BLiP was a video games magazine published by Marvel in 1983. It had a comic book form factor and typically included a video game based comic strip among various articles about gaming. Not really a bad idea for the time but they were a little too late. Had Marvel come up with this a couple of year earlier, it probably would have had a longer run. As it was, 1983 was a bad year for the video game industry and BLiP only lasted 8 issues.
The premiere issue (pictured above) was published in February 1983 and includes:
- Video Games of the Stars – Mostly child stars and their favorite games but Bruce Boxleitner is also here because of his roll in Tron. On the cover is Matthew Laborteaux who was most famous at the time for his role on Little House on the Prairie. Not sure there was a lot of crossover in terms of fans of that show and video game players though…
- BLiP Tips I – Hints and tips for the Atari 2600 version of Missile Command.
- BLiP Tips II – Hints and tips for the arcade version of Centipede.
- Hall of Fame – An article about Walt Day, director of the Twin Galaxies Official International Scoreboard.
- Clubhouse – An article about vido game clubs and publications including The Atari Club (Atari Age), Activisions, Odyssey^2 Adventure, and Intellivision Game Club.
- Video Jokes – Featuring games we will never see like Pudding Defender and Boob Tube as well as various bad puns.
- Player’s Choice – Videgaming news, this month featuring Pitfall for the Atari 2600, Emerson’s Arcadia-2001, and the new Dig Dug arcade game.
- News BLiPs – Brief news stories including news about new computer chips, the dangers of gaming and using games for training.
- Game Design – Introduction to a contest to design your own game.
- Donkey Kong – Donkey Kong stars in his own comic.
…and more!
BLiP was a video games magazine published by Marvel in the early 1980s (really just part of 1983). It had a comic book form factor and typically included a video game based comic strip (logical since it was published by Marvel). The premiere issue (pictured above) was published in February 1983 and it only lasted for eight issues.
Contents of this issue include:
Video Games of the Stars – The stars are from TV. The games are the ones all of us play.
BLiP Tips I – Get the upper hand on Missile Command.
BLiP Tips II – Drawing a bead on Centipede.
Hall of Fame – Meet the man who keeps track of the champion arcade scores.
Clubhouse – Cartridge owners keep in touch through the mail.
Video Jokes
Player’s Choice – The latest word on hardware, cartridges, and arcade games.
News BLiPs
Game Design – See your video game invention in a future issue of BLiP!
Donkey Kong – An exclusive BLiP comic about the gorilla, the carpenter, and the girl.
BLiP Survey
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