Click to return to the Zzap! bacon Click to return to The Burrow banana Click to return to the C64 cupcake HEAD: First things first, click here to skip this guff. For anyone who's still reading, this page tells you what happened to all those ex-Zzap! staffers you might have vaguely wondered about in the past few years when you had nothing better to do.
TAIL: It's only partly our own work, and we're deeply indebted to the enthusiasts who post on Iain Black's Zzap! Rrap message board, and to Maff Rignall's 'Where are they now?' site, which (before its demise) included excellent interviews with many of those named below. The rest of the detective work is down to us—though frankly, that's not saying much.
HEAD: If you want to get out of here before that idiot starts droning on again, click on my face to return to the Zzap! Index, my neck to visit the C64 page, and my shoulders to visit The Burrow.
TAIL: Meanwhile, if you can help fill in some of the gaps in this table, or you just like writing emails, or you're simply curious about what will happen when you click this icon, go ahead:. We'll reply. Honest.
HEAD: Speak for yourself, Tail. He's so boring, isn't he? Oh yes he is. And so difficult to work with, too. Few people understand what it's like having someone you hate poke his head up your backside all day, all the while being forced to listen to his sarcastic comments and feeling his nails jabbing into your calves. Someone who's far removed from my first colleague, a genuinely kind and decent man; at least until that fateful night when he backed up too far and fell ten feet into the front row—
TAIL: That's enough, Head. Let them read the stuff they came here for... And by the way, no one really believes his death was an accident, you know.


So: where are they now?

Wayne Allen 'Art Director' Allen—the man responsible for Chuck Vomit—moved to Future, then emigrated to Australia, and was until very recently working for Imagine in San Francisco, in the building next to Julian Rignall. He's now moved back to Sydney, where he can be found in the custom magazines department at ACP.
Chris Anderson The original Zzap! exile, Chris left when the mag shifted base to Ludlow. He set up the mildly successful ;o) Future Publishing, sold it, then moved to the US where he now runs the entire universe (or the Imagine part of it, at any rate).
Ciaran Brennan Like Gary Penn, Ciaran was part of the EMAP team that created the ground-breaking 16-bit magazine, The One. He's now an executive at the PR company Bastion, and describes himself as "a father of two boys, living a fairly normal, boring (but highly enjoyable) suburban life..."
Richard Eddy Larger-than-life Richard metamorphosed into a kind of roving ambassador at Newsfield long before he actually left and did the same job (successfully) for Codemasters. He's now created his own PR firm called Rocket Media.
Maff Evans Culled in the 'Night of the Long Knives', Maff enjoyed a brief spell as a wildebeast before turning his hooves to writing music articles and reviews for Future.
Oli Frey Following the collapse of Newsfield, Oli and a whole bunch of former staff left to form Prima Creative Services. However, he can now be found at Thalamus Books. There's not much on that website, but the email address is easy enough to work out...
Paul Glancey Paul worked for many major software and magazine companies after leaving Zzap!, among them Eidos and EMAP. He is currently creative manager at Criterion Studios.
Miles Guttery Post-CF, staffer and tipster Miles joined Devon-based outfit, Computerfacts. When they fell apart he joined Gameplay. When they fell apart, he joined a TV production company in London. They didn't fall apart, but Miles moved on to Paragon, where he is now editor of Cube magazine.
Kati Hamza Briefly worked at Oxford University Press before becoming a freelance editor, designer and project manager. She had her first child in 2000.
The Harlequin a.k.a. Nik Wilde. Moved to Zzap!'s sister magazine, The Games Machine when Chuck Vomit arrived; rejoined Zzap! briefly in late 1990. Ol' Harley then moved on to Psygnosis for a few years, but was last seen wearing the mask at International Sports Multimedia.
Chris Hayward Commodore Force's ace tipster now works with Steve Shields at Mayfair, and reputedly performs stand-up comedy.
Lucy Hickman Moved from Zzap! to Impact's colourfully cheesy N-Force; after that she joined EMAP and briefly worked as deputy editor of Mean Machines Sega; and after that she temporarily gave up the wonderful world of fun in order to study law. However, she now exercises her gaming muscles for the Scottish newspaper, The Sunday Post.
Robin Hogg One of the few sensible people in this list, Robin abandoned computing altogether to be an environmental engineer on aerospace products. He and his wife Sam have also just had their first child (and he's a cutie).
Gordon Houghton After spending many years underground—all too literally—Gordon is currently writing novels. But slice him however you like, a fat man is always a fat man, and Gordo's hobbies still include eating too much cake, crisps, Coke, and other foodstuffs beginning with the letter 'C'. Except cockroaches.
Steve Jarratt After a brief spell freelancing for EMAP, Steve left Ludlow to join Future. He's now responsible for launching their leading edge magazines, and is generally enjoying life as a head honcho. And, by the way, he's one of the funniest guys I've ever met.
Roger Kean Following the collapse of Newsfield, Roger and a whole bunch of former staff... Well, this is the same as Oli Frey's entry, above—basically Roger is at Thalamus Books.
Mark Kendrick Arguably Zzap!'s craziest art director, and the best impersonator of Michael Jackson this side of the Atlantic, Markie is working for Paragon and the Total Games Network.
Phil King The ex-ed was Numero Uno at the online games mag PowerStation for a while, but can now be found (with photo) lurking within the six walls of Cube Solutions.
Warren Lapworth After a brief spell as Paul Sumner, Warren joined Newsfield's multi-format magazine, The Games Machine. Briefly returned as an authentic Zzap! staff writer before the shit hit the fan. Now works with Oli and Roger at Thalamus Books.
Gary Liddon Gary Liddon is still crazy after all these years (allegedly) at the software house, Climax, where he is an MD. You can see a recent (and flattering) picture of him here. He's a regular visitor to the Llamasoft forum (his nickname is gravy), has been known to turn up at the Back In Time retro events, and even has his own website. How's that for research?
Lloyd Mangram Rumours are rife concerning Lloyd's whereabouts, and some even question his very existence. It's claimed that he's enjoyed a variety of careers since quitting Newsfield, including chicken sexer, thresher mechanic, bowling ball polisher, and writing a piece for The Edge's 100th anniversary issue. Will the truth ever be revealed? Does anyone care?
Sean Masterson Quite simply, Sean now croaks with with Bullfrog.
Mighty Brian, The aka Andrew Fisher... Since writing for all 16 issues of Commodore Force, Andrew has written for Commodore Format, Commodore Zone, Commodore Scene and many other mags with the word "Commodore" in the title. He is now applying his skills to the C64 diskmag Scene World, writing SID music, and working on a novel. He adds: "The Professor's face was actually based on a very unflattering passport photo, although I haven't changed that much." His website is here.
Gary Penn Left Newsfield for EMAP, where he ultimately edited the best 16-bit magazine of its time (and my favourite computer magazine of all time), The One. He then worked for DMA Design in Scotland, but now smiles his lovely smile at Denki.
Adrian Pitt The former Pet Shop Boys fan is now a marketing manager in his hometown of Wolverhampton, UK.
James Price Here's something unusual: James left Ludlow to join... wait for it... Future. But for the past three years he's been freelancing his way around the games press, and has made occasional (disguised) visits to the Zzap! Rrap message board.
Paul Rand Paul edited C&VG for a while, then joined the Press Association in Yorkshire, and is now working back in his native North East.
Julian Rignall Jaz left Newsfield to freelance for EMAP, before taking a permanent post as editor of C&VG. He then moved to the US, where he worked for Acclaim, Virgin Interactive and (later) Imagine, first at IGN then Snowball. Following an alleged spell as a freelance writer and part-time DJ, Jaz then went on to work for the online division of US retail giant, Wal-Mart; and it was rumoured that he also wrote for The Edge under the name of Red Eye. He's currently a big cheese at the subscription-only World of Warcraft magazine. Busy chap.
The Scorelord Little was heard of The Dark One after the magazine folded, but he's recently been dragged away from bleach-drinking oblivion to host the Scorelord page on this site.
Steve Shields Worked in Ludlow for sixteen issues, and was editor for all of them—surely some kind of record? Post-shit-hitting-fan, Steve got involved in soft porn, and is now editor of Mayfair.
Paul Sumner a.k.a. Dominic Handy. Though many have written under the PS pseudonym, Dom was the guy on whom the portrait was based. After leaving Zzap! he eventually rose to the editorship of CRASH!, and post-Newsfield he continued to contribute to a variety of magazines. He now runs his own design firm, Creative Hand.
Bob Wade Like Chris Anderson (and many others listed above), Bob left Zzap! to join Future. He then established the software company, Binary Asylum, before moving on to Game Campaign, an internet product monitoring service.
The White Wizard a.k.a. Steve Cooke... Steve worked in a rather depressing basement office at EMAP for a while, as well as engaging himself in many an interesting freelance project. He's currently waving his magic wand for Hotgen.
Stuart Wynne Until recently, Zzap!'s longest-serving editor strutted his funky stuff for Paragon, and was also involved in the Total Games Network. But... where is he now?

 

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