Steam Punk Cool
I don't know* how old the magazine cover was? ... but this is the sort of thing that would have been cool to dream about when connecting two Windows machines together, via direct modem connection, was the only way to "game online".
Back then, late eighties / early nineties (or so), the idea of walking up to a cash machine, sticking in your card and PIN and having a game of Mortal Kombat with someone on the other side of the planet would have sounded like one of the coolest things on the planet.
And just imagine if thousands of them were networked together and everyone could play in the same game ...
Pretty cool idea, this linking disparate machines together ;-)
*Accuracy Check: I can't be bothered to find out ...