Learning from the past: Using old perspectives to guide new ones

Around 2006~2007, respected gaming magazine Edge released a trio of curated collections, time capsules covering a scattered selection of their early ’90s news, interviews, and reviews. Flipping through them today reveals a mixture of nostalgic delights—previews of arcade Daytona USA, entire features dedicated to Panasonic’s doomed M2—and personally painful missed opportunities. Do I really want to be reminded there was a time when an original Shinobi arcade PCB was valued at around £20, and that I didn’t pick one up? No, no I don’t. And then, of course, there are the reviews. These republished critiques cover a broad spectrum of games, from famous all-timers like Mario 64 to more niche joys (Neo-Geo shmup Pulstar, for one). The opinions contained within them are a window into a time gone by—and they can tell me so, so much more than whether the reviewer thought the game in question was good or bad. What were players looking for at the time? What genres were considered all played out,…