The GameFan history thread

[Riot]

Time to chime in. This is one cool thread!

I was a huge fan of Gamefan from the Halverson days and through some mysterious ways (irc and internet) I ended up working on Gamefan during the ECM-era. I wrote the Europa-section for well over a year and did quite a bit of stuff for Kevin for the Gamefan website. He was the guy who introduced me to Gamefan. When I visited the offices (very dark and dungeonlike for the mag section. Nice and bright at the web section) I was pretty impressed by the operation. I was very young back then. But the passion of the employees, especially ECM, was some next level stuff.

Hambleton was Gary Harrod, who was the designer of the superb british console magazine Mean Machines. He, and a bunch of other hotshot British game journos went over to Gamefan like Dan Jevons and others as well. Pretty crazy since they were doing well in the UK, but such was the lure of Gamefan (and California is a pretty great place if you've had to live in London for a longer period of time) that he and others from EMAP came over. Gary's back in the UK now doing freelance work. I met his brother in Tokyo in the fall, Warren's doing stuff for various European mags as an japanese correspondent.

Gamefan was well thought of in Europe definitely. I got almost all the issues of the mag. I remember how inspirational it was back in the day. I'm running my own mag these days and just the other day I was showing my art director old issues of Gamefan and we just laughed at the crazy layouts. The design's just completely off the wall.

Anyways, a lot of good came to me from getting to know the Gamefan-crew, though I never got paid for my work, which was pretty disapointting, but I hadnt signed a contract, so my fault. I had no idea that Elaine had invested into the company, I thought she was some random biker chick. I dont feel so bad about not getting paid after hearing she lost a fortune.

Oh and I have to pay my respects to Dan "Darkfact" Granett, who showed me the ropes at my first E3 in Atlanta. He died a few years later in a car accident.

At the end of the day, say what you will of the magazine, it did something right since we are still talking about it.

[x2y]

I love this thread from a fans perspective.

*hugs PC monitor*

It's like the good the bad the ugly. Since reading the mag in 1993 to 2000 I can't help but appreciate it more. Nice to see how it all turned out for you guys be it good or bad, kinda like old high school friends and aquintances that I've lost touch with over the years. It's good to see I wasn't the only one that liked that mag and personalities so much. Seems like something positive might even come out of this thread good luck to all and thanks for the fond memories from my child hood, man.

Btw didn't ECM use to post here well atleast in the old TNL board?

[Jeremy]

kdeselms, I'm sure diffusionx will start one soon. I think ECM posted on TNL at one time. He at least did some great stuff on the GG boards. The potential for a new mag is exciting, knowing that a GF-style mag could be done now makes me appreciate games today even more.

[djpubba]

Tim - Robotron X! That's it! I remember him coming to GF to plug it. It was actually a very cool remake of the old school game.

Yup. That game never got the props it deserved, although the camera was flawed. They should fix that and resurrect it on the PSP. It's the perfect type of game for a portable.

I emailed George a link to this thread so maybe he'll show up and give us a story or two.

BTW, Waka, your email's blocked so I PM'd you instead.

[bahn]

Yeah dude, I've sorta just kept to my own little forum community over the past year or so...my activity in gaming has died down quite a bit in recent years and so I haven't found myself checking out the game sites much, anymore. The guys on my board keep me up to date, and a couple of them visit this board frequently as well, so that's how I heard about this thread...which is probably the coolest one I've read on a message board in a long, long time, with all the reunions going on. Plus the potential for something to come of it is even more interesting, with Tim's desire to do a new publication of some kind.

Plus it's just cool, seeing what a profound impact GameFan had on many people, both good and bad. It wasn't a magazine that was well-respected by its peers, to say the least...but I think it's clear that the memory of GameFan and the enthusiasm behind it will outlast MOST of these sterile, "gaming journalist" magazines. Where are the lengthy threads memorializing Next Generation?

Right on! This is unquestionably the best thread to grace the site in a LONG time. GameFan definitely had a profound impact on me (which led to the development of TNL via the ol' #gf_tav channel) and it's great to see all of you return to share some timeless highlights! And I am really excited to hear about the potential of a new magazine!

[haohmaru]

kdeselms, I'm sure diffusionx will start one soon. I think ECM posted on TNL at one time. He at least did some great stuff on the GG boards. The potential for a new mag is exciting, knowing that a GF-style mag could be done now makes me appreciate games today even more.

Yeah, he posted here (as did I) pre, during, and post GG! times. Scratch that, I think after the collapse ECM didn't post here at all - unless this was the "real" ECM: http://www.the-nextlevel.com/board/s...573#post632573

Edit:

I don't think a GF style mag could survive these days. Even with better financing, I don't think GG!/GF2 would've been able to survive as it were, despite the nostalgic yearnings otherwise.

[mollipen]

Hambleton was Gary Harrod, who was the designer of the superb british console magazine Mean Machines.

No no. Chief Hambleton was... God damn, the name isn't coming to me of course... but it wasn't Gary. Gary pretty much did design, and never had a real character in the magazine.

[Jeremy]

Haoh, there was also an "ECM" on GameFAQs for a while, I don't know if it was the real deal or not there either.

[Waka]

No no. Chief Hambleton was... God damn, the name isn't coming to me of course... but it wasn't Gary. Gary pretty much did design, and never had a real character in the magazine.

David Hodgson = Chief Hambleton

Gary didn't want a character because he thought it was childish and whatnot. So he opted out. The brit invasion at GameFan was pretty intense. Lots of creative writing and design stuff all over the place.

[Mr_B]

Time for me to chime in too. I very rarely post, just read and skim. I've been around the neighborhood close to the beginning. I read the mags, spent time in the chat channels. The pinnacle of it for me was getting on the front page of the website. I went off on a ECM rant about gaming. I had the page saved. I'll need to look around for it.

Gamefan took my interest in gaming to a whole other level, which I think it did for most people. The passion was unmatched by any other mag at the time including today.

On a side note, I might have a little bit of info regarding ECM. I noticed he did the strat guide for Ninja Gaiden. I can't remember who published the book, but it was the official guide. I guessing it was Brady, but could be wrong.

I might be able to help out on the startup of the new mag. I work for a ISP and could probably work something out for us to get the webspace and bandwidth for a decent price. I'll keep an eye on the thread but if you need to reach me, hit me up at randy@aeroinc.net. I have web programming skills and can do a decent job with coldfusion. If you need my services or just someone to bounce questions off of, feel free. I'd be happy to help.