The GameFan history thread

[kdeselms]

Even though there are a number of ex-GF staff members who post on my forum, we rarely talk about the GameFan days anymore - so it's kind of a trip now that we've all got some distance on those years, to talk about this stuff and reminisce. A lot of stuff, you just can't fully appreciate the weirdness unless you were there for it. GameFan was, by far, the most unique work experience I've ever had and by far, the most diverse group of personalities. Even before working there, I knew a lot of the guys who had been. Dan Granett had been writing for me on a site I'd been doing. I met that guy on Prodigy, back in the day - I remember putting in a good word with Jody to try and help him get hired at GameFan. Dan was just sort of a unique personality. I've never known a bigger or more knowledgable pro wrestling fan, either. Ryan was another guy I'd met on Prodigy's message boards, the three of us posted there all the time. I can remember visiting Jody at the GF office in Agoura one year while at E3 and watching Nick rant and rave about some other magazine stealing GameFan's screen shots. I was never a big Nick Rox or Dave Halverson fan, personally. I loved the spirit of GameFan but I couldn't stand their writing. To this day, I pick up Play and think, "Wow, this would be a good magazine, if I could actually read it."

I know from Dan's stories that Dave H. would actually take everyone's copy and "Blissify" it - that's something that just infuriated Dan. He took his writing very seriously and every time it got copy-edited by Dave, it ended up being peppered with those patented Nick Rox-isms that he loved so much.

[Wolffen]

No. Howling Mad Murdock was from the A-Team and played by Dwight Schultz.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0776239/

Originally Posted by Glass Joe Holy shit! His dad is Murdoc from MacGyver.

[soundwave]

No. Howling Mad Murdock was from the A-Team and played by Dwight Schultz.

No, Glass Joe is right--"Murdoc" was the evil nemesis of MacGuyver and Mr. Des Barres was it. Not the same as the A-team one.

[Dolemite]

Here's issue four…at least, I think it's issue four. Gamefan jumped from vol. 6, issue 6 to vol. 6, issue 8. I think the missing number 7 was one of the cases where Gamefan infamously skipped an issue.

[fausty]

Even though there are a number of ex-GF staff members who post on my forum, we rarely talk about the GameFan days anymore - so it's kind of a trip now that we've all got some distance on those years, to talk about this stuff and reminisce. A lot of stuff, you just can't fully appreciate the weirdness unless you were there for it. GameFan was, by far, the most unique work experience I've ever had and by far, the most diverse group of personalities. Even before working there, I knew a lot of the guys who had been. Dan Granett had been writing for me on a site I'd been doing. I met that guy on Prodigy, back in the day - I remember putting in a good word with Jody to try and help him get hired at GameFan. Dan was just sort of a unique personality. I've never known a bigger or more knowledgable pro wrestling fan, either. Ryan was another guy I'd met on Prodigy's message boards, the three of us posted there all the time. I can remember visiting Jody at the GF office in Agoura one year while at E3 and watching Nick rant and rave about some other magazine stealing GameFan's screen shots. I was never a big Nick Rox or Dave Halverson fan, personally. I loved the spirit of GameFan but I couldn't stand their writing. To this day, I pick up Play and think, "Wow, this would be a good magazine, if I could actually read it."

I know from Dan's stories that Dave H. would actually take everyone's copy and "Blissify" it - that's something that just infuriated Dan. He took his writing very seriously and every time it got copy-edited by Dave, it ended up being peppered with those patented Nick Rox-isms that he loved so much.

Kevin? Wow, how's it going man? I lost track of you after GFO flatlined, how's life? Heh, Prodigy. Memories...

[Ex Ranza]

Is right after the shakeup when ECM came on board? I'd never remembered him being in the magazine until after almost everybody died in the comic.

[Glass Joe]

After reading all of these horror stories I have only one question. How come no one ever kicked the shit out of DH?

[Mzo]

This thread gets better and better... hope all the non-regular ex-GFers stick around for a bit.

Has it been long enough for the wounds to heal? Will ECM make an appearance? =X

[kdeselms]

Here's issue four…at least, I think it's issue four. Gamefan jumped from vol. 6, issue 6 to vol. 6, issue 8. I think the missing number 7 was one of the cases where Gamefan infamously skipped an issue.

There was one issue we went to E3 with, with Street Fighter on the cover I believe - the cover was of much heavier cardstock than usual and if memory serves, they only basically printed enough to send to subscribers and have some for E3, it never hit the newsstands. I'm not sure if that's the missing issue, but it's a rare one. The cover was yellow I think...can't remember, I gave Waka all the issues from my time at the mag so he could scan them for work samples for his portfolio.

[Dolemite]

There was one issue we went to E3 with, with Street Fighter on the cover I believe - the cover was of much heavier cardstock than usual and if memory serves, they only basically printed enough to send to subscribers and have some for E3, it never hit the newsstands. I'm not sure if that's the missing issue, but it's a rare one. The cover was yellow I think...can't remember, I gave Waka all the issues from my time at the mag so he could scan them for work samples for his portfolio.

I remember hearing about that issue, actually.