http://www.1up.com/news/videogame-journalism-pioneer-game-doctor-bill-kunkel-passes-away Apprently he started this whole video game Journalism thing. Also like me dabbled with Wrestling and even game design. From what I read he suffered a heart attack.
It is sad that he has died and I am sure he was an important person in American journalism as I never heard of hime. Although the people writing the article should be shot as it was full of unresearched rubbish in it. The British magazine Computer and Video Games came out a few weeks before Electronic Games did, so "grandfather of videogame journalism" is a bit of a cock, as you could say that Terry Pratt was the grandfather (as the founded the magazine that would run for 23 years and still exists as a website...) the terms Videogame was around well before 1981, ditto with screenshot (as it was used as a generic term for a photo of a screen or monitor, how do you think they took pictures of video output...).
1up is US-based, so for everything they write, just put an "American" in it: "the Grandfather of American Videogame Journalism". Aside from that, Kunkel technically did video game journalism before Electronic Games was first published, as he apparently had a column in Video Magazine: http://wiki.retromags.com/wiki/Electronic_Games Video magazine also first awarded the "Arkies" or Arcade Awards in early 1980, probably the first of its kind. Unfortunately, I can't find detailed info or scans on Video Magazine anywhere. Would be quite interesting to read his first columns or the original printings of the Arcade Awards (they've been also announced in Elecronic Games from 1981 onwards).
The New York Times version of his obituary lists "Bart's Nightmare" for SNES as one of his major achievements. I think I'd be spinning in my grave if THAT was singled out in my obituary in a major national newspaper.
