I’m a huge Castlevania fan, but oddly enough; I’ve never finished Vampire Killer on the MSX2. Join me as I attempt to beat this game, in my first real attempt.

During the Holidays, I had the opportunity to visit a local video game store that was closing down. It’s been years since I’ve been there, but I came to find out that the owner was not doing good health-wise and was getting out of the business. As such, a lot of the merchandise that he had at his house was now in boxes all over the store. I did a lot of digging and didn’t find too much with the exception of this Atari Jaguar folder, full of official press releases and more. I filmed a quick video on it to discuss my findings:

Well, after receiving several comments from people asking me to scan the documents, I did so. They are not of the highest quality, but I will be rescanning them at some point. You can access the files right here.

Like many others in 1993, I spent a lot of money at the arcade, dropping token after token into NBA Jam. I was ten years old at the time, and our state basketball team, the Chicago Bulls were tearing through the NBA for championship gold for the third year in a row. NBA Jam was the perfect combination of everything I was enthralled with at the time – The Bulls and video games, even if the game didn’t have Michael Jordan in it.

26 years later, Boss Fight Books had announced that one of the books they would be releasing in 2019 would be by Reyan Ali on the story behind NBA Jam. I was initially pretty shocked at the announcement. In my mind, NBA Jam was just a simple sports game and probably had a pretty minimum amount of history behind its development and rise to fame. I was very wrong. Reyan’s book took me to school on just how great of a story NBA Jam had behind it and opened my eyes to how much love was put into this game.

NBA Jam (the book) does a fantastic job of not just documenting some of the trials and tribulations of the game during development but also digs deep and points out some significant moments in the developers’ past experiences that would help shape NBA Jam. After reading the book, I’m almost ashamed that I didn’t realize just how much legendary talent was behind this incredible arcade game. Mark Turmell, Eugene Jarvis, and Roger Sharpe are only a few of the people that had a hand in releasing this game to the masses, and its all detailed in this book. How did Midway bounce back when the NBA Jam franchise was basically snatched away from them? You need to read the book to find out, trust me; it’s worth it.

It is very apparent that Reyan Ali spent several years researching and speaking to people involved not just with developing the game, but those who were involved with it as fans too. These fans range from FAQ writers to even NBA superstars like Shaquille O’Neal. It is incredible how much of an influence NBA Jam had, and now it is carefully curated in this book. If you’ve ever played a game of NBA Jam, you owe yourself to hear the story behind this game. 

NBA Jam by Reyan Ali – Buy from Boss Fight Books 

Final Fantasy VIII is undoubtedly the most polarizing entry in the long-running series of games. I was a 16-year-old teenager when this game was released on 9.9.99 and was able to play the game a week early due to my part-time job at a video store. I instantly fell in love with the story, but many of my friends were confused about the sequel. Some of the most common comments were, “Where is Cloud and Tifa?” or “What happened to Midgar?”. I fought many battles championing what was great about the game, but many of my friends didn’t care.

It was 20 years ago when I finished Final Fantasy VIII, and despite the continued bashing of the game from the game community, I always wanted to revisit it. That time finally came this month with the release of Final Fantasy VIII Remastered. I downloaded the game as soon as it launched on the Nintendo Switch eShop and started my walk down memory lane. Does the game still hold up? Watch my video and find out!

Mike shares his thoughts about the Mortal Kombat and Final Fight arcade cabinets from Arcade1UP.