Title: VIDEO GAME UPDATE
Dates: Jan’82 - July’90
# of issues: 100 + 1 index and 1 special edition
Name Change: COMPUTER ENTERTAINER (Apr’84)
Publisher: same as title
VGU wasn’t exactly a fanzine, even though it was independently produced. It was
an average of 16 pages of professionally done and somewhat unbiased info about
the latest video game products. It started out as an informational newsletter to
customers of a mail order company called Video Game Takeout. It had a
surprisingly long run for an independent b/w publication. VGU survived the Crash
of ’84 and continued into the Nintendo era. It saw the intro of Sega and the
first signs of CD-Rom games. It added a computer games section when they gained
in popularity. I found VGU to be a great source of information, reviews and
listings during the early days of video gaming. They were notable for their
programmer interviews, CES (pre-E3 industry convention) reports and annual best
game awards. I got my name in an early issue as the discoverer of the “Easter
egg” in Desert Falcon (2600). New games were rated separately for graphics
followed by game play.
A regular feature was a complete listing of all soon to be released games. This
list was constantly being updated to reflect delays in release dates, cancels,
name changes and additions. A lot of titles wound up as vaporware and never got
past the prototype stage. VGU ended rather abruptly and I still don’t know why.
If anyone knows what happened, please email me. Celeste Dolan, if you’re still
out there, I would love to hear from you again. One of my user friends clued me
into VGU and I managed to get several gems for my game collection. In this issue
I would like to reprint some of those articles strictly for nostalgia purposes.
The companies mentioned most likely no longer exist.
