The GameFan history thread

[shidoshi]

hmm, could one of you clear one thing up for me? What were the politics behind the chat going pure java? I think I've been told, but it was so long ago I have forgotten.

Boy, I don't know anything about that. The biggest chatroom story I know was when Dan (Knightmare) went in there drunk one night, and ended up getting temporarily fired for what he said the next day. *heh*

Oh, and: The "Jap Bastards" incident

[Fe 26]

Good read.

[sedition]

nice read shidoshi..

the death of gamefan was pretty much the death of video game print mags for me.. excpet the minor investment to gamego what a great mag. oh well. i was wondering if someone could possibly get a release list of all the issues they put out.. i have most of them, but there are a few gaps(mainly during the 6th volume) and would like to know what i missed.

The original was handled by Halverson, Greg Off, Terry Wolfinger, George Weising, Kei Kubuki, Andrew Cockburn, Mas something and Tim Lindquist (me). Jay mostly worked the counter at GameClub until a little while later.

We printed the first issue (and the catalogs) at my old place of employement, TV Fanfare in Valencia. Jay drove around to the local newstands with the first issue in the back of his pickup truck and basically gave it free to whoever would put it on the racks. By the 2nd issue we had a deal with the people who distributed Low Rider magazine to distribute us nationally -- in liquor stores across the country. We were on our way.

still got the first two issues hanging around..? i started buying them at issue three.. my collection will never be complete seriously though, I'd like to thank everyone that put time in on gamefan. the product you guys put out throughout the years for some reason brought a lot of joy to this addict.

[djpubba]

I do have the first two around somewhere, and all the catalogs.

There's a nice list of all the issues with cover pics here:

http://www.millartime.com/videogames/gamefan.htm

Edit: Whoops, it's gone now. You can still get it here for now:

http://web.archive.org/web/200312161...es/gamefan.htm

[Glass Joe]

I still have the "Jap Bastard" issue. You should have someone translate the Japanese apology that started the next issue. For some reason I think it was slighty altered from the American one on the same page. I could be wrong though.

I didn't read the site yet, but you should also(if you didn't already) put something in there about the absolutely shitty subsciption program and how more often than not issues wouldn't show up until WAY later, if at all.

[Klonoa]

There's a nice list of all the issues with cover pics here:

http://www.millartime.com/videogames/gamefan.htm

Sweet. I've owned every issue starting from June of 1994 to June of 1999.

That Earthworm Jim (pull-out, I think) airbrush cover is still one of my favorites.

Wolfinger rocks.

[Dyne]

it was a pull out but i dont think it was a pull out cover (more for the ad inside) iirc. dont feel like pulling it out.

*edit* yeah it was for the Virtua Racing ad on the inside.

[Compass]

Interesting read, Shidoshi. I'd like to hear about the post-Halverson GameFan. It seemed like everyone who didn't accompany him to Gamers' Republic harbored a lot of resentment. There were comics that made fun of him, lots of referrals to "the Mullet", etc. Why was there so little respect? Was he a horrible boss, secretly hated by everyone the whole time? Or were people just pissed 'cause they got left behind at GameFan?

[shidoshi]

Well... I've really calmed down about Halverson, and I've talked to him on different occasions in recent years, and we've been pretty cool with each other. So, I don't want to sit here and point fingers and place blame and whatnot.

At the time of the split, it wasn't totally those who were "left behind" - a number of people, including me, decided to stay. I never felt like I got much of a chance under Dave's rule, I felt he didn't like to so much, and I felt that I'd have far more opportunity at GameFan once he was gone. Once he left, I had the chance to actually do reviews of some of the games I wanted to, and I was able to do anything I wanted to do with AnimeFan.

If you want to read about my past feelings about Halverson, then hit this link. It's an archived page from Fatbabies that came about when Halverson showed up on the GameGO message forum. As I said, I'm over all of that now, and I'm sure he's quite a different person now as well.

http://www.fatbabies.com/story_sept-oct01.html

[sedition]

thanks for the link... looks like i'm missing the catalogs 1-3 and the first two magazines.. along with the Street Fighter Alpha 3 issue(which i saw in the store once and didn't buy, damn) and the Soul Reaver issue. Also missing the last megafan.