Omnihanded Entertainmet News | VGHF Adds Complete Digital Archive Of Classic Video Game Magazine

Before EGM, GamePro, and a legion of other video game magazines, Computer Entertainer was one of the first publications to cover the industry in the early ’80s. Now, the Video Game History Foundation has announced that it has acquired the rights to post the entirety of Computer Entertainer’s eight-year run online as part of its free digital archive.

Computer Entertainer was owned and founded by sisters Marylou Badeaux and Celeste Dolan in 1982, and it was the only video-game-focused magazine to survive the infamous crash of 1983. As a result, Computer Entertainer was one of the few publications that had stories about the aftermath of the crash, as well as the period before and immediately after the North American launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.

The magazine also had some of the earliest reviews for the NES titles, including Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario Bros.

Computer Entertainer's Super Mario Bros. review from 1985. — Computer Entertainer’s Super Mario Bros. review from 1985.

“I often call the period between 1985 and 1988 the ‘dark ages’ of the home console game industry in the US,” said VGHF founder Frank Cifaldi in a statement. “Games and even entire systems were still technically being released, but without an enthusiast press to cover them, we don’t have a lot of insight into what people thought. Computer Entertainer gives us an incredibly rare glimpse into the rebirth that would define the industry as we know it today, and we are incredibly proud to offer the magazine in its entirety to everyone as a public utility.”

The VGHF digital archive already features over 3,000 out-of-print video game magazines, as well as hundreds of trade magazines that weren’t available to the general public. The archive also includes rare artwork, videos, and other behind-the-scenes materials from the past four decades of gaming.

More information about the Computer Entertainer archives can be found on the VGHF blog.

Where to Find the Scoutmaster in Peak

If you want to find the Scoutmaster in Peak to unlock the Mentorship Badge achievement, note that you first need to summon him. He’s not a random encounter, and there are specific steps to follow beforehand.

There are two methods for the Scoutmaster to appear in your game. These depend on whether you’re playing solo or with others online, and are noted below:

In single-player, you must use the Scoutmaster’s Bugle, which is a rare item in Peak.

In multiplayer, you have to defy Scoutmaster Myres’ advice and actually leave a friend in need by deviating from teammates.

For the first method, the Scoutmaster’s Bugle is a rare item, meaning that it has a very low chance to appear in the game. You have a chance of getting the item from either Ancient Luggage–which are the suitcases that have the red emblem on them–or from the Ancient Statues that appear at the summit of each biome. Note that for the latter, all players must be alive when you interact with it. Otherwise, the statue will revive any fallen climbers, instead of dropping an item.

It’s indeed possible for the Scoutmaster’s Bugle to appear in multiplayer matches as well. In either case, the chances of encountering it are quite low. In over 26 hours of playing Peak, I’ve only seen the item twice–but again, there were several instances where the statue didn’t drop an item since one of our teammates had died in the biome, so your mileage may vary.

The Scoutmaster is not messing around.

If you’re playing Peak in multiplayer, encountering the Scoutmaster is somewhat easier. You need to distance yourself from your co-op buddies, whether that’s just one more person or several of them. A way of ensuring you trigger the encounter is by having everybody else but you stay at the starting point of the Shore biome. Then, head over to the opposite side toward the peak and start climbing.

After a few minutes of gaining latitude, you’ll begin hearing a different music than the usual background environmental track, similar to bells in the distance. The Scoutmaster is designed to chase whoever splits from others, so you’re likely to see him get close to you. A good way of knowing when he’s nearby is a film grain effect on the screen, which will gradually obscure your visibility the closer he is.

If the Scoutmaster is in your vicinity, get close and you’ll see the Mentorship Badge achievement appear. There’s a chance of him falling off a ledge and interrupting the chase, but he’ll likely climb back up again shortly. From here, you can either attempt to escape–the Scoutmaster is quite fast, mind you–or let him trap you. When tackling this myself, the Scoutmaster grabbed me and promptly threw me off the mountain.

That’s all you need to encounter the Scoutmaster. Bear in mind that there’s a chance of triggering the encounter by accident if you stray from other players. It’s a punishing and quite terrifying way of ensuring that you’re lending a helping hand whenever possible.