Magazines of Yesteryear - PC Pro - Issue 15 - January 1996

We're back with PC Pro, and since this issue was published in the run up to Christmas 1995, there were plenty of toys for all children (both big and small) to hope for, including some top value Pentiums, a review of the fastest PC yet seen, predictions for the Internet in 1996 (little did they know...), and asking whether your PC was alive. Hold on to those Task Manager jokes for just a little bit longer.

After the contents page, we have the full details of the cover disk/CD goodies. You can keep Smartdraw and Cabrio, just give me Wing Commander 4! 

The Christmas competition had a cracking first prize: that NEC Versa V notebook was a good choice at the time, and the bundled printer and copy of Lotus SmartSuite 96 combined to give a highly worthwhile productivity package. 

A quick jaunt through the letters page takes us to the Prolog, this month focusing on the experience of journeying through the web. The highlighted quote is exceedingly quaint in these more cynical times, and one can't help but stare wistfully out of the window at just how far the online world has changed in thirty years. Naive or just plain stupid you may think me, but we really did take a wrong turn at Albuquerque since then. It is what it is, but it's not great, is it?

Dick Pountain queries the changing definition of the word "sad" with regards to contemporary society in what is such an on the nose column. He labels himself as sad, and proud of it, and I can only agree with him when comparing myself to the criteria. Anyone remember when, over recent years, the term "nerd" kinda became acceptable, at least as far as clothing went? I was a nerd of the nineties, and proud of it. Still one today, and still very not "cool", but what use is "coolness" when it smothers individuality? Oh, and I definitely agree that John Smiths was, and remains today, a foul brew. There again, I live a twenty minute walk from The Grey Horse pub in Consett with its attached Consett Ale Works brewery (or maybe that should be the other way around???), and about thirty minutes from The Blast Furnace Bottle Shop and Taps, so I am fortunate in that respect. 

Horizons next, and leading the news is a report on IBM's future plans for a network centric approach to business, courtesy of the late Lou Gerstner, who passed away in December last year. Novell is in the process of ditching WordPerfect, a $1.4 billion purchase from 1994 that would eventually see them sell it to Corel for just $186m. Still better value than a 2020's piece of NFT artwork, or any punt on crypto, but still, ouch! Speaking of money, Barclays, Nationwide, and Royal Bank of Scotland are moving with the times with online-banking options for DOS and Windows users. 

Microsoft is the target from European organisations for possible dodgy (say it isn't so???) pricing shenanigans for manufacturers. AMD are buying NexGen in order to keep up with Intel's processor tech, when 586 and 686 were still numbers you could attach to such things, and doesn't that half date that exposition scene in Brian De Palma's Mission: Impossible where Luther lists his tech needs! And there's an array of Pentium 120 notebooks for those with suitably deep pockets/friendly bank managers/lucrative side hustles. 

There's a special report on RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury - do not ignore the signs and I say this as someone who has suffered (no sniggering at the back) from the effects of RSI), before some commentary on the effect Novell's off-loading of WordPerfect might have on the software industry in general (especially concerning competition, something that still rings true to this day).

To the Labs, and this month has an array of seventeen (17!!!) Pentium desktops all at £999 or less, excluding VAT. Not PC Pro's usual target market but something of a sweet spot for price and performance. We get a description of the testing techniques before the absolutely splendid specification table. One thing to note is the "feature score," with additional points for extra warranty, a 15-inch monitor, CD-ROM drive and the like. Some offerings here give you just the basic computer/14" monitor combo, whereas others try for the full multimedia dog and pony show, to varying degrees of success. 

Next comes the test measurements, and there's a huge difference in performance for a group with such a small difference in pricing - £949 to £999, yet the same defined specs - Pentium 75, 8Mb of RAM and at least a 500Mb hard drive. Overall performance measurements were taken in relation to a Gateway P5-75 at a baseline of 1.00.

As for the reviews themselves, each covers the basics, offers good and bad criticism, then scores the areas of Performance, Features, and Value for Money out of six before awarding an overall score. And what reading this must have been to those contemplating a specific brand purchase!

Let's take the Brother Professor P75 for example. It was a decent name at the time, yet the combination of ISA-based disk controller (where PCI chipsets were readily available), a slow graphics card, and a poor monitor scupper its chances - leading to scores of 2, 1, and a 1 for an overall of 1. 

Evesham Micros was another are another failed contender, this time down to the motherboard chipset that is both slow and experienced some compatibility issues that forced a re-install of Windows. 

The rest fall somewhere in the middle, although Opus should be congratulated, if that's the term, for not only providing the slowest machine on test, but effectively matching the Brother machine with a tally of 1, 2, and a 1 for, you guessed it, a final result of 1. Not surprising with a relative performance score of 0.70, falling behind even the Brother. 

Two offerings, however, walk away with awards, one for Speed, the other for Value.

Panrix take the Speed one, which the review notes continues a long run of such achievements, coming in at 1.47 overall. Not only do you get fast, well-organised components, you also get a CD-ROM and the Microsoft's Works/Publisher/Money combo. Even the 14-incher is a decent monitor, if held at 800x600, and the only missing element for me would be a soundcard. Otherwise, spot on, earning 6, 5, 5, for a 6 overall.

The Value winner is another familiar name, and as noted, part of the Amstrad empire by this point in time. Their P75 was clocked at 90MHz due to a factory slip up, but worked well enough, and also included everything needed for a proper multi-media PC config. Sure, it isn't the fastest, and suffered from a lack of expansion options, but to give a user a one-stop option, it deserves the 4, 5, 5, and 5 in the end. 

There's a look at build quality for a quartet of competitors, before we get to the Labs View, the winners, honourable mentions and parting shots. The runner up for the Speed awards was the Carrera, whilst Time took the Value runners up place. The comment that it was now possible to buy a rounded Pentium/75 for a grand ex is worthy of note, as is the chart midway through the reviews.

Charting the previous six months, the average P75 rocking 8Mb of RAM, 500Mb hard drive and a CD-ROM had dropped from £1,400 ex VAT to a smidge over a grand. A P90 with the same spec went from £1,500 to just over £1,200. The column accurately lists the caveats that apply to just listing prices, 8Mb of RAM vs 16Mb etc, but it does emphasise just how rapidly changing, and relatively affordable, the PC market had become.

In the general reviews section, the fun is kicked off by the Carrera P150, toting 16Mb of RAM, a 1Gb hard drive, 2Mb Matrox Millennium graphics card, full multimedia kit, and a tape back-up drive. At nearly £2,800 ex VAT, it's a top of the range machine, yet hamstrung by the motherboard chipset that isn't quite there yet. Still, scoring 3.11 compared to that P75 above when clocked at 150MHz, and 3.34 when running at 166MHz, it's definitely no slouch. 

For those more price-conscious peeps, the AST Advantage 613E gives Cyrix's 5x86/100 processor a run out, also proving that if you want Pentium performance, you should just buy a Pentium. Spec-wise, it isn't too far away from the Viglen of the group test, but £350 more expensive and slower. 

ESL have something a bit cheaper but not as slow as you might think it would be. This 486 DX/4 running at 100MHz comes perilously close to the reference Gateway, and at £200 less than the group test. Future-proofing was obviously better with that array of boxes, but the ESL does not disgrace itself. 

IBM, after a few years of trying its hand at the consumer market, still keeps plugging away with this Pentium P100 multimedia PC. The problem? It's nearly £1,800 ex VAT. Yeah, no. 

Portable fans are covered with the NEC Vera 4000C, a P75 with a 10-inch TFT display. Looks good, performs well, but at a price point that takes it out of the reach of all but the most well-healed personal user - £3,350 ex. Of course, it's a corporate laptop, but one can aspire, surely???

Accessories include laser and inkjet printers, and a good opportunity to roll out Harold Macmillan's 1957 slogan. The Integrex Betajet C (what the hell were they drinking in the marketing department that day?) is hampered by a poor driver isn't really worth the (rather cheap) asking price of £139 ex VAT. What aren't too bad are proposed ink cartridge prices - about £10 for mono, £23 for colour. They genuinely had never had it so good! Why? Because late stage capitalism and the enshittification mantra have conspired to put subscriptions into ink availability. "Honestly, sheep, it's a benefit that you can only print so many pages per month!" as they might as well say. A pox on your houses, printer companies!

As for lasers, Oki's OL 400W is average enough for heavy personal use/small office demands at £379 ex, but HP's LaserJet 5Si, at just over £4k ex VAT, is THE printer for a much larger office headcount.

There's also an Iomega tape drive, and a Casio digital camera - £799 inc VAT for what is described as an over-priced toy, but the one that caught my eye is the Sony MDH-10 Mini-Disc storage drive. Bless 'em, they really tried with that one, but it was not to be. 

The Diamond Multimedia Kit 8000 is one of many upgrade kits that will take your beige and boring business box and give it a sprinkle of sound. Comprising of an 8x speed CD-ROM, speakers, and a Soundblaster/Ad-Lib/MIDI compatible sound card, at £450 ex, it's quite the investment. One not worth it given this review, with installation issues, performance drops, and worryingly high vibration when spinning those discs. Never mind, eh?

Being a serious computing publication, the software reviews are a pretty serious lot, with the highly regarded desktop publishing program, Pagemaker 6, receiving a glowing 5/6 over five pages. 

Visual C++ 4 gains the same mark over a rather more restrained double page spread, although for those wishing for a bit more on this enthralling subject, the first of a three part intro to Visual Basic begins on page 146, with a further 8 pages of... joy?

The seasonal period means it's time for cheap(ish) tat for stocking fillers. How many novelty mice, mouse mats, and copies of the official national Lottery program do you actually need is another question. Naturally, a magazine subscription is also an option, and for just £15.99 a year, or £35.99 for three. A bargain, I tell you!

For those wishing a more intellectual angle, the Reading Room casts its eyes over the latest reference CD-ROMs, at a time when the Internet could answer your question, but good luck getting video down a 28.8kbp/s modem connection! £69 for the NetGeo Picture Atlas of the World isn't too bad in my humble opinion, but Jesus Christ, I wouldn't pay £99 for a Bible-related disc. Your own personal spiritual pathways may decide differently. 

The prickly question of whether your computer is alive or not asks some very interesting questions, and given that we're in the midst of what is very much a bubble that will see tears for many before bedtime, feels ever so innocent and lacking of any marketing jazz. For the record, no it wasn't then, no it isn't now, and can we stop with this AI bullshit. There is a place for it, but not in the creation of any kind of art or artistic expression, and certainly not at the expense of pretty much every consumer piece of tech in the planet. As for whether your PC is alive or not, let's just say that in my experience, trying to get Task Manager to kill an errant program has at times been worthy of a Willian Peter Blatty novel. You can supply your own Tubular Bells sample. 

To safer things now, from a 1995 perspective at least, and the look ahead at what the Internet would offer for the following year. Truly a piece of its time, the first key consideration to usage is the speed of access. As the article notes, a one hour chunk of high quality (5Mbits/sec) requires 1.9Gb of storage, and using a good modem at 28.8Kbits/sec, it would take 144 hours to download that data. ISDN would reduce that to a day, but as far as video went in 1995, no cute cat videos for you lot. 

Cable would make things better, if you were in a cabled area (and this street in a little County Durham former pit village only received Virgin cable a couple of years back), so for those lucky enough in '96, things were looking good. 

There's a box out about not believing the hype as to how many people are on the 'Net, with some telling commentary about how talk of having everyone on the planet connected by 2004 would be impossible as not everyone would have a PC. True, dat, and it would take a few years more, but the rise of the smartphone would change how the masses would access online content. To get there though, we had to get through the WAP years, and kids, it was worse than you could ever know, even if some of the handsets were cool as...

For those with an interest, a feature on tendering processes will have you in rapture, before we get to the usual Real World Computing section with all sorts of tidbits on a wide array of topics. 

The last big section of the magazine is the Game Reserve, and offers proof that the PC was evolving as a games platform. Screamer, an arcade racer, could run reasonably well on a DX/2 66, whilst Hexen: Beyond Heretic settles for a simple 486SX at 33MHz, and as an aside, also runs extremely well on a Raspberry Pi 4 under RISC OS - I reviewed the latest updates for that version back in 2024. 

TFX: EF2000 was a flight sim I so wanted to play back then, but with a 16Mb-toting Pentium pretty much mandatory, especially in SVGA mode, there was no chance of that! Finally, PGA Tour 96 rounds (geddit?) off the fun with an above average score but suffers from having fewer courses than the previous year's offering. Who says annual releases are a good thing anyway - aside from the C-suite who want big numbers to get bigger each year?.

To the ads, and we begin with Gateway 2000, who take a couple punts at customers this issue. The first one is primarily desktop-centric, and as you can see, there isn't a 486 in sight unless you want a portable. And if you were tempted by that P-75 Best Buy, the review of it is just a few pages back over. Decent, but lacking performance, if you were interested. 

The second is for the road warriors of the 90's, and, well, yeah, just goes to show how much they wanted you to spend for the small number of hours the battery would last. 

Mesh Computers are another Pentium desktop-only company, and its P75 received fours across the board. In what will become obvious as we go on, a grand plus VAT is a lot to drop on a computer, so finance is available at 18.5%. To sweeten the deal that month, there's a FREE Fiorucci hamper as well. Makes that three years at £38 a month worthwhile, surely?

Carrera would sell you a 486 DX/2 66, and for just £599 ex. Not stupid for a Win 3.11/DOS6.22 machine, but not exactly future proof either. You could chose Windows 95 instead, but adding extras such as more memory would start to make the Pentium's far better value. 

Hi-Grade's Notino range of laptops promise to offer the moon on a stick, so to speak, but who in the name of whichever deity you may, or may not worship, decided to put those "joystick controls" there. You ain't gonna be playing Hexen holding a three and a half kilo(!) portable like that??? Makes the One XPlayer X1 Pro look like a sensible life choice! And no, it's not an affiliate link, I don't do such shenanigans. 

Colossus are another familiar name of the period, and their machines look surprisingly cheap - just £729 ex for the processor of the moment, the P75. Before you reach for the credit card, understand that this does not include an operating system(!), and the 14" monitor is a cheapo model with a £40 upgrade to a non-interlaced number. So that's £829 ex now. Uh-huh... 

MrPC looks cheap and cheerful, but oh-so familiar. and it turn out, it is, as it's a trading name of the same parent company that runs Time Computers. Tempting as those prices are, I'd prefer to spend just a little more. You know, like maybe an operating system so there wasn't just a bloody big beige box being used as a doorstop!

P&P have a decent array of badged machines, including the ever lovely Compaq Contura Aero 4/33c. For a dinky little laptop, there were few who could match it's looks (aside from Olivetti from around the same time), and even today, I'd still like something of this form factor to carry with me. Anyone want to bring back the Eee PC??? 

We're at the Time Computers ad proper now, and it's notable exactly how much the bottom was dropping out of the 486 market. Less than twelve months earlier, you'd have paid an awful lot more for an equivalent DX/2 66! 

Check out the Multimedia PowerStation '95 offer. DX/2-66 with 8Mb of RAM, 540Mb hard drive and modem - yours for £799 ex VAT. 

The equivalent from the February 1995 issue of PCW from the same company: DX/2 66 upgrade along with the memory, but a smaller hard drive (340Mb) and no modem - yours for £1,159 ex. £360 cheaper and you get a better spec. What a time to be alive! Not, admittedly, a great time to buy, but the steady-ish pricing days of the late 1980's were long gone. 

Watford Electronics Ltd are similarly bulging with 486 and Pentium offers, and with credit offers too. Seems so much more easy to think of that new PC at something like £42 per month rather than £940 in one lump sum. And with Watford, it's only over two years, so that 486 might still be capable as 1998 rolls up. I did say, might!

At least with these two manufacturers, the term was just 24 months. Evesham's was over 36, and at 18.5%... yeah, not great. But if that was the only way you could afford a decently specc'd PC... well, buyer's choice.

Although this did tickle me - new 486 SX 33 CPU's for a tenner a pop. Going back a year, that was your entry level system at around £599 ex VAT, and were selling for around £60 as a part to consumers. 

Software Warehouse aims to be your one stop ship for anything and everything you could want to do on a PC, and just look at what options you had! Also note that this was very much the time that you bought and owned the software. For example, Adobe Premier v4 could be had for £348 ex. Today, it's yours for a recurring £21.98 inclusive, or £262.51 prepaid annually. Progress, my ring piece, there's late stage capitalism fuckwittery afoot!

Lastly, we have Viglen, and I always liked the cases they used, especially the compact on for that £999 P75. Finance is again to the fore, 36 months but at a rate of 19.9%! Spend over £1,499, and that dropped to 14.9% but bloody hell, finance companies know how to make money!

That brings us to the end of this issue, and a very interesting one it was too. The last of the numbered CPU models were slowly wandering into the sunset as the more marketing friendly (and trademark-able) named  offerings pointed the way forward. Multimedia was king, and Windows 95 was showing there was a future in this GUI malarkey, although it would be a few years before Windows 98 Second Edition finally delivered the goods. And if you detect a hint of wistfulness there, you'd be right, because the current iteration of Windows really does make me pine for Windows of the Nineties. Yep, even 95.

The Spanish Passion by Rob Anderson and Javier G. De Gabiola - Book Review

This is not, as the title may suggest to readers of a certain age, the latest addition to Mills & Boon's 2026 catalogue, but instead the most recent (at the time of writing) in the "Helion Wargames" series, and a timely one too considering that 2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the armed conflict it covers.

Full disclosure for this review: I've known Rob via the show scene and a few games with the TWATS (Tantobie Warfare And Tactical Society) for a long time now. That association will not colour this post, I bought this copy with my own funds, and neither the authors nor the publisher have seen this review before it has been posted. 

With that out of the way, let's get down to business.

My knowledge of the Spanish Civil War is best summed up by stating that I've read Antony Beevor's 1999 history of the conflict, and that Orwell's A Homage to Catalonia is on my to read list. Even from such a limited background, I am very much aware that the conflict was not as simple as the general teaching of history likes to put across, and this is especially important when it comes to the concept of "historical wargaming." 

What we have here is a book of two, almost equal, halves - an approach that works very well in delivering the author's intentions. Rob handles the wargaming side, and Mr De Gabiola tackles the history - the events leading up to the War, what happened during it, and the materiel used by the combatants. Both write well, their distinctive voices clearly evident in the text, and this combination gives the reader, knowledgeable in the period or not, a very good grounding in the subject matter.

The are photographs and maps galore, and when we get to the wargaming section, some rather nice artwork by Renato Dallas. Tables are included to cover the naval and air forces, and summaries of the multitude of units each side fielded are succinct but detailed. Scenarios for gaming are suggested, and include diagrams and photography of troops on the table. There is a very handy painting guide, a list of manufacturers who cover the period in a variety of scales, and a bibliography that provides the reader with avenues of further research. 

What The Spanish Passion does, and Rob says this himself in the introduction that follows the useful timeline of the war, is give you the basics you need to deliver a table top game. Rulesets are up to you, but for the background and historical specifics, this book gets you going, and if you're only going to read one tome on the subject for gaming purposes, then this is the one for you. However, and this is a big "however", we are talking about historical wargaming, and Rob rightly says that further reading is recommended - hence the bibliography. For me, the gaming side of hobby is just a social enterprise, a laugh, so to speak. My actual interest comes from the history itself. Learning about the period is a source of enjoyment as well as allowing me to add flavour to the table experience when I'm umpiring. It also prevents that overly game-centric idea that one attendee to a show put into words a few years back - "Just because it wasn't there doesn't mean in can't be on the table."

Frankly, gentle reader, I think that's complete bull hooks. History is rich with detail and experiences, and whilst gaming for the sake of gaming might be the only thing about this hobby that floats your boat, by not diving into the actual history of the game you're playing, you're kinda missing the point of historical wargaming. And when it comes to the Spanish Civil War, this is the best starting point I know of. How far down the history rabbit hole you go is up to you, but the first step of that journey should begin with this extremely fine tome. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to pay my respects to Catalonia

You can pick up a copy of The Spanish Passion from Helion & Co here.

Magazines of Yesteryear - PC Player - Issue 1 - December 1993

The tail end of 1993 was a good time to be a PC gamer. Future Publishing had been running PC Format (1991-2015 - RIP) for a couple of years when the company decided to launch a dedicated gaming mag in the form of the still-extant PC Gamer. Whereas both of these titles covered the wide gamut of PC games, it would take a more specialised effort to cover the genres more traditionally associated with the DOS format (simulations, adventures and strategy as per the cover tagline), and Maverick Magazines had just the thing: PC Player.

Coming in at a respectable £2.25 and 116 pages including the covers, even this slightly battered example retains the quality feel that I remember from back in the day. Lasting only eleven issues, this was a good looking mag for the time and (in my humble opinion), still retains certain sense of style. 

The front cover is dominated by a close up of the nose of an F-22 Raptor to accompany the review of TFX. There's also a round up of flight sims (which is what prompted me to pick up this issue all those years ago), as well as coverage of Privateer, Flight Sim 5.0, Frontier: Elite II and more. But as always, the news comes first.

There are six pages in total, and include a mix of titles you might remember, and some that have been lost to the mists of time. Dungeon Master II is a 256-colour sequel promising some cutting edge artificial intelligence. Rebel Assault looks gorgeous, but time would prove pretty graphics doth butter no parsnips, or some such metaphor mix-up. Archon Ultra is the sequel to a C64 game that somebody must have asked for, while Fantasy Empires aims to be the first D&D game where the computer is the dungeon master. 

Bethesda have something called The Eldar (sic) Scrolls - nope, never heard of them either...;-) - which seems to be targeting the well-off gamer in that although a 386 would do, it would look pap on anything less than a decent 486. Delta V is something cyperpunky, and Evasive Action is a dogfighting fighter sim through the ages. 

Star Trek warrants a good chunk of column space since the enhanced version of 25th Anniversary is due out - with actual cast voices too! And hopefully a slight drop in difficulty... Star Trek 2: Judgement Rites carries on the brand's gaming efforts, whilst Starfleet Academy promises to be an SVGA space flight sim. 

Other mentions include a trio from Psygnosis (Microcosm, Hired Guns - already out on the Amiga - and Innocent - released as Innocent Until Caught), Dynamix expanding their Aces series with Aces Over Europe and Aces of the Deep, Ultima VIII, Harpoon II, a new Police Quest game from Sierra, Litil Devil, and Subwar 2050. There's a lot going on, and those looking for future delights would be well served with the updates provided here. 

The big group test is next, and there are ten (10!) flight sims awaiting judgement (with star ratings ranging from 1 to 5) in the categories of Detail, Missions, Presentation, Ease of Play, and Realism, before being awarded an overall score (also out of five). Each category has explanatory text as to why a particular score was given, whilst each game also receives a mini review with lots of screenshots. There's additional expert opinion provided by Mark Hanna of The Old Flying Machine Company (who also receive a two-pager after the group test) for a soupçon of additional flavour. 

Strike Commander is the first to be covered, and is of note because, as you'd expect coming from the Wing Commander paddock of Origin Studios, it both looks amazing for the time, and will bring even the most powerful of contemporary machines (50MHz 486 if you had one states the review) to their knees because of that. Sadly, although it scores highly for looks, it's only average in the other areas, so ends up with a 3/5 score. 

The highest rated is Falcom 3.0, which is no surprise to anyone who knows their flight sim stuff. It could run on a 16MHz 286 with 1Mb of RAM, but was really comfortable with a 33MHz 386 and double the memory. This is something of a pattern in the genre, where those, mostly older sims, that could be run on as 12-16MHz 286 (Harrier Jump Jet, F117A, ATAC, Jetfighter 2: Special Edition, and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat), only Chuck was truly happy on such a machine, and for the rest, you'd need some flavour of 386, at 33MHz or better recommended. AV8B Harrier Assault, and Tornado demanded a 16MHz 386 as a minimum, and only F-15 Strike Eagle III was strict with its minimum requirements matching the recommended spec as per the article. As for Strike Commander's minimum? 33MHz 486 and 4Mb of RAM. 

TFX is a flight sim classic, getting a proper drilling over six pages, and ending in a five star rating. Rightly so. What is interesting, at least to me, are the comments about the specs required. Basic says a 25MHz 386, but 2Mb is not enough, four being really the minimum. As for the processor, a 486 would be better, and there's a lovely little chat with Martin Kenwright, Managing Director of developers Digital Image Design, which you can see below:

In his opinion, the 486DX 33MHz is the "most common format," and the 386 has to have allowances made for, but basically, get a DX/2 66 if you can!

Privateer is up next, and another space sim from Origin Systems. Not quite as sublime as Elite it seems, acheiving a 4/5, but at least that 8-bit wonder didn't need a DX/2 486 to run well. Also, can you see a pattern forming here about recommended gaming specs?

Return to Zork (4/5) tries to bring life back into a long-running franchise, and does a decent job, even if you need a good spec to handle the video sections, but that would also require you to have the CD-ROM version. For those still rocking the floppy, you got the game with more limited animations, lost 25Mb of drive space, and you had to rattle through the 12(!) floppies for the pleasure. 

Speaking of specs, there is a feature asking "Is your 386 enough?" where industry peeps are questioned on the long term prospects of Intel's chip. And, gentle reader, it does not make easy reading. Essentially, the UK developers are aiming at the US market, and that was far more advanced than the UK one. Sales figures support the push for the 486, certainly from EA's point of view, with Strike Commander selling around 150,000 units already! The 486 is the future. As a neat demonstration, four games are detailed showing what the extra power could deliver. 

For context, you could get a basic 486SX running at 25MHz for less than a grand including VAT, as evidenced by the adverts from a handy copy of Personal Computer World dated September '93. 386's were even cheaper, with Evesham flogging practically end of line Amstrad 7386's for under £650 - not a long term investment to be sure, but not too shabby either. As always, the more you spent, the better the spec. A DX/2 66 was closer to a grand and a half by the time you added the bells and whistles. 

Worth spending the extra £100 plus VAT.

That £60 spare from a grand would get you a sound card... just nothing to hear it with. 

Continuing with the games reviews, Lost in Time is as an adventure game from Coktel Vision that looks all fancy but suffers from niggling issues, resulting is a 3/5 score, which is the same rating as CyberRace, a futuristic racer that taxes anything under a 486DX, and even then can struggle. 

Flight Sim 5.0 also suffers a hammering (3/5) for being too similar to version four, despite the 256-colour graphics, making it one for only the most dedicated of fans. 

Hex is the word when it comes to V for Vistory: Gold-Juno-Sword, a traditional wargame that, in your author's humble opinion, looks absolutely fantastic, and get a proud 4/5. 

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons gets an airing in Dark Sun - Shattered Lands, but maybe shouldn't have with a disappointing 2/5, a result of being overly reliant on combat. 

A pair of NFL games (must be the simulation genre), give fans of the sport options, with NFL Coaches Club Football (3/5), and Front Page Sports Football  Pro (3/5) being both somewhat average and packing overly long titles. 

Chess fans (this is more your traditional PC game, surely?) are given the treat of Kasparov's Gambit (3/5), along with some seriously moody shots of Gary. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

Meanwhile, World War II: Battles of the South Pacific plays nothing like a game(!) for the faint of heart as it takes an overly comprehensive view of that theatre of conflict and is off-putting for those unwilling/unable to put in the effort. 3/5. 

Page 82 has an opinion column whose tone is as feisty as mine can be when I find a suitable soap box. The un-named author berates the fascination of CD-ROM being the future, noting that although it offers a great deal of storage (for the time, you understand), that space is being wasted on flash graphics and full motion videos, instead of code for gameplay. Can't say I disagree with the point of view. That would change, but yeah, flashy video and naff all fun was very much a thing back then. 

A short round up of games takes up the next two pages, from The Lord of the Rings (4/5) to the disastrous Street Fighter 2 PC port (1/5). A quick gander at the minimum specs for eachs show just one (Classic Golf - 4/5) able to play on 286-based machines, whereas all of the others need 32-bit chippery. 

Two player's guides provide advice and help for those tackling Tornado and X-Wing, before we arrive at the previews section where Alone in the Dark 2, Frontier: Elite II, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, Beneath a Steel Sky, Stonekeep, Dreamweb, and Fables and Fiends: The Hand of Fate are revealed to the world. 

Betwixt these is another column, this one penned by Stephen Harper and he's not a happy chap either - originality in gaming is a rare thing and maybe accountants shouldn't decide which games are published, e.g. samey sequels etc. Oh, Steve, bless. He wasn't wrong then, and isn't now, but these days, the indie developer scene is very much an antidote to the cookie cutter AAA-titles that populate the charts. 

That's it for the editorial gubbins, so now to the adverts!

The inside cover has a two-pager from Special Reserve, a multi-store retail club which was a go to shop when I had my Amiga. It's all PC stuff here, and the prices are pretty decent. Membership was £7 for the year at this point (it was something like £4 when I first joined), and, ooohhhhh! Speaking of membership, check out that Mega PC offer - yours for just £499, guaranteeing you a place in the UK Retro Gaming Youtuber Society! I mean, it's pretty much de rigueur for wannabe members to do a video on this box, so there we are. Also, check out the prices - £30-ish for new releases equates to about £65 now, so like for like, they were slightly better value than modern day titles, although there's a load of caveats here too... dev costs, packaging, retail route etc.

Magic Media is trying to pimp up your box with soundcards and CD-ROM drives galore. £58 for a basic Sound Blaster card is cheaper than even the Special place, but adding a ROM drive was a tad pricey. You could slum it with that single speed (150KB/s) Mitsumi drive for £135, but you'd be far better off with a double speed (300KB/s) doofer. The Panasonic is only £40 more, but other brands were double the Mitsumi's price, which does make one wonder just how popular they were. 

There's a couple of smaller mail order games retailers and publisher specific ads, including this one for Kingmaker. I've never played the computer version but have had the pleasure of a few games back in the day with the TWATS (Tantobie Warfare And Tactical Society). The physical game can be a riot, so I may have to investigate the computer version further, although I very much doubt it could replicate the feeling of a four player pub session...

There's also a trio of ads from Silica - cos it ain't a 90's computer magazine without Silica. 

First up is this one for Citizen printers... like, duuuuuuude! It's a games mag!

Next is this one for CD-ROM drives, and that trusty Mitsumi number there. The Panasonic offering was the much better value of the two though. 

If you have a CD drive, you must also want a sound card, and Silica have the Sound Galaxy range for you to choose from. Personally speaking, I'd always pick a genuine Sound Blaster, but buyer's choice.

The final ad of note is this one from Computer Exchange. Yep, this funky looking effort is a print ad for CEX long before it was called CEX. Small acorns and the power of franchising.

So that was a look through issue one of PC Player. Great production values, very good writing, and pitched perfectly to sixteen year old me (even without a suitable PC), this read through brought back memories. I did have all eleven issues before the sudden and saddening termination of the mag, although I've no idea where those copies went, and it was only by chance I picked up this example for a totally not stupid price (as I write this, there's a buy it now offer for a copy of issue one on e-Bay for £24.95!). That being said, if you want to check out more issues of PC Player, the Out of Print Archive has the first five issues to view and download (with permission as well). They also have a massive array of other publications too, so definitely check them out.

I shall leave you with a couple of images of previews for titles that are today considered absolute classics:

Run 'N' Gun by Dave Cook - Book Review

One of the joys of a growing library of books about videogames is that the result of reading them is a broadening of my horizons. A prime example of this is Run 'N' Gun from Bitmap Books. As I perused the contents page of this near 500-page behemoth, it rapidly became apparent that outside of a couple of examples (The Ascent and My Friend Pedro), I'd played nothing contained within that had been released this century. Looking further back, only the inclusion of the first third of Die Hard Trilogy permitted me to say I'd played a run and gunner to completion this decade - and that was for a Fusion Retro article! Had I fallen so low in my esteem for video games? Or was I just having that all too common experience of being middle-aged and just not having enough time in the day to do this stuff?

After slurping a good amount of Ringtons tea and settling my nerves, I set about this volume with gusto, revelling in yet another classy, and classic, publication from the ever-reliable publishing house of Bitmap. 

From the introduction and preface by the author, Dave Cook, and a pair of forewords (Keiji Inafune - Capcom and the Mega Man series, and Chad and Jared Moldenhauer - Cuphead), it is clear that the run and gun category of videogames is both beloved, and one that has graced many a platform - some eighty listed here. Add to the mix the design by Sam Dyer, contributions from Kurt Kalata, Graeme Mason, SEGA Lord X, and Chris Scullion, as well as the visual contributions by Paul McNally, Julien Fouillat, and Jorge M. Velez, and what you have here is a tome that tells you almost everything you need to know about this ever-green corner of the videogames world. 

Chronological in order, each entry receives at least a half page. Some get a full page, but no matter which option is used, the reader is presented with details of the game's plot, the author's opinion, and at least one screenshot. Key releases are permitted several pages, adding deep dives, classic moments and the like. Everything is cleanly laid out and the visuals, as is typical of the publisher, pop out of the page. The explanations, bon-mots, and commentary inform and entertain, demonstrating a clear affection towards the type yet without varnishing any flaws or issues, and given the sheer array of entries, a lot of effort has been put into this tome. As for the period covered, we start off in 1980 with Wizard of Wor, and end with 2023's Prison City. Fittingly, the last pages are dedicated to the finishing sequences of a curated selection.

The funniest thing about reading this book was that as I progressed through the ages, I realised that I had played an awful lot more run and gunners than I realised, just a very long time ago. How could I have forgotten Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters? Truly a game I played the heck out of as I awaited replacement F29 Retaliator disks as the copy bundled with my Amiga A500 was one of the bugged ones. Or Rambo III on the Mega Drive and its joyous/annoying over-the-shoulder archery antics? Or Alien Breed? Alien 3? The Chaos Engine? 

Contemplating this enlightenment, I found the true worth of this book, its Bitmap brethren in general, and those of other publishers. It's not just learning about games, it's about wanting to play them. As such, a trip to Steam, GOG, and the "archives" (cough!) meant that I had a couple of weeks over the Christmas period experiencing a goodly selection mentioned within Run 'N' Gun's pages. I decided that my love of videogames was as strong as ever, just that this adulting malarkey had gotten in the way a bit. With that comforting thought, I brewed another mug of Ringtons and fired up Cuphead.

Run 'N' Gun is another high quality Bitmap Books wonder and one that really should be on your shelves. Certainly my first read through (because there will be many a future referral to this tome) re-opened my eyes to not only the classics I had played, but many that I had not, and it was worth carving out the spare time to give them a go. 

You can pick up or order a copy of Run 'N' Gun from the usual physical and online book stores as you prefer. For me, I always try to use the publisher's website here. However you do so, you really do owe it to yourself to giving this excellent book a read!