An unofficial fan site devoted to two classic video game magazines: Game Players and Ultra Game Players.
October 27, 2007
More scans of more letters sections have been added (from the April 98 and May 98 issues). Also, here's a scan of Chris Charla's review of the famously awful PS game Cosmic Race, from the September 96 issue.
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October 12, 2007
The entire letters sections of four issues of the mag (one from GP and three from UGP) have been added to the "Newsletters, Covers, Scans" section below. I intend to add more eventually; stay tuned.
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February 17, 2007
UGP alum Jason Montes got in touch with me a few days ago; his information has been added to the "Where Are They Now?" section. Thanks, Jason!
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December 11, 2006
New design. Added some things, subtracted some others. Also made a few little modifications to the "Where Are They Now?" section...nothing too extraordinary, though.
Here's some new stuff, courtesy of fellow GP fan Carlos: some clips of Bill, Fran, Frank, Mike, and Roger saying their goodbyes, from the CD that came with the last issue of Ultra Game Players. I've encoded each video in .avi format to make them a bit more manageable; each clip is around 2 MB. Bittersweet stuff, but worth a look.
Subscribers to Game Players and Ultra Game Players received a special newsletter included in (virtually) every issue: they were full of weird comics, crazy stories, top ten lists, cut-out masks, random office hijinx, and (very) occasionally, extra gaming tidbits. My personal favorite? Probably the Super Buddy comic ("be my true friend") although the first UGP newsletter (Bill: Employee of the Year!) contains one of the funniest captions I've ever read: "Chris checks Bill's pulse and finds him still alive -- a highlight of any work day that they both enjoy."
The Backtalk section of the magazine was, of course, on the very last page; again, it usually contained some absurd office nonsense, often (but not always) expanding on some leitmotif from the letters section.
Bill's Jaded Gamer columns began running after the switch to Ultra Game Players; I think they began as an attempt to keep some of the magazine's humor following the transition without giving in to the total craziness that characterized GP (just looking at the first few issues of UGP, it seems obvious to me that a definite effort was made to sort of rein the insanity in, although this didn't last long).
Letters Section Scans
GP Letters Section, Issue 88 (September 96): Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6
UGP Letters Section, Issue 100 (August 97): Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6
UGP Letters Section, Issue 101 (September 97): Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6
UGP Letters Section, Issue 102 (October 97): Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6
UGP Letters Section, Issue 109 (April 98): Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6
UGP Letters Section, Issue 110 (May 98): Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6
Most of the information in this "Where Are They Now?" section was compiled for this site by Chris Charla (whom Fran dubbed "the ultimate Imagine historian") in late 2001; since then, I've received additional updates, but his original 2001 compilation was so full of amusing little anecdotes about the GP crew that I ended up preserving most of it, even as more up-to-date information became available. Other contributors include Francesca Reyes (I never would have gotten anywhere with this had Fran not helped out early on), Jeff Lundrigan, Doug Brumley, Trent Ward, and a handful of others.
If you're listed here and want some more up-to-date information posted on what you're doing now (or, if you've got some new info on what someone else is doing), feel free to email me at blake (at) trenchman (dot) com. (Moreover, if you happened to work at Game Players or Ultra Game Players and are not listed here -- I know there are probably a few of you out there -- feel free to email me about that, too, and I'll be sure to get right on it).
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Bill Donohue Charla Says: "Still working with Chris Slate, these days at PSM, the 100% Unofficial PlayStation Magazine. The fact that he hasn't put Gazuga in the mag yet is a testament to his self-control!" Blake Says: "As of January 2008, Bill is no longer working at Future Publishing. He is still drinking plenty of beer, however, and presumably still playing plenty of Bomberman." Roger Burchill Charla Says: "After UGP/Game Buyer folded Roger went to the short-lived Incite magazine as a senior editor. Most recently (as far as I know) he was editing videogame hint books in the Bay Area. Roger was actually the production coordinator in the early days of Next Gen/GP, and consequently was always asking for (always) late pages to send to the printer. Original Next Gen EIC Neil West created an "anti-Rog-o-phone" out of a plastic megaphone and used to call across the entire office (including some business magazine that we published at the time) "STAY AWAY, THERE ARE NO PAGES HERE FOR YOU!" Despite this treatment, Roger eventually had a session in the Box and became a full-fledged GP staffer." Blake Says: "Roger signed the guestbook a while back and told us all that he "had to grow up and get a real job" and now works as a managing editor for Network Magazine, a computer networking trade magazine." Chris Slate Charla Says: "The funniest man in magazines is the EIC of PSM, where his trademark humor still comes to the fore in his awesome editor levels. Fact: Chris Slate has worked at Imagine since he was 16, and has had only one other job in his entire life (stocking at a department store). He skipped college because he already had the best job in the world. True fact: Chris writes the best cover-lines known to man." Blake Says: "Chris is now EIC at Nintendo Power. Sweet deal!" Mike Salmon Charla Says: "Eventually he got with the fashion times and cut his hair. He edited the short-lived but brilliantly funny PCXL magazine (probably the funniest game mag ever), then did some suspicious web stuff, before starting the Official X-Box Magazine, published by Imagine. True Fact: his resume to get the job was done as a custom Genesis box." Fran Says: "Mike has recently left Future Network USA and OXM to start his own games consulting business, called Big Solutions Group, with our former VP of Editorial, Matt Firme (of Coconut Monkey/PC Gamer/old skool GP fame). They're doing quite well and probably making money, hand over fist. Sob." Frank O'Connor Charla Says: "Frank has worked everywhere. As the second-funniest guy in publishing, he oversaw the awesome empire that was www.dailyradar.com until its untimely demise. Introduced phrase "best. game. ever." to the kids. Today he is kicking it at the Official X-Box Magazine with Salmon and Fran." Fran Says: "Frank left OXM and Future Network USA back in December (2003) to become top content monkey (i.e. Content Producer) for Bungie Studios up in Redmond, WA -- home of Microsoft and all things Halo 2...he's probably nabbing the Invisibility and hogging the Rocket Launcher, like he always did in Halo 1." Francesca Reyes Charla Says: "After her UGP time, she worked at Next Gen, PSM, the Official Dreamcast Magazine, and Daily Radar before finally settling at the Official X-Box Magazine. By her own admission, she falls asleep with a controller in her hand three nights a week." Blake Says: "Fran is now Editor-in-Chief at Official X-Box." Jeff Lundrigan Charla Says: "The first "traitor" to leave GP, he departed for the sunny shores of Next Generation, where he worked as reviews editor until the mag folded a few years back." Blake Says: "After that he went over to Ziff-Davis, but left after they "screwed him like a two-dollar whore." Today he's the new managing editor at Polygon Magazine. He still drinks astounding amounts of coffee -- nearly a quart a day, he says." Blake Says: "Best I can figure, Polygon Magazine is now defunct. Not sure what Jeff is up to now..." Patrick Baggata Charla Says: "After the redesign of UGP -- which he had a huge hand in -- he went to Next Gen, before starting an entertainment website called "The Den" which eventually merged with IGN.com. After starting incite.com, a game website, he now owns and runs Astromaniac Studios, a game development company." Charla Says: "Patrick recently wrapped up things at Astromaniac and now works at Digital Eclipse [i.e. Backbone Entertainment; Foundation 9 Entertainment] on games." Mike Wilmoth Charla Says: "After completing the UGP redesign, he took over Next Generation as lead artist. After completing the redesign that turned Next Generation into Next Gen, with one of the best styles ever, he helped redesign PSM for the PS2 generation before heading over to the Official X-Box Magazine as lead designer. Later he moved back to the scene of the crime, North Carolina -- I'm not too sure what he is doing there. Mike rules." Chris Charla Charla Says: "A fan and freelancer, I actually worked at Next Gen, first as features editor, later as editor in chief. I also was launch editor of IGN, and finished my career at Imagine as EIC of the Official Dreamcast Magazine. Today I work as a Production Manager at Digital Eclipse Software, making games." Blake Says: "Digital Eclipse has since merged with some other companies; check the link in Patrick's entry above for more. Charla also appears on G4 once in a while, I've noticed, on shows such as Game Makers." The Screaming Crayons Charla Says: "Debbie and Eric are MIA, but Lisa worked at Next Gen with Mike Wilmoth before going freelance. She still hung around Imagine a lot, since she was dating (and later married) Mike Wolf, who worked at PC Gamer and later at Daily Radar. Today she freelances in Washington State, where Mike works for Microsoft as an X-Box PR guy." Blake Says: "Debbie is no longer MIA! She recently signed the guestbook, and quite politely informed us that she's recently started her own design and media company outside of Lake Tahoe, called Inkwells Design." Mark Higham Charla Says: "Returned to England and was eaten by sharks on a dance floor." Blake Says: "After leaving Imagine Mark went back to England and edited a web magazine called Create, another web mag called Escape and then the tech magazine T3..." Carrie Ward Charla Says: "Ex-wife of Trent Ward, now MIA." Vince Matthews Charla Says: "After leaving magazines for a long while to work in games, he came back to launch several successful hand-held and Pokemon special magazines at Imagine. Then he left again. Today he is kicking it at Conspiracy Games down in L.A." Matt Firme Charla Says: "The man who created the Atari Safari column way back in Game Players Issue #1 is still at Imagine. He is the Vice President and Editorial Director (and thus the boss of everyone on this page who is still at Imagine). Every now and then you'll buy a used NES game and find an old strategy guide he wrote crammed inside the box. It's uncanny, but it's happened to this writer about 3 times. One of the funniest guys ever, he has a shotgun on his desk. For real." Blake Says: "Now heads up Big Solutions Group with Mike Salmon; see Mike's entry above." Dan Egger Charla Says: "Followed Mike to PCXL, worked at Daily Radar, then at Official X-Box Magazine. After leaving OXM he moved to Mississippi or Missouri or something, but still occasionally freelances. I have no idea what he does, but I would suspect he is a science teacher, since that's what he did before he worked at Imagine. True Fact: Only person in history to turn down a job offer at Next Generation." Blake Says: "After moving to Mississippi, he still freelances for games magazines at Future Network USA by night -- but by day, he's a mild-mannered law student studying to be a lawyer..."but not the suing kind", according to him." Tom Russo Charla Says: "Shortly before the Next Gen closure [where he was EIC], Russo jumped ship over to the games TV channel, G4, to assume the role as -- well, no one really knows for sure. All we do know is that he was finally able to trade in his bachelor Miata for a full-fledged BMW." Bill Paris Charla Says: "Moved to New Jersey with his lovely wife. After stints all over the gaming business, he's settled down at a car magazine." Adam Douglas Charla Says: "At IGN, doing entertainment writing. True fact: he was hired because the president of the division met him working at a record store and liked him." Doug Brumley Doug Says: "Since my GP days, I've mostly been freelancing as a writer, editor, and web site developer. I co-authored three strategy guide books: SimIsle: The Official Strategy Guide with Phill Powell (of GP Publications' CD-ROM Today fame) and Selby Bateman (executive editor of GP Publications); and Sony PlayStation Game Secrets: The Unauthorized Edition Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 with Vince Matthews (onetime associate publisher of Game Players who contributed game reviews too). I also wrote a ton of game reviews for the now defunct site Gamecenter.com (part of CNET.com). More recently I worked full-time as the arts and entertainment editor at Nashville's alternative newsweekly, the Nashville Scene, before returning to the freelance life again. I mainly write about music these days." Trent Ward Charla Says: "Another Next Gen staffer who freelanced for GP/UGP, Trent helped launch GameSpot, came back to Imagine to work at IGN, left to go work on games in Australia, and today is lead producer at Digital Eclipse's Vancouver studio." Blake Says: "Trent recently left Digital Eclipse/Backbone and now works as a Creative Director at Ubisoft in Montreal." Christian Svensson Christian Says: "After having served as VP of Entertainment Publishing at Midway for a few years, I left to do some consulting. During that consultation, Future was one of my clients (deja vu) where I helped relaunch Next Generation (www.next-gen.biz) with Colin Campbell. After that was done I've since taken an executive position at Capcom where I'm in charge of all things strategic (that's intentionally vague). :)" Jason Montes Blake Says: "After leaving UGP in 1998, Jason went to work for various publications such as PSM and OPM, then later to Verant Interactive working on EverQuest for the PC. After that, he worked for J-List.com and a few smaller companies before deciding to finish his college degree in Graphic Design. In 2006, Jason went back to the game industry and worked for Hudson Soft's US branch as a Marketing Manager. Nowadays, he works for a start-up web firm in Palo Alto, California, doing PR and Consulting. Jason still has an occasional lunch with Chris Slate and Randy Nelson and even made a recent cameo appearance in one of PSM's video Podcasts!" |
circa late 2001
