EGM's worst LIE [You know what this is about]

[SGX Engine]

 

[CrackTiger]

Apparently you haven't read much of EGM.

[NecroPhile]

number of fucks given: zero

[NightWolve]

number of fucks given: zero

[Otaking]

EGM are responable for the single worst peace of journalism in video game history which is this console comparison, the scores are an absolute travesty.

Speaking of EGM bias, I had forgotten how anti-Nintendo the editors were.

[CrackTiger]

lol, "anti-Nintendo".

[SignOfZeta]

There is non consistent editorial vision on something as irrelevant and low end as a video game magazine like EGM.

Around 2002-2003 was the worst. When the Cube was going. The guys working at the mag then were being really shitheads about what "mature" is and how they think Nintendo sucks because it's for kids. This was when they were experimenting with swearing and pushing the OG XBOX. Also, Seanbaby. There was this..."attitude"...there's no other word for it, that stank up the whole book. The nerds had taken over the comunity pool and it was an adult swim only, shitheads only as well.

The Cube is maybe the best Nintendo TV console of all time, IMHO. Not a lot of people will agree with me on that. However it's hard to imagine recommending the XB1 over it. It was a pretty bleak machine, software-wise. Not just now in hindsight, but ever.

[SGX Engine]

I'm only familiar with the EGM of the late 80s up to about 1994 or so, during the time they were under Sendai Publications and based out of Lombard, Illinois near Chicago.  I think it was about a year after EGM was sold to Ziff Davis that I stopped reading.

[SignOfZeta]

I was working at an EB and could read every issue for free and I still didn't. Complete crap.

Ironically, EB had that one magazine of theirs during the same time that was honestly pretty solid. Way better than EGM. I don't know if it lasted two years though.

Things change.

[exodus]

Johnny Turbo swears he has the rom in his storage space, and that it just wasn't released and the project denied its existence because the programmer committed suicide.

[Psycho Punch]

LOL about 90's game magazines having any sort of quality beyond what a couple of stoner 20-somethings could come up with.

Gamefan is a prime example.

[seieienbu]

There is non consistent editorial vision on something as irrelevant and low end as a video game magazine like EGM.

Around 2002-2003 was the worst. When the Cube was going. The guys working at the mag then were being really shitheads about what "mature" is and how they think Nintendo sucks because it's for kids. This was when they were experimenting with swearing and pushing the OG XBOX. Also, Seanbaby. There was this..."attitude"...there's no other word for it, that stank up the whole book. The nerds had taken over the comunity pool and it was an adult swim only, shitheads only as well.

The Cube is maybe the best Nintendo TV console of all time, IMHO. Not a lot of people will agree with me on that. However it's hard to imagine recommending the XB1 over it. It was a pretty bleak machine, software-wise. Not just now in hindsight, but ever.

I remember reading a few issues back then.  I thought Seanbaby's webpage was pretty funny but at the same time I didn't see any reason why that same sort of crassness should be in a printed magazine. 

As far as Gamecube vs Xbox/other Nintendo systems went, my favorite game on that entire software generation was the Xbox exclusive Panzer Dragoon.  I think I played way more Xbox than Gamecube as there were only a few GC games that I was actually interested in.  Yeah, it was a lot better than, say, N64, but I wouldn't ever claim that GC gave me more enjoyment than NES or SNES.

LOL about 90's game magazines having any sort of quality beyond what a couple of stoner 20-somethings could come up with.

Gamefan is a prime example.

Gamefan briefly had a spinoff magazine called Megafan that I had read a couple issues of.  I actually really liked that magazine; it wrote in depth about games that I liked: fighters, shooters, RPGs, and ARPGs.  It also had more of a focus on eccentric Japanese titles that weren't going to get more than a tiny blurb in most other magazines.

I just looked it up and apparently there were only 3 issues?  I may try to track down the third knowing that.

[Duo_R]

They played the Supergrafx Strider demo? Wow I never saw that one. Lol

[Otaking]

Is that article for for real? or just been photoshopped?

That's some funny shit.

[SignOfZeta]

That's the "recalled" issue. Apparently a disgruntled employee inserted a nuts Ace Combat review into the sports section. Apparently Diehard's legendary editorial team missed it.

Personally, I think this is probably the best you could do with an article for something called "College Football USA '96".

[NightWolve]

Is that article for for real? or just been photoshopped?

That's some funny shit.

What issue of GameFan is this from ? I used to collect them in the early 90's, wanna see if I have an original.

It's lame that the prankster just repeated his material with the 2nd column, but that's ballzy he didn't care about his job anymore and snuck something like that past his coworkers... 

[ccovell]

What really bothered me -- and what almost every magazine, newspaper, and TV news service did -- was misreport system specs, which got copied, repeated by other news services with no fact checking.  (The game for you guys to play is to spot the mistakes below and write what the correct figures are.)

Eg: I just saw a TV report on the Super Famicom.  They said the SFC's palette of 32,768 colours far surpasses the NES' 512...

Or even the Megadrive's 2048...
Or the Sega Master System's 256...

The Turbo's max resolution is 256x216.  The Genesis wins at 320x224.
EGM even printed that though the Turbo was 256x216, the SuperGrafx was more colourful with a palette of 4096, but with a screen resolution of 160x146.

This just went on and on.  It's obvious most of these reporters diligently checked these specs by putting their thumb up to the screen and just guesstimating.

[CrackTiger]

The best is the "2 x 8-bit cpus = 16-bit" thing.

[SGX Engine]

Is that article for for real? or just been photoshopped?

That's some funny shit.

Totally real. I had that issue of Game Fan. I also remember EGM commenting on it shortly after.

[seieienbu]

The best is the "2 x 8-bit cpus = 16-bit" thing.

I remember people talking about that while mocking the TG16 on the playground in 4th grade.  Was that ever actually written in print?

[CrackTiger]

The best is the "2 x 8-bit cpus = 16-bit" thing.

I remember people talking about that while mocking the TG16 on the playground in 4th grade.  Was that ever actually written in print?

It was, but I don't remember which magazines and Sega spec sheets it was in. Nintendo was the worst for misleading tech talk.

[Duo_R]

The best is the "2 x 8-bit cpus = 16-bit" thing.

I remember people talking about that while mocking the TG16 on the playground in 4th grade.  Was that ever actually written in print?

It was, but I don't remember which magazines and Sega spec sheets it was in. Nintendo was the worst for misleading tech talk.

Yeah they said they were running in parallel so almost like 16bit is what I remember reading although they did say it wasn't the same. I should dig thorough those old magazines.

[Joe Redifer]

EGM even printed that though the Turbo was 256x216, the SuperGrafx was more colourful with a palette of 4096, but with a screen resolution of 160x146.

I remember them reporting the 4096 colors, I don't recall them reporting that resolution. Sounds like they just grabbed the specs for the Lynx (which only ever put, like, 6 colors onscreen).

[ccovell]

I remember them reporting the 4096 colors, I don't recall them reporting that resolution. Sounds like they just grabbed the specs for the Lynx (which only ever put, like, 6 colors onscreen).

These "specs" were in EGM's "1991 Buyer's Guide", pages 37 and 41.

[SGX Engine]

EGM even printed that though the Turbo was 256x216, the SuperGrafx was more colourful with a palette of 4096, but with a screen resolution of 160x146.

I remember them reporting the 4096 colors, I don't recall them reporting that resolution. Sounds like they just grabbed the specs for the Lynx (which only ever put, like, 6 colors onscreen).

[ccovell]

Lynx (which only ever put, like, 6 colors onscreen).

Naah, the Lynx had many more colours, just look at the screen:

light red, dark green, light blue, light red, medium green, light blue, light red, medium-light green, pale blue, medium-light red,...

[OldMan]

Thank you for the chuckles.

I'll have to go play 'stider' now

[CrackTiger]

Only the Genesis (16-bit) could handle the intense polygonal graphics of Bonanza Bros.

[esteban]

Only the Genesis (16-bit) could handle the intense polygonal graphics of Bonanza Bros.

Hell yes.

[seieienbu]

I do like that the Turbo Express has a color palette 8 times larger than the TG16.  Some fine reporting.

[SGX Engine]

The spec tables were completely messed up, I just enjoyed these for the pictures 

[Duo_R]

No wonder the Supergrafx failed, it has the lowest on screen resolution of the PC Engine family.

[wilykat]

/nitpick
officially Lynx can do 16 colors out of 4k possible color combination. But not everyone realizes it is 16 color per scanline. If you really hammer at it, you can change that 16 colors at each line and get Lynx to display 1,632 total colors on screen at once.

Most games were just 16 colors for whole screen though, back in the day you would have had trouble to tell the difference between 16 colors and 64 colors on old technology LCD.

[CrackTiger]

The Lynx didn't seem to have much color restriction beyond that, as Double Dragon looks great and is very detailed.

[wilykat]

Yes they are.  And it's hard to play if you're still using old LCD.  With new LCD from McWill on Atariage forum, it is so much easier to see everything and actually is easier to play.

Did you know? STUN Runner's 3D visual effect comes from the ability to use unlimited sprite?  The developers saw that using sprites to make 3D polygons were faster than just straight up 3D rendering so they used sprites.  I doubt any other game console can match the 3D capability of Lynx at the time because most consoles had limited sprite (ie NES can't do more than 8 per scanline or it'd glitch) and trying to get 3D rendering like Starfox required extra chip. Without the chip, they can't match the speed or performance.