The GameFan history thread

[Doc Holliday]

Well duh, it's getting harder and harder to get stuff without people doing that. He'll send it a cheep as he possibly can too.

No shit, you're going to get those delivered to you by a Yetti on a mule...

[stormy]

i tried to subscibe to Gamefan like 4 times and it never came, so finally i wrote this page long letter just begging them to let me subscribe to Gamefan. It worked and I started getting issues, but never got a bill. Then with all the flakey printing and free extensions being given out i think i ended up with about 2 or 3 years of free Gamefan. Sorry guys, but i tried to pay!

[Timber]

Lets put the subject to rest and quit derailing the thread.

I'm satisfied. The end. Jeez people.

[Compass]

Somebody track down ECM and get his ass in here. What is he, too good for us? I can see why Halvy wouldn't pop in but this thread is bursting with fans of ECM's more than anyone else's ('cept maybe Nick).

And somebody fill us in about how the word "sex" ended up in the nostril of the dinosaur on the Turok cover. It was denied in the letters section if I recall. Don't try that here though -- the word is clear as day. It's time to confess to your sins.

[Jeremy]

I think I'll thumb through my GF collection tonight. Odds are, I'll come across some game I'd always wanted to play, but had just forgotten about. Or maybe I'll rediscover a game I have, and just haven't had time to play yet.

[Doc Holliday]

Has anyone played arournd with an idea for the title of the new mag?

[Omni]

Go check out some threads at Kevin Deselms' forum (I lurk there myself, I mean, HI KEV!) or dig up the Shidoshi vs. Dave Halverson articles at FatBabies...it's ridiculous how many employees this man seemingly alienated...

But of course I wasn't there...so uh...

Yeah, I'll check those out.

[BonusKun]

Somebody track down ECM and get his ass in here. What is he, too good for us? I can see why Halvy wouldn't pop in but this thread is bursting with fans of ECM's more than anyone else's ('cept maybe Nick).

No. I just don't think he wants to deal with this anymore. After the whole mess with GG happened a lot of people hated him for that last post he made on the old GG boards.

Do you honestly think some people *Master for example* are going to let it go?

Back on track tho. I actually got the nerve to bust open my old storage case of Gamefans. Volume 1. Issue 3. Feature Story of Battletoads. Dear god.

~BonusKun

[Dyne]

Forgive me for being ignorant, but why does everyone hate Dave H.?

im the worst poster ever yet you have two questions on the same page that could be answered if you actually read the thread your posting in. nice.

More story... nothing mind melting, just a little funny...

The printing on issue one wasn't that great. We printed it at my old job, which used pretty low quality presses and we used too high of a line screen for that type of press. So it was really dark in spots. So we needed to find a real printer. It just so happened that Andy Fell's brother in law, or cousin, or some relative like that, owned a printing company called Wolfer Printing. So Andy hooked us up to get the magazine printed there. Back then, we used to go on what were called "press checks." This was where one or two of us would go to the printer while the magazine was printing and make sure the pages coming off the press were good. It was a hell of a long drive away, so none of us wanted to go because, since they printed in the middle of the night, it basically meant sleeping in their waiting room until the press dude came in to wake your ass up and look at the next set of pages (a sig). It was a crap thing.

So when we'd get the magazines back from the printer, Halverson would always look at every page in the magazine and find some thing wrong and get all pissed off and insult whoever went on press checks. It was always fairly minor stuff -- stuff that happens in every magazine, like misregistration, blues going purple, etc. Finally he got so fed up with printing problems, he decided he was going on a press check himself. So he loaded up a shitload of game systems in the car to hook up to the crappy TV in the waiting room and we head down to Wolfer printing. Of course nobody thought to bring a fucking RF modulator to hook them to the crappy old TV so we're bored out of our skulls by the time the press dude calls us out to look at the first sig. Halverson picks up a sheet and rubs it between his fingers, holds it up to the light and starts freaking out. He's going off that he's paying for 80 lb paper and this is fucking 70 lb paper and he's not paying for this crap. I'm standing there thinking, "no fucking way he can tell the difference between goddamn 80 lb paper and 70 lb paper with his fat fucking fingers." So the press dude hauls out a micrometer and measures the paper. Sure e-fucking nuff old microdigits Halvy caught 'em red handed trying to stiff us on the paper weight. He was the living press check god for a while after that (and more power to him).

Funny thing, at our DoubleJump Publishing offices here in Valencia, CA (different place, way far from where we did press checks), like, 13 years after that, we get mail addressed to Wolfer Printing. They occupied the same suite as us some time in the past. It's usually from the employment board or the IRS. Go figure.

i work in the printing industry (digital prepress) and Halverson sounds a LOT like our production mamager. never understanding that little things CAN and always WILL go wrong with direct to plate. but even knowing this we get the usual WTF.......WTF is THIS!? FIX IT!? all....the...time. trust me.....i know the horrors of that. suprising tho that the customer (Halverson) had that much attention to detail.

No. I just don't think he wants to deal with this anymore. After the whole mess with GG happened a lot of people hated him for that last post he made on the old GG boards.

Do you honestly think some people *Master for example* are going to let it go?

Back on track tho. I actually got the nerve to bust open my old storage case of Gamefans. Volume 1. Issue 3. Feature Story of Battletoads. Dear god.

~BonusKun

i dont blame him. a lot of people that bitched about their GG $20 (which happens around here almost every couple months) would either a. turn around and keep doing it or b. say they never were mad at him. id rather not see that crap around here myself.

And somebody fill us in about how the word "sex" ended up in the nostril of the dinosaur on the Turok cover. It was denied in the letters section if I recall. Don't try that here though -- the word is clear as day. It's time to confess to your sins.

wasnt real. i have the Turok issue and it isnt there. it had to be PS'd in.

[typefiend]

Thanks to a kind email, I was directed to this forum where I could revisit the fond and frustrating memories of working at both DieHard GameFan and Gamers' Republic. Its a trip to see some of the names of people whom I got to work with for a short while...basically the last 6 months of the Halverson era GF, before I joined Gary, Bryn, Hoagy, Gerald, Jeremy, Ryan, Jun, Jevons, Hobbs, Griffin, Corby, and Halverson to launch GR. I had almost banished the memories of Metropooplis: Bouncing Checks Inc, and its all come back in vivid detail. But I remember people like Waka, Rau,Rustin, Jody, Terry, Bruce, ECM, Shidoshi, Nick and Andrew....it was my first job outta college, hired by a great first boss (Gary Harrod), and a dream job at that (graphic designer). Well, at least until the paychecks stopped and all we did as staff was play hours upons hours of Poy Poy and Command & Conquer. I only regret that I left just as I was about to get my own character in the masthead...Terry was going to make me a pretty keen panda bear character. But alas, it was never meant to be.

Hope all you original GF/GR kids are doing well!