ISSUE LINK: https://archive.gamehistory.org/item/69555def-0cd8-4b5a-b4d2-3d324c7863f4

Console exclusivity was the talk of this recent Summer Game Fest, and Aidan and Ty start off the episode with a discussion of their most badly missed-out-on exclusives from platforms they didn’t have.

And then, the issue: With Future Publishing/Imagine Media getting the “official” XBox magazine tag, Ziff-Davis launched an “independent” one–and they poached Simon Cox from Future/Imagine to lead it!

The result was an ambitious, artistic, NEXT Generation/EDGE-looking publication that (perhaps a decade or two too early) pivoted towards a quarterly launch schedule, more original art and photography, and more rare and in-depth features and interviews–like the one anchoring their massive preview of Panzer Dragoon Orta, the capper of Aidan and Ty’s discussion.

And then…a review of World Series Baseball from actual-factual baseball writer of the time, Jeff Pearlman?? Of Sports Illustrated?? Who since written a ton of book and the Amazon series “Winning Time??” How would this non-games-writer do writing about games in 2002??

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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!