PC Gamer Issue 2

Cover Story:

• Special D-Day War Game Issue. Fifty years after D-Day, the PC Gamer crew commemorates the day by covering four new games based on World War II theatres of battle with Across the Rhine, M4: Sherman Tank Simulator, Tanks! Wargame Construction Kit II, and V for Victory: Utah Beach.

Features:

• Cover Disk
  • Pinball Fantasies
  • Sink or Swim
• From Fokker to Falcon: A Complete History of Flight Sims
• Buying Into Multimedia - The ins and outs of the CD-ROM, and what it means for the future of computer gaming.

Departments:

• SCOOP! Behind the scenes of the hottest games:
  • Phantasmagoria
  • Wings of Glory
  • Lords of the Realm
  • Rise of the Robots
• Eyewitness (News, Previews, Behind-the-Scenes Reports)
• Strategy Central (Strategies and tips)
  • The Elder Scrolls: Arena
  • Ultimate Domain
  • V for Victory: Utah Beach 
• Extended Play: T. Liam McDonald looks at expansion packs and patches!
  • Privateer: Righteous Fire
  • SimCity 2000: Great Disasters
  • Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition: Signature Tour Volume 2
  • Links 368 Pro: Castle Pines Golf Club
  • Patches:
    • Unnecessary Roughness
    • Wizardry 6: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
    • Early Math
    • Inca (disk and CD-ROM)
    • IndyCar Racing
    • Jutland
    • Lost Treasures of Infocom
    • Rally
    • The Elder Scrolls: Arena
    • Terminator: Rampage
    • TFX
    • Ultima VIII: Pagan
• The Desktop General: William R. Trotter checks out Gettysburg Multimedia Battle Simulation!
• Alternate Lives: Neil Randall gives a brief historical overview of SSI's D&D titles, and looks at the canceled-before-its-time game Forgotten Castles.
• The Learning Game: Edutainment editor Heidi Aycock looks at Spell It 3, Berlitz for Business: Japanese, and SimHealth.
• Sim Column: Scott Wolf is sick of waiting for those hot European imports to make their way to US shores, and hypes up the copy-protection-busting software NeverLOCK.
• Tim's Tech Shop: Tim Vector breaks down busses: what they are, what they do, and why they're so important to your computing experience.
• PC Gamer Letters: Write in with your rants and raves!
• PC Gamer presents the Coktel Vision Sierra Contest: Win a 10-day trip to Paris, France courtesy of your favorite adventure game developer and publisher.
• Next Time: Coming in the next issue, more reviews, more scoops, more strategies, a look at virtual reality, a brand new cover disk, and the editors attempt to pick The 40 Best PC Games Of All Time!!

Reviews (entries in bold indicate Editor's Choice recipients):

• MegaRace (83%)
• Dark Legions (90%)
• Inca II (81%)
• Detroit (86%)
• M4: Sherman Tank Simulator (48%)
• Microcosm (45%)
• Aegis: Guardian of the Fleet (85%)
• Tanks! Wargame Construction Set II (84%)
• Wrath of the Gods (79%)
• Great Naval Battles II: Guadalcanal 1942-1943 (85%)
• The Grandest Fleet (82%)
• Corridor 7: Alien Invasion (68%)
• Ultimate Domain (91%)
• Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse (76%)
• Carriers at War (85%)
• Red Sky at Morning (62%)
• Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard (79%)
• Nigel Mansell's World Championship (40%)
• Russian Six Pack (54%)
• TuneLand (80%)
• Kingmaker (81%)
• The Classic 5 (56%)
• World Series of Poker (86%)
• Games Magazine Presents: Word Games, Vol. 1 (79%)
• Fast Action Paq (49%)

Ads (in order of appearance):

• Theme Park
• Outpost
• Wing Commander: Armada
• Spear of Destiny Mission Disks (see Notable Stuff below)
• Elements Logic Game
• GAMES Magazine Presents: Word Puzzles
• The Game Board sound card
• CH Products joysticks and controllers
• Microsoft Space Simulator
• The Grandest Fleet
• Bridge Olympiad
• Beneath a Steel Sky
• Fleet Defender
• Pinball Fantasies
• Titan Games mail order
• Logitech SoundMan Wave sound card
• Zephyr
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Corridor 7: Alien Invasion
• Harvester (see Notable Stuff below)
• ImaginNation Network online service
• MegaRace
• Wings of Glory
• PC Gamer subscription + free game offer
• Robinson's Requiem
• Sigma Designs ReelMagic Lite MPEG video card
• Raptor: Call of the Shadows
• NuReality Vivid3D sound peripheral
• Consumer Information Catalog
• Legends of Future Past
• Simulation Systems Universal Cockpit controller
• CD-ROM Today subscription
• Creative Game Blaster CD16 multimedia upgrade kit
• TFX: Tactical Fighter Experiment

Notable Stuff:

• The mission disks for Spear of Destiny were complete graphical and audio overhauls for the original game, featuring a slew of new sprites, tiles, and sounds not present in the original Wolfenstein 3D or Spear of Destiny, and published by FormGen. When these games originally came to online digital platforms like Steam and GOG, a purchase of Spear of Destiny came complete with these mission disks. As of 2022, Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax provided a new package to digital providers which bundles Wolf3D with SoD as a single download instead of two separate ones. This edition of the game removed the mission disks from the Spear of Destiny install for reasons that have not been made clear. My best guess is that since these packs were created by FormGen and not id Software, it is possible ZeniMax does not legally own them (FormGen was acquired by GT Interactive, which was subsequently bought by Atari, meaning they probably own the rights to the mission disks). Users who purchased the games separately appear to still have access to the original SoD installer, which does have the mission disks included, as of this edit. Anyone who bought the edition from 2022 that bundled the games together is out of luck.
  • The eXoDOS project download for Spear of Destiny includes both mission disks.
• Harvester, advertised in this issue as "Coming This Summer", does not actually arrive on store shelves for another two years.
• Legends of Future Past was an online text-only MMORPG available through the NovaLink network as well as CompuServe and Sprintnet. This was one of the earliest commercial games of its type, and featured a robust crafting system, similar to that later offered by Ultima Online.