So, I'll bet you thought I'd vanished from the planet, right? Well, like the Phoenix of old, Game Bytes keeps on rising, floating precariously on the edge of the abyss. (Wow, what poetry, what art!). Actually, it's nowhere near that glamorous. I simply moved. As you must have realized by now, I was moderately delayed while putting a big chunk of my life back together. It's not all totally restored as I'm writing this from a puny corporate apartment in Houston, TX while my beloved wife and 3 terrific sons remain in Alabama (Huntsville area) struggling to sell a home so they can join me. (The non-subtleness of this hint cannot be understated here.. so keep your eyes and ears peeled!).
At any rate, Game Bytes lives!
As this issue finds me without much of my standard resources, this issue will contain less of what I think sets Game Bytes apart from other gaming references - inside information directly from the game producers and with their supported feedback. In other words, I have to restore my 'electronic being' in a new area in order to facilitate interviews, previews, *.views, and generally get Game Bytes chock full of what you like to read. I DO hope, however, that you will find this issue, though not entirely timely, still useful and fun to read. As I do have my electronic status now restored, including full access to E-mail, Usenet and the WWW, you can reach me for any purpose on any of the following accounts:
Internet email: rwe@bangate.compaq.com
Compuserve mail: 74431,1144 (or 74431.1144@compuserve.com)
America On-Line: RossGBytes (or RossGBytes@aol.com)
EXEC-PC: Ross Erickson
One of the delightful benefits of being in Houston now is the local call access to 9600 and 14.4K-baud connections to both Compuserve and America On-Line. In other words, I'm on those services a LOT more often.
So, with this fairly major change, where are we now going with Game Bytes? For the most part, in exactly the same place as we have for more than two and a half years now. Producing the finest game coverage, exciting previews, interviews with key industry players, and expanding our net awareness. It is this latter point that has me most excited. The exploding world of the World-Wide Web, navigated by the ever popular Mosaic, has me absolutely enthralled. The idea of producing a dynamic, living/breathing magazine that changes daily with updated, current news is where I want to go. When a new game hits the streets, you won't have to wait for an entire issue to be published to get the 'skinny' on whether it hits the mark or not. Just navigate over to the Game Bytes Web site and check it out for yourself, replete with well-written text, a plethora of screenshots, and yes, sports fans, potentially even video/animation footage of the game itself. This is going to get VERY exciting. For those without WWW access, all I can say is we won't abandon our current rollout strategy.....yet. But the writing is definitely on the wall. The advantages to delivering content in this way is abundantly obvious and it's where I want to go. We've got several Web sites identified, both here in America and abroad and I expect to see a full implementation of Game Bytes/WWW by early '95. Be prepared.
In closing, I would just like to thank ALL of you who have hung in here with me through thick and thin (lots of 'thick' lately...) and have continued to support our efforts. To say that without you and your support, Game Bytes would instantly cease to exist is grossly understated. Game Bytes continues because you want it too. I appreciate you hanging in there during this very tough time for me. I intend to be very much back in a routine now and producing a quality issue every month. Now that things have kind of settled down and I have restored net access, that shouldn't be a problem.
Enjoy this issue of Game Bytes.
Ross Erickson
Editor/Publisher