THE HISTORY OF THE REVIEW OF VIDEO GAMES - PART I
Andrea Packages
Magazine: Video Games
Publisher: Gruppo Editoriale Jackson
must now make a big effort to remember a time when the Internet did not exist as we know it now, and even e-mail was used almost exclusively in communications between scientists "in white coats." Thinking of the 80s, for news on video games magazines paper were the only source of updated information: this and the articles that follow are intended as a small tribute to that moment in videogame history in Italy, of course without any claim to completeness.
Like all the stories that respect, this is effectively told to be started from the beginning, from the first Italian magazine to have video games as a central subject, is at Gruppo Editoriale Jackson, star of those years in the publishing market computer science, which is responsible for the emergence of "Video Games" (or rather, Video Games, referring to the original logo).
The preparation was formed by the historic core of the Firm Vit led by Riccardo Albini, who will leave over the years an indelible mark in this market, creating some of the most important journals from the historical point of view, that is, Zzap!, K and Zeta. Obviously it was not a random experiment created out of nothing: the main inspiration was certainly the container-American magazines like the historical "Electronic Games", but this event is still a breath of fresh air on the newsstands. For the first time in our country, created a spontaneous movement of the fan club, mostly at an early age, literally submerged the preparation of colored letters, drawings and comics. "The place of mail" that was the appropriate category, it was always a riot of curious questions today would smile ("What should I buy from Atari and Intellivision?", "How many colors has the Coleco?"), but it certainly showed the desire to learn about a new and fascinating world.
The typical summary of a number of Video Games has a structure that will become a classic valid to this day, with the division between news and social news (the "Ready") and the reviews themselves, which were divided between those console ("What game?") and those for the home computer ("In front of the computer made"). Maurizio "IUR" Miccoli, expert gamer and record-holder was responsible for highly detailed descriptions of the coin-op ("The Bar") and were also devoted space to the game and gaming and portable LCD, thus completing the overview of what the market could offer at that time.
was a particular period and furious, with new consoles and software company that went out almost every month, many of which were of real meteors. In such a situation, a guide for the purchases was very important and Video Games also fulfills this task in an exemplary manner, with detailed lists of each imported brand in Italy.
Readers were also directly involved in the production of records, to be immortalized for posterity by means of photography: a fairly large space was given to video games, both on home consoles and arcades in the challenges. All were tempted to get the best score in the standings, thanks to the incentive of a free subscription if the record is quite resistant. This movement culminated in the creation of the historic AIVA, the Italian Association Video Athlete, which purported to be real professional players, able to rival the US-axis joystick.
The success of this magazine was soon to create the desire to separate the content, and thus was born a spin-off called "Home Computer" (HC), lasting fifteen numbers, dealing with information technology as "serious ", leaving the mother to the magazine reviews purely recreational.
In 1984-85 the reflections of the crash U.S. industry were felt even in Italy, and the three best-selling console of the period, Atari VCS, Intellivision and Colecovision were unfortunately forgotten almost immediately by fans, attracted by the increased expansion of small-sized computer and the lower prices of their media (tapes and floppy). The group
Jackson then tried to reinforce its leading journal in it through the transfer of the subject computer: HC closed and called the new incarnation of "Computer & Video Games, from number 29. Unfortunately, the downward trend was inevitable and the adventure ended 37 September 1986. Subsequent versions of "Video Games", among which is is worth mentioning the curious edition "poster" A3, had a relatively short life editorial and were unable to penetrate the market. Studio Vit meanwhile had already moved his interests on a successful British magazine, called Zzap! 64 ...
NOTE: This article was originally published on No. 2 Gamers, Hobbymedia editions. The rights belong solely to the undersigned on the text and not the publisher for any use which is licensed under the Creative Commons located at the bottom of this blog.
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