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Posted: Apr 29 2007 06:32 pm

Pretty cool, but that mag was a major ripoff. And on the Mario Recolor, was the date on this magazine before Super Mario Brothers, because before that Luigi was just Green Jumpman or Mario, depending on the version of Mario Bros. you're playing.

On a side note, anyone read Al Jaffee's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions? I have a copy of that book, it's hilarious!

Posted: Apr 29 2007 06:59 pm

I used to love Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions. I was wanted to use them in actual conversation, but most of the stuff ever came up.

"Is the the end of the line?"
"No, this is the front, we're all just facing the wrong direction!"

And the magazine is from January 1990, meaning it was on store shelves at some point in December of 1989. At that point, SMB3 was a mere two months away and the American version of SMB2 had been out for 14 months and clearly shown us that Luigi was more then just a palette swap. I am fairly certain that Luigi's current character model was designed around the time SMB1 came out, or possibly while it was being developed. I definitely know that although their SMB1 sprites looked nothing like their current versions, Nintendo had always intended for Bowser and Princess Peach/Toadstool to look the way they currently do.

Posted: Apr 29 2007 07:23 pm

Ah. So MAD is just fucking retarded, is all.

Posted: Apr 30 2007 05:40 am

Quote:

But I think the biggest clue that this computer game parody sucks is that it features two flight simulators; no one gives a shit about those things.

Great article, but I do need to point out, that although you may not be a fan of flight sims, and rip the fact that there are two flight sim computer games in the article on Page 8 (Of your article,) In 89-90, flight sims were one the the highest selling genre of games on PCs. Back then, there was nothing more realistic to play, and PCs were the only systems that had the analog control to do them justice. There were also tons of sims to choose from, such as MS Flight sim, the tons of sims from Microprose, (F-15, F19, F117A, etc) Longbow, Chuck Yeager's games (Trainer and Advanced Combat Sim), Spectrum Holobytes' Falcon 2 & 3.0, Dynamixs Aces series, Lucasarts' Secret Wepons of The Luftwaffe, Accolades Combat Aces, and alot more. (Those are all, just off the top of my head.) In the late 80s and Early 90s, there were about 15+ sims released every year.

As seen here:
http://www.migman.com/1990_combat.htm

That's just my two cents.

Typo Alert: On the Fold in page you wrote "Throw the magic of digital editing." Instead of "THROUGH the magic of digital editing."

Posted: Apr 30 2007 06:10 am

I'm well aware that flight sims were popular back in the day, but even back then I didn't care for them. And while MAD clearly had to give the genre a tip of the hat, there's absolutely no reason they needed two parodies of it. Microsoft Flight Simulator was one of two games that the school had loaded on its Macintoshes, the other one being the far superior Oregon Trail. Personally, I always found staring at the After Dark screensaver to be way more fun than MSF. Flying toasters underwater? That's fucking crazy! Actually, now that I think of it, why the hell wasn't there an Oregon Trail variant? They could have called it Oregon Trail of Tears or something.

I think the only time I ever enjoyed played a flight simulator was during the summer between 5th and 6th grade when my family went on vacation to Virginia/Washington D.C. for nine days. The Smithsonian had a flight simulator exhibit and at that point I was going into hardcore video game withdrawl and I needed to play something, anything. A fix is a fix.

Posted: Apr 30 2007 10:06 am

Ah...Oregon Trail. Many a school day has been wasted on that game, and after school as well. "Oh no! My oxen have broken their legs! And ASS has fallen ill! It's all right. We just left the first city. We can start over."

I still don't think it was as good as Oregon Trail, but Odell Lake was fun as well. Trying to avoid getting eaten while trying to eat things yourself was challenging back in elementary school. Unless you were the rainbow trout, that is.

Correction: Mackinaw Trout. My memory has failed.

Posted: Apr 30 2007 02:31 pm

Holy crap, I had Odell Lake for C64. That game was educational and fun. "An otter approaches, what will you do?"

It still didn't hold a candle to Ducks Ahoy! though. That game was just damn cute.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

I totally got that issue when it came out, and while I got them regularly back then, I know it was the Mario artwork on the cover that sealed the deal. I was probably as disappointed as you were on discovering that the feature article was totally lame.

Eventually, I got to the point where I only read MAD for the Spy Vs. Spy comics.

Incidentally, it seems that MAD's old competitor, CRACKED, is making a slow comeback, mostly online.

Posted: May 01 2007 01:53 pm

I believe Michael Ian Black is currently one of Cracked's editors.

And Cracked's online comeback comes after an effort by outside investors to revitalize the magazine led to a huge fight. The investors wanted to turn Cracked into a Maxim clone, the staff didn't want that, and the magazine tanked.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

Maxim clone?! WTF? Ugh.

My dad actually wrote a thing for Cracked in... well, it was probably the early '90s. It was during the big boom of early generation "reality"-type shows like Rescue 911, and was a humorous prediction of what the trend was leading to. If I can find a copy of it, I'll post it.

Posted: May 01 2007 03:39 pm

BleeeeeeeeeeeaahhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhMaximbbbbbbbbbbl
orrrgah.

Posted: May 01 2007 05:33 pm

Liked the article.

Posted: May 01 2007 06:13 pm

Matt Frewer's best role is still "Rapist Truck Driver" in Supergirl. <3

Posted: May 01 2007 08:45 pm

Am I the only one that didn't like the article?

Posted: May 01 2007 08:53 pm

I doubt it.

Joined: Apr 14 2006 Location: Lake Michigan Posts: 3332

Tebor wrote:

Matt Frewer's best role is still "Rapist Truck Driver" in Supergirl. <3

Aw, but I loved his role as a thieving time traveller in ST:TNG....no, wait, I didn't.

Posted: May 02 2007 04:55 am

Wasn't he also a holographic/dead weapon salesman in another episode or was that someone else?

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

No, I think that was Vincent Schiavelli.

Posted: May 02 2007 03:44 pm

Shoot, you're right. I knew it was ONE of my favorite character actors.

Posted: May 02 2007 09:02 pm

Char Aznable wrote:

On a side note, anyone read Al Jaffee's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions? I have a copy of that book, it's hilarious!

I have that book lying around somewhere, and it is indeed funny and awesome.

Posted: May 04 2007 09:38 pm

Going back to Cracked, here's a pretty funny feature from their site:

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=1825

Posted: May 06 2007 06:56 pm

I also had "More Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions", but that got shredded in a bookshelf.