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From: HappyConsoleGamer
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  • Glad to see appreciation for this magazine! One thing I loved about those old mags is how EVERY page was a giant blown up screen shot as the background. (Blurry until you hold it back).

    There's a couple of old issues for sale in digital form at Shop Gamefan.com. They go for a lot now on Ebay.

  • the robot on the cover of volums 2 looks like the robot from fooly cooly

  • I would love to see an Alundra and Landstalker video!

  • I played Wild Arms III on my PS1 when I was little. I still have the original as well. :P

  • Oh man I loved Game Fan so much, I miss that magazine so much

  • HELL YEAH IT WAS THE GOLDEN AGE!!!

  • Mine was gamepro and nintendopower

  • These guys describe Gamefan and video game magazines in the 90's, in general, perfectly. Good job.

  • this is reminding me...of Lufia 2,the Treasure Shrine,spending forever trying to complete that 3rd Block puzzle -.- man that was hard.of course,no internet back then,go figure.rental too,even worse.might have picked up a magazine or something to help me through that.but i never bought Game Fan,however great it sounds like now. FF VII huh..i forgot how big that moment was.and btw,i'm adding Symphony of the Night to my games to play list now.it seems pretty good

  • i dont remember gamefan for some reason.. i remember egm, gamepro, game informer, nintendo power, sega visions..

  • Yes! Yes!! YES!!! Gamefan was SO instrumental in keeping the video game enthusiasm alive in me. It was gorgeous. I owned EVERY ISSUE kept in PERFECT condition, except for two issues...until our basement flooded. Please do an episode or two where you cover particular issues. Thanks. Sooooooooo good!! It was a magical time indeed.

  • Dude.. i have most of the gamefans your showing in this video! and yeah Rondo of blood is my favorite castlevania ever... because of GAMEFAN! i would have got along with you guys so well lol me and my brother used to love gamefan, we would talk about them constantly..

  • Im 16 and i love the old games! My favorite part is going to the game store and looking at the cover of like a nintendo game and just thinking about how the game works. Is it a shooter? Is it a side scroller? Is it a puzzle game? The limitations of the old consoles actually makes it more interesting because they could have tried anything! Love it!

  • Wild ARMs! Please, do Wild ARMs!

    That was my child hood RPG. I absolutely loved its world especially when you got more stuff traverse it more. Loved the music, so, so much. The characters were great and the places or dungeons were great and 3D battles! Before FFVII! Tough as hell too. The extra hidden stuff was really great too, all of those runes and the people of every different village! I loved all of the different people you came across in the journey.

    Fantastic game.

  • I was such a Nintendo whore (still am) that the large magazine collection I have was Nintendo Power, lol.

  • GAMER'S REPUBLIC WAS MY MAGAZINE OF CHOICE BACK THEN!!!!!!!!!!

    NEVER FORGET GAMER'S REPUBLIC MAGAZINE!!!

  • loved this!

  • Yep, GameFan magazine was easily the best video game magazine of all time. My favorite reviewers were Nick Rox, E.Storm/Skid, Knightmare, K.Lee, Eggo, and ECM. Man, the memories...

  • No joke.

    Just make a "series" in which you go through ALL of that magazines.

    I watch them, no question ...

  • oh god I would so love to see a magazine with a review of Tomb Raider or Resident Evil...that was the golden age...

  • Best console magazine EVER was Mean Machines uk though :p

  • I remeber reading game informer back in the day

  • I remember reading die hard game fan back in the day.I learned about Arc the lad,a game that I wanted to get a playstation just to play that.game cave,which was in the back of the magazine,had all these games I wanted to play.Good times.

  • @HappyConsoleGamer *I still have 25 issues...

  • @HappyConsoleGamer I still 25 issues of this excellent magazine(my favorite). This mag was the best because of the high quality photos/print. It had the latest info about import games, the writing/reviews were good/insightful, unlike the generic reviews you would read in GamePro at the time. It would cover arcade games, anime, & comics/toys/movies once in awhile. You got the impression that the staff really cared about the gaming scene, and it was made in California if I remember correctly.

  • I was just thinking of this magazine the other day. I loved it. I loved that it had an anime section.

  • Illusion of Gaia! =D

  • EGM was always better then Gamefan IMO

  • I remember when I first got my EGM magazine. Its a very wonderful feeling. Ahh...childhood memories!

  • Hokuto no Ken 6(北斗の拳 6)/ Fist of the north star 6 :P

  • Amazing video again i love Game Fan . I wish they was still around they really brought another element to gaming magazines . Still have a few issues from back in the day . Old School Gamers FTW !

  • reminds me and buying my play station magazines

  • God. I just found this channel and am browsing through related videos. I'm not even that much of a gamer but I LOVE listening to people who know what they're talking about. Your passion blows me away. <3 (especially when talking about games like Megaman X and Zelda that I played a lot as a kid)

  • i like these types of episodes the most where u guys just tell us about your memoies and stories, i grew up with the internet so i really like to the difference with the generations of gamer

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  • gotta comment on this video, though late. just like you guys, my brother and i grew up on gamefan. that second issue you guys touched on (castlevania sotn) was a particular favorite. especially the section about FF7. i miss this magazine so much. i used to enjoy the postmaster letters and the import shop in the back. the dragonball z wallscrolls were particularly awesome. anime section was also very informative. first magazine i saw that showed dbz_legends. amazing stuff. thanks for the video!

  • 8:00 to 8:23. Couldn't agree more. Good times.

  • @ HappyConsoleGamer LUV Rob's shirt!!!

  • make a 20 part episode of it! lol

  • BTW a group of the ex-GameFan writers have a cool podcast called "Warning! a Huge podcast". It's a bit stiff at times but they go very in-depth on Japanese gaming and each podcast can go up to 4 hours!

  • Damn, really takes you back, doesn't it.

  • yes please make another video of going through these. i love seeing these magazines and your passion for the games makes me remember how incredible it was for all of us back then :) definitely the golden age like rob said

  • Alundra i dont `think that its tho hard personali...

  • WOW. You just make smoking seem cool...

  • wild arms and alundra, vandelhearts, nuff said.

  • Yes keep doing these im excatly from the same area of gaming 30 years old and love these memories :)))

  • oh yeah and I loved tips & tricks too, I even got my name in it once! Did you guys ever read FLUX magazine? there's only about 7 issues but it was my favorite during that short time.

  • nintendo power has always been my favorite, but gamefan was awesome too. I've saved all my NP, gamefans, next generatinos and a lot of other series, but I think one time I threw a lot of my gamepros away because I was trying to save room and I decided those were the worst ones.

  • I had no idea you guys are Canadian! Even more awesome! Where abouts are you guys? Keep up the good work! I'm looking for my old pile of die hard mags!

  • oh man this was the best magazine for videogames. BARNONE! Such a shame they had to go out of business. The good ol days.

  • I was new the people who started Die Hard Game Fan. They all ran a small but very cool video game store in the San Fernando Valley. I used to buy all my Super Famicom games from them as soon as they were released in Japan. I remember the day they told me they were starting a magazine. It turned out so well and I was so proud of all those guys. They were genuinely nice and not influenced by payola, unlike EGM and Gamepro. I was sad when the magazine eventually came to an end. Cheers.

  • Love this vid. You guys are awesome! I share many of your sentiments. '90s and video game magazines was where magic happened. Have you read Super Play? Best SNES mag ever. You're right, having just your imagination, some screen shots and a friend -- all you needed back then! BTW check out my Top 5 favorite publications article. I can't link it directly but google RVGFANATIC and click on my "Magazine Madness" section :)

  • man i LOVED gamefan. it was like nothing else in the game magazine world. i lost my copies but man those were amazing

  • Love this vid. My good old days was to look forward to one day of the month for the gaming magazine. Internet is awesome, but I feel like overwhelmed by all these gaming info you get online.

  • What's up Johnny and Rob man, I watch you guys like everyday I keep replaying all your videos and reason for that is I have the same passion for video games as you guys do and I feel like we're good friends everytime I see a video, I have a serious question I see in the back you have season 1 of DBZ with vegeta on the cover and I wanted to ask is it true with those seasons of DBZ does it have the Bruce Faulconer background music?

  • genesis and PS1 was most definitely the golden age! I also finished Landstalker, it most definitely is very difficult game. I'm a huge fan of Landstalker, but I found the ending pretty lackluster. I was hoping they were going to juice it up a little in the remake for the PSP that never ended up happening.

  • Gotta agree that the 16 & 32-bit generations were the peak of the gaming industry.

  • when I started doing layouts for my college paper, this magazine gave me inspiration. It makes me sad that I lost all of my issues of Gamefan in Katrina, but somehow didn't lose my actual game collection

  • just having screenshots and your imagination was so awesome!!!!!!!

  • Guys I loved this episode. I can relate. Those were the days. Great episode! -J

  • LMAO @ Johnny when RobMan is flipping through the magazine.

    "yeah.... yeah... yeah... ye.....yeah... yeah..."

    Amazed by the magic of retro gaming.

  • Wasn't GameFan the magazine, where the writers did blow off hookers asses while playing Yoshi Island in a hotel room?

  • Great vid guys! Please do a part 2... love seeing the old print mag's from back then!

  • I love you guys!! Awesome video! Man, such a throwback! Miss those days!

  • The only mag that rocks now is RetroGamer, the sub is expensive to import but well worth it.

  • LOL, that Sylvester Stallone ad totally brings me back. I always laughed at the joke. Gaming mags were gold back then. Who would've thought you could one day find all that info online? Finding out secrets back then was like discovering the holy grail!

  • Great episode guys, keep up the good work.

  • I adored magazines back in the day too - "N64 Magazine", an unofficial UK publication was my favourite back then.

  • @MrVengeance83 best game magazine ever penned. i used to have every issue from like issue 26 onwards, had a huuuggge stack of n64 mags. both n64 and nintendo official mag, i massively regret throwing them out

  • Good stuff guys.

  • i remeber a good years ago my house couldnt afford internet but we got a nintendo ds promo packet of games that will come out for it and such with some gameboy games in it aswell.. i looked at that things for days

  • This is definitely one of the few cons of the internet. God I miss when magazines like this were relevant.

    Just another thing that will never happen again we should be thankful we lived to experience.

  • @NecrophageonIII agree completely.

  • Oh god... My one memory of this magazine was when one of their editors slipped a crazy racist diatribe into the mag and hen they tried to pawn it off as some other magazine sabotaging them.

  • The best thing about Wild Arms is the opening song. If you haven't heard it, do a quick search for it here on Youtube. The American version doesn't have any lyrics and IMHO, better off for it.

  • An episode on every issue you have will be good ;)

  • you could make a episode on how you first met Rob Mam

  • @ixelu he has already mentioned that in a previous episode

  • @ixelu he did that already.

  • Shidoshi, Nick Rox, and Takuhi (Casey Loe) from GameFan Magazine do a great podcast about Japanese gaming. It rules, and everybody should give it a listen! It's called "Warning a Huge Podcast is Approaching Fast!" Check it out!

  • Another amazing episode chaps :)

  • Loved this episode fellas!

  • I remember the days crying when I lost my memory card for final fantasy 7 saves lmfao

  • I remember these magazines, they were one of many game magazines that I used to pick up monthly. Great to see them get shown off years after they were last made

  • God I used to love Die Hard Game Fan. They morphed from an overpriced import dealer with ads in the back of EGM to a full fledged magazine. I remember learning about gunstar heroes first from them.

  • I do at least agree that the N64/PSX/Saturn era was a very good era in video gaming. A lot of the best games (to my memory) were from that era. And yes, there were chappy ones too, but there were also a LOT of gems as well. A lot (read as "practically all") of the long-lived series that we all know today got some of their most iconic and defining moment in that era. Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, and Final Fantasy. There were also several golden gems unique to the era too. Banjo-Kazooie. Conker.

  • I want a SotN t shirt too

  • I've attempted to beat Landstalker three times now each time getting further than the last. The isometric view while amazing to look at, fucks shit up so badly for the player in the later dungeons. Also some of the puzzle solutions were so obscure. I bet you were pulling your hair out with the prison puzzles, haha.

  • I used to love this magazine back in the day. I still have a bunch of issues in a box at my Parents house back in Connecticut. Hopefully they dident throw them out! I remember they even had the section in the magazine where they reviewed anime back when it wasent mainstream in the states. Some of the issues are missing quite a few pages because I would rip them out and poster them on my wall.

  • The big earthbound box and the nomad on the shelf brings back great memories

  • when single player was fun man bring back old memories. but what ya know about rainbow six the first one magazine?

  • mold 

  • Awesome episode, you guys are spot on :) I have a bunch of them magazines myself that I still read from time to time and I'll never sell/give/throw away a single one of them, ever.

  • EGM was my magazine. I loved their coverage when Street Fighter II was about to hit the SNES.

    They also came up with a great April fool's gag od how to get Shen Long in Street Fighter II.

  • I can't believe no one has mentioned that it says "Illusion of Gia" in the magazine.

    Makes me think of this:

    imdb (dot) com/title/tt0123865/

    You know, that movie where Angelina Jolie was nude and played the real life supermodel/addict Gia Carangi.

    Can't believe my wonderful Quintet made this, eh Robman/Millennium?

  • Great show guys ... mine was EGM does anyone remember the blown up screenshot of streetfighter of Ken ? that was huge at the time and my 1st copy. although Gamefan seems like it was great

  • You want puzzles? Huh? Play Cogs. Excellent puzzle game. Cross platform too.

  • Excellent video! SOTN is my favorite of the series as well! I remember beating that game and taking it back to Blockbuster and finding out years later that there was an inverted castle. So I bought the game recently and beat it completley! LOL Love the Wild aArms series as well! Im more of a fan of the earlier games of Wild Arms other than 4 and 5.

  • I remember that some of their older issues had comics featuring their Monitaur character. Do you have any of those? It'd be great to hear you talk about them.

  • I always saw those Game Fan magazines back in the day but always passed on them. I guess I was more of a Nintendo Power/Game Pro kinda guy. lol. Would be really interested in another Game Fan episode guys. ^>^

  • Great episode. I remember Gamefan, EGM, Gamepro & Nintendo Power Magazines. 

  • Never read Game Fan but they seem pretty cool! Still have stacks of old Gamepros and Nintendo Powers that are always fun to flip through.

  • *swoon*

    I use to live on Gamefan! When I saw the spread on the King of Fighters 95 by Nick Rox...blew my mind. Mega CD Silpheed, Guardian Heroes big time coverage, all the import PC Engine RPGs we'd never see....so much treasure in those mags.

  • I had the same experience with a buddy of mine. I'd get Nintendo Power and he'd get EGM and we'd just read through them over and over waiting for these games.

    I kinda miss that with the information overload the Internet provides these days.

    I still get NP, though, all these years later!

  • Three of the old Gamefan guys (casey, nickrox, and shidoshi) have a podcast now called "Warning a Huge Podcast". It's easily the best japanese gaming podcast.

    

  • @bulletcurtain wow, that's awesome. where can i find it?

  • @SotNist You can find it on itunes, or on their website: wahp(dot)jp .

  • Heh, Chrono Cross battle music. Reminded me of your "Did you just mention Chrono Cross?" comment from a recent AGG.

  • I still have a huge collection of EGM,GAMEPRO, and european CVG magazines from the 90s

    i never gonna throw them away!

  • That zelda sword and shield in the back look kick ass!!

  • Awesome episode! I still have stacks of Game Fans and EGMs that are as tall as I am. It was so much fun reading game magazines back then. Sure, the internet is fantastic but reading these things just can't be replicated.

  • Honestly, These guys keep me coming back to Youtube to watch! I love their insight and I have so many common video game loves. Megaman is MY childhood game. Hands down.

  • Oh man! Thanks for bringing me back in time once again guys!

  • Great episode! You always leave me wanting more HCG!

  • Please make more. The gaming community needs more vids like these. I myself made some memories videos like these.

  • That was an awesome mag. They were the only magazine that ever printed a question I asked in the letter answering section. I think my brother still has our collection in his closet in his room.

  • LOVED this Ep.

    PLEASE do more, Hell go through all your Game Mags (Gamefan / GamePro / EGM...)

    I to once had a stack of gaming mags just as high and every time I would look through them I would be stuck for Hrs. lol

    PS. What year did you guys stop smoking and why?

  • Johnny, one thing that's extremely noteworthy regarding GameFan is the fact that they ran the "Die Hard Import Club" (GameFan started as its newsletter) import chain who advertised in the magazine, it later became "Game Cave".

    The fact that they ran an import store had a lot to do with the amount of import coverage the magazine had. While I wasn't the biggest fan of their reviews. I also share similar memories of opening copies of GameFan and looking through the beautiful art and screenshots.

  • i guess you never attempted to play through illbleed for the dream cast. lol

  • Although I love the game magzines and also before while I was growing up (yes in 19 years of age) I didint have enough money to get internet or even bothered to use it. I used gaming mags like nintendo power. Still to this day I used wiki for my gaming news but still I use and read game informer. so anyway great video you to and yes as Dickielocker says and agreed with him for you to do 30 minute long videos but it will be an overhaul for you two

  • Excellent video man! This episode brought back a lot of good memories :) I used to call the Nintendo hotline (I'm not sure if you had that in Canada though...) whenever I got really stuck in a Nintendo game :P My mom wasn't too happy about that though, haha.

  • C+VG

  • "when we were gaming this was our internet" no truer words were ever said :)

  • @dragonps yeah, agree with you.

  • lol illusion of gia they mispelled it

  • fuck ya gamefan rules not many fucking gay ass ads nowadays game mags have more ads than damn gamn info fuck that going on internet for my news

  • I always thought they were the best. They had coverage on screen shot and videos that others didn't. Their layout was colorful and interesting.They often covered a lot of import games the other magazines would barely touch on. Also loved the anime reviews they did. Think they were the only magazine to give sonic cd a drastic lower review for the U.S version of sonic cd. That's what I call dedication.

  • Dave Halverson was awesome. Gamer's Republic and Play magazine were also the shit, when they stopped being just fans and became really game journalists. You lost a little bit of the amateurish charm but the enthusiasm and passion for imports and niche titles still shown.

  • I always hated isometric 3D. I never thought it was a good approach to 3D gaming at all.

  • Man, was it such a time to find information on video games. It wasn't as easy as it is now. To find cheats, secrets, easter eggs, cameos, something special, you had to buy the magazines, and sometimes get tapes/CDs to find out out about them. I recall though that we managed to still get internet FAQs, cheats and whatever back in the late 90s and I still have them dated around 1998. But rarely did people use it for images or screenshots. It was mostly HTML text. Good times and nice surprises!

  • Wonder what those old magazines redactors are doing now :)

  • please make a 20 part series.

  • See this is exactly why I subscribed. I love all these nostalgic looks to the past and how you guys tell us about your early gaming memories. I live near you guys and I did not know SaveOnFoods sold those types of magazines.

    I can honestly say I'm a bit envious of you both heh.

  • Had a lot of fun watching this! Would love to see more of these if you guys get the urge to make em. My only wish is that we see a return of the theme song for the show!

  • ah the wayback machine.... was on one of those earlier myself.

  • You guys could literally talk about anything and it would be interesting.

  • I remember Gamefan very well as a teenager; it was always packed with massive numbers of screenshots of so many games I wanted to play. Sadly, due to complicated legal problems from long term business deals never fully sorted out, the magazine changed hands often and was eventually shut down completely even as it's subscriptions were still strong and the magazine as a whole was still profitable.

  • "Art of Fighting 2" (fatal fury 2) lol, Robman rules. I love the magazine reviews/look backs. I could only pick two magazine to subscribe to as a kid, otherwise I would have them all. (Tips & Tricks, EGM for those who are wondering). Gaming magazines are like time capsules. I wonder if there is a back catalog of all the old magazines? Such as zip files of jpg's or something...googlan...

  • These remind me of how john does nintendo power reviews. I think if you and rob man went through gamefan magazines like that i would be a happy camper :)

  • More vids like this please! :D I love hearing about your stories from when you were kids

  • I would definitely like to see more Game Fan segments...this is great...brings back so many memories of buying gaming magazines at my own local grocery store...I still have some of the very early issues of EGM (my personal fav) in my collection. Thanks guys, awesome stuff!

  • YES DO MORE VIDEOS ON MAGAZINES I COULD LISTEN TO YOU GUYS FOREVER YOUR SO ENTERTAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Want a video of Land Stalker

  • I had a lot of these 

  • ROBMANS THE MAN! My goal in life is to meet you guys! hahah

  • i know how you british columbians are...those were funny cigarettes you was smokin' :D haha

  • i loved CVD, GAMESMASTER,offish playstion and Cheats mag lol

  • You guys are great raconteurs! I hope you do a part 2, 3, 4... go nuts!

  • It's a real shame that I never bought any video game magazines back in the day because if I did I would be going back through them exactly like you guys are =P The one magazine I used to buy was the official Playstation Magazine but given that it's an "Official" magazine they would be biased and big up their own games, Gamefan being independent would tell you if something is good or bad with no bias. Nostalgia abundant in today's episode guys =)

    Dan.

  • what province are these guys from?

  • Cool magazine, I used to wait for my copy of EGM to arrive.

  • RobMan, i´m a super fan of Sonic, can you tell me where you got that awsome shirt?

  • I hate kids today think the wii is so stupid because the graphics "arnt good" and how like ps2 and xbox are considered relly old games that suck because they have bad graphics

  • When i saw the title i thought this video was going to be about die hard, a video game form of the movie.

  • guys those gaming-memory episodes are your greatest!!

  • Haha talking about the back of the magazines had me thinking of something else

  • Happy New Year you guys!!

  • you guys should review Retro Gamer!!

  • My favorite magazine as well guys.....the only magazine to give Alien vs. Predator for Atari Jaguar a high score.....total proof that they were all about the games and not sell outs.....I really miss that mag....I want the issue that had Earthworm Jim framed and on my wall.......hold on to those treasures guys!

  • I read nintendo power player

  • Wish you guys did half hour shows. Awesome

  • @dickiedocker agreed man these guys could pitch a tv network and make it into a actual tv show

  • The music in Wild Arms was amazing. I wasn't big on RPG's but my buddy had that game. I tell ya I didn't buy a ton of VG mags but I had a few Game Fan issues and one of them was that Castlevania SOTN issue. That was a time I had a PS1 and was mad my friends decided to get an N64 instead. But of course they where the RPG fans so the ended up getting a PS1 when FFVII came out and it turned out to be the RPGers choice but coming from the SNES who would have known!

  • It's true I never had an issue I didn't love. Import news always a treat, the constant chatter about missing frames in fighting game ports, developer interviews I loved it all. Oh yeah screen shots and page layouts were the greatest in Game Fan. Same here bought mine at the supermarket, but no smoking lol. And the Anime reviews were fun too. Hey 20 parter go for it. :D

  • Landstalker was a great game. I even gasped like Rob did at the same time, lolol. I remember those grudge matches and fighting......................­..I'm referring to my controller(s) while playing this game! You two should do random issues with this magazine or any other magazine company. Awesome job fellas.

  • More gamefan please! Keep up the excellent work guys...

  • Morrrrrreeeeee plz

  • Awesome Memories Guys!! Read those mags to death!

  • I need to sort out a trade with some of these Canadian mags with some of my British mags.

  • I'd love to see you guys make another video talking more in depth about the original gamefan crew like The Postmeister and his mailbag section and love for Rush, Nick Rox and his fighting game reviews with the controversy over no grey shadows in Street Fighter Alpha for Sega "Satin". lol How about Monitaur and E. Storm? How about the recent resurrection of the magazine with a different crew? Gamefan is such an important part of history for us old school hardcores.