Video Game History Foundation expands its preservation efforts by making "one of the first American" games magazines available for free
After celebrating the launch of its digital library earlier this year, the preservation-focused Video Game History Foundation has expanded its publicly available collection with the full run of Computer Entertainer, described as “one of the first American video game magazines”.
Computer Entertainer might not be an immediately recognisable name this side of the pond, especially 35 years after its final issue was published, but the Video Game History Foundation’s announcement details the magazine’s history, highlighting exactly why it’s something of a unique – and valuable – record of home console video gaming in the mid-1980s.
“Most console game magazines in the US went out of business during the 1983–84 industry crash,” it explains, “except this one. As a result, Computer Entertainer is one of the only sources for American reviews of classic games like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Super Mario Bros. And because it was run by a game retailer, this magazine is one of the only reliable sources of American game release dates during this period.”
Computer Entertainer started life as The Video Game Update, a newsletter for US mail-order retailer Video Take-Out, and would run from 1982 to 1990. It was co-edited by sisters Marylou Badeaux and Celeste Dolan, which, the Video Game History Foundation notes, means it’s also the “earliest console video game magazine run by women”.
