A thread about the editors

[JiJi McPaws]

This may be a bit personal, but I was curious, how did each of you get to where you are today? Was journalism a dream? Did you attend college? what classes? When and who decided to start a new Publishing company and for what reason did you think you would gain as much following as you already have?

[djpubba]

Oh gosh, it's almost like our first interview.

We're all hip deep in guide making with PB and SMT: N going on at the same time, so it might be a while before any of the other characters pipe in.

I got my start in the industry by just being a game nut. Me and a high school buddy of mine, George Weising, were pretty into gaming. I was working as an ad designer/system manager at a place that does the ads on shopping carts and the back of reciepts. I think I was 21 or 22 years old, and it was back in 1991-1992. One day George told me about a new game store which had opened up in the San Fernando Valley which carried imports, so we headed down there to check it out. We got friendly with the guys working there and mentioned that I was an ad designer and was willing to trade ad design for video games. They were wanting to put ads in EGM and didn't know much about ads or even computers, really. The place was called Diehard Gamers Club in Tarzana, CA.



So it worked out pretty well and I was doing a lot of ads for them, which were really crazy.



That went on for a good while. We made some catalogs...



The guy running the place, Dave Halverson, kept talking about wanting to start a magazine because EGM sucked so bad. So we kind of made a trial run, which was basically another catalog but with a different name...



So I brought my computer equipment (an Apple IIx) into the back of the game store and we set to work making a magazine. We called it DieHard GameFan. There was no steady paycheck, no distribution and we printed the first issue of the magazine at my old place of work (the shopping cart ad place). Jay Puryear loaded them up his pickup truck and drove around to all the newstands in the valley and basically begged them to put it on their racks. Around the 2nd or 3rd issue we got the people who distributed Low Rider Magazine to distribute the magazine, which meant we were in every liquor store in the nation. We were on our way!


From left to right, Andrew Cockburn (taking an order), Dave Halverson and me (Tim Lindquist).

So that's how it started for me. I didn't take any college classes, much less graduate from high school. I'm just doing what I enjoy and the fact that people actually read the stuff is a bonus. I'll be happy if I can do this for the rest of my life.

[JiJi McPaws]

Wow, you all have early 90's punk rock hair. Gamefan used to be the best magazine, I still remember the issue that shows the Japanese preview for Final Fantasy VII. Although the editors never revealed their names. Gamefan is the magazine that really got me into the import scene, the back of every issue you would have ads for a store called Gamecave... I ordered so many things from them, soundtracks, keychains. My first import game was Grandia for the Sega Saturn. I was so young back then, I could never figure out how to get out of the first town. Rockman dash followed that, then Parasite Eve.

Did you all have anything to do with the short lived revival of that magazine? Thanks, that was a pretty cool story

[mflorian]

Holy..........that was you?!    I remember those ads from EGM and I loved Gamefan something fierce.  No wonder Doublejump had a nostalgic sense to it.

[chris.d]

long hair pubba nice

[Wanderer]

I guess I'm editor #2. I don't have any pictures of me looking like the bassist for Megadeth, unfortunately.

I graduated from college recently with an English degree. I'd intended to make a living as a tech writer or maybe a teacher, and the classes I took reflect that. The classes I took are also the reason why I think you can only learn to write by doing; most writing classes only teach you how to write like the instructor.

Along the way, I wrote a couple of FAQs for games like Fear Effect 2 and Alone in the Dark: the New Nightmare, the latter of which was stolen by some anonymous British freelancer and used in a UK tips magazine. When I found out about it, I managed to turn it into a sort of letter of introduction, and I started doing some guides for them. I still write fairly regularly for several magazines in the UK.

Anyway, at the same time, I'd been trying to get some strat guide work here in the States, on the advice of a guy I know named Dan Birlew, who writes for Brady. It didn't really work out for a while, but when I heard about DoubleJump, I wrote an inquiry letter to Tim. We stayed in touch for a while, and eventually he needed a writer. There you have it.

As for the whole new publishing company thing, that's all Tim. I'm just one of the writers.

[Dead to Rights]

DieHard GameFan was the best magazine ever. The import coverage was excellent with plenty of pages not one tiny column or one page like so many magazines then and now. Once I find my collection of GameFan magazines I'll post some pictures.

[Shinogu]

...the bassist for Megadeth

Just had to quote that, b/c it's hilarious.

o__O You know Dan Birlew? Cool. The Plot Analysis he typed for Silent Hill 2 was deep. ^_^

[Dead to Rights]

I don't know Dan Birlew personally, but I have had conversation with him in e-mails, very friendly guy and always takes the time to reply to everyone's e-mail. I e-mailed him when I found out BradyGames wasn't going to publish his Suikoden 3 guide.

[djpubba]

There's a pretty nice tribute site to GameFan here:

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

[Shinogu]

  OMG, I had this issue! I remember it being at my uncle's place n I'd love to just read it n all... God I miss the old days.