Gamefan Sports Network Volume 1 Issue 1 (Summer 1997)

This magazine makes a lot of sense since you may remember from my looks at GameFan on this site, many issues had 12-pages of sports game coverage. Dave Halverson is listed as the "founder" but he is not listed as part of the staff. Rustin Lee is the Editor-in-Chief, with the well-known author Bill Kunkel as executive editor. Unfortunately, this is still owned and published by Metropolis Media, who ultimately mistreated the staff of GameFan to the point of Dave leaving with several others to make Gamers' Republic.

Highlights of this Issue: (Volume 1 Issue 1, Summer 1997) We start with a 5-page article on how baseball stadiums have changed over the years. An interview with Frank Thomas, followed by a review on the sequel to Big Hurt Baseball. We have reviews of TriplePlay 98, VR Baseball, Grand Slam Baseball, and a few more on PC and Mac. You easily have 10 reviews of PC sports games overall. Bill Kunkel interviews Don Daglow, a man that worked on the two first seminal electronic baseball games. Some of these articles or interviews might seem a little dry, but they are for the really hardcore sports gamers, and a magazine like this has the room for this content that other big magazine just wouldn't have the room for. You get more reviews for mixed-martial arts, fishing, bowling, and racing games. And 20 pages of previews. This really is a great first issue, but I honestly just dont see the fanbase being big enough to support a "sports only" magazine, even with the expansion to racing, fishing, boxing and bowling. But this was released around the time that consoles saw the release of 7 baseball games in one year, so this was probably a viable option for 2-3 years.