-
CultureTotal Recall
GameStop’s Trade-In Program, the 1993 Edition
Here’s a flyer for Electronics Boutique’s (now part of GameStop) fledgling trade-in scheme, which not only warns you that the program could end at any time (oh no!), but demands you bring the instructions in. No manual, no trade-in. Compared to the “sure we’ll take any old piece of shit” policy the company has now,…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 1, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Only Game Where You’ll Find James Bond, Capcom and Rob Lowe in the One Place
You don’t need me to tell you how awful most FMV games from the 1990s were. But amidst the wreckage of bad racing games and even worse adventure games, I have a soft spot for Fox Hunt. Mostly because, over 15 years later, I can only now appreciate how batshit crazy the whole thing was.…
By Luke Plunkett Published August 1, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
How Video Game Development Has Changed Over the Past Twenty Years
The video game business isn’t what it used to be. You know that as a gamer, but what you my find even more interesting is the way it’s changed for those actually involved in making the games. Cory Bloyd is a veteran programmer who works at Munkyfun, and who had previously done stuff like helping…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 31, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Konami’s Cheat to Get Around a Silly Nintendo Rule
Did you know that, before 1993, Nintendo of America had a rule that limited the number of games a publisher could release on one of it systems? Yup. In a calendar year a publisher, or “licensee”, could only release five games. No more. It was a rule with its heart in the right place: the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 31, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallEA’s Best Game of the 1990s Also Had the Worst Acting
People bug EA all the time to bring back vintage old series like Wing Commander, Road Rash and Jungle Strike. All great games, and all worthy of t least a token attempt at mmodernisation. But there’s one game that, for whatever reason, is always left out. Forgotten. And that’s EA’s Crusader series. The first game…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallThe Awkward Charms of a 1984 TV Show About PC Gaming
This is an episode from Computer Chronicles, a dusty old TV show about…computers. This one is all about games, and features appearances from guys like Atari legend Chris Crawford, EA founder Trip Hawkins and even a guy from Activision. What’s great is that, being a show that’s normally about computers anyway, it doesn’t have the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 27, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Mario’s First Kart Was, Well, a Little Crap
I’m guessing this is an advertisement of some sort for NES Open Tournament Golf or, as it was known in Japan, Mario Open Golf, a Nintendo Entertainment/Famicom golf game first released in 1991 One of the earliest attempts by Nintendo to shoehorn its platforming characters into a console sports game, it’s perhaps notable these days…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 26, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Let’s All Read This Terrific 1992 Star Fox Comic
If you think everything Nintendo did in the early 1990s outside actual video games sucked, well, no! Sure, there were some awful TV shows, but not everything was bad. This Star Fox comic, for example, was great. It ran in Nintendo Power magazine in 1992, and had – considering the scale of the project –…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallGamers “Really Loved Killing” Lara Croft, Because She Was a “Strong” Character
There’s an interesting interview with Toby Gard, the creator of Tomb Raider, over on Critical Path’s site. And it reminds us that, for all the platitudes heaped on the series for portraying a strong female character, the fact is a lot of men enjoyed playing as just such a woman for the wrong reasons. Eerily,…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 25, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Hey Link, It’s Also Dangerous to do Business With Men Who Look Like Toothless Hobos
Link really is the hero of time, because here he is, in the 1980s, with a take on the Resident Evil 4 merchant meme years before Resident Evil 1 was even a twinkle in Shinji Mikami’s eye. [via VG Junk]
By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallStar Wars Used to be Uncool. Pinball Helped Bring it Back.
This Star Wars pinball machine wasn’t released in the 70s, or 80s. It was released in 1992, which makes it very special, because that makes it part of the great Star Wars renaissance. After the hype over the original trilogy died down after the mid-80s, as weird as it is to imagine now, Star Wars…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 24, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallIt Took Japan to Add a Little Style to Alien vs Predator
It’s been over twenty years since some bright sparks decided it’d be cool to see Aliens fight Predators. Since then we’ve had good comics, good video games, bad video games and terrible movies based on the idea. When people talk about the games, though, they almost exclusively remember the three first-person shooter titles. While the…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Dangers of Using Wikipedia for Video Game History
When I put Total Recall stories together, I use a ton of sources. My memory/brain, for one, but also specialised history and collector sites, weird blogs, books, all kinds of places. Wikipedia is, sometimes, one of those places. It’s also not always the most reliable. A great piece this week over on Hardcore Gaming reminds…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 20, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Total Recall, Kotaku’s History Section, is Moving
Just a quick public service announcement to let you know that Total Recall, Kotaku’s history feature, is changing timeslots. It’ll now appear between 1am and 2am Eastern, Tuesday through Friday.
By Luke Plunkett Published July 19, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallHow Capitol Hill Learned to Love Video Games
Video games used to be, quite literally for many in US politics, the devil. Or something very close. These days, though, you’re more likely to hear about developers getting tax breaks than games being banned. That kind of acceptance from a former enemy didn’t happen overnight. It took years of education and lobbying. Oh, and…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 18, 2012 -
CultureTotal RecallAtari Video Music Was Like Winamp For The 1970s
You know when you use a music or media player – and really, they all do it in some way or another – you can activate a visualiser to help you “see” the track like you were tripping on acid? Well, Atari had one in 1976. And it was, for the time, pretty damn great.…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 17, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Apple Co-Founder Was a Tetris Champion (and a Pain in Nintendo’s Ass)
Steve Wozniak, aka Woz, was one of the co-founders of Apple back in 1976. When he left the company in 1987 (though he technically remains an employee to this day, drawing a nice salary), he needed something to do. One of those things was to become a Tetris champion. In a candid Q&A on Gizmodo…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 17, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
A Tribute to Old Video Game Maps
What did you do over the weekend? See some friends, go out to dinner, play some games? Me, I sat in front of a monitor, then a printer, and went through this spontaneous collection of old video game maps. Younger readers, accustomed to things like waypoint markers and mini-maps, may not be aware just how…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
The Private Atari Emails You Weren’t Supposed to See (Until Some Guy Released Them)
Here’s a rare and fascinating thing: a collection of ten year’s worth of internal Atari Games correspondence from between 1982 and 1992, all stored, public and ready for your voyeuristic consumption. What you’ll find isn’t just boring business talk. There’s all kinds of stuff in here, from high-level corporate discussions to guys making dinner reservations…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2012 -
CultureTotal Recall
Just This Once, Let’s Revive The Greatest Console War: Genesis or Super Nintendo?
It was a good war. A just war. It was, maybe, the last great war. I’m not talking about World War II. I’m talking about the great console war of the 1990’s. I had a great time goading Lisa Foiles into reviving the 90’s console wars with me a few weeks backā€”despite the best efforts…
By Kirk Hamilton Published July 14, 2012