Games Magazine was one of my late mother's loves. She had a huge stack going back years which I would spend so much time as a kid browsing through. One favorite of mine was the December 1982 issue as it had a special holiday buyers guide to the various game systems of the time. What a time for gaming! So many space games thanks to the original Star Wars films, plenty of systems to chose from, a growing third-party market, and who would of thought that in a year's time the whole thing would collapse in upon itself like a sub-code tenement?

In any event, this feature was written by one Phil Wiswell, who according to a quick Google search, later made a name for himself by writing books on party games. Video game journalism was indeed in its infancy. I manged to keep this issue even after my dad cleaned out all the magazines years ago after my mother's death and I found it not too long ago during my recent move. Anyway, if nothing more then for a cheap laugh, I've scanned the whole thing for your enjoyment, while leaving out the full-page VCR and liquor ads. Features include:

Seven systems reviewed (the crash becomes more understandable).
Tron-like art for the whole article.
Attempts at humor that fall flat.
An article on the then upcoming home computer market (another one of the causes of the crash).
Mentions of many empty promises from manufactures.
And just a pile of aged cheese.

Do enjoy, compare, and contrast.