Interactive Entertainment
Founded by Yale Brozen with Steve Scivally their first prototype issue (00) was released in February 1994. Issue 01 came out only a few months later in May 1994. The magazine had a total of 23 issues before being merged into Computer Games Strategy Plus Magazine. It is said the cost of packaging the discs was too high for it to have been sustainable on it's own.
Each disc includes news, previews, reviews, and game tips. All of these are with screen shots with audio tracks. These reviews sometimes include more than one person speaking with a different perspective about the title and banter back and forth. In addition to this multimedia experience, you can click on the screen when playing one of these presentations and choose "Extras" to view a text game description and/or requirements for each title. These "hidden" game descriptions are written at the level of a review in a major print publication.
Many issues include interactive interviews with game designers. Early versions of the magazine also includes ads which occasionally play. These ads play randomly and are unstoppable which can become frustrating but at the same time is an interesting look at the past. The ads can either be in the screen shot/audio track format or full videos.
Some of the discs contain full games, often from QQP. The developers filled in that extra space on the discs with demos and game patches.
I have created videos of many of the game previews and reviews which can be watched through my IE YouTube playlist. Below is a index which includes links to the video and where available the text description/review. These videos are an easy way to experience part of this disc magazine but if you have the ability to download and run these in a virtual machine I highly encourage it.
All of the discs can be downloaded from this collection at archive.org.
The below indexes are a work in progress and are not yet complete
Episode 0 (February 1994)
Interviews: Origin's Richard "Lord British" Garriot, QQP's Bruce Zaccagnino
Previews: 1942: The Pacific Air War, DOOM, Outpost.
Reviews: Aces Over Europe, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Command Adventures: Starship, Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, DinoPark Tycoon, Dragon's Lair, Front Page Football Pro, Global Domination, Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos, Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate, Mad Dog McCree, Master of Orion, Merchant Prince, Microsoft Arcade, Microsoft Flight Simulator v5.0, NFL Coaches Club Football, Pinball Dreams, ShadowCaster, Silverball, Street Fighter II The World Warrior, Syndicate, The Blue & The Gray, Wing Commander: Privateer.
Episode 1 (May 1994)
This episode includes the full version of Magic Candle.
Interviews:
Previews: Detroit, Front Page Sports: Baseball '94, Harvester, Inferno, Outpost (different preview than 2/1994)
Reviews: 1942: The Pacific Air War, Aces of the Deep, Alien Breed, Barkley: Shut Up and Jam!, Battle Cars, Buzz Aldrin's Race into Space, Fields of Glory, FIFA International Soccer, Fleet Defender, Fury of the Furries / Pac-in-Time, Genesia / Ultimate Domain, Grolier Prehistoria, Horde, John Madden Football (3DO), Lucky's Casino Adventure, MegaRace, Metaltech: Battledrome, NBA Jam, New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Privateer: Righteous Fire, Raiden, Sporting News Pro Football Guide, Starlord, Unnecessary Roughness, Wrath of the Gods
Episode 2
Episode 3
Credits
Publisher - Yale Brozen
Producer - Dave Stott
Technical Director - Joseph B. Hall
Director - Steve Scivally
Managing Editor - Greg Titus
Editor - Tim Keating
Executive Editor - Marc Dultz
Art Director - Kirk P. Membry
Production Consultant - Jim Romanoff
Audio Engineer - Gregory T. Henry
Audio Technician - Chris Sargent
Business Manager - Gregg Sauter
Accounting Services - Christina Brozen
Writers - Scott Grant, Gregory T. Henry, Jesse Isaacson, Tim Keating, Damon Nazarenko, Greg Titus, John Voorhees
Announcers - Cindy Brooks, Jennifer Colby, Gregory T. Henry, Darren Ingram, John Voorhees, Tim Keating, Lue McWilliams, Brigitte O'Conner, Greg Titus, Ruth Yeskoo