Retro Gaming Australia

Bill Kunkel (pictured left), known to many as the Game Doctor and one of the founding fathers of the video games press, passed away suddenly on Sunday. He was 61.

With Arnie Katz and Joyce Worley-Katz (right and center), Kunkel had a major hand in the creation of the first dedicated video games magazine Electronic Games. The magazine was published from 1981 to 1985. Kunkel’s nickname came from the Game Doctor section of the magazine. He was often referred to as the grandfather of the video games press.

After Electronic Games closed, Kunkel would go on to write for a number of publications before crossing to the other side of the video game industry to work in production, founding Subway Software with Katz and Worley-Katz.

Kunkel produced a lot of work outside of video games as a comic book writer (including Superman at DC in 1977-78 and Spider-Man at Marvel in 1978-79) and columnist for Pro Wrestling Torch and Wrestling Perspective.

Rolenta Press published his memoirs Confessions of the Game Doctor in 2005.