posted 18-07-2001 01:38 AM GMT        

I apologise for the rough (and rather banal) nature of the following copy, but I’m supposed to be writing a feature on episodic games at the moment, and the deadline’s tomorrow. Procrastination: it’s great. Getting told off, fined or stopping up until five in the morning to finish an article is shit, though. ;-)

Yossarian

///

Right, then. Here goes…

Chris Anderson: Left Newsfield when ZZAP! 64 moved to Ludlow; founded a wee company called Future Publishing. Sold Future for many, many pounds, then moved over to the States to start Imagine – again, a videogame magazine outfit. But, of course, you /must/ all know about him, so I’ll not dwell on details…

Bob Wade: Went to Future Publishing; left to found Binary Asylum with Trenton Webb. BA created Zeowolf (and a sequel) that, despite critical acclaim, failed to make Bob a millionaire – the Amiga market was in terminal decline by the time of the first game’s release. BA ‘died’ while creating a Star Trek game for Interplay about… oh, about two years ago. Or so. Bob is now one of the bosses at Game Campaign, a company that – from what I can gather – specialises in telling companies how popular their games are by monitoring their presence on the Internet.

Gary Penn: Can’t remember where he went directly after ZZAP! 64, but I do know that he spent years at DMA ‘Doesn’t Mean Anything’ Design up in Scotland. Ostensibly, his role there involved game design, although pie consumption allegedly figured highly, too. Likes to refer to games as ‘toysets’; will relate at length his theories on game creation and consumption, which tends to meet with the polarized responses of either yawns or applause. Left DMA when the studio imploded last year; now works for another development company. It’s either Genki or Crawfish. I forget. (And it might not be either, come to think of it).

Julian Rignall: Okay, so you know that he’s at Snowball/IGN, right? Only, he’s not – he left recently. I couldn’t say for sure if that’s ‘left’ in the ‘get the fuck out’ sense, but popular conjecture points that way. Given Snowball/IGN’s woes of late, a redundancy is the most likely explanation. Is bound to resurface at some point soon…

Roger Kean/Oliver Frey: When Impact Magazines (the company that followed Newsfield) closed, Roger – along with a few other senior Impact folk, Oli Frey included – kept its small but flourishing contract publishing division going in Ludlow. They were later acquired by their main customer, Prima Publishing – a US-based tips book outfit – and renamed Prima Creative Services. Prima Ludlow apparently closed earlier this year; I hadn’t heard anything about Roger or Oli for a while before then, so they may have left the company well before then.

Gary Liddon: Now MD of Climax – a surprisingly large UK development company.

Richard Eddy: Left Newsfield to join Codemasters. Instrumental in assisting the company’s rise from cheap yet cheerful purveyors of budget tat to their current status as a well-respected and highly successful publishing house, Richard left Codemasters to form Rocket Media – a prospering UK-based PR firm that specialises in games industry stuff. And things.

Steve Jarrett: Still works for Future Publishing in a senior position; sure to survive the current cull in picturesque Bath.

Ciaran Brennen: Either one of the, or actually /the/, head honcho(s) at Bastion, another PR firm specialising in the games trade.

Stuart Wynne: Last I heard, he was still at Paragon Publishing in Bournemouth.

Phil King: Rejoined the ZZAP! 64 fold when Europress Impact rose from the ashes of Newsfield; left in 1993 to join Paragon Publishing, like Stuart Wynne before him.

Nick Roberts: Left Impact Magazines to join Paragon; later returned to Ludlow to work for Prima’s office there (founded after Impact went into liquidation). Might now be back at Paragon.

Will Evans: Was last seen heading in the direction of Wales, muttering vague sentiments about getting drunk and an education, in precisely that order of priority. Was actually Roger Kean’s nephew, trivia fans.

Paul Mellerick: Left Newsfield to join Future Publishing. Left Future under a bit of a cloud, then travelled. Rejoined the games trade with a position on the staff of Rapide Publishing in Devon. Tragically, Paul died a few years back – I think it was a tumour, although the actual cause is a pretty arbitrary point, now I come to think of it.

Ian Osborne: Left Impact Magazines to join… shit, I can’t remember their name. Anyway, it was another videgame magazine publisher, very small, based in the south of England. I think they’re defunct now. Ian was always very passionate about games, so he’s no-doubt involved in the industry in some form or other.

Adrian Pitt: Left Impact Magazines to go… and, again, I can’t remember the name of the company. I visited Codemasters last year, and I’m absolutely /sure/ I saw him in the pub I was stopping in, but I didn’t get the chance to say hello.

Lucy Hickman: Presided over what many consider to be the death of ZZAP! 64, introducing execrable nonsense like Lash and Bash… ahh, you know the tale. She wasn’t a bad sort, really; she just didn’t really understand the games mag trade. Moved from ZZAP! 64 to stablemate N-Force; on leaving Impact, she went to work for EMAP. I think the title she joined was Mean Machines. Current whereabouts: unknown.

Carl Rowley: Last time I visited, Carl was running a pub in Ludlow town centre. He seemed happy enough; had no real desire to carry on working in the games trade, from what I gathered at the time.

Steve Shields: When Impact Magazines exploded, showering staff in the direction of other publishing companies and job centres, Steve returned to Northern and Shell, his first ever employer (he edited Video World as a nineteen-year-old). While there, he launched Digital Dreams – a soft porn/videgames/cover-mounted CD hybrid that met with reasonable success, and much derision. Steve went travelling with his wife, then returned to the UK. With his next occupation, he cut out the videogames altogether – he landed the job as editor of Mayfair at Paul Raymond Publishing, where he remains to this day.

James Price: Moved to a few staff jobs at magazine publishers after Impact including, inevitably, Future; has worked on a freelance basis for the past three years or so, largely for the games press.

Chris Hayward: Or The Tipster as he was known, possibly the best thing in Commodore Force. Now Steve Shields’ deputy at Mayfair. Occasionally performs stand-up comedy.

Miles Guttery: Went to work for Computerfacts in Devon after the closure of Impact; remained there throughout its metamorphosis into Rapide, then departed for Gameplay when Mark Smith’s mini-empire crumbled. When Gameplay imploded earlier this year, he joined a TV production company in London. Has lost the long locks.

Rod Guttery: Miles’s younger brother. Strange to see him on your big, grand list of ZZAP! 64 staffers – he only worked for Commodore Force for a week, as a work experience lad.

AND LAST, BUT NOT LEAST…

posted 18-07-2001 11:46 PM GMT            

Yep, that was almost certainly Will - he was at Newsfield for either work experience or a holiday job. He joined the company (by then Europress Impact) on a full-time basis in 1993, but worked on SNES Force.

///Also, have you got any news about Boris Myashirov, the mysterious adventures reviewer?///