Picked up the copy of the Summer Edition of The Gamer I got at CanGames (Summer, '92, if anyone's wondering). This was a really good magazine. I've only ever had one other issue of it, the one with the Gary Gygax interview. I can't remember if they went into his time at TSR West, or his recreational activities while in LaLa land.

The magazine's editorial board is an array of talented guys. Edited by Scott Haring (who I've spoken of before, but suffice it to say he's... Toooooo Sweeeeeeet!), the board consisted of Greg Costikyan (Paranoia Guru and later ARG maven), Doug Niles (creator of Top Secret), Mike Stackpole (talented guy and author of the Pulling Report), Tom Wham (mini-game master! He's a God in Europe!) and David Moskowitz (a guy I'm not familiar with, unfortunately, but he seems to be in the computer game industry since he went to CES). The issue I have appears to have been printed in the midst of some controversy. Greg Costikyan had apparently said something in a previous issue that caused TSR & GDW to pull their advertising, which is significant; probably the equivalent of WotC & WizKids pulling theirs today.

The issue has three main features: A convention preview (this was the last year of the joint Origins/GenCon cons, IIRC), part two of an article on LARPing (back then it was mostly boffers; MET wouldn’t make its appearance for several years), and another rebuttal to Costikyan’s article from issue 1 & 2.

It also had a lot of reviews; Al-Qadim got 3 pages, while Battlelords of the 23rd Century, Total War, LaserGrenadiers (they use lasers… To Kill!) and Minion Hunter, the Dark Conspiracy board game I always wanted to get, each get a singe page. The last 10 pages are capsule reviews.

There’s also a really neat section on electronic gaming, with enthusiastic plaudits for Ultima Underworld. Because, really, who would have suspected?

The magazine was rally quite interesting. I’ve got scattered issues of various game mags in my possession (an issue of Gateways with TMNT on the cover and a couple issues of Vortex I picked up in the same bin as this one).

And Matt Forbeck won a free subscription for his entry in the “combine two games” contest;

Rocky & Bullwinkle RPG/Call of Cthulhu: “Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat! – AIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Classic Forbeck.