Combing Through the Pages: Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine Issue #1

Every now and again, I think about how the debut issue of the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine rolled out with a “Ghost in the Shell” cover.

I always keep this among a group of sleeved and protected magazines. Even though this likely isn’t all that valuable compared to something like Nintendo Power #1, I have a lot of nostalgia for this issue. I would definitely say the Ghost in the Shell image caught my attention, and then finding a demo disc attached to it sealed the deal on purchasing this one.

Since I really like video games, it should come as no surprise that I also really like video gaming magazines. At times I leaf through issues of magazines such as Tips & Tricks, Electronic Gaming Monthly and Nintendo Power, and I would share bits and pieces of that content through tweets. After a handful of issues, I figured I should really just collect these thoughts and make proper features out of them for GemuBaka. That’s what brings us to the start of this series, and the topic of the most-recent magazine I read, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine Issue #1!

To preface this and get it out of the way – if you came here expecting to find a PDF or similar file that provides a perfectly-scanned collection of every single page of this magazine … I’m afraid you won’t find that here. The intent of this feature is to break down the magazine featured and then roll in my personal thoughts and experiences on the subject matter, along with tying those points into features on GemuBaka when it is applicable.

Still, I’m willing to do you the solid of pointing this out.

Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, was published by Ziff-Davis Inc., October 1997

The cover of my issue of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine Issue #1, published by Ziff-Davis, October 1997

I absolutely recall stumbling upon this issue on the newsstand. The only full newsstand in the town I grew up in was inside a Walmart location, and this was before the company expanded into the “supercenter” concept with the full grocery store included. A few stores would come and go over the years that would have a video games section such as On Cue/Sam Goody (predominately a music store) and a couple of department stores lost to time like Big Wheel, but Walmart was the only real “dependable” video game supplier in my town. As I am typing this in 2023, Walmart remains the one and only single place in my town you can buy a video game.

As such, I also had to depend on Walmart for my video gaming magazines and strategy guides. The desire to play Parappa the Rapper is likely why I had to have the demo disc that was included, probably seconded by some curiosity surrounding Fighting Force. At a mere $8, I figured anything else the publication and disc provided was just an added bonus.

But the timing of this magazine’s release was very strange, as Sony itself had just recently rolled out the concept of its own “CD magazine,” the PlayStation Underground, roughly six months earlier. Issue one of PlayStation Underground was a freebie that was sent to people who registered through promotions with Sony’s PlayStation products. The big selling point of this was in receiving video game demos, but, in hindsight, PlayStation Underground was a step ahead of what we are used to in today’s internet age: you had the ability to download save files to your memory card for game unlocks, watch behind the scenes videos, interviews and trailers, and see what was on the horizon with import news and demos.

PlayStation Underground then moved to a subscription-based quarterly format, so the concept of Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine having the meaty portion of those discs most likely to attract players – the game demos – seemed like it would eat away at the appeal of the CD magazine from Sony.

PlayStation Underground still upheld an impressive run up to the launch of the PlayStation 2, and the concepts sort of merged together when Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine began offering its PS2-based discs. PlayStation Underground still remains a wild concept to me to this date, and it’s something that will absolutely get revisited over time on GemuBaka.

“From the Editor,” Wataru Maruyama, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, page 6, Ziff-Davis Inc., October 1997

I’ll note that Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine was formerly the publication P.S.X. I’m guessing the Ghost in the Shell coverage was arranged before the switch to OPM became official, but the porting of the game to the United States has an interesting note that will be touched on when we get to discussing that preview in the magazine.

The issue doesn’t seem to offer any real explanation as to why the conversion was made, but Editor in Chief Wataru Maruyama notes, “With the PlayStation being the machine where all the hot gaming is taking place, it’s painfully obvious why there is a need for the most authoritative source of information about this beloved console.” Maruyama adds the change won’t create any bias. “I’d like to make it clear to our readers that you will always get our 100 percent honest opinions about everything and anything. There are no biases for or against anyone just because we are an ‘official’ PlayStation magazine.”

Also of note on the cover, Final Fantasy VII kind of gets tucked into the corner. This was the October 1997 issue, so this would have been on newsstands in September. In fairness, given the lead time needed to put together a magazine, I’m sure no one had any idea exactly how massively successful this game would ultimately be at that point in time.

A summation of my overall thoughts on revisiting this issue in 2023 is this was a pretty cool issue with some interesting newsbits, and it even dabbled into Japanese culture a little bit, discussing the newest Street Fighter manga, Battle Arena Toshinden anime releases, music CDs from SNK and recent Japanese game developments that included Zero Divide 2 and Bloody Roar. There is also a weird amount of space reserved to previewing the game Vs. and a lot of really cool game advertisements – 1997 was still very fighting game heavy even though other genres were starting to establish more of a foothold.

Obviously, the disc is what made me jump at the purchase in 1997, but after reading through the issue in 2023, this was actually a well put-together magazine that gives a reader a snapshot of the PlayStation gaming scene in 1997. Despite being U.S. PlayStation affiliated, the magazine offers segments that matched what other independent magazines were doing at the time in covering Japanese game releases and media.

The cover

Published by Ziff Davis, The Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine is labeled with Volume 1, Issue 1, in its premiere issue for the month of October 1997.

I’ve discussed this before with an issue of Tips & Tricks that featured Street Fighter III, but this cover of OPM is very simple. You get a white backdrop with black and red text, but this plain backdrop really makes the image of Motoko Kusanagi pop off the cover.

The issue also promises updates on Deathtrap Dungeon, Nightmare Creatures and Jet Moto 2.

PlayStation News

OPM #1 breaks the news that Namco formed a partnership with Squaresoft/Dream Factory to develop a new fighting game for the Namco System 12 hardware. At this time, it was only noted that more would be unveiled at the September 1997 JAMMA show, but we obviously know now that the game in question would become Ehrgeiz.

News also broke that ASC was canceling its Colliderz project, Working Designs had signed a deal to release Alundra in the in United States, Midway had just finished a 35-city tour to promote the new Mortal Kombat 4, administration changes were underway at Playmates Interactive and Konami, Acclaim announced the development of NBA Jam ’98, a partnership was arranged for Midway to distribute Crystal Dynamics titles in the United States and Namco had announced the PlayStation’s GunCon peripheral would be packaged together with a PlayStation release of Time Crisis.

Reader Letters

“Letters,” Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Ziff-Davis, Inc., October 1997

Much like any other magazine at the time, OPM featured a section that replied to a selection of letters sent to the publication. One letter does stand out among the others, which is based on a reader’s frustration that Konami was changing the cover art for the upcoming release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

The reader points out the “widely discussed” Street Fighter Alpha cover art used on the longbox release in the United States, and the backlash to that resulted in Capcom sticking with Japanese-developed art from that time forward. The reader then continues to talk about how ugly they think the U.S. Suikoden cover artwork is, and then professes they called Konami directly to talk about Castlevania.

GemuBaka has a full feature on the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in the United States, and based on the archived material available, it actually doesn’t surprise me that a Konami representative would be so forthright about sharing such information. Konami released a Q&A in 1997 from U.S. producer Mike Gallo based on the game, and it didn’t seem like he backed down from trying to answer questions submitted in regard to any of the changed content. Again, readers might not like the answers, but, in my opinion, they read as honest answers that go as deep as a PR person would be allowed to go for a game company.

Based on that phone call, the magazine reader discloses the following tidbits: the higher-ups at Konami’s U.S. division thought the original Japanese art for Akumajō Dracula X: Gekka no Yasōkyoku [悪魔城ドラキュラX 月下の夜想曲 – “Demon Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight”] was “too feminine” and Americans don’t care about cover art; and Symphony of the Night was intended for a September release, but Konami didn’t want to compete with Final Fantasy VII and decided to move to October to tie in with Halloween.

Seeing as exact release dates for games for U.S. games preceding the seventh generation (360/PS3/Wii) are hard to pin down, the proposed September release of Castlevania fascinates me. This is because, per this reader’s phone call, Symphony of the Night was slated for an Oct. 10, 1997, release in the United States. Konami of U.S. issued its press release of Castlevania’s launch on Oct. 7, 1997, but Konami’s own Castlevania portal lists Oct. 2, 1997, which seems to be the widely-accepted release date for the game.

Other letters inquired about whether P.S.X. would ever offer demo discs (coincidental timing!), whether the PlayStation could play the cutting-edge technology of the DVD (no), if there are plans for a home release of X-Men Vs. Street Fighter and the development of Crash Bandicoot 3 (sort of yes for the PlayStation version of XvSF, and eventually yes on CB3), the concern of companies jumping on Resident Evil’s popularity and releasing a bunch of survival horror clones (a.k.a., “the Doom effect”) and if Command & Conquer Red Alert would release on PlayStation (yes).

PlayStation Top 20

The best-selling U.S. PlayStation titles as reported by top retailers as of the printing of this issue:
1. Triple Play 98 (Electronic Arts)
2. Twisted Metal 2 (Sony)
3. Jampack Vol. 1 (demo disc arranged by Sony)
4. Wild Arms (Sony)
5. Need For Speed II (EA)
6. Twisted Metal (Sony)
7. Jet Moto (Sony)
8. Tekken 2 (Namco)
9. Crash Bandicoot (Sony)
10. WCW Vs. the World (THQ)
11. Tomb Raider (Eidos)
12. NBA Shootout 97 (Sony)
13. Soul Blade (Namco)
14. Rage Racer (Namco)
15. VMX Racing (Playmates Interactive)
16. NBA Live 97 (EA)
17. MLB 98 (Sony)
18. Test Drive Off Road (Accolade)
19. Rally Cross (Sony)
20. Resident Evil (Capcom)

Interesting to me that both Twisted Metal and its sequel are included in the list. OPM seems surprised to see Jampack Vol. 1 on the list, but it provided a decent amount of playable demos at a price of just a few bucks and was a newer retail concept for its time, so I would honestly believe it would move well in regard to the number of units sold compared to anything like revenue earned.

In fact, depending on how little effort was made to put the demo disc together, it could have been fairly profitable. Let’s let you be the judge: How appealing would it be for you to get playable demos of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Herc’s Adventures, Dynasty Warriors, Machine Hunter, Rage Racer, MDK, Thunder Truck Rally, Codename: Tenka, NBA Shootout 97, Rally Cross and Pitfall 3D for $4.99 in 1997?

There is also a lot of sports representation on the list, but this issue also hit newsstands just before the “generally-accepted holiday season.” Still, I can’t turn a blind eye to how big of an industry leader Sony was in the sports genre in the early PlayStation years – the original NBA Shootout remains one of my favorite sports games of all time.

Also based on surveys, here are the top 10 most wanted games as of this time frame (to give you an idea of what would eventually work its way into the top sellers):

From readers:
1.Tekken 3
2. Resident Evil 2
3. Tomb Raider 2
4. Crash Bandicoot 2
5. Metal Gear Solid
6. Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi
7. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
8. Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha
9. NFL GameDay 98
10. Spawn

Time would tell us that readers would likely be disappointed by the actual product of a couple of these releases …

From OPM editors:
1. Final Fantasy VII
2. Test Drive 4
3. Resident Evil 2
4. Tomb Raider 2
5. Rampage: World Tour
6. Metal Slug (import at this time)
7. MLB 98
8. NFL GameDay 98
9. Ace Combat 2
10. Jet Moto 2

After being able to play the game, the editors no doubt loved Final Fantasy VII. As I noted earlier, even though Final Fantasy VII had a lot of pre-release coverage, I don’t think the common consumer had bought into the hype at this point. As visible as the game was leading up to its release, I don’t believe anyone expected it to be as massively influential and lauded as the result the game received when it launched.

I’ll also note that the editors of OPM seemed to absolutely adore Ace Combat 2. Jet Moto also got pushed a lot by Sony, and its releases often reached greatest hits status. However, I couldn’t tell you a single person I personally know that actually likes this series. Jet Moto is definitely something I need to revisit to see if my opinion on it might have changed over the years.

The Demo Disc

Intelligent Qube (Sony) – 100% complete as of press time – proposed release of September 1997
Parappa the Rapper (Sony) – 100% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
Fighting Force (Eidos) – 85% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
Ace Combat 2 (Namco) – released as of press time
Tomb Raider 2 (Eidos) – 95% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
GameDay 98 (Sony) – 90% complete as of press time – proposed release of September 1997

Previews

Deathtrap Dungeon (Eidos) – 70% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
Pandemonium 2 (Midway) – 85% complete as of press time – proposed release of October 1997
Ray Tracers (THQ) – 90% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
Jet Moto 2 (Sony) – 75% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
C.A.R.T. World Series (Sony) – 90% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
Nightmare Creatures (Activision) – 90% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
NCAA GameBreaker (Sony) – 75% compelete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
Shadow Master (Psygnosis) – 75% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
NBA Fast Break (midway) – 80% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
Point Blank (Namco) – 95% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
Fantastic Four (Acclaim) – 85% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
Red Asphalt (Interplay) – 50% complete as of press time – proposed release of December 1997
Overboard (Psygnosis) – 90% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
Rampage World Tour (Midway) – 80% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
Youngblood (GT Interactive) – 50% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
Jimmy Johnson Football (Interplay) – 95% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
PGA Tour 98 (EA) – 80% complete as of press time – proposed release of “fourth quarter” 1997
Critical Depth (GT Interactive) – 80% complete as of press time – proposed release of November 1997
Vs. (THQ) – 75% complete as of press time – proposed release of October 1997

“Deathtrap Dungeon,” Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pages 40 and 41, Ziff-Davis Inc., October 1997

I need to search out Deathtrap Dungeon. I recall it getting trashed in reviews, but in previews and screenshots, it looks awesome. If a game sends me into a dungeon with a sword to fight things like a T. Rex, I need to find some sort of redeeming value in a game like this.

In fact, this list is filled with games I really need to revisit as I haven’t touched them since they released. This issue is also very much making me regret I never picked up a GunCon controller from Namco. I’d imagine I would still play Point Blank and Time Crisis to this day.

Internet videos also keep raising the attention, and thus the price, on Fantastic Four. This is such a curious game, and while I wouldn’t say it is good, it was a beat ’em up someone bothered to develop during the PlayStation era. I always gave it bonus points for that.

There is also an odd amount of space dedicated to Vs., which includes a little comic strip involving staff from the magazine. This is another fighting game I need to figure out, as it is absolutely bizarre.

International previews
Final Fantasy Complete Works and a Gal’s Island book were mentioned, along with soundtracks for Runabout (Felony 11-79) and soundtracks for Fatal Fury and Street Fighter Zero/Alpha. We are told U.S. releases of Policenauts, Tobal 2, Snatcher and Kowloon’s Gate are very unlikely, and all that is very true and sad. Even though Tobal No. 1 is a Squaresoft product, it was published in U.S. by Sony itself, likely to push the Final Fantasy VII demo discs. It goes to show you how hard Sony banked on the success of Final Fantasy VII.

Other import games are previewed, which include Einhander, Virtual Hiryu no Ken, Metal Slug, Samurai Shodown RPG, Gradius Gaiden, Zero Divide 2, Derby Stallion and Bloody Roar. An interesting mix of games, and a couple of those actually managed to release in the U.S.!

Reviews

Video Games
NFL GameDay 98 (Sony/PlayStation Athletic Department): 5/5
Croc (Fox Interactive/Argonaut Software Ltd.): 4/5
OddWorld: Abe’s Oddysee (GT Interactive/OddWorld Inhabitants): 4/5
Final Fantasy VII (SquareSoft): 5/5
MLB 98 (Sony/PlayStation Athletic Department): 3/5
Treasures of the Deep (Namco Hometek): 4/5
Bottom of the 9th ’97 (Konami): 3.5/5
Grand Tour Racing 98 (Activision/Eutechnyx): 3/5
Ace Combat 2 (Namco): 5/5
Felony 11-79 (ASCII Entertainment/Yanoman Games/Climax): 3/5
Porsche Challenge (Sony): 3.5/5
Bravo Air Race (THQ): 3/5

“Final Fantasy VII,” Joe Rybicki, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pages 86 and 87, Ziff-Davis Inc., October 1997

Nothing shocking to me here. I’d say OPM was quite kind overall, and at least the claim of unbias is echoed a bit here with the magazine not backing down on declaring a good share of Sony’s sports releases as “average.”

G.E.A.R. (Gadgets, Electronics, Arts and Recreation)
Samsung Compac Theater System 45 (Multimedia television and speaker system): 3/5
V3 Steering Wheel controller: 4/5
Grip Z controller (one-handed “RPG” controller): 2.5/5
Scuba XC-7 (head-mounted video display/”VR” headset): 1.5/5
Viz Media Super Street Fighter II “Cammy” manga: 4/5
Mixxzine (manga/anime comic compilations of series such as Sailor Moon, Magic Knight Rayearth): 4.5/5
Bandai import Final Fantasy VII character figures: 4/5
Star Wars Electronic Galactic Battle (basically the board game Electronic BattleShip, but with Star Wars branding): 4/5
Sticker Club (arcade/game center photo booths that print out stickers of photos you take in the booth; versions released by SNK and Namco that had arrived in the United States in 1997): SNK 4/5, Namco 3.5/5
No review score given, but anime video discs are mentioned, giving recommendations to Battle Angel, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Battle Arena Toshinden and Macross Plus The Movie.

Cover Story – Ghost in the Shell

“It found a voice … now it needs a body …”
Ghost in the Shell was set to receive a U.S. PlayStation game release courtesy of THQ, and OPM #1 gives readers at that time quite a primer on what the series is all about. Anime was still not very generally accepted in the U.S. in 1997, and game companies did a lot to try to change these animation concepts to “make them more appealing” to the American auidence. What some people might not know is, in the U.S., for quite some time Japanese animation was commonly referred to under the marketing term of “Japanimation,” and this is the timeframe where magazines were highlighting the art form under the proper Japanese names of anime and manga.

“Ghost in the Shell,” Wataru Maruyama, Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pages 108 and 109, Ziff-Davis Inc., October 1997

The interesting aspect of Ghost in the Shell coming to PlayStation was the game was a Sony Computer Entertainment International project, handled by Sony itself in Japan. However, it opted to not handle the release for the U.S. PlayStation, and THQ ended up with the game in its lap.

OPM interviewed Tetsuji Yamamoto, who produced the original game project in Japan for SCEI. At that time, the game had been in development for a year and a half, and Yamamoto had experience on projects that included I.Q. (Intelligent Qube), Jumping Flash and Jumping Flash 2 and Popolocrois (a Japanese-only RPG). Yamamoto said the most difficult part of the project was adapting the game’s world to match the manga, and it was intentionally decided to only allow players to control the vehicle in order to present a comic-based game that differed from others that would present characters such as Batman or Spider-Man.

According to THQ Producer Don Nauert, the U.S. company only needed to change some button configurations, screen text and then create a new voicing dub for the English audience. It is claimed no content censorship or adjustments were made in porting the game, as it is intended for an older audience.

Perhaps the most compelling bit relevant to U.S. audiences is the magazine’s explanation of companies working with entities such as Sony, Bandai and Pioneer on recording English voice lines for video game projects. It is explained such arrangements were made for the U.S. releases of anime Macross Plus and Ninja Scroll and video games Dragon Ball GT and Felony 11-79.

Mimi Woods was selected for the role of Ghost in the Shell’s main character Motoko Kusanagi and Richard Epcar voiced Bateau. At this time Woods was featured as the English voice of Shayla Shayla in El Hazzard and Epcar was the English voices of Lunka and Ben Dixon in Robotech. There are short interviews with both, but the majority of it talks about how much they enjoyed voicing the roles.

Strategy Guides

Strategy Guides in this issue include Final Fantasy VII (8 pages) to teach players what materia and limit breaks and introduce the characters, a Time Crisis guide that maps out the paths of the special mode (4 pages) and seven pages filled with codes and tricks for a variety of recent and older game titles.

Advertisements

Advertisements – Games coming soon from Eidos Interactive, mostly anticipated in the fourth quarter of 1997.

Believe it or not, advertisements were a highlight of older video gaming magazines. When internet lists were not available detailing game releases down to the very date they would be on sale, advertisements and previews were players’ gateways into finding new games that were going to be made available.

Advertisements also pay the bills for a publication. If you aren’t in the know, selling copies of a publication actually provides very little of a publishing company’s overall revenue, and in rare cases it barely allows the business to break even. As such, with OPM #1 weighing in at 150 pages, nearly half of that is advertising.

This timeframe gives us a bunch of game companies trying to be “edgy” with the advertising, but there are a lot of interesting products featured in this issue. I have included a list of every game advertised, along with its known publisher and developer, and when it was made available I included a proposed release date.

I’d have to imagine a bunch of these games had released by the time this magazine published, but I’m still amazed at how very few advertisements say anything like “available now” or “coming soon,” even if they can’t display an estimated release date.

NFL GameDay 98 (Sony/PlayStation Athletic Department)
NFL GameDay 98 joint advertisement with Sears Funtronics – $10 off coupon valid from Sept. 2, 1997-Nov. 1, 1997
Nightmare Creatures (Activision/Kalisto) – Proposed release date of Oct. 31, 1997
Colony Wars (Psygnosis)
Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi (LucasArts)
Tecmo combination advertisement: Monster Rancher and Tecmo Stackers
Treasures of the Deep (Namco Hometek)
Final Fantasy VII (SquareSoft)
Machine Hunter (MGM Home Entertainment/Eurocom)
Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (Midway)
Jersey Devil (Malofilm Interactive/Megatoon Studios)
Herc’s Adventures (LucasArts)
Bravo Air Race (THQ) – Proposed release of September 1997
Mace: The Dark Age (Midway/Atari Games Corp.); Note: This advertisement still lists the PlayStation logo, with this port of the game never officially releasing
Bug Riders: The Race of Kings (GT Interactive Software/NSpace)
MLB 98 (Sony/PlayStation Athletic Department)
Marvel Super Heroes (Capcom)
One (ASC Games/Visual Concepts)
MDK (Playmates Interactive Entertainment/Shiny Interactive/Neversoft Entertainment)
Car and Driver Presents: Grand Tour Racing 98 (Activision/Eutechnyx) – Proposed release of September 1997
Gex: Enter the Gecko (Crystal Dynamics)
RayStorm (Spaz/Working Designs/Taito)
Alps Interactive Gamepad (Alps Interactive)
Ace Combat 2 (Namco)
Duke Nukem combination advertisement: Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown and Duke Nukem 64 – (GT Interactive Software/3DRealms)
G-Police (Psygnosis)
Felony 11-79 (ASCII Entertainment/Yanoman Games/Climax)
Rampage World Tour (Midway/Game Refuge)
Test Drive 4 (Accolade/Pitbull Syndicate) – Proposed release of October 1997
Reality Quest Video Game Control Glove (Reality Quest)
NHL and NHLPA Present: Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98 (Midway/Atari Games Corp.) – Proposed release of November 1997
Time Crisis adn the GunCon controller (Namco)
OddWorld: Abe’s Oddysee (GT Interactive Software/Oddworld Inhabitants) – Proposed release of Sept. 19, 1997
Reel Fishing (Natsume/SVG Distribution) – Proposed release of August 1997
Pandemonium 2 (Crystal Dynamics)
Marvel Comics Fantastic Four (Acclaim Entertainment)
Dynasty Warriors (KOEI Corp.)
Steel Reign (Sony Computer Entertainment of America/Chantemar Software)
Mass Destruction (ASC Games/NMS Software, Ltd.)
Resident Evil: Director’s Cut (Capcom)
Maximum Force (Midway/Atari Games Corp.)
Formula 1 Championship Edition (Psygnosis/Bizarre Creations)
Cart World Series (Sony/PlayStation Athletic Department)
VR Baseball ’97 (Interplay Productions) – PC version proposed release of October 1997
Golden Nugget (Virgin Interactive)
Sony PlayStation Underground – PlayStation’s “CD Magazine” that offered quarterly demo and media discs played in the PlayStation
Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (Fox Interactive/Argonaut Software Ltd.)
Eidos Interactive combination advertisement: Tomb Raider II Starring Lara Croft, Ian Livingstone’s Deathtrap Dungeon and Fighting Force

And that’s our first in-depth look at a video game magazine breakdown. I hope you learned something about Official PlayStation Magazine or some of the game featured inside the issue! Of course, I plan on this being a reoccurring feature, so keep checking back to see more magazines being combed through.