FunFactor

ISSUE LINK: NextGen issue 85 at the Internet Archive

SEASON TWO: RISE OF THE CORPOS has arrived! We've skipped forward in time to the dawn of a new era - where the dorky world leader in business software, Microsoft, has dropped a massive black-and-neon-green bomb on a gaming industry.

Likewise, the games media's shift to both an older target audience and parallel online coverage means a lot of beloved magazines are dead or dying--including "NextGen," as it's been called for a couple of years. Blake Fischer takes over as the magazine's second, and final, top editor for its 85th--and final (!)--issue.

But while this issue of NextGen reviews all 26 XBOX launch titles, Nintendo has also just launched the Gamecube; and our reviewed review is of its iconically iconoclastic launch title: Pikmin.

And, as always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! We'll see you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live!

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Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

Four people, five rounds, and all the best video games of 1995-1997! 

Coury and Try from My Life in Gaming join us to snake-draft our way through the Generation Gap--building four 'teams' of five games each released across all game systems and regions during our first-season time period.

The competition was friendly but fierce, with plenty of you-took-my-picks and even more surprise curveballs! We all walked away with at least one new must-play game for our backlogs.

And, as always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! See you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live!

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Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/NextGeneration38Feb1998

QUIZ LINK: https://forms.gle/9cFPG8EsJesFAEB59

BILLY BAKER’S 2007 BOSTON GLOBE PIECE ON HIS WIFE SECRETLY BEING THE WORLD’S BEST TETRIS PLAYER: https://archive.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/08/19/bizarro_world/

Our Season 1 wrap-up extravaganza has never been more extravagant: Chris and Eric from Retrograde Amnesia join us to take NEXT Generation’s “Are you Hardcore?” quiz! Thanks to Josh from the Still Loading Podcast, we were able to see and take the whole quiz for the first live via Google Form–and hey, so can you!

Back in February 1998, the staff of NEXT Generation issued a challenge to their readership with a 200-plus-question quiz determining whether they’re truly hardcore. This being 1998, some of the questions were more about whether you were an actual dirtbag, and many of them assumed you were a North American male of roughly GenX age. But most of them were great fodder for telling stories, claiming points of pride, and owning points of shame.

As always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! See you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live!

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Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

We told you to ask us anything, and you did! Our Season 1 wrap-up continues with a special AMA/Q&A. From assembling our own ultimate mid-90s gaming mag Voltron-style to talking through how we handle offensive/problematic content, we answered all the questions you submitted via Discord and Bluesky!

As an extra-special treat, Ty also reveals the (published!) letter he sent in to Game Players back in the day. Cringe level: MAXIMUM.

As always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! See you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live! 

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Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!

The grand finale of Season One is here! Our coverage of the 1995-1997 “Generation Gap” ends with a blowout review of (nearly) every (English-language print) review of Final Fantasy VII that we could find.

Starting with a quick look back at the first year of FunFactor, and discussion of what’s coming next, we then re-looked at the magazine we debuted the podcast with nearly a year ago, PSM No. 1. 

We then went on to review, well, all of these reviews:

PSM 1: https://archive.org/details/PSM_Issue_001_September_1997/mode/2up
Ultra Game Players 102: https://archive.org/details/Ultra_Gameplayers_102_October_1997_U/page/n83/mode/2up 

The Duelist 21: https://archive.org/details/duelist-21/page/n105/mode/1up

The Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine 1: https://archive.org/details/Official_US_PlayStation_Magazine_Volume_1_Issue_1_1997-10_Ziff_Davis_US/page/n85/mode/2up

EGM 99: https://archive.org/details/ElectronicGamingMonthly_201902

NEXT Generation 34: 
https://archive.org/details/NEXT_Generation_34/page/n53/mode/2up

GameFan Vol. 5, Issue 9: https://archive.org/details/GamefanVolume5Issue09September1997/page/n3/mode/2up

GamePro 46: https://archive.org/details/GamePro_Issue_099_October_1997/page/n49/mode/2up

EDGE 049: https://archive.org/details/Edge_Gaming/Edge%20Gaming%20vMagazine%20051/page/n65/mode/1up 

Game Informer 53: https://archive.org/details/game-informer-issue-53-september-1997

Campus Life Magazine (partial text archive): https://cmnexus.org/magazines/Campus_Life/issues

As always, we streamed this recording session live to FunFactor ULTRA members–so if you’d like to get in on the fun, just sign up at https://funfactorpod.com/! See you on the Discord, and you’ll see us when we next go live! 

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Sources include the Video Game History Foundation, the Internet Archive, Retromags.com, our original research, and our personal magazine collections. The FunFactor theme, and all other original songs, are composed and performed by Millennium Falck. Check out his work at millenniumfalck.com!