The New 1UP Vault
The more things change... the more they stay the same.
While it’s only been a small amount of time… I wanted to reassess and retool this newsletter as I try to really make it my own and a big part of my life. So, as you can see, I’m making some changes to the 1UP Vault. I wanted some time to detail some of those changes and the future of this newsletter.
So, for starters. The 1UP Vault newsletter is still focused on the history, impact, and my views on the video games industry. In fact, I have a lot of ideas kicking around in my head. I can’t wait to start and publish my planned series on the history of the industry, including a look at the movers and shakers that made it happen. But, since this is going to be a place for me to get a lot of my thoughts out, I didn’t want to restrict myself.
We are now living in a world in that one man can buy a social media outlet and destroy it. And with that, many interesting voices and places to talk about things we love can go away in a second. Substack and newsletters can help, as it provides me a place to put my voice out without fear of some billionaire cutting it for being critical. So yes, my main passion and goal for this newsletter will be talking about video games. However, I am introducing a new subsection that will be published every now and then called Side Vault.
Side Vault will be a place where I can talk about some non-video games based opinions. Whether that’s my love of the Walt Disney animated canon films, or wrestling, or Godzilla – anything really. One exciting thing I’m going to put on Side Vault is my personal rankings of Disney animated films. And I plan to do the same with Godzilla films (another movie-based passion of mine) and potentially other franchises. I’m also getting into reading books again and hope to maybe write an article on anything that I really end up falling in love with. So, in short, it’s just a chance to talk about those things since this newsletter will be my perfect outlet to get things out that I want to say. Side Vault won’t be weekly; it’ll mostly be on a whim or whenever something strikes me; the main newsletter will have weekly video game based articles (maybe more every now and then).
In terms of what’s coming up with this new 1UP Vault? The article with a look at 2022, as well as what I believe are the twenty most impactful games, will finally be available within a week. You can check out my review of Hi-Fi Rush right now, a game that felt very much like the PS2 era and surprised me at every turn. And my history series, beginning with the origins of video games as a whole, kicks off by the end of the month. The first Side Vault article, which looks at the Golden Age films of Walt Disney Animation Studios, also releases this month.
You can follow me on Twitter (@jmmendez89) and Instagram (jmmendez1989). I will update anyone if I add any more social media. I did try out Mastodon for a bit, didn’t really like it, but may give it another chance. I might also start a YouTube account and TikTok account to focus on video game based info videos. I’m excited about this new refocus on the newsletter, and I hope to have your support and make worthy articles.
Thank you.