A New Review: Classic Home Video Games, 1989-1990: A Complete Guide to Sega Genesis, Neo Geo and TurboGrafx-16 Games

This review of Classic Home Video Games 1989-1990 recently appeared on a video game website called Retro Collect. It was written by Tom Charnock, who received a review copy from the publisher.

Brett Weiss is a man who loves lists. He also loves games, and it was only a matter of time before he combined these passions and nature took its course. The product of several thousand hours’ worth of research, the Classic Home VideoGames series of books has been available for some time but it is only now that I’ve had the opportunity to get hold of a volume from the collection and see what all the fuss is about; and I must say it was definitely worth the wait. The Classic Home Video Games series spans every home console from 1972 up to 1990 and each entry is split into a certain period in video games history. If you’re reading this article now, the chances are that you collect retro video games in some capacity; or at least have an interest in the subject, and so this series of books is quite possibly something you’d be interested in knowing more about.

The volume I have is the third in the series and covers the period 1989-1990. Now this may seem like a relatively small span of time in the great patchwork pantheon of video gaming, but it may surprise you to learn that in this window, the , and AES were all released in the US. I make this pertinent point to use the NTSC-U monikers for these systems because this series of books is primarily focused on the American market, but regardless of where you live the sheer level of detail contained within the pages is astounding.

Coming in both soft and hardback flavors, each entry the Classic Home Video Games series lays out the systems that were released in North America in that particular period (and are split into 1972-84, 1985-88 and 1989-90).

Every chapter begins with an introduction and a short history of the console in question, and Weiss details his own experiences with each. And this is really where the books differ from some other list-based publications – the author is an avid gamer and shares his personal opinions and experiences with each and every piece of hardware featured. Not only this – and here’s the money shot – the books go on to detail every single North American release for every system, and also feature paragraph-long reviews detailing good points and bad, gameplay mechanics and if there are any other versions of the game available. You’ll also find box scans and images of the consoles dotted throughout, and though these are in monochrome they are a welcome addition and break up the text nicely.

I found volume 1989-1990 especially interesting as I have recently started to collect games, and while it is the AES that gets the main bulk of the SNK-related chapter, the text details if a Neo Geo CD port was released and also if there are any major differences. For someone in my position (that is, a relative n00b when it comes to SNK hardware and software), this is extremely useful and has helped me decide whether certain games are really worth my time. Further on, every North American Genesis game is given a mini review, and the same is true of the TurbGrafx-16 (aka PC Engine) library. The appendices also surprised me, as they go on to list every US Sega CD, , and release, and include a one line review to detail what the game is.

You get the impression that Brett has spent a good chunk of his life investigating these carts, CDs and HuCards and he details his history with the hobby in the illuminating opening chapter. Sure, there are plenty of online lists – this very site has one of the most comprehensive databases anywhere online – but there is something about having a physical book that you can hold in your hands and flick through whenever you feel like it. Even more so when every game also comes with a mini review and is peppered with personal experiences and opinion.

Conclusion

In closing, if you are a collector of Genesis, Neo Geo or TurboGrafx-16 games, I would wholeheartedly recommend this 300+ page tome not only as a worthy guide, but also as a great extra addition to your library of games-related reading material.

Paul Kupperberg: The Batman/Superman Interview

When Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was announced a while back (before the trailers were released), I interviewed longtime comics writer Paul Kupperberg (Action Comics, Supergirl, The Brave and Bold), who was generous with his time (thanks, Paul!).

 

BRETT WEISS: What’s your first memory of and Superman teaming up together, and what impression did it leave on you?

PAUL KUPPERBERG: I don’t remember the actual first Batman/Superman team-up I read, but it would have been an early-1960s issue of . I loved both characters individually--I grew up on the George Reeves TV show, years before the Adam West Batman hit the air—so in those days before teams up were a regular thing, seeing them working together was amazing.

WEISS: What is your favorite Superman/Batman story and why?

KUPPERBERG: Without question “The Origin of the Composite Superman” in  #142 (June 1964). I was nine years old when it came and it just blew my mind! The concept was amazing and the visual was awesome. I read and reread that book until it disintegrated. These days, I keep the DC Direct Composite-Superman figure on my desk.

WEISS: Do you prefer  and Superman to be friends or to merely tolerate one another (or worse)? Why?

KUPPERBERG: I prefer them to be friends. and are good guys, working towards the same end, so why wouldn’t they be friends. Of course, that was back in the olden days, when superheroes were still the good guys, as opposed to the dark and gloomy interpretations we get these days. It would never occur to “my” Superman or Batman to be anything but friends. Superman could achieve the physical things Batman wasn’t capable of doing, while Batman could provide Superman with the strategic thinking that the more direct, punch his way through a wall Man of Steel didn’t usually employ.

WEISS: What does it say about modern comic books and modern society in general that Batman and Superman used to be friends, but nowadays are often shown despising one another?

KUPPERBERG: To me it mostly says that the people writing the stories don’t really understand what the characters are about.

WEISS: What are some of the key philosophical differences between Batman and Superman?

KUPPERBERG: I’m talking about “my,” pre-Return of the Dark Knight versions of the heroes, but I think the main philosophical difference is Batman’s pragmatism. Superman adheres to a strict moral code that he’s not willing to bend, much less break, while Batman operates with a more flexible morality...but only up to a point. Both know that there’s a line they can’t cross without their becoming the very things they’re trying to fight.

WEISS: What were your feelings when it was first announced that Batman and will appear in a movie together?

KUPPERBERG: Guarded optimism. I don’t care for the dark versions of either character that Christopher Nolan presented in the movies. His was just a psycho and the Superman in The Man of Steel is...well, I don’t know what he is. Clark’s moral compass growing up was Pa Kent, but in Nolan’s version, Jonathan Kent’s moral compass pointed due south: I guess that’s why could fight a fight that destroyed Metropolis without once helping the, I assume, tens of thousands of people killed in it, and why he was able to kill his opponent and just shed crocodile tears over it afterwards. “My” Superman would have taken the fight to less populated areas, or out over the ocean, or up into outer space. So, yeah...VERY guarded optimism.

The National Videogame Museum -- Opening Soon

                                            















The National Videogame Museum will open soon. There's no grand opening date scheduled yet, but you can get updates and other video game news by following Classic Home Video Games on Facebook.

Check out this preview of the museum from Fox 4 news (which states an opening date, but the museum owners will still only say "winter").

Also, you can check out my article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

And my full interview with museum co-founder Joe Santulli.

The National Videogame Museum

8004 Dallas Pkwy

Frisco 75034

(972) 668-8400

www.nvmusa.org

Admission: $12; arcade games cost 25 cents per play.

Opening date: Early 2016

Comedy Movie Sequels -- Ones that are Actually Good

Movie sequels have a reputation for being terrible. For every good one, such as ,  and , there are countless stinkers, including such execrable fare as Grease 2, Speed 2: Cruise Control, and Exorcist 2: Heretic.

Comedy sequels can be especially bad. Don’t get us started on the sheer awfulness of Caddyshack II, Teen Wolf Too and Son of the Mask—yuck!

Luckily, there are some good ones, such as Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, A Very Brady Sequel, and Wayne's World 2.

Here are 10 more movie sequels that should tickle your funny bone:

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Rated PG (retroactively)

Direct sequels to mainstream comedies weren’t exactly common when A Shot in the Darkhit theaters, so this movie was a nice treat for fans. The follow-up to 1963’s , the film features the return of The Pink Panther as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, along with introducing such franchise staples as Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) and Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk).

Speaking in an exaggerated French accent, Sellers, guided by director Blake Edwards, ups the bumbling antics ante as he bumps into stuff, knocks heads with people, sets himself on fire and pursues Maria (Elke Summer) to a nudist camp. Numerous sequels of varying quality followed—just stay away from the awful 2006 Steve Martin reboot (and its sequel).

National Lampoon’s European Vacation (1985)

Rated R

One of the more underrated films on this list,  has the unfortunate position of being sandwiched between two admittedly superior films: National Lampoon's Vacation and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, two of the best comedies of the 1980s. However,  offers plenty of fun in its own right as the bungling Griswold gang wins a two-week trip to Europe.

Laugh-out-loud scenarios (among others) include Clark (Chevy Chase) driving for hours around the busy Lambeth Bridge roundabout because he simply can’t get over, a dachshund jumping off the Eiffel Tower to fetch Rusty’s (Jason Lively) hat and Ellen’s (Beverley D’Angelo) sexy home video making the rounds as a pornographic film.

Ghostbusters II (1989)

Rated PG

The original  is one of the most beloved comedies of all time, so Ghostbusters II had big shoes to fill. Fortunately for film fans, it succeeded with flying colors, thanks in large part to the return of all the principal players. Five years after saving New York City from the demi-god Gozer, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and company have been forced to disband their ghost-busting business. However, a resurgence of spectral activity, including rivers of ectoplasmic slime flowing beneath Manhattan, spur the fright-fighting four back into action.

The late Gene Siskel blew it when he called Ghostbusters II a “major disappointment” with “little comic energy or invention.” If you like to laugh, you should enjoy the film.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Rated PG-13

Nuttier and zanier than Gremlins, Gremlins 2: The New Batch eschews the black comedy of the original in favor of movie in-jokes, slapstick hijinks and sheer madcap lunacy. Gizmo, once again voiced by Howie Mandel, remains cute and cuddly, but his offspring, the Gremlins, are more anarchic than ever, running roughshod through a building owned by a Donald Trump-type media mogul played by John Glover.

Keep an eye out for genetics specialist Doctor Catheter (who is partly responsible for the Gremlins), played with relish by the recently deceased Christoper Lee. And when the bespectacled Brain Gremlin speaks, note that he’s voiced by  alumnus Tony Randall.

Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear (1991)

Rated PG-13

With the release of 1980’s , in which Leslie Nielson was cast against type, the actor went from playing dead-serious ship captains (, Poseidon Adventure) to  making audiences laugh as a deadpan comic.

In the Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear, the second in the “Naked Gun” trilogy, Nielson plays the same type of clueless character he portrayed in Airplane!, fumbling and bumbing his way through one misunderstanding/misadventure after another. Priscilla Presley and a pre-murder trial O.J. Simpson offer comedy gold as well.

Addams Family Values (1993)

Rated PG-13

The Addams Family may be creepy, kooky, spooky and “all together ooky,” but they’re also very funny, whether you follow their adventures in print (via Charles Addams’ original The New Yorker cartoons), on television or in theaters.

Addams Family Values, the sequel to 1991’s Addams Family, finds the curious clan welcoming mustachioed baby Pubert into their lives. Unfortunately, siblings Wednesday and Pugsley are jealous and want to kill him. Adding to the angst is an evil nanny (Joan Cusack) who marries Fester (Christopher Lloyd) and ships Wednesday and Pugsley off to summer camp, where they stick out like a wart on a witch’s nose. If dark comedy is your thing, you can’t go wrong with Addams Family Values.

Father of the Bride Part II (1995)

Rated PG

In the first Father of the Bride (1991), which is based on the 1950 Spencer Tracy film of the same name, Steve Martin plays a dad who has a hard time dealing with the fact that his little girl is getting married. If you liked that film, or you enjoy sweet, heartfelt films in general, you should have fun watching this similar-in-tone sequel, which finds Martin’s wife (Diane Keaton) and daughter (Kimberly Williams) pregnant at the same time.

laugh-a-minute insanity of some of Martin’s earlier pictures, such as The Jerk (1979) and The Man With Two Brains (1983), it will keep you smiling, for both comical and sentimental reasons.

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Rated PG-13

When the original Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery hit theaters in 1997, it was a sheer unexpected delight. Saturday Night Live veteran Michael Myers had created something truly special—a James Bond parody starring a 1960s hipster/secret agent (Myers) whose social behavior was at hilarious odds with 1990s sensibilities.

The Spy Who Shagged Me doesn’t play up the “stranger in a strange land” aspects as well as International Man of Mystery, but it’s a roaring good time nevertheless, thanks in part to the introduction of Dr. Evil’s clone, the quiet, but comedic Mini-Me (Verne Troyer). Fat Bastard (Myers) is more cringe-inducing than comical, but viewers who groove to gross-out scenes will find him funny, especially when he sleeps with the gorgeous Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham).

Toy Story 2 (1999)

Rated G

The first Toy Story broke new ground in computer animation, wowing kids and parents alike with classic playthings come to life. Filled with drama and pathos, laughter and tears, Toy Story 3 is nothing short one of the best animated films of all time. So where does that leave Toy Story 2, other than in good company?

Hardly the odd duck out, Toy Story 2, in which a maniacal toy collector steals Woody, has ample charms of its own, including the discovery that Woody is a valuable collectable based on Woody’s Roundup, a 1950s TV show. Featuring a heartbreaking, Academy Award-nominated song by Sarah McLachlan (“When She Loved Me”), the film speaks to friendship, loyalty, growing up and living life outside of the box (so to speak). It’s also very funny.

22 Jump Street (2014)

Rated R

22 Jump Street is essentially a remake of 22 Jump Street (2012), a buddy-cop “bromance” loosely based on the classic TV show starring Johnny Depp. In 21 Jump Street, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) go undercover as high school students to infiltrate a drug ring. In 22 Jump Street, they go under cover as college students to do virtually the same thing.

While this sameness would normally be a recipe for a disaster, 22 Jump Street works because the characters are fully self-aware, taking the “meta” movie concept to a new level. There are even jokes in the film about how sequels are always terrible. Based on the number of laughs to be had by watching 22 Jump Street, nothing could be further from the truth.