ISSUE LINK: Ultra Game Players No. 92 - Christmas 1996Mike Salmon's shot-calling review of NBA Live '97 stuck with Ty for almost 30 years—and it cuts to the heart of everything our podcast is about. For the first time ever, we revisit a magazine: Game Players, right after the "ULTRA" makeover that inspired the name of the very premium tiers you subscribe to! We take a hard look at the makeover, their 1996 year-end reviews, and Mike Salmon's refusal to give a major publisher's release a score it didn't deserve.-----Sources include the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections.The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!
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1:13:59
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1:13:59
Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy, with set designer Gavin Verhey [S1E9]
ISSUE LINK: The Duelist No. 21, January 1997ALLISON MCKENZIE'S TERRA PRINT: FFVI - Terra and Mog PrintIt's a bonus BONUS! Ever since the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy set dropped, our Discord's hottest channel has been #ttrpgs-and-card-games. Aidan and Ty decided that if it's all they could talk about, and all our most engaged listeners could talk about, then heck why not interview Magic: The Gathering design lead Gavin Verhey, who was the design lead for the FF set as well? Then Aidan dropped a bomb on us: A contemporary review of Final Fantasy VII in Wizards of the Coast's classic Magic mag, The Duelist! We not only had an amazing interview with Gavin, we had a great discussion afterwards reacting to everything he said, and discussing all the fun we've been having playing Magic--and in a sense all our favorite Final Fantasy games--at the same time.-----Sources include the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections.The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!
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1:40:30
Nintendo Power 88 - Super Mario 64 [S1E8]
ISSUE LINK: Nintendo Power 88, September 1996Gamemaster Classified book KS page"Fun" & Games Podcast homeThe episode so many of you have been waiting for: Our first look at Nintendo Power!And boy, is it ever a big one--the debut of Super Mario 64, the game that would define the Nintendo 64, and the company itself, for the entire console generation (and, arguably, beyond). Packed with tons of incredible original art and exclusive assets, it's also got a very...interesting...review of the game itself.What's our review of their review? And, does reviewing what amounts to in-house advertorial content even matter?? Listen to find out!-----Sources include the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections.The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!
Mollie Patterson's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mollipen.bsky.socialMollie Patterson's homepage: https://mollielpatterson.com/The EGM Compendium Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/egmbook/egmcompendiumUNLOCKED AND FREE FOR ALL LISTENERS: A FunFactor ULTRA Review Crew bonus episode!! We talk with the great Mollie L. Patterson of EGM and GameFan fame about her (very) early years as a 'zine writer, joining the rough-and-tumble world of GameFan, and graduating to layouts and editing at EGM.Of course, we also talk about the state of games media, the EGM Compendium project, and how some of the retro stuff we loved has stayed relevant today. We thank all of you, so much, for supporting the show. If you dig it, please tell people! We'd love nothing more than to get more cool people in the ULTRA Lounge of our Discord server--and have the support we need to keep doing this show we love.-----Sources include the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections.The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!
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Intelligent Gamer 2 - Jumping Flash! 2 [S1E7]
ISSUE LINK: Intelligent Gamer No. 2, July 1996A true trailblazer of a magazine, which Ty mistook at the time for a craven NEXT Generation ripoff. Instead, Ziff-Davis bought what might have been the world's first fully digital online games magazine and soon put its precocious editor at the head of a real, monthly, big-boy print equivalent. Besides giving Aidan and Ty an excuse to riff on the benefits and drawbacks of physical magazines in the modern era, this issue's super deep previews and reviews give them plenty to chew on.-----Sources include the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections.The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!
Ty Schalter (VICE, FiveThirtyEight) and Aidan Moher (WIRED, Vulture) review what rocked and what sucked about the classic video game magazines that inspired them to become professional journalists, authors, and critics—and what they can tell us about today's digital media and games.New episodes drop every other Tuesday!
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