MegaCon 2018 - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 50TH ANNIVERSARY WITH STARS GARY LOCKWOOD & KEIR DULLEA (1)

MegaCon 2018 - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 50TH ANNIVERSARY WITH STARS GARY LOCKWOOD & KEIR DULLEA (1)

Girls of Gaming: I-No (Guilty Gear)

Girls of Gaming was a spinoff of Play magazine, both now defunct. Girls of Gaming featured pin-ups of girls primarily from gaming and anime. Here we have I-No from the Guilty Gear series. The Guilty Gear series is a long-running series of fighting games that started on the PlayStation in 1998 and continues today (the last release was in 2016).

I-No first appeared in Guilty Gear X2 (also known as Guilty Gear XX) on the PlayStation 2 in 2002 as a playable boss. Guilty Gear X2 was the third game in the main series. Guilty Gear X2 and most games in the series have generally received very good reviews. If you are a fan of fighting games, this is definitely a series you should check out if you have not already done so.

While newer games in the series appear on newer systems, I am not aware of any re-releases of the original Guilty Gear X2. However, there were several updated releases including Guilty Gear X2 #Reload for the Xbox, Windows and PSP in 2004; Guilty Gear XX Slash for the PS2 in 2005; Guilty Gear XX Accent Core for the PS2 and Wii in 2006; Guilty Gear Accent Core Plus for the PS2, PSP and Wii in 2008; and Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R for PlayStation Vita. All of these started as arcade games, at least in Japan. You can tell this is a popular series.

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2018 - Stary Olsa - Part 29

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2018 - Stary Olsa - Part 29

The Write Stuff (Apple II)

Source: Computer & Video Game Magazines - Microkids - Issue Number 3 - May 1984

Whereas computer games mostly stayed around the same price point (usually between $20 and $50) throughout the 8-bit era, application software varied much more. For instance, this word processor, The Write Stuff, for the Apple II is being advertised at $99. This was not atypical for word processing software in the early to mid 1980s and some application software cost much more. However, by the time the late 1980s rolled around, there was stuff like GEOS being given away for free with a hardware purchase and most common application software could be found significantly discounted. Games were still $20-$40 for the most part though.

As far as 'The Write Stuff' goes, I don't know that much about it. This ad comes from the May 1984 issue of Microkids and is for the Apple II version but I know there was also a 'The Write Stuff 64' for the Commodore 64 and possibly other versions. It seems relatively hard to find much information about this particular software so I would venture to say it was not the most popular word processor. Having said that, there were tons of word processors available in 1984. These days word processing is mostly dominated by Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or a variation of OpenOffice or LibreOffice but in 1984 there were dozens of viable choices. Just don't expect a lot of cross compatibility.

These days there isn't much reason to use 8-bit word processing software. Some people like the look and feel and minimalism of some of the older apps (George Martin of Game of Thrones fame is known for using WordStar 4.0 on DOS). However, I would want at least 80-columns and something that is responsive with large-ish documents. Something the Commodore 64 and Apple II did not offer by default.