Jeremy Parish

September bonus #2: Famimaga Video issue 5 (May 1989) (Patreon)

Published:

2023-09-10 13:15:04

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

Famimaga exclusive game boy vhs

Content

Good Sunday to ya. Here's another bonus upload—the next issue in the Famimaga Video series. Do you call a VHS tape an issue? This transmedia stuff is a semantic nightmare, I tell ya.

What's not a nightmare is the material covered this issue (if that's what we're calling it?). The Game Boy launch! EarthBound Beginnings! New Mega Drive and PC Engine releases! Also, SD Gundam. Ah well.

If you are able, i.e. have the life experience to do so, I recommend casting your mind back to when you were a child obsessed with Nintendo games and whose only source for new info on upcoming releases came in the form of the half-dozen magazines published on the top each month. Actual running footage of this material was almost impossible to come by. Famimaga Video must have been absolutely mind-blowing at the time—a magazine preview that allowed you to see the games in action rather than trying to decrypt their workings from smeary photos of hastily captured game screens. I mean, this is showcasing direct feed of Game Boy, at the console's launch. I'd happily have dropped $20 bucks—the cost of an annual Nintendo Power subscription at the time, for the record—to get my hands on one of these bad boys. Man, kids in Japan didn't know how good they had it.

Anyway, that's my excuse for posting these things. I realize that not everyone necessarily shares my enthusiasm for reimagining my own childhood game fandom in a richer form.

Files

Famimaga Video 1989-05 [Issue 5] VHS Rip

A video rip of the third issue of Family Magazine's video companion series, which ran for a couple of years during the peak Bubble Economy days. This one finally brings some fresh content to the series after three tapes dominated by Super Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy II, and Famista ’88. The main features here are an SD Gundam game (boo) and the Game Boy's debut (hoorah), which includes some beautiful GB direct feed capture from what appears to be the rare and desirable Wide Boy, the precursor to Super Game Boy which Nintendo only made available to developers and media. Tons of other interesting items here, culminating in a breathless preview of Nintendo's own Dragon Quest clone, a little game called Mother... 0:43 Contents 1:15 PREVIEWS 1:20 SD Gundam World: Gatchapon Senshi 2: Capsule Senki 4:10 Game Boy 4:15 Super Mario Land 5:53 Baseball 6:32 Alleyway 6:53 Yakuman 7:22 FEATURES 7:30 Dragon Spirit 10:11 Genghis Khan 12:35 River City Ransom 15:42 Dragon Buster II 18:23 TRAILERS 18:25 Ganbare Goemon 18:55 Hoops 19:25 HARDWARE 19:29 Famicom Titler 20:25 ULTRA TECHNIQUE 20:44 Super Mario series 21:44 Super Mario Bros. 3 22:15 Ganbare Goemon 22:27 Final Fantasy II 23:00 Gradius II 23:18 Mega Man 2 23:31 Famista ’88 23:42 Family Mahjong II 23:52 PC ENGINE FAN 23:57 Twin Cobra 26:53 P-47: The Freedom Fighter 29:43 Pac-Land 32:10 UL-TECH WONDERLAND 32:14 SonSon II 32:32 Space Harrier 32:58 Fantasy Zone 33:24 Fighting Street 18:23 TRAILERS 33:48 Game Boy Commercial 34:18 Famicom Jump Hero Retsuden 33:33 MEGA DRIVE FAN 34:38 Super League 37:31 BOKUTACHI GAME CENTER 37:37 Turbo OutRun 40:29 SCOOP! 40:35 EarthBound Beginnings 42:02 Outro Recorded from a JVC Super VHS video deck and upscaled to 720p via Retrotink 5X. Note that this upload includes a couple of brief skips/gaps due to the age and condition of the video tape, which lost sync in two spots—nothing essential, though. You may freely use portions of this video for your own work as needed! All I ask for my efforts in getting this material online is a small source credit in your video or footnotes.