Bill Kunkel, Founder of Games Journalism, Passes Away.

Bill Kunkel died of a heart attack on September 4th, at the age of 61

Before founding game journalism with the creation of the first dedicated gaming magazine, Electronic Games, he wrote a bit for Marvel and DC and wrote a video game column, called Arcade Alley, in Video magazine in 1979.

Founded in 1981, Electronic Games was the first dedicated gaming magazine that took games seriously, and was the first to take games seriously on both technical and artistic merits. Many terms/words like “play mechanics, screenshot, and easter egg” can be attributed to him and his publication. On top of essentially founding game journalism, he was also an accomplished game designer and consultant.

From 1981 to as recently as 2003 or so, Kunkel’s work was some of the only serious discussion and commentary on many issues facing the games industry. Or to put it another way, he was talking about calculus while everyone else was still learning how to multiply.

More recently, he published a book in 2005 titled Confessions of a Game Doctor, and was a regular contributor to J2Games.com.

The industry has lost one of its best, and he will be sorely missed.

Via – Wired