Have you ever experienced that moment when seeing an object from the past triggered an overwhelming rush of forgotten memories that it almost felt like you were transported back in time? Well, I just had one earlier this morning while I was boxing up more items in preparation for my move into a new house - I haven't boxed up any of my video games yet since things have not been finalized at this point due to unexpected personal situations. The object in question here is a June 1997 issue of a video game magazine:
Open the floodgates!
As we all know, there used to be a dark and uncivilized time when the Internet was hardly a significant fabric of mainstream society. So, to keep up with the gaming news during that awful time, I did purchase quite a number of video game magazines. The best out of the bunch to me has always been the UK-based multi-platform magazine, Computer and Video Games - and these guys are still around today! I have stopped subscribing to them a long time ago but I do check out their website every so often but back then, CvG had the best looking covers as well as the most honest reviews compared to the rest. In era of journalism that was mostly anti-Sega, CvG's impartial take on the industry was refreshing, leading to bold reviews of what are now considered classic Sega games such as giving the maximum "High-Five" rating to SegaSaturn's Fighters MegaMix in this particular issue of the magazine. Staring at this magazine this morning and flipping through its pages reminded me of some of the lowest points in my life that I don't particularly want to discuss here but more importantly, it brought back memories of the now fabled Sega dominance over the industry especially with the classic Sonic actually being on the magazine's cover. In hindsight, the joyous celebration of Sonic Jam for the SegaSaturn that was featured here ended up being the beginning of the end for the blue hedgehog. But yes, those were the days... when video games had more artistic integrity than being mostly a fashionable trend for the mass market.
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