October 1990 Pt. 4 PC Engine Fan Magazine

PC Engine Fan - First Published in 1988 by Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Consisting of 108 pages (including the front & back covers), Published Monthly #10 October 1990 (Volume 3),490 Yen.

[NOTE: The 'PC Engine Fan' magazine was part of a few Japanese magazines that concentrated exclusively the home market of the NEC's video game consoles, and was devoted to the PC Engine. A compact and superior 8bit video game console, that evolved in a modular fashion, known for its slim credit-card sized games, and what is more it would have the first console games on CD-ROM, with high quality CD audio.]  

Wow! I'd almost forgotten I had any Japanese PC Engine magazines from 1990, and this was the only other 'PC Engine Fan' magazine I have from 1990. I must find where I have put it..?!

More to come, when I find what I have done with the Magazine....

[it is in the late 80's and early 90's that the Japanese Gaming Consoles would create a following in the UK. A historical parallel with the Animation that was made in Japan and its newly import and interest.]

September 1990 Pt.5 Console Ma'zine

Console Ma'zine issue 16. SEPTEMBER 1990  - Edited and photocopied by Onn Lee, (Monthly).

What I have uploaded is a small percentage of the issue, focusing on news and any tie-ins with Anime.

[NOTE: The issue had 12 single-sided\photocopied pages, not double-sided printing - that may have been the technology of the day.]

 The COVER

[Sorry Onn Lee, this issue has not survived that well 29 + years on!].

 Editorial 

Ads. RAVEN GAMES LONDON.

 More Ads. PC Engine Supplies.

Techie Bit in the Middle,
Swap-line,
Tech-Tips.

City hunter

[

July 1990 Pt.6 Console Ma'zine

Console Ma'zine issue 14. JULY 1990  - Edited and photocopied by Onn Lee, (Monthly).

[NOTE: The issue had 12 single-sided\photocopied pages, not double-sided printing - that may have been the technology of the day.]

July's issue may not have any reviews of anime linked games for the month, but with all the early Japanese video games consoles being imported in to the UK at that time, and with the news that the Sega Megadrive would be getting a UK release, this was just as new and exciting as the parallel of the Anime & Manga Fan scene.

Yes! It's the Front Cover.

Editorial.

There was a interesting report entitled 'The 16 Bit computer' (Showvictoria, London 29^th of June to 1^st. July) on page 7 by Marc Foord, on this verging video game market. One comparison you can make to today's market, is the cost of what was a niche hobby with the NEO GEO games system that was reduced to £395 down from £450 (that is close to £1,000 in today's money), and the games were a snip at £200 each. Well out of the reach of most twentysomethings!

Atari lynx game console's news from the USA was that there was a Arcade conversion of the popular Video Arcade game Rampage (Now a motion picture in 2018, Oh how times have changed!).

 Japanese Games, and imported video game consoles.  

[NOTE: Raven Games was a retail computer games / console company based on the outskirts of central London. We were established in 1988 starting from a simple bedroom business in Bromley Kent in the U.K selling products via mail order. There were only a few companies around at that time in the U.K who sold the same imported products as us. The PC Engine from NEC, SNK's Neo Geo and the then brand new imported Japanese Sega Megadrive were the hottest new consoles around at that time! Following successful advertising campaigns in monthly magazines such as Ace, The Games Machine and the weekly New Computer Express, Raven Games soon outgrew the small bedroom due to queues of customers at the front door most weekends! (Remember this was the days before the internet!).]

[NOTE: "purchasing power" http://www.in2013dollars.com/1990-GBP-in-2018?amount=450 £450 in 1990 has the same "purchasing power" as £991.89 in 2018. - £200 in 1990 has the same "purchasing power" as £440.84 in 2018. - £35 in 1990 has the same "purchasing power" as £77.15 in 2018. ]

July 1990 Pt.4 'PC Engine Fan' Magazine

PC Engine Fan - First Published in 1988 by Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Consisting of 108 pages (including the front & back covers), Published Monthly #7 July 1990 (Volume 3),390 Yen.

[NOTE: The 'PC Engine Fan' magazine was part of a few Japanese magazines that concentrated exclusively the home market of the NEC's video game consoles, and was devoted to the PC Engine. A compact and superior 8bit video game console, that evolved in a modular fashion, known for its slim credit-card sized games, and what is more it would have the first console games on CD-ROM, with high quality CD audio.]  

Wow! I'd almost forgotten I had any Japanese PC Engine magazines from 1990. Not only was it that it had Cel-like artwork on the front cover, much like Anime industry, but featured many video games that were Anime tie-ins much to my delight. 

Again not being able myself to translate the Japanese details of the contents of this magazine, what you get is solely from the few English words and the identifiable artworks and illustrations of tie-ins and popular games, but looking back this was full colour, and was just as powerful as static linked web-pages showing me a wider World, as even a 1990's video gamer the NEC's PC Engine was even more niche and underground than your average Anime and Manga fan in the UK.

Cover Cel-like art from  'The Legend of A Fantasm Soldier III'.

 The Grey PC-Engine, with the Supper CD-ROM System, and Stereo add-on. 

 The Contents page (for you to translate if you like.)

'Urusei Yatsura - Stay with You',  better known as LUM

(game title to be added..!)

 Urusei Yatsura,  better known as LUM

(game title to be added..!)

 From the OVA 'Far East of Eden'.

Is this from an Anime ?

Advert for  'The Legend of A Fantasm Soldier III'

(not an Anime, but with animation Cel like artwork).

Adverts for.............??  

Adverts for  'Sol Bianca' & 'Cyber City OEDO 808'

 Adverts for  

New games Coming soon. 

 Ranma 1/2

The Back cover with an advert for ' Ghosts and Ghouls'.  

Probably the best Arcade conversion for the PC Engine next to 'Street Fighter II'.

Truly the NEC's PC Engine was even more niche and underground than your average Anime and Manga fan in the UK in the late 1980's and early 1990's, but it too had its Fandom, and those interests did overlap for many Fans.

[NOTE: I still have the first 'The Legend of A Fantasm Soldier' on CD-ROM.]

June 1990 Pt.5 Anime Pen-Pals & Video Game Consoles & Cancer

By June of 1990 the UK Anime Pen-Pal network was growing, most people only knew of 3 to 5 people that they had contacted and this included local friends too, at this time I was corresponding with about 15 or more Anime\Manga fans, all very time consuming for a Dyslexic, even with the support of my Mother using a manual typewriter for typing-up my badly spelt and grammatically incorrect scribbling in English, as well as my health.

From late in 1989 the American Fan club the E.D.C had a list of members and correspondence, and inquiring persons of 8 UK fans and 3 overseas (outside of the USA & Canada), *

You could also find UK Fans via the American Anime & manga Fan Club Anime Hasshin.

The odd UK Pen-Pal that knew about Anime could be found in imported American Robotech comic-books, but when writing a letter to a comic-book publisher overseas it could take up to 2 months before your details appeared in the Pen-Pal section of its comic-book, and another month (if you were lucky) to receive any letters back!

Those Fans that either went to EastCon '90 (UK's Science fiction Convention) or had shown an interest would receive the “Anime contact list” (that was attached to the First News-sheet for Anime Fans in the UK (the proto Anime UK Newsletter) put together by Helen McCarthy, and Steve Kyte this had contact details of 31 UK fans & 7 overseas fans, and was a Hub and a Nexus to many finding the new World of Anime.

On Saturday 23^th. (June) I went to Nottingham, and found a shop that Imported Japanese video game consoles, called 'Supervision Electronics' run by a Mr. Wong, on Mansfield Road, and the two consoles that stood out where the Japanese new SEGA 'Megadrive' that cost £165 to £220, and the compacted Japanese 'PC Engine' that cost £160 (the equivalent of £365 in today's money). These imported Japanese electronics were known as Gray-imports. **

It was I believe that in this shop it was when I first pick up a copy of 'Console ma'zine', produced and edited by Onn Lee. Another NEW frontier running parallel to the underground fan base of Anime and Manga, was of 8-Bit and 16-bit gaming consoles from Japan, for 2 or more players, that's right you got yours friends to come to your house to play games, and in the days when you had NO saves, only Lives, and Credits! There were a few games that came from Manga\Anime that were not all text heavy RPG's one caught my eye it was a 'City Hunter' game for the PC Engine console.

City Hunter

Sometime before the end of June My weekly radiotherapy treatment for Cancer was stopped, as it was not effective enough, and so I was quickly booked in to Hospital from the 8th. to the 13th.of July, for surgery to remove the Cancer from my tongue, I was just 23 years old, and the dogma the the NHS Doctors & Surgeons for talking to their patients was very different in 1990 from today.

My new found interests kept me going at this time (and starting a Local Anime Club), as well as the support from my family and friends, and the Anime pen-pals letters of encouragement.

That was My June of 1990 I remember.....!

*[NOTE: 7 of the 8 UK fans listed in American Anime fan Clubs would find their way on to Helen McCarthy's list of UK Fans.]

**[NOTE:A grey import is equipment that has been supplied by a manufacturer in a different part of the world, that ends up being sold on to you in the UK. The key point is that the manufacturer has sold it into a different (not UK or EU) geographic market, and someone else is then importing it into the UK. Different power supplies and fittings\plugs, will be an issue, as well as No manufacturer warranty, but you do get the new technology months or years ahead of the normal UK market, and sometimes the equipment\technology was never exported outside of the original manufacturer's country (Japanese 'PC Engine' games console\s).]

[NOTE: After 27 years (1990 -2017) have gone bye, hoarding letters and Zines does help fill in the gaps in my memory.]