Interactive Entertainment Magazine
Founded by Yale Brozen with Steve Scivally their first prototype issue (00) was released in February 1994. Issue 01 came out only a few months later in May 1994. The magazine had a total of 23 issues before being merged into Computer Games Strategy Plus Magazine. It is said the cost of packaging the discs was too high for it to have been sustainable on it's own.
Each disc includes news, previews, reviews, and game tips. All of these are with screen shots with audio tracks. These reviews sometimes include more than one person speaking with a different perspective about the title and funny banter back and forth. In addition to this multimedia experience, you can click on the screen when playing one of these presentations and choose “Extras” to view a text game description and/or requirements for each title. These hidden game descriptions are written at the level of a review in a major print publication.
Many issues include interactive interviews with game designers. The magazine also includes ads which occasionally play. These ads play randomly and are unstoppable which can become frustrating but at the same time is a interesting look at the past. The ads can either be in the screen shot/audio track format or full videos.
Finally the discs also filled in that extra space available with demos, patches, and at times full games.
I have created videos of the game previews and reviews which can be watched through my IE YouTube playlist. These videos are an easy way to experience part of this disc magazine but if you have the ability to download and run these in a virtual machine I highly encourage it.
All of the discs can be downloaded from this collection at archive.org.
Disc Summaries
Episode 0
February 1994
Interviews: Origin's Richard “Lord British” Garriot, QQP's Bruce Zaccagnino
Previews: 1942: The Pacific Air War, DOOM, Outpost.
Reviews: Aces Over Europe, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Command Adventures: Starship, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, DinoPark Tycoon, Dragon's Lair, Front Page Football Pro, Global Domination, Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos, Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate, Mad Dog McCree, Master of Orion, Merchant Prince, Microsoft Flight Simulator v5.0, NFL Coach's Club Football, Pinball Dreams, ShadowCaster, Silverball, Street Fighter 2, Syndicate, The Blue & The Gray, Wing Commander: Privateer.
Episode 1
May 1994
This episode includes the full version of Magic Candle.
Interviews:
Previews: Front Page Sports: Baseball '94, Inferno, Outpost
Reviews: 1942: The Pacific Air War, Aces of the Deep, Alien Breed, Barkley: Shut Up and Jam!, Battle Cars, Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space, Detroit, Fields of Glory, FIFA International Soccer, Fleet Defender, Fury of the Furries, Genesia, Grolier Prehistoria, Horde, John Madden Football (3DO), Lucky's Casino Adventure, MegaRace, Metaltech: Battledrome, NBA Jam, New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Raiden, Privateer: Righteous Fire, Sporting News Pro Football Guide, Starlord, Unnecessary Roughness, Wrath of the Gods.
Credits
Publisher - Yale Brozen Producer - Dave Stott Technical Director - Joseph B. Hall Director - Steve Scivally Managing Editor - Greg Titus Editor - Tim Keating Executive Editor - Marc Dultz Art Director - Kirk P. Membry Production Consultant - Jim Romanoff Audio Engineer - Gregory T. Henry Audio Technician - Chris Sargent Business Manager - Gregg Sauter Accounting Services - Christina Brozen
Writers - Scott Grant, Gregory T. Henry, Jesse Isaacson, Tim Keating, Damon Nazarenko, Greg Titus, John Voorhees
Announcers - Cindy Brooks, Jennifer Colby, Gregory T. Henry, Darren Ingram, John Voorhees, Tim Keating, Lue McWilliams, Brigitte O'Conner, Greg Titus, Ruth Yeskoo