So here's some really cool stuff.
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I'm extremely proud of the work we put into the "Press Archive" on our site over the years. I often describe it as the sibling — or something like a complementary partner-in-crime — to the "Translations" section, in that it's for international coverage (mostly American right now... but that could change!), rather than original Japanese coverage. We have everything from Harmony Gold reviews up through things like Viz Shonen Jump magazine columns. It's great! So much transcribing!
What's also great is when my research process gets easier because someone else has already done a ton of hard work.
Enter the Video Game History Foundation.
I've been following Frank & co.'s work forever (pre-dating the VGHF), so I was psyched to learn about the digital library launch last year. It's basically a press archive on steroids, using Kaio-Ken, and then going Super Saiyan 5 (oh, and it has perfect ki control). Complete scans, fully text-searchable and indexed, etc. etc. etc. It's a researcher's dream!
While there are of course only video game publications in there, that still means there's plenty of Dragon Ball content to mine. I had already done a lot of this work, but I could only take it so far by myself — I only own so many magazine issues from my youth after all!
So while I saw the usual EGM and GamePro columns pop up in my searches (which I had already long-since indexed in the "Press Archive"), I also found a ton more.
Enter Computer Entertainer.
I'll just paste some selections from the VGHF's announcement post for brevity's sake:
With this addition of the full Computer Entertainer run last month, we can now access effectively-perfect scans of what seems to be the first — and perhaps only — contemporary review of Dragon Power, Bandai's 1988 North American release of 1986's Dragon Ball: The Mystery of Shenlong (complete with all of its character sprite adjustments stripping it of its original license):The Video Game History Foundation has acquired the rights to Computer Entertainer, one of the first American video game magazines.
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Computer Entertainer (originally titled The Video Game Update) was the newsletter for Video Take-Out, a mail-order retailer based in Los Angeles.
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The newsletter, co-edited by sisters Marylou Badeaux and Celeste Dolan, also has the unique distinction of being the earliest console video game magazine run by women.
The full review has been transcribed (typos and all!) from the issue over on the respective page in our wiki. It's an extremely cool historical tidbit! A later issue has also a cool note about Bandai apparently alerting distributors of the fact that they were sending out one final batch and then wiping their hands of the game.
We always want to go the extra mile, though, and provide something that (seemingly?) no-one else has done. With that in mind, we dug up the original reviews for The Mystery of Shenlong from the No. 13 issue of Biweekly Famicom Tsūshin (which will later just be simply known as "Famitsu")...
... and translated them! The translations of these four short reviews are likewise over on the respective page in our wiki (and boy oh boy, are there some questionably comments in there).
This isn't the sexiest stuff. As far as I know, no-one out there is really pining for contemporary coverage of a pretty mediocre (not even terrible, just kinda "whatever") licensed Famicom game.
But I think it's neat, and I think you all will think it's neat! If you like neat stuff (you like neat stuff, don't you?!), be sure to keep up with those "Weekend Wiki Wrap-up" columns on the site that are posted every Sunday. It's a good way to see what's new and interesting at a quick glance!
Hey, one more set of neat things: did you know The Mystery of Shenlong wasn't actually the first Dragon Ball video game? That there was one that came out right before it on Epoch's Super Cassette Vision? And we tracked its popularity among readers of BEEP magazine across its entire run? And while Shueisha doesn't seem to ever acknowledge this game in any modern documentation, we found at least one little promotional blurb for it back in the 1986 No. 41 issue of Weekly Shonen Jump? And that all of this is already up over on its respective wiki page?
