Game Buyer Issue 2

From Magweasel

Game Buyer

Issue	2
Date	August 1998
Price	$4.99
Cover	Mortal Kombat 4 (N64/PS)
Pages	124

The August 1998 issue of Game Buyer reveals that the magazine is already in trouble two issues into its career. The mag's 40 pages lighter than last month, and the page stock is also noticeably thinner. On top of that, there's no opening editorial.

A bit of Ultra Game Players-style humor begins to creep into the magazine -- the Recommended line in every review's info box goes from serious ("Joystick", "3D video card") to flippant ("Urge to rule world", "Hot dogs, beer").

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Notes

Slick Stuff on the Avengers movie, PlayStation-themed clothing, and a chair with built-in speakers and subwoofers.

Game Buyer mentions that Thompson and Toshiba have signed on to produce DVD players compatible with "Project X", an announcement they term "snore-filled".

The Comtrade PC that earns perfect marks in the hardware section is a 400 MHz Pentium 2 with 64MB of RAM, an 84GB hard drive, and two different video cards (one for 2D, one for 3D). MSRP: $2025.

The Mission: Impossible review includes an interesting sidebar on the game's checkered history -- in development since the N64 hardware announcement, the game was shown a year later in early, unplayable form, misses the movie release, and even get its limelight stolen by GoldenEye. Eventually the project is moved from Ocean's San Jose office to Infogrames HQ in Paris, where it's turned into a completely different (and regrettably average) game.

The Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter review is likely the only time a 2D Wal-Mart deer-hunt sim was reviewed by a major magazine. Not even the "real" PC game mags touched that stuff in this era. Poor copy editing rears its ugly head here, where Game Buyer says the game costs $20 in the review and $49.95 in the info box.

Archive sidebars on the Intellivision, top ten heroes, and top ten weird games (Tail of the Sun is first).

A two-page house ad for PC Accelerator -- "Finally a magazine for gamers who understand why God created the fire button". Street date is August 25.

The Incoming section grows a new subsection called Japan Journal that covers, as you'd expect, import games and news. Bandai's Tail Concerto is the top news this month.

No portable reviews in this issue.

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Editorial

None.

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Reviews

Game	System	Publisher	Rating
Mortal Kombat 4	N64	Midway	4
Mike Piazza's Strike Zone	N64	GT Interactive	2
Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition	N64	Acclaim	5
Mission: Impossible	N64	Ocean	3
Burning Rangers	SAT	Sega	4
Road Rash 3D	PS	EA	4
Vigilante 8	PS	Activision	5
Tomba	PS	Sony	4
VR Baseball 99	PS	Crystal Dynamics	3
Sentinel Returns	PS	Psygnosis	4
N2O: Nitrous Oxide	PS	Fox Interactive	3
Cardinal Syn	PS	Sony	3
Jersey Devil	PS	Sony	3
Adidas Power Soccer 98	PS	Psygnosis	3
Granstream Saga	PS	THQ	4
Azure Dreams	PS	Konami	3
Fox Sports Soccer 99	PS	Fox Interactive	2
Unreal	PC	GT Interactive	5
Stratosphere: Conquest of the Skies	PC	Ripcord	4
Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter	PC	Wizardworks	3
Panzer Commander	PC	SSI	3
Soldiers at War	PC	SSI	3
Redneck Rampage Rides Again	PC	Interplay	2
Industry Giant	PC	Interactive Magic	4
World Cup '98	PC	EA	5
Extreme Tactics	PC	Piranha Interactive	3
Flesh Feast	PC	SegaSoft	3

Hardware	Publisher	Rating
Ultra Game Machine FX6/400	Comtrade	5
Pure 3D 2	Canopus	4
Turtle Beach Montego	Turtle Beach	5
Mega Memory Card	Interact	5
Flight System	Thrustmaster	4
Ultra Racer 64	Interact	3
Pionex 640029	Pionex	3
CD Wet Suit 12	Kensington	3