Ty Schalter (VICE, FiveThirtyEight) and Aidan Moher (WIRED, Vulture) review what rocked and what sucked about the classic video game magazines that inspired them to become professional journalists, authors, and critics—and what they can tell us about today's digital media and games. New episodes drop every other Tuesday!
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Aidan Moher Podcasts
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Tips & Tricks Vol. IV, Issue 1 - Tomb Raider [S1E12]
1:20:24
1:20:24
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ISSUE LINK: Tips & Tricks - Volume IV Issue 1 GAME LOSERS T&T ARTICLE: A Comprehensive Oral History Of Tips & Tricks – The #1 Video-Game Tips Magazine | Game Losers We're the Tomb Raiders! Aidan and Ty teased Tomb Raider takes last episode, and here they finally are--and so is our look at a very popular game magazine that didn't (quite) have review…
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ULTRA Review Crew TEASER: Video Game History Foundation - Super Mario Bros. 1 [S1B5]
22:43
22:43
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ISSUE LINK: Computer Entertainer, Volume 5, Number 3 | Video Game History Foundation Library – Digital Archive VHGF HOME: Home | Video Game History Foundation A pair of guests we've been dreaming about landing since before we launched the show, Frank Cifaldi and Phil Salvador of the Video Game History Foundation are two of the highest authorities o…
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ISSUE LINK: https://archive.org/details/Edge_Gaming/Edge%20Gaming%20Magazine%20016/mode/2up KEITH STUART EULOGY FOR JASON BROOKES: https://www.eurogamer.net/always-on-edge-my-life-with-jason-brookes We're going back to the future of interactive entertainment! EDGE magazine, the UK-made precursor to/sister publication of NEXT Generation, revolutioni…
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Game Players 92 - NBA Live '97 [S1E10]
1:13:59
1:13:59
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ISSUE LINK: Ultra Game Players No. 92 - Christmas 1996 Mike Salmon's shot-calling review of NBA Live '97 stuck with Ty for almost 30 years—and it cuts to the heart of everything our podcast is about. For the first time ever, we revisit a magazine: Game Players, right after the "ULTRA" makeover that inspired the name of the very premium tiers you su…
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Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy, with set designer Gavin Verhey [S1E9]
1:40:30
1:40:30
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ISSUE LINK: The Duelist No. 21, January 1997 ALLISON MCKENZIE'S TERRA PRINT: FFVI - Terra and Mog Print It's a bonus BONUS! Ever since the Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy set dropped, our Discord's hottest channel has been #ttrpgs-and-card-games. Aidan and Ty decided that if it's all they could talk about, and all our most engaged listeners coul…
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Nintendo Power 88 - Super Mario 64 [S1E8]
1:15:53
1:15:53
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ISSUE LINK: Nintendo Power 88, September 1996 Gamemaster Classified book KS page "Fun" & Games Podcast home The episode so many of you have been waiting for: Our first look at Nintendo Power! And boy, is it ever a big one--the debut of Super Mario 64, the game that would define the Nintendo 64, and the company itself, for the entire console generat…
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ULTRA Review Crew Bonus UNLOCKED - Mollie Patterson of EGM & GameFan [S1B2]
1:31:02
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Mollie Patterson's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mollipen.bsky.social Mollie Patterson's homepage: https://mollielpatterson.com/ The EGM Compendium Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/egmbook/egmcompendium UNLOCKED AND FREE FOR ALL LISTENERS: A FunFactor ULTRA Review Crew bonus episode!! We talk with the great Mollie L. Patterson …
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Intelligent Gamer 2 - Jumping Flash! 2 [S1E7]
1:28:43
1:28:43
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ISSUE LINK: Intelligent Gamer No. 2, July 1996 A true trailblazer of a magazine, which Ty mistook at the time for a craven NEXT Generation ripoff. Instead, Ziff-Davis bought what might have been the world's first fully digital online games magazine and soon put its precocious editor at the head of a real, monthly, big-boy print equivalent. Besides …
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ULTRA Review Crew bonus TEASER - Demo Discs with Sean Seanson & EposVox [S1B3]
10:56
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Please enjoy this sample of a FunFactor ULTRA Review Crew bonus episode bursting with international flavor! With EposVox and Sean Seanson joining Aidan and Ty, we bridged three countries and seven time zones to go deep on our love of demo discs--the best (and sometimes only) way to taste the breadth of some old consoles' libraries and indie scenes.…
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GameFan Volume 4, Issue 5 - Lufia II [S1E6]
1:31:36
1:31:36
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TODAY'S ISSUE: GameFan Volume 4, Issue 5 - May 1996 This one's special -- we recorded it right before the Mollie Patterson bonus episode (which you should join the FunFactor ULTRA Review Crew to hear!), wherein she gave the amazing backstory behind some of the unique production and culture wrinkles that were evident in the final product of this uni…
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NEXT Generation 5 - Kirby's Dream Course [S1E5]
1:38:52
1:38:52
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TODAY'S ISSUE: NEXT Generation Issue No. 5, May 1995 Whew, this one's a doozy. Not just diving into one of Ty's favorite magazines for the very first time, but the very first issue he ever picked up: A massive roundup of all the news and rumors ever about Nintendo's Ultra 64 project. Ty and Aidan also dig into console launches successful and -un, t…
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ULTRA Review Crew bonus TEASER - Mollie Patterson of EGM & GameFan [S1B2]
23:29
23:29
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Mollie Patterson's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mollipen.bsky.social Mollie Patterson's homepage: https://mollielpatterson.com/ The EGM Compendium Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/egmbook/egmcompendium FunFactor ULTRA subscribers are getting our full 91-minute interview with the great Mollie L. Patterson of EGM and GameFan fam…
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TODAY'S ISSUE: EGM No. 74 - September 1995 Ty and Aidan dive into the super-edgy EGM ads, before flipping through one of the most fearless, innovative outlets of a fearless, innovative era. Then they dig into the four-way capsule review of the Super Nintendo port of DOOM, highlighting the strengths and faults of both the EGM review system and the g…
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TODAY'S ISSUE: GamePro No. 77, December 1995 (Internet Archive) Ty and Aidan are two short white guys who don't play basketball--but do love sports, and sports video games. We've had quite few pleas from listeners to break down a good review of a bad game, and GamePro 77 has the goods. Of course, there are plenty of other things to talk about in th…
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ULTRA Review Crew bonus TEASER - Mike Drucker interview [S1B1]
13:59
13:59
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Mike Drucker's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mikedrucker.bsky.social Here's a teaser of the very first FunFactor ULTRA bonus episode! It's our exclusive interview with Mike Drucker--the author of "Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games." We talk about the book, Mike's life as a gamer and writer for some of the most prestigious shows …
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Game Players 75 - Chrono Trigger [S1E2]
1:28:47
1:28:47
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TODAY'S ISSUE: Game Players No. 75, September 1995 (Internet Archive) Ty and Aidan basically became friends over their shared love of Chrono Trigger, and everything it stood for as an artistic achievement in video games. Game Players was also their mutual favorite magazine--so Game Players No. 75, and its dual-writer review of Chrono Trigger, natur…
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PSM No. 1 - Final Fantasy VII [S1E1]
1:17:54
1:17:54
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TODAY'S ISSUE: PSM No. 1, September 1997 (Internet Archive) The very first issue of PlayStation Magazine went big on "independent" 'tude, and on Final Fantasy VII--including cover art, a massive walkthrough, and a five-star review of the game that would redefine a series, a genre, and arguably the top console of the 32-bit generation. Ty and Aidan …
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Professional authors, journalists, gamers, and critics Ty Schalter and Aidan Moher introduce FunFactor: an insightful and incisive look back at the retro video game magazines that inspired them to do what they do. In this trailer they play highlights from the first few episodes, discuss the passions that drove them to read about games as well as pl…
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