ValuGamer

I recently found a box of my old gaming magazines and catalogs. They are currently just taking up space so I’m going to throw them away, but before I do I figured I could scan some of the more interesting articles and advertisements. If you like looking at this sort of stuff let me know and I will post more. Most of it is from the early 90s when I had an EGM subscription.

Today’s scans come from a June ’94 TRU catalog. I imagine the average price of a new console game has climbed in the past 15 years but the slope has not been too terribly steep… at least at Toys R Us.

Price comparison between now and then isn’t that simple when you consider that cartridges cost a lot more to produce than discs but the average gamer probably doesn’t care.

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Remember these? The guy on the 3.0 and 3.5 icons doesn’t look too terribly excited.

I checked, and yes, Virtua Racing was $90 before the coupon. Sega could have charged $100 for “Virtua” anything back in the day and people would have paid for it. I rented Virtua Racing and enjoyed my two days with it. It was all the time I needed.

The only game ever worth owning on this page is also the cheapest. How convenient! I played Tomcat Alley at Blockbuster a few times and I remember being really impressed with the visuals. What was I thinking?

In the future, games at this price at least come with a cloth map or a plastic tricorder.

The Game Gear was a damn monstrosity. Calling your product “Handy” when it adds a considerable amount of bulk to the already-giant system is a bit unrealistic. A product of this size should have at least shipped with shoulder straps or a floor mount. Maybe both. If I remember correctly the Handy Gear made the Game Gear water resistant. It could probably also take a few bullets and rap with 50 Cent on weekends. The Handy Boy, on the other hand, was a different beast entirely. If you have ever dreamed of decking out your old Game Boy like Sam Fisher on life support then look no further. A friend of mine had this accessory and after two or three minutes of playing I could have sworn I heard the Game Boy whisper, “please kill me… please…”

Within the next year Sega released the 32X, Saturn, and Nomad thus positioning themselves as the ultimate force of the gaming industry. Tales are still told today of how “The Great Sega” won Christmas of 1995 by having not one, but five different platforms in stores at the same time.

Sony released the PlayStation in September of ’95 and it completely failed and was soon forgotten. What a bunch of losers.