Sloppy Game Journalism

Two things I encountered at the bookstore which bothered me today:

1. Anyone see "Hi Score!: The Illustrated History of Videogames"? It's pretty typical fare -- lots of coverage of the early years and present generation of videogames, but not too much substantive in the middle -- but it's filled with stupid errors. For example, the authors put a screen from "Soul Caliber" among a collection of screens of Playstation games. Even worse was a page filled with Atari Games concept sketches, including some from Cyberball and Peter Packrat, that were of games that the caption claimed "were never completed". Pure idiocy.

2. The June issue of OPM (Jango Fett on the cover) has a nice little history of LucasArts spread. A nice spread except for the following phrase: "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders plays much like Maniac Mansion..." McKracken is a text adventure with graphics that plays nothing like Maniac Mansion. Didn't anyone bother to fact check this article?

Why is this kind of carelessness considered acceptable?

PS: NeoZeedeater may be interested to know that "Hi Score!" contains tons of information on '80s era PC publishers such as Sirius, Epyx, Broderbund, and the like.

Epyx! They made some of the best Olympic games. What ever happened to them?

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[sleeveboy was quick to say... [/I]2. The June issue of OPM (Jango Fett on the cover) has a nice little history of LucasArts spread. A nice spread except for the following phrase: "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders plays much like Maniac Mansion..." McKracken is a text adventure with graphics that plays nothing like Maniac Mansion. Didn't anyone bother to fact check this article?

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Um, the version of Zack (or, as I called him, Phil) McKracken that I played as a youngster (and that I still have, if I can find it) did indeed play very much like the original PC Maniac Mansion... hell, the graphics were nearly identical. You had a hella lot of commands (more than in MI) at the bottom, and a really primitive mouse cursor that refreshed once every second, same as in Maniac Mansion.

I'm not saying you're wrong, since there COULD POSSIBLY BE an earlier version of the game that was released before Maniac Mansion ever was, but if it existed, then I missed it. I used to play the old Sierra text games, as well as Zork and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I don't remember seeing Zack out before Maniac Mansion.

Well, point is, they're not wrong over at crappy, crappy OPM, since there does indeed exist a version of ZMKATAM that looks and plays much like Maniac Mansion on the PC.

I happened to pick up the last issue of a magazine called Gamenow that was littered with careless grammatical mistakes and spelling errors. It was a decent magazine, but I really wonder about the editors of this magazine missing mistakes like your/you're and stuff like that. I guess they assume that most of their audience are middle schoolers...

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Originally posted by gamevet
Epyx! They made some of the best Olympic games. What ever happened to them?

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They had some money troubles (they were too unfocused in their publishing choices). The final nail in the coffin was when they designed the Handy (aka Lynx) and sold it to Atari, who refused to pay Epyx for it so they went bankrupt.

Well, the only version of ZMCATAMB I remember is a text only version.

Maybe I've got it wrong, who knows...

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flux=rad once said...I happened to pick up the last issue of a magazine called Gamenow...

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GameNow, and I mean this in the most sincere and constructively critical manner, ate my balls.

Flux = rad? You mean the internet game Flux? My best friend's roommates with the guy that made it... Are you him or do you know him?

Thanks sleeveboy. I must get Hi Score! now despite its errors.

Even in the second edition of the best overall video game history book, Steven Kent's "The Ultimate History of Video Games", I noticed at least 12 errors. Most were usually minor things.

Flux=Rad = a Pavement song. Pavement is rad, too. So terrible that they broke up.

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Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Steven Kent's "The Ultimate History of Video Games", I noticed at least 12 errors. Most were usually minor things.

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Yes, great book. It was a gift from my girlfriend for my birthday. I dunno which edition I have, but I'm enjoying it greatly. Very informative, lots of interesting stuff. I also like how instead of filling each page with loads of pics, he opted for raw informational content.

I've noticed a grammatical error or two so far, but since I'm reading the book to learn about the history of video games, I'm not gonna notice any factual falsehood.