What was the name of Satoshi Tajiri’s video-game magazine?

Satoshi Tajiri’s video-game magazine was called Game Freak. He wrote and edited the Japanese fanzine before using the same name for the development company that later created Pokémon.

Tajiri began publishing Game Freak in March 1983, when he was 17. The handwritten and stapled magazine focused on arcade games, strategies, high scores, and hidden features. It filled a gap at a time when dedicated Japanese video-game magazines were not yet common.

Illustrator Ken Sugimori discovered the magazine and became involved with Tajiri. Their partnership eventually expanded from publishing into game development. Game Freak became an informal development team and was formally incorporated as a company in 1989.

The name Game Freak therefore has two connected meanings in Pokémon history: first, Tajiri’s independent fanzine, and later, the studio behind the main Pokémon games. Nintendo Power and Famitsu were separate publications, while Weekly Shōnen Jump was a manga magazine rather than Tajiri’s project.