FunFactor

FunFactor

Ty Schalter (VICE, FiveThirtyEight) and Aidan Moher (WIRED, Vulture) review what rocked and what sucked about the classic video game magazines that inspired them to become professional journalists, authors, and critics—and what they can tell us about today's digital media and games. New episodes drop every other Tuesday!

Episodes

May 20, 2025 98 mins
TODAY'S ISSUE: NEXT Generation Issue No. 5, May 1995

Whew, this one's a doozy. Not just diving into one of Ty's favorite magazines for the very first time, but the very first issue he ever picked up: A massive roundup of all the news and rumors ever about Nintendo's Ultra 64 project. Ty and Aidan also dig into console launches successful and -un, then and now, plus go long on journalistic responsibility when reporting "rumors." 

Of c...
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Mollie Patterson's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mollipen.bsky.social
Mollie Patterson's homepage: https://mollielpatterson.com/
The EGM Compendium Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/egmbook/egmcompendium

FunFactor ULTRA subscribers are getting our full 91-minute interview with the great Mollie L. Patterson of EGM and GameFan fame, talking about her (very) early years as a 'zine writer, joining the rough-and-tumble ...
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May 6, 2025 58 mins
TODAY'S ISSUE: EGM No. 74 - September 1995

Ty and Aidan dive into the super-edgy EGM ads, before flipping through one of the most fearless, innovative outlets of a fearless, innovative era. Then they dig into the four-way capsule review of the Super Nintendo port of DOOM, highlighting the strengths and faults of both the EGM review system and the game itself.

As always, our Letters section features YOUR comments and reviews! So if yo...
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TODAY'S ISSUE: GamePro No. 77, December 1995 (Internet Archive)

Ty and Aidan are two short white guys who don't play basketball--but do love sports, and sports video games. We've had quite few pleas from listeners to break down a good review of a bad game, and GamePro 77 has the goods.

Of course, there are plenty of other things to talk about in the issue, from the letters and ads to the Jim Davis re-draw of the GamePro rating scale ...
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Mike Drucker's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mikedrucker.bsky.social

Here's a teaser of the very first FunFactor ULTRA bonus episode!

It's our exclusive interview with Mike Drucker--the author of "Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games." We talk about the book, Mike's life as a gamer and writer for some of the most prestigious shows in TV (including Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Full Frontal, and Bill Nye Save...
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TODAY'S ISSUE: Game Players No. 75, September 1995 (Internet Archive)

Ty and Aidan basically became friends over their shared love of Chrono Trigger, and everything it stood for as an artistic achievement in video games. Game Players was also their mutual favorite magazine--so Game Players No. 75, and its dual-writer review of Chrono Trigger, naturally looms large in the canon.

Ty and Aidan flip through the rest of issue, freak out a...
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March 25, 2025 77 mins
TODAY'S ISSUE: PSM No. 1, September 1997 (Internet Archive)

The very first issue of PlayStation Magazine went big on "independent" 'tude, and on Final Fantasy VII--including cover art, a massive walkthrough, and a five-star review of the game that would redefine a series, a genre, and arguably the top console of the 32-bit generation. 

Ty and Aidan go deep on the conflicting tensions inherent in independent and official publications,...
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Professional authors, journalists, gamers, and critics Ty Schalter and Aidan Moher introduce FunFactor: an insightful and incisive look back at the retro video game magazines that inspired them to do what they do. 

In this trailer they play highlights from the first few episodes, discuss the passions that drove them to read about games as well as play them, and the impacts--positive and negative--they had on them as writers and peop...
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