US release.
SamuraiSam Really? Cool - I'll have to look into that!
I think there's a translation patch for the JP version!
Great channel
As a 5 yr old in Australia I did have a 2600 with the colours on it.This explains why.Later my parents got me the nes in 1990 I believe.
cool another video..love it!
desert falcon reminds me of Zaxxon. I played that a lot on my commodore 64 back in the day
Where did you go? I check in from time to time and see if you've made a video. I love your content, its got such a retro theme to it. I'll watch one of your videos and be consumed by my childhood memories. I remember finding your channel and it only took half of the video for me to subscribe. I loved your console launch reviews and honestly anything you would make. I hope you arent finished.
Hey Corey, thanks for checking in. I am working on the next episode of the show and hope to have it out in the next couple of days. Devoting more time to the channel is one of my goals for 2018, but unfortunately it requires the cooperation of those around me! Thanks for watching!
Glad to hear that! Made my day honestly. Can't wait for the new episode.
Also during the video game crash I believe in 84 , atari 2600 games were 5 bucks. I had a colleco with the atari adapter that goes on top.
I was thinking about when you were going to do another episode, I picked up an issue of Mega Play at a flea market recently.
Nice! Which one?
Issue 10 June 1992, Splatterhouse 2 and the JVC Wondermega are the big highlights.
I agree, I think Taito dude lied about his age. Anyway, I don't remember buying many GamePros back in the day, I was more of an EGM guy. Also, I had no idea Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. were on the Atari. Still love seeing these, thank you for the great work!
Nice, Bubble Bobble on NES. My best friend who lived down the street had that one so I just got a YUGE wave of nostalgia wash over me. We played it to hell and back, everyone we would go to his house to sit on the floor and play some Nintendo, we would play some Bubble Bobble. It's got to be my favourite early arcade-type game, and being such a game it obviously has infinite replay value.
omg just got around to watching the ep and I have the exact same memories with the game as you, haha. it looks like I'm just repeating after you in my comment above >_
I was playing my atari 2600 deep into the 80s even after I got my nes in 87.
I absolutely love A Life Well Wasted!!
Oh man I remember getting this issue free when I bought an NES game at Toys R Us back in the day! I no longer have it, unfortunately, because I threw out all my gaming mags a while back because I am stupid. I had a pretty good collection of Nintendo Powers and EGMs.
I feel your pain. I had a box full of about 180 EGMs I threw away during a move. 😑
I did the same thing. Fucking stupid. All it takes is that moment when you're like 'fuck it, I'll never read these again'. Then you toss them. Years later you think how cool it would be to read them again. I had some badass videogame mags. Stupid for throwing them away. SMFH
I had every issue of Game Informer, starting at the 2nd or 3rd issue. I even had one of my letters printed in one of them....threw them all out during a move.
Same! Got mine with smb 2
I got a copy of this issue from Toys R Us when my parents bought a game for me.
These gaming magazine episodes are great. Its about as good as anyone could do; making a video of thumbing through an old magazine. If anyone has an interest in gaming magazine history, the lets read series would not disappoint.
How could you not recognize iconic Uzi? (Operation Wolf cabinet)
The uzis I remember from when I was a kid didn't have a stock.
Keep up the good work.