WWW.OLDSCHOOLGAMERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE #9 • MARCH 2019 FULL PAGE AD MARCH 2019 • ISSUE #9 SIMULATIONS PEOPLE AND PLACES The Sims Game Swappers of SoCal! 06 BY TODD FRIEDMAN 41 BY AARON BURGER SIMULATIONS PEOPLE AND PLACES Turn and Burn Frank Schwartraubner 08 BY PATRICK HICKEY JR. 42 BY MARC BURGER SIMULATIONS NEWS Fox’s Game: Lucasfilm, Mirage... Video Games Debut at Heritage Auctions 10 BY SHAUN JEX 43 BY BRETT WEISS SIMULATIONS REVIEWS Driver and Driver 2 New Books on Old School Gaming Topics 12 BY CONOR MCBRIEN 44 BY RYAN BURGER AND RIC PRYOR MICHAEL THOMASSON’S JUST 4 QIX COLLECTOR INFO Behind Enemy Lines Super Nintendo Pricer 14 BY MICHAEL THOMASSON 45 PRESENTED BY PRICECHARTING.COM BRETT’S OLD SCHOOL BARGAIN BIN NEWS Asteroids and Beamrider Great Retro Shops 16 BY BRETT WEISS 50 BY OLD SCHOOL GAMER REVIEWS Flip Grip: Bullet Heaven 20 BY ROB FARALDI REVIEWS Old Atari on Switch... 22 BY RYAN BURGER AND RIC PRYOR FEATURE Entering the Digitized Era - Part 1 24 BY WARREN DAVIS FEATURE Intruder Alert...Intruder Alert! 26 BY KEVIN BUTLER PRATT AT THE ARCADE Publisher Design Assistant Con Staff Leader Ryan Burger Marc Burger Paige Burger The Wonderful World of Arcade Simulators Editorial Board BY ADAM PRATT Editor Art Director 32 Brian Szarek Thor Thorvaldson Dan Loosen Doc Mack PEOPLE AND PLACES Business Manager Editorial Consultant Billy Mitchell Aaron Burger Dan Walsh Dan Kitchen: 2600 to Modern and Back Walter Day 35 BY OLD SCHOOL GAMER PEOPLE AND PLACES HOW TO REACH Postmaster – Send address changes to: OSG • 222 SE Main St • Grimes IA 50111 OLD SCHOOL GAMER: Dr. Mario and Packie Postage paid at Grimes, IA and other mailing locations. 515-986-3344 BY STEVE DELUCA www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com Old School Gamer Magazine 36 (ISSN# 2574-8076 ONLINE/2574-8068 PRINT) PEOPLE AND PLACES Subscriptions, address changes, or back issues is published by BC Productions, Inc. go to: www.oldschoolgamermagazine.com, 222 SE Main St • Grimes, IA 50111 Buying With The Captain! or contact Old School Gamer by mail at: 222 SE Main St • Grimes IA 50111 Copyright © 2018 by BC Productions, Inc. BY RYAN BURGER All rights reserved. Reproduction of copy, photography, Back issues (if available): $6 plus shipping 38 or artwork is prohibited without permission of the Subscription rates: US and possessions: $30 for 1 year publisher. All advertising material subject to pub- Shipping address: OSG • 222 SE Main St • Grimes IA 50111 lisher’s approval. TO ADVERTISE IN OLD SCHOOL GAMER OR WORK WITH US ON SOMETHING ELSE, CALL 515-986-3344 x300 OR EMAIL [email protected] 4 OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #9 MARCH 2019 • WWW.OLDSCHOOLGAMERMAGAZINE.COM 5 SIMULATIONS The Sims By Todd Friedman ou can’t talk about the history Y of simulation games without mentioning The Sims. The name itself is short for simulation. The Sims series is game would be called “The Sims”. According of the time you can come back to the game widely considered on the top of the list to an interview he did with “Gamasutra”, and start where you left off, however, there of franchise games. The Sims series has Wright explains that he did not have enough are exceptions such as love. If your character sold over 200 million copies worldwide money or sponsorship to originally produce is romantic when you leave the game, there the game. “They never gave me any money is a chance they will either be serious or and fans of The Sims franchise are online for it, either, so I never got the advances. I separated, depending on the nature of the like never before. Hundreds of millions wasn’t in any real financial obligation. So, it situation. Energy is a big factor in playing a of player-created content have been just sat on the shelf for several years. The successful Sims game. There are two ways shared and downloaded by one of the Commodore version was all done; it was just to increase Energy – sleep and coffee. Sleep never published”. is the better solution, and the better the most active player communities in the Finally, The Sims was published in early bed (or couch in the case of naps, the more world and the viral appeal of The Sims 2000 on the Microsoft Windows platform energy you receive in less time. If you fail to is further evidenced by its 30 million by Electronic Arts. The title was published get to sleep or drink some coffee before your fans across global social networks. by William Wright’s company Maxis. Taking Sims’ Energy bar hits Pure Red, then he will There are other amazing statistics about on one family at a time, you try to guide collapse on the floor and sleep there. Your your characters to success in life, love, Sim will wake up with no Comfort, and far the franchise - as of September 2018, and the workplace. Along the way, you less Energy than if he had slept in a bed. So, The Sims app has been downloaded develop friendships, work your way up the before the energy gets too low, send the Sim 41 million times, sold over 25 million career ladder, and try to keep your Sims fed to bed. dollars to date with mobile gaming and happy. You control their every move. Sims 2 takes place in Strangetown alone. That puts the total number of Decisions they make is up to you, the gamer. – a location featured on all versions of Without successful decisions, you can see the game and share common characters players that have played the game at the characters diminish and notice they will between them. With great new environ- approximately 80 million. The Sims have no future. There are so many decisions ments, expanded character customization, franchise has generated more than 3 it can keep the average gamer hooked for and new ways to cook and prepare food are billion dollars in revenue, putting them hours on end. As the game goes on, there just some of the new abilities in The Sims 2. is personal interaction between the char- The Sims 2 provided many more challenges in the same class as the blockbuster acters. Some decisions result in negative for ardent fans of this simulated life genre. films Titanic and Avatar. actions from the character, such as pushing Your Sims now come with dreams and goals away someone who wants to give a back that you must try to fulfill. The game also The Sims was designed and created by rub, pulling someone out of the bathroom so has a genetic component that lets Sims pass William Wright. Years before The Sims game they can pee, or becoming disappointed due their own traits down to their kids. Children was a reality, William designed the ever- to being shot down romantically. You see a and teenagers now have homework and their popular game Sim City. This game would variety of emotions on the characters as well, grades rise or fall depending on whether let you be your own architect by creating such as kindness, sadness, and even anger, they finish it or not. Teenagers can hold jobs buildings, roads, parks, schools and fire which can turn into a fist fight. Each Sim has as well as go to school, but if their grades stations, to name a few. The idea would be eight needs that constantly need to be met, drop too low, they can lose their job. Like to build your own unique city or town while and at most you also pleasing the people living there. The can satisfy 2 or 3 first release of this game was in 1989 and was needs at a time. primarily for the Commodore 64. Numerous sequels followed in the following years as Y o u the popularity grew to historic numbers. The control the whole one variable you could not control was the neighborhood; people. They would be computer generated however, you start and their actions depended on the design one house at a of your world. William thought of the idea time. If there is to create a new simulation game that would not an action in allow you to control all aspects of the indi- the house, nothing vidual inside the virtual playground. This will happen. Most 6 OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #9 in the first Sims game, a mother Sim and a songs for guitar players, fishing, writing, and as the infection spread throughout the father Sim can have a child. Also, children gardening and painting to name a few. game’s world, so did debate on the message can be made at the start of the game or In 2014, the last and most current Sims boards. Players finally traced it back to pet received from an adoption service. You can game was released - The Sims 4. All new guinea pigs and shared tips for surviving the even create custom Sims that look like you. locations came with this version such as outbreak. There were many spinoff Sims Other improvements include “wants” and piano bars, libraries, nightclubs, and a dense, games that were not a part of the four regular “fears”. These change when a want or fear is activity-loaded park that is the game’s public versions. A few examples of these spinoffs completed or when the Sim wakes up from hub. One of the new features of this release included The Urbz: Sims in the City, a console sleep. One of the biggest changes in Sims is Multitasking. Examples include such only game taking place in a hip city setting; 2 is that a Sim can go to a community lot (a activities as greeting visitors without putting The Sims Stories, a spinoff series using goal- place in town like a store or a park).