StrykerOfEnyo

I was looking at doing a video on them, so I got a folder of articles and scans on the games I've collected for years. I knew about the coverage that Tim Lapetin did in Art of Atari, but I think it was a $60 book at the time, and that was a lot for me to buy just see the few pages that it mentioned it. Thanks for letting me see it. Right now, I'm trying to get this other project done before the Xbox 360 store closes, but SwordQuest is standing by for one day. I thought of trying to hire someone to make replicas of the 4 contest items (or even approximations of them), just for the camera. But that would probably even cost several hundred dollars. God bless that UK donation because many of these you just couldn't find over here in the US. Thanks for your time on putting these out -- all magazines you've worked on. It's nice having them preserved, even if they don't get downloaded as much as EGM or GamePro:)

Thanks, dablais. I was going to ask the usual, "where do you find these obscure mags?" But then I decided to just shut-up and do my job -- it is a #1 issue, so I try not to kid-around on those and just put out some interesting history for those looking for it:) I looked through a lot of old Atari magazines years ago, looking at ones that had info on the SwordQuest Contest, and any others that were around the Great Video Game Crash in North America back around 1983, so I knew a bunch about a handful of them.

There have been around 80 publications that featured Atari products since the 1970's -- newsletters, fanclubs, reports, journals, and magazines. Atari World lasted 11 issues (May 1995 - March 1996). Editor Vic Lennard heads up this magazine, whose previous work was a Freelance Editor on Atari ST Reviews, another UK magazine that focused on the Atari ST personal computer, and ran for 35 issues leading up to 1995. It was published by EMAP, which was best known for launching Computer & Video Games and the Mean Machines series of magazines. But many know they started moving away from videogame publications toward the end of the 1990's, and completely exited by 2006. Highlights From this Issue: You won't find many reviews for games, but there are a few, like a review for Cannon Fodder on the Jaguar. You mostly have reviews for hard drives, tutorial packages, video titlers, scanners and things like that. You have articles on topics like MIDI, sequencing, and ones dedicated to programs like Quill 2 and Papyrus 4. The Atari Falcon was their new computer, so expect more coverage for it in later issues. Some will love the trip down memory lane if you used these systems back in the day. There might not be much content for those not deep into Atari computers already.

Super Gamer is a merging of the Super NES magazine SuperPro, and the tips and strategies from Super XS. It is focused on all Nintendo consoles and the handheld of the day, published out of London, England. The reviews follow the same similar format that many UK gaming mags did -- one main reviewer, with separate text bubbles for 2 other crewmembers to give a short opinion, along with a standard 100-point review system. This layout has been seen in a number of other UK magazines around this time. Highlights From this Issue: Interview with Jon Ritman, one of Britan's well-known programmers. There's an introduction to Keith Pullin, who worked on the Nintendo Hot Line for 3 years, a very successful business. He works on this mag now, but shares his experience for a few pages. Reviews cover Space Ace (snes), SkyBlazer, Wario Land (gb), NBA Jam, Humans, Equinox, Lethal Enforcers, ClayFighter, and several more. There are strategies for Lawnmower Man (snes), and Super Empire Strikes Back. The page layouts are what you expect for 1994, some text can be a little hard to make out but its not that bad. Nice and big screenshots, with different colors in the background for different games to help keep them separate. A good-size 132-page issue.

I'm too poor -- my girlfriend keeps stealing my tablets... but I just love her so damn much. lol [side note: I didn't know there was a whipcrack emoji. Thats seems very specific, but useful]

I can't leave my computer all weekend because I never know when dablais is going to drop new magazines. "I can't please my girlfriend because I keep getting out of bed to refresh the Downloads page on RetroMags.com to see if new magazines have been released." (you can use that as a quote on other websites for advertising, I release ownership of the sentence. Use it how you want. Thank you.)

Everything is running in fine form this early in the magazine. Highlight From this Issue: We got a special report on the Dreamcast with 7 pages. And it E3 1998, so the editors chime in on their thoughts and we get 20 pages of coverage from the major publishers. Reviews for Elemental Gearbolt, FFVII (pc), Mission Impossible (n64), Jersey Devil, Unreal, Vigilante 8, then some smaller releases, like Tomba and Road Rash 3. Interviews with president of Treasure, then actor James Woods. The Anime section has 5 pages. There are a few PC reviews, and Music and Movie reviews. It's a solid mag, 116-pages. The page layouts are nice and readable. The only thing I don't like is that nearly all titles use lower-case text, so for reviews they display the games like jersey devil, mission: impossible -- instead of capitalizing each word. I find it off-putting but that is how they display the name of the magazine as well, "gamers republic" instead of Gamers' Republic. A fine issue tho.

I see that you " won the day on October 28". Good job, dablais. I didn't even know that was a thing, I was just naturally thanking you for each issue you put out. I can't Like any of your comments until later in the day because I'm already maxed out at the moment, but thanks for your kind words, as always.

I never heard about this magazine, then I noticed the full name: @Gamer: The Official Magazine of Best Buy. Brought to us by Future Publishing. It was 10 issues a year for $20US, and every issue had $20 in coupons inside. There was also a Gamer's Club section for their RewardZone. If you joined the program, then you could earn a $10 reward certificate for every $150 you spend toward video games, PC games and accessories at Best Buy stores. The people working on it seem to love games as much as you would hope, with lots of previews and honest reviews, from what I saw. Each issue is about 100-pages, and you get the Best Buy logo on about 8 of them for the first issue. It shows up for advertising, the subscriptions page, the calendar -- all places it makes sense. It doesn't seem "overused", and the editors are focused on finding you the best games to buy. Every review isn't a 5/5 just because it's sold at Best Buy. It would be understandable that these issues would primarily be found in the magazine racks at Best Buy, but I don't know if regular newsstands carried them. But now you know.

I can only give you so many "Likes" and "Thanks" in a day, dablais. But you might get them all today. Good job on releasing so many magazines in about an hour.

Damn dablais, does PSM and @Gamer owe you money? You just did 6 issues of one and then 7 of the other in a short amount of time. Are you trying to make Employee of the Month? You got my vote:) Good work, I was ready for a laid-back weekend with maybe a new issue of Cat Fancy being released... if I was lucky. Now I got stuff to read the rest of the week!

Damn, dablais. How many different magazines do you have in your house? It must be just boxes of mags in every hallway:)

If you have ever talked or listened to some of the former GameFan members from the original magazine, you will know that the group is well-aware of several former staff that ended up working long hours for little or no pay trying to keep the magazine alive throughout the years. Many of them left when they were expected to work for free. We went from a full team making this relaunch of the magazine happen, to their not being any money to pay the staff, and now we are down to only a handful of people for the last few issues. Issue 9 took about 8 months since the last issue to release, and reports say that it was assembled by only two people, Dave Halverson and Greg Orlando. The normal GF Staff profiles are gone, and only four other staff are even listed on this issue. One of the graphic designers is listed as "Earnest Storm" -- a long-time alter ego of Halverson that was used even in the early days of the original magazine (being a combination of two games, Ernest Evans and Alien Storm). Issues 8 and 9 were only available in a digital format. Highlights From this Issue: There's a look at the Top 50 Games of the Wii, and a 2013 Most Wanted Preview, which is about one paragraph of words on top of some fancy artwork. We have a big section on Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, and a 2012 Year in Review on the best games from the last year. Yet another list of games with a one-paragraph write up. Lollipop Chainsaw wins Game of the Year Honorable Mention (?) and has a producer interview. Borderlands 2 is the Game of the Year Runner Up, and also has a 2-page interview, and Dragon's Dogma wins the GOTY and also has a nice interview. The Viewpoint returns for 2-pages in a simplified format with about 4 games reviewed and scored on each page. There's a nice section on anime, but that's about it for this issue. Yep, no full-page reviews for ANY games. And most game coverage was three lists of the best games for the Wii, the most wanted games for next year, and the best games of last year. Most magazine do "top game lists" at the end of the year, but they also have their other content. There were little things missing before, but this issue is missing so much compared to the last two. Jason Moore is still the art director, and the layouts look nice, but we have several sections that have hard-to-read text again. When I was 15 years old I was writing my own game reviews for myself, and even I learned very quickly that white text on a black background needs to be bold so the letters aren't too thin to read. But we see several sections with very thin white text in this issue. This mag just looks bad, with pages full of artwork and only a small paragraph of text that probably took no time to write. The magazine would go on a 2-year hiatus after this. Only two more issues would be published, Issue #10 and #11.

For those of you that did the math last time, I said Issue 7 was assembled by only three people, and two of those left shortly after, which only left editor-in-chief Dave Halverson. Publisher Paper Planet made a press release in April 2012, highlighting the future of GameFan and Girls of Gaming. The company planned on increasing its online presence through app development for mobile devices as well as a new GameFan TV online channel. This never happened, but someone did make a YouTube channel. Former Destructoid editor Wesley Ruscher was named the magazine's new managing editor but resigned shortly after the release of issue 8, stating on Twitter that the job "lacked the necessities to keep food in my belly and a roof over my head." Issue 8 took six months to come out since the last issue. Jason Moore is the new art director, and Charlie Maib is the Japan Now editor. Issue 9 would take eight months to come out, Feb 2013, and was only worked on by two people, Dave Halverson and Greg Orlando. Issues 8 and 9 were only available in a digital format, so thanks to those that made this version for us. GameFan would then go on a two-year hiatus, returning in 2015 with a redesigned magazine and website. Highlights From this Issue: I still like the focus on indie games, that's what GameFan has been about for me through the years -- giving more coverage to the smaller developers. Skullgirls gets a 3-page review and a 3-page interview. We have some PS Vita launch window coverage, with a review on Gravity Rush. Blades of Time gets a review and an interview mixed together. We have more reviews for Kid Icarus Uprising, Starhawk, Tales of Graces, Lollipop Chainsaw, and an 8-page section for the review and interview on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Witcher 2 and Phantom Breaker have reviews, along with several shorter half-page reviews which I dont mind. There's a nice Japan Now section, and GameFan Retro returns again. We get a nice retrospective on Metal Slug, a look at Wild 9, and even the FM Towns Marty console, the first 32-bit system that was commercially available. I still love this retro section. What about the magazine itself? There defiantly are some things you will notice in quality. I will say the art direction is different. It still looks good and Jason Moore is doing a great job, but it's really hard to get familiar to one artist and then have a sudden change. Rob Duenas has a special place in my heart and I believe he really shaped the magazine for those first 7 issues. He will be missed. The angled text is used very sparingly, but the biggest negative for this issue is the hard-to-read text is back once again. This was a problem with GameFan in the past, and there were a few times it popped up in this relaunch, but this issue was digital-only, so there is no excuse for not being able to comfortably read the text in a modern magazine like this. The Skullgirls interview uses a thin red text for the interviewer, with a very light reddish pattern underneath. I needed to zoom in a ways to even make out the letters. The Gravity Rush interview has a section with orange and yellow lava in the background, but the text is white with no backdrop or shadow, with the interviewer text being a bold light orange -- which make some of the text disappear completely in certain spots, and hard to read in others. What does a magazine look like when made by two people? Find out in Issue 9. (hopefully:)

Issue #7 was put entirely together by three people; Dave Halverson, James Bacon, and art director Rob Duenas. The lovely Areala mentioned in the comment section of the last issue that the rest of the team "who helped put the magazine together didn't get paid a cent for any of their work." And this also spilled over into the website, any staff that contributed regular content to the gamefanmag.com website (defunct now) also found out they were not getting paid, and when they were expected to continue to work for free, they all left. Issue 7 was assembled by only three people, and two of those left shortly after. Rob Duenas was working 20 hours a day for two weeks, and it was becoming way too much of a workload. He never had anything negative to say about Halverson or the magazine itself, and was willing to continue to do covers or artwork, but just couldn't keep maintaining those work hours. James Bacon would leave for unknown reason shortly after. Issue 9 was made by two people, and issues 8 and 9 were released digitally only. Dave Halverson has had long-time staff leave him during Gamers' Republic and Play magazine as well, but finding details and confirming them is difficult, that's way I tend to stay away from mentioning the reasons behind things during these comments. You can see the quality drop of Issue #7 too. Under the listed GF Staff, there are several "consulting editors," and now the GameFan mascot, the Monitaur, has been added. The "avatar names" are back, which is odd since articles still have the names of the people that wrote them, and once again Dave Halverson is using his trademark E. Storm handle. Let's jump in the issue itself. Highlights of This Issue: There's an interview with Final Form Games, and a look at developer Level-5. We see reviews of Xenoblade Chronicles, Adventures of TinTin, Sonic Generations, Skyward Sword, a colorful layout for Rayman Origins, Saints Row: The Third, Rock of Ages, Bastion and a few more, along with a short history of Disgaea and the review for Disgaea 4. The GameFan Retro section returns, using the colors and style of the old logo. We have a "25 Years of Zelda" special, the "Very Best of GameBoy Advanced," and looks at Silhouette Mirage, WonderDog, Skeleton Crew, Pilotwings and more. It's a good-sized mag, at 102-pages. It's amazing at the amount of work that went into this issue with such a small crew and a handful of contributors, but I am really curious at what the rest of the issues look like since the art director leaves after this issue. I hope there's more. It's so great to see these issues, thanks again, dablais.

Thanks, I couldn't find any details about this from previous staff, but I know Halverson has a history of unfortunate events happening around him, but I assumed the staff left because they couldn't get paid again. I didn't know they didn't get paid for work already done, AND were expected to work for free. Thats tough.

The first 5 issues came out on-time on a bi-monthly schedule, but Issue #6 took eight months to come out. This seems to be due to problems with the advertising revenue. We have an all-new editing team now, led by the new managing editor James Bacon. There are some early signs in this issue that things are a little off. Issue #7 would be put entirely together by three people; Dave Halverson, James Bacon, and art director Rob Duenas. Issues #8 and #9 were digital-only, so I don't know if we will see these surface on a website. Highlights From this Issue: This came out in time for E3 2011, and we get a short Best and Worst awards. There's a great interview with developer NG.DEV.TEAM, and one with the legendary American McGee about the new Alice: Madness Returns, and we see the review a bit later this issue. We got reviews of FEAR 3, Dungeon Siege III, BloodRayne Betrayal, Islands of Wakfu, Gatling Gears and Trenched (Iron Brigade). I hate to mention that the 20-degree angled text is back, I find it hard on my eyes to read several big columns of review text like this. The Shadows of the Dammed review is printed in a different orientation, but at least the text isn't angled. This is the first issue with the new GameFan Retro section, complete with its own cover. We get a nice look at Super Star Wars, DecapAttack, Jet Moto, an import Macross game, and the two D&D beat'em ups -- Shadow Over Mystara and Tower of Doom. Its a nice look at retro games from different eras, and I really enjoyed that the page layouts are reminiscent of the way GameFan looked in the early 1990s. I haven't addressed it as much, but all of these issues have had minimal ads, like easily less than 12 pages each. Most issues have been 88 pages, one was over 100-pages, and a few were less than 80-pages. I gladly would take more ads if it meant people could keep their jobs and be able to pay their expenses.