Cover Gallery: Box Art from Another Reality

Cover Story: The games you'd be playing today, if only things had gone differently.

Artist Rusty Shackles has teamed up with 1UP to bring you these slices of alternate realities: Box art for games from another world. What if things had worked out differently? These games don't exist... but like children everywhere with a catalog of games and no money, you can stare at this box art and imagine what it would be like to play them.

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

What If Steve Jobs Had Never Returned to Apple?

Cover Story: Witness one possible reality in this alternate chronicle of the company that reinvented mobile gaming.

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teve Jobs' White Whale, excerpted from the March 2014 issue of MOOF!: The Mac Enthusiast Memorial Quarterly Magazine. ©2014 . Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

When Steve Jobs passed away in March 2012, he left behind an impressive curriculum vitae of creative ventures and business decisions. His stake in Pixar rendered him both extraordinary rich and incredibly influential given his role in the company's acquisition by Disney, and NeXT's slow-burn success as an alternative operating system made him a hero to the open-source community. Yet a shadow hovers over Jobs' legacy: Apple Computer, the one that got away.

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

What If the Dreamcast Won?

Cover Story: Jump into an alternate reality where Sega's hardware hopes didn't die with the last millennium.

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ega's Dreamcast burned bright, but not for long. The company's last foray into video game hardware barely lasted two years, and tied the bow on a decade lousy with unsuccessful consoles. Unlike the Philips CD-I, 3D0, or Atari Jaguar, Sega deserved better, but a series of unfortunate circumstances helped sink their attempt to make up for past failures. While the Dreamcast had a significant head start during gaming's last gen, a certain combination of factors spelled doom for Sega's final console: the company's sketchy reputation with hardware, Sony's sheer inertia with its upcoming, DVD-compatible PlayStation 2, and piracy -- all these elements merged to form a Megazord of financial woes that beat Sega into utter submission.

It's been well over a decade since the Dreamcast left us, and in that time, we've been able to cope, heal, and wonder what could have happened if things went down differently. Granted, a reality where the Dreamcast won could have only happened if a nuclear strike completely wiped Sony from the face of the Earth (along with a mass Pokemon extinction), but such a dark and twisted scenario falls well within the boundaries of conjecture. So, grab your nearest clock, wind it back roughly 12 years, and witness how the world of gaming would have (probably) differed if the Dreamcast achieved the success it truly deserved.

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

Who the Hell is Steven Spielberg?

Cover Story: How games fare in a world without killer sharks, adventurous archaeologists, and D-Day invasions.

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he name Steven Spielberg probably doesn't ring a bell to you, does it? Nope, didn't think so. What if I gave you a hint and told you that he was someone heavily associated with the film industry? Still nothing? Well, even the most intense cinephiles would fail to link the name with any bit of movie history, and to say that he is one of the most influential directors of all time would just be ludicrous. A quick IMDb search of his name yields zero results, solidifying the fact that this man has not made any notable contributions to the medium. And yet, why does his name cause a tickle in the back of my brain?

What if there was a man whose work behind the camera was so strong that it revolutionized multiple genres of film, and in doing so, paved the way for countless video games that were inspired by these cinematic masterpieces? You'd assume that an artist this prolific would be a household name, and yet, when I say the words "Steven Spielberg," you look back at me a blank stare devoid of any recognition. Bear with me for a moment as I tell you about an amazing filmmaker who never existed, and the legacy that he was never able to leave on video games.

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

Musings from the Public Domain

Cover Story: A view from a world where the "Mickey Mouse" copyright extension act never became law.

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he spring release season is now fully upon us, and with it comes the usual trickle of new IPs and a torrent of sequels to comparatively recent franchises. The biggest deal of the season, however, has to be the absolute flood of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King games and films. A&E's blockbuster LotR miniseries is finally moving on to its conclusion, and It's pretty much impossible to visit a flash game portal without tripping over a Minas Tirith tower defense game. Meanwhile, Rockstar's open world take on Rebel Without a Cause has emerged as the definitive reimagining of the flick even against all the major studio remakes, to say nothing of the glut of halfassed student films. Finally, Edmund McMillan's deeply unsettling take on Lolita as a dungeon crawler played from the point of view of the title character is still looking for a bold enough publisher despite sweeping this year's IGF awards.

That's just a small sample of a motley assemblage of games that all have one thing in common: They're all based on properties that entered the public domain this year. The yearly rollout of old properties, both celebrated and obscure, has long since become something we've taken for granted. We even make a point of taking a annual look at what will be emerging from the copyright cage once we're done breaking all our new year's resolutions, and we barely bat an eye when we're treated to a glut of weird furry Lady and the Tramp dating sims. Geeks around the world are already anticipating next year's Superman revival, or dreading his inevitable crossover appearance in every other comic in existence. It's so much a part of the culture at this point that it's easy to overlook the fact that it can all be traced back to a single momentous decision.

We certainly wouldn't be seeing so many films and TV shows based on Sherlock Holmes if the character were still the IP of a single publisher, and we sure as hell wouldn't be seeing him fight Dracula quite so often.

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

The Nintendo Play Station: A Retrospective

Cover Story: As Nintendo and Sony prepare to announce the Play Station 4 at E3, we remember the console that set the stage for modern gaming.

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s we gear up for E3 2012, the biggest announcement expected to come out of the L.A. Convention Center this year is the latest generation of gaming's console goliath, the Play Station 4. Based on early reports from trusted third-party developers and info leaks from Chinese parts suppliers, the PS4 seems a given -- and with its arrival, the continued dominance of the games industry by joint Sony/Nintendo venture Taido should be a lock as well.

With the PS4 right around the corner, now is as good a time as any to look back at the history of the Play Station family and how two Japanese giants teamed up to put an entire medium in a 20-year hammerlock.

1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF?

What If Shigeru Miyamoto Had Become a Manga Artist?

Cover Story: A timeline from an alternative universe where gaming lacks input from one of its most prolific creators.

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t's kind of a fascinating story really. Shigeru Miyamoto, maybe the most influential designer ever, had little interest in videogames until the late 1970s, when he played Space Invaders. Up until that point, he had wanted to be a manga artist. Well, what if he had followed his original dream and done just that? What would have happened to Nintendo? Or videogames in general? Here's one possible timeline.

1979 -- Miyamoto the Manga Artist: Shigeru Miyamoto graduates from the Kanazawa Munici College of Industrial Arts and Crafts. Because Miyamoto's father is a friend of Hiroshi Yamauchi, he soon receives an offer to work for Nintendo. But Miyamoto is something of a free spirit, and he has little interest in videogames. He decides instead to pursue a career as as manga artist.