Die Hard Video game store from early 90's

[doomfarer75]

whatever happened to die hard video games that ran all those kickass adds in EGM back in the early 90's,  and where are they now?  or gametronix for that matter?  no websites that i can find..are they still around?

[esteban]

if i recall correctly, the dude who ran die hard started up GAMEFAN magazine...

I'm curious about the fate of die hard as well... it was a well known import store from way back, i can't think of any others (especially where i grew up in northern NJ)...

[Zerojean]

Word seeing screens of like Valis and import Mega CD games was so fucking amazing when i was 13 or 14, i swear i thought id never play those games for real, even tho i had a PCE + SCD, i got like one game a year buying em blind over the phone heh.

Looking at the screens and those memories turned to be better than most of the games heh.

Gamefan went bust someime back.

[esteban]

Word seeing screens of like Valis and import Mega CD games was so fucking amazing when i was 13 or 14, i swear i thought id never play those games for real, even tho i had a PCE + SCD, i got like one game a year buying em blind over the phone heh.

yes, if only we had the internet back in the day.  We could have saved some money...

but, maybe not, since I still want to check out games that have a bad reputation.  For example, I've yet to play Addams Family for TG-CD.  It can't be a good game, I say to myself, but what if it is kinda fun?

[jlued686]

Relatively, it's a horrible game.  But it's good for a brief laugh.  I'd say on a relative Turbo Scale of 1-5, it's a 2.

[Keranu]

The Addam's Family game for TG16 CD could've been much better. The object of the game is kind of fun and I thought the game had some really cool boss fights. But other than this, the game blows in all other catagories.

[esteban]

guess what?  I totally want to play Addams Family now!  I am masochistic, but I love crap games.  I need to pull out Battle Royale soon and have some friends over.  GOOD TIMES!  Actually, I just won the Japanese version of Battle Royale... oh snap, no I didn't.  Does that even exist?  Losing my mind.  I just won the PC-Engine version of TV Sports Football and Bravoman... that's what I meant.

[doomfarer75]

speaking of the addams family game....it can't be better than Fester's Quest on the NES...that game was kinda good!

[Zerojean]

guess what?  I totally want to play Addams Family now!  I am masochistic, but I love crap games.  I need to pull out Battle Royale soon and have some friends over.  GOOD TIMES!  Actually, I just won the Japanese version of Battle Royale... oh snap, no I didn't.  Does that even exist?  Losing my mind.  I just won the PC-Engine version of TV Sports Football and Bravoman... that's what I meant.

Hah me too, I have a penchant for dodgy titles, Addams Family looks like it fitrs the bill.

My fave dodgy game ever is prolly Golden Fighter on SFC, its like The China Warrior Super

[Keranu]

I love crappy games as well. I am also a serious cheesy movie viewer.

[esteban]

speaking of the addams family game....it can't be better than Fester's Quest on the NES...that game was kinda good!

agreed.  Sunsoft made a bunch of nice games for NES (Blaster Master!).  I think Fester is pretty fun... just as Goonies II was fun... and some of the few examples of movie licensing that didn't result in utterly crappy games (willow for NES was pretty good, now that i think of it).  

UNFORTUNATELY, the disney licenses that hit TG-16 are lame: TailSpin and Duck Tales.  I am pretty anti-disney, in general, but capcom made some sweet disney games for NES... the genesis stuff was kool as well...

[Keranu]

Yes, the Disney games on the TG-16 are terrible. Tail Spin is a little better than Darkwing Duck, but still a crappy game. Genesis had the best Disney games and my favorite was "Quackshot", which is an amazing adventure/platform game.

Sunsoft games for NES were pretty fun. The Batman games were good stuff.

By the way people, I'm sure you noticed the banner in my sig. PLEASE click it for I need more clicks! Once I get 80 clicks, I'll take it down. The banner will teach you more about Alex Chiu and his infamous "immortality rings" and you can win a free pair too if you sign up at his site and do what I'm doing! Please don't take me as a spamming troll for this. I just have to be the ultimate dork and these rings will help.

[esteban]

oops, i said Duck Tales when I meant Darkwing Duck.  I don't know if I can bring myself to click on that banner, Keranu.  My cat gets a seizure everytime he looks at it!  I'm serious

Yeah, the Genny disney games were kool.  Quackshot, Mickey, Alladin...

[Keranu]

Haha, cat goes into seisures? Well if that cat is not in the same room, be sure to click it, lol.

[Jammaniaclord]

Man i thought i was the only one who still is fond of the old DIE HARD GAME STORE from Ventura BLVD. in California. They were the coolest EVER game store in the world, and everytime i called them, they would talk to me like i was their friend, not some stranger they could rob of his hard earned money for some suck ass game.

I too drooled over the ads in the back of EGM magazine, and they were the best ads ever for a game store, thus i started buying import PC Engine CD games from them because of it.

Greg Off was the main one i really liked, as he would talk forever about games, and sell me games based on my personal tastes, and recommend good ones over poor ones, so i didn't waste money, even of it meant they might eat the cost of that game if it never sold. Honest as heaven those people were. Julie Seagal was another kind person, and new her shit about games. Those two were the ones i remember the most. I did talk to Ki once, but that was it


Dave Halverson owned the store i believe, and started up GameFan magazine for the die hard gamer. IMHO it was the best gaming mag ever. Great color, great articles, airbrushed artwork, lots of pics of import games, "The Graveyard", European games, it had it all, and covered game systems EGM didn't/wouldn't.

Unfortunately GameFan went belly up, but Dave Halverson still is in the gaming mag industry, and you might have read his magazine but didn't know it. It's called "PLAY" magazine. My brother loves it, but i think it's pale compared to GameFan. I think he might have married Julie Seagal, as there is a Julie Halverson on the editing staff, and i think at the time DIE HARD GAMES was in business, they were dating.

DIE HARD GAMES was truly the best import store there ever was, and there hasn't been a single one ever since that has even came close.


If anyone happens to know Greg Off, let me know. I have been interested in finding out what he ended up doing with his life when DHG closed.

[DragonmasterDan]

In the early 90s as GameFan magazine (at that time called Die Hard Game Fan) took off a DieHard Game Club opened here in the Chicago area. Due to a lawsuit with Sears over the trademarked name "Die Hard" which Sears used on a number of products (such as batteries). This particcular store was a franchise from the main Die Hard's in California. Most of those closed around 1996 or so (and in their place opened "Game Cave" but that's another story entirely) however the Chicagoland based Die Hard Franchise simply removed the "Die Hard" from their name and continued to operate as "Game Club" (I believe most if not all of the other franchises in the Die Hard chain closed once they became Game Cave) until 2003 or so when the slowing import market finally forced them to close their doors. They were the last store that was part of the Die Hard chain.

[esteban]

thought you folks might dig this fabulous article:

http://bible.morningmayo.com/index.php/GameFan

I had another link (criticizing GameFan for exhibiting sega fanboyism), but I can't find it now.

[TR0N]

In the early 90s as GameFan magazine (at that time called Die Hard Game Fan) took off a DieHard Game Club opened here in the Chicago area. Due to a lawsuit with Sears over the trademarked name "Die Hard" which Sears used on a number of products (such as batteries). This particcular store was a franchise from the main Die Hard's in California. Most of those closed around 1996 or so (and in their place opened "Game Cave" but that's another story entirely) however the Chicagoland based Die Hard Franchise simply removed the "Die Hard" from their name and continued to operate as "Game Club" (I believe most if not all of the other franchises in the Die Hard chain closed once they became Game Cave) until 2003 or so when the slowing import market finally forced them to close their doors. They were the last store that was part of the Die Hard chain.

Interesting read there, DieHardGameFan was one of my favorite importer during the early 90's.

Btw i remember when they miss printed ,Shubibinman 3 as a, SCD game when it wasn't in the frist place.

I remember wanting it back then... and i saw it listed as a, SCD game not a regular one.

[Jammaniaclord]

Interesting enough....the guys from Game Fan have a new magazine out that looks almost like GameFan magazine, and i am trying to look up the name on the internet. My brother bought an issue and as soon as i opened it up, my mouth uttered "Looks ALOT like gameFan!", and i looked at the editors names and sure enough at least 3 of them were indeed from GF. Greg Off is one of them, and he is probably the nicest guy that ever worked for gameFan when it was an importer shop, and as a magazine. Now he is back with some alumni from the said GF days.

http://www.hardcoregamermag.com


Hardcore Gamer magazine is what is called!

[Keranu]

Awesome and they even let you download issues!

[PC Gaijin]

I know Die Hard sold bootleg video game music CDs for you would normally pay for a legitimate release. They didn't bother advertising the fact that they were selling Taiwanese boots either. Gamefan was utterly atrocious, possibly the worst video game magazine I ever had the displeasure of reading. Horrible writing and editing combined with terrible layouts early on. The layouts got somewhat better later on, but the writing really didn't.

[esteban]

I know Die Hard sold bootleg video game music CDs for you would normally pay for a legitimate release. They didn't bother advertising the fact that they were selling Taiwanese boots either. Gamefan was utterly atrocious, possibly the worst video game magazine I ever had the displeasure of reading. Horrible writing and editing combined with terrible layouts early on. The layouts got somewhat better later on, but the writing really didn't.

No, the writing wasn't that good -- but that's not saying much, since pretty much all video game "journalism" is atrocious. Especially game reviews.... man, they have always been 90% filler + a few lines of critique (sometimes relevant, sometimes misplaced critique).

I think the best aspect of GameFan was the breadth of coverage (they really did try to cover a lot of platforms, including import-only games) and tons of nice, big screenshots (to give you a better idea of what gameplay was like). For this alone, GameFan deserves some credit!

Edge, on the other hand, is the only game magazine that has respectable (and well-researched) articles. Plus, the layout is pretty classy (usually). Too expensive, though, for poor boys like myself.

TANGENT: You know what I want to see in magazines today? I want retrospectives and well-researched histories on different aspects of the gaming industry. I enjoyed Retro Gamer, but I don't think the articles were well-researched. Still, it was an enjoyable read -- too bad the mag was cancelled. I doubt I'll ever get a refund on my subscription.

[PCEngineHell]

Yup,for what its worth Game Fan was the best at the time,at least to me,with great import coverage,and I liked the Graveyard bit they would do,as I would not have known to get Magician Lord if not for that. The screen shots they did were really good,I actually liked the review section,how they rated the games,and the fact that the reviews were at the begining of the mag.
All in all I felt like I was reading a mag by gamers instead of just guys who did it for a living and played NBA Jam on a lunch break or golf on pc.
I used to like EGM back in the day too,untill around 94,and after that the mag went way down hill,as the mag got smaller and smaller,with more and more ads for Akklaim crap.

[SNKNostalgia]

Yeah I liked the add section in Gamefan magazine from Game Cave back in the day. Of course I thought Game Cave was kind of a rip-off price wise most of the time for common imports. They would charge like $80-$89 for a current import PS1 game when you could get that same game from National Console Support www.ncsx.com for like $65. Also the shipping from NCS was cheaper as well. Plus there was this one guy on the phone that was a total asshole that they should have fired. Maybe thats why they went out of business, he was just a smart ass and even lied about a release date. He might have been the head phone guy. I even gave a complaint about him to tommy one of the cooler guys that worked there. I think the biggest problem with that place was becuase it was in California, way too overpriced for everything in that state thanks to the greedy state government. They tax every damn thing. Even the Post office taxes you.

Also I have dealed with Game Express and Japan Video games from those ads. They were ok but not as bad as Game Cave but not as good as NCS. I still do business with NCS.

[TR0N]

Yeah I liked the add section in Gamefan magazine from Game Cave back in the day. Of course I thought Game Cave was kind of a rip-off price wise most of the time for common imports. They would charge like $80-$89 for a current import PS1 game when you could get that same game from National Console Support www.ncsx.com for like $65. Also the shipping from NCS was cheaper as well. Plus there was this one guy on the phone that was a total asshole that they should have fired. Maybe thats why they went out of business, he was just a smart ass and even lied about a release date. He might have been the head phone guy. I even gave a complaint about him to tommy one of the cooler guys that worked there. I think the biggest problem with that place was becuase it was in California, way too overpriced for everything in that state thanks to the greedy state government. They tax every damn thing. Even the Post office taxes you.

Also I have dealed with Game Express and Japan Video games from those ads. They were ok but not as bad as Game Cave but not as good as NCS. I still do business with NCS.

Game Express was cooler when it was DieHardGamefan.

Then it change and over priced on imports, i can agree with you there on that.

[DragonmasterDan]

A few GameFan staffers also started GameGlow magazine which closed fairly promptly, a lot of people jumped around mag to mag back before print mags started going belly up one by one (this is why I no longer work in the industry).

I haven't seen or heard of hardcore gamer yet but I'll check it out. I liked gamefan a lot in terms of their import coverage (their reviews are another question entirely).