Issue 108 - Issue 108 is Indefinitely on Hold

Everything else about Zzap
CraigGrannell
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Post by CraigGrannell »

Andy got sort of caught up in the Retro Gamer fallout, and he's now one of the chaps doing the Retro Survival CD. After that's done, he reckons K!K!G will likely start moving again.
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Post by Sixteen Plus »

hey well, i have to agree with just about everything said, the DEF tribute did sort of nail a lid on it all a little more :cry:
maybe there'll be a silver jubilee issue in 2010.

but meanwhile, the fun still continues here as i gleefully see.

but a small idea...maybe just keep it all online based more...nevermind having to cut down X amount of trees with the worry about printing costs also, so we can hold a nice new crisp copy in our hands like the good old days, and the environmental savages we've become (i say that with my def tribute copy sitting alongside next to me).

any games that's since came out on the public domain after C-Force and any old ones originally missed, have a new regular(ish) review spot for them on the main zzap site, maybe seperated from the ones already there that's already been covered...give them the usual zzap-blag, ratings, sizzlers, gold medal treatments etc.

any of the new reviews on the site (when there's enough) could be maybe put into pdf format only once in a while for download...call it zzap-online (or something)...start it off as issue 1 (maybe), just like Commodore Force when it first came about...maybe throw the few extra regular bits in as well...i'm not sure how difficult it is to implement fully as that may still require loads of work, but obviously with a lot less hassle.

it don't really matter about the rest of the name i.e. 64...the amiga quote came and went and feels practically irrelevant now anyway, then the magazine was renamed to Commodore Force some time after...the logo design of the word 'Zzap' itself is enough to recognise it as a C64 mag, that name was always there until the change to C-Force, and everyone still knows it primarily as Zzap anyway, the spelling of it is unique enough.

it was primarily a games review magazine, which has now interactively morphed itself online onto the worldwideweb sucking the old crew into it also...the new growing potential of zzap is already here, great innit? :wink:

in with this new format i say...the old is all pen and ink nowadays.
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Professor Brian Strain
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Post by Professor Brian Strain »

I'd love to see another ZZAP issue in the future, and I'd love to be involved. Maybe even an interactive CD/DVD depending on how technology evolves, but the option of a printed copy would be nice - there's something special about holding the mag and turning the pages.
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Post by CraigGrannell »

For me, a Zzap! website just wouldn't be Zzap!—you'd lose the great design and layouts and you'd lose the all-important magazine element. There are already plenty of online mags, some of which deal with new C64 software, and I'd hate to see Zzap! (as in an ongoing Zzap!) as "just another website". Plus these things take a lot of time to organise, write and create, so I doubt "Zzap!, the website" would be any less draining on resources than "Zzap!, the magazine".
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Post by Ant »

If z108 ever happened I'd pray that it was printed and had reviews of new C64 games and each page was strawberry flavoured.

Err, wait ...

Anyway, Rob, Craig and Gaz would be at the helm (wearing delightful folded-newspaper captain's hats), Oli would do all the reviewer heads and a new cover and Gordo and Kati would be in the Zzap! challenge playing Bounces ... or the Zzap! challenge would be a time-limit game of Elite with 10 world-wide challengers. The challenge (whatever form it took) would somehow be video captured and made a downloadable mpg. All the while the Scorelord would look on, gurgling hatred like bile.


Ol' Whitey (or maybe the Harlequin) would return to review Newcomer.

That pretty lass who reviewed the strategy games would be back and she'd review ... ummm ... Knights of Legend which isn't even a strategy game. Minter and Walker would drop in for a chat over tea and biscuits.

PSI-5 would get a Sizzler and I really shouldn't have had that wine with dinner ...
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Post by Gazunta »

Three things:

1) Anyone can make 108. You don't need myself, Ant, Craig or Gordon to make it. Go on, do it yourself if you can't stand waiting for us to collectively pull our fingers out (and mine's probably jammed in harder than the others!) :)

2) I've been away from this board far too long, I haven't even posted what I thought about the Zzapback special edition :( Sorry :( I plan to very soon though.

3) RETRO GAMER IS FINISHED?!?! Noooooo!!!! I loved that mag to bits :( Oh man, that just sucks so damn much. I am so sad now :( Despite anyone's professional misgivings with the business side of things, that was the only mag I bought and read cover to cover in the same way I did Zzap! 64 (just ask Ant!). (Starts praying that Future pick it up)[/i]
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Post by CraigGrannell »

Even if Future did pick up Retro Gamer, there's a lot of "badwill" now associated with the magazine, so I doubt it would happen. Still, I guess something else might rise to take it's place.

*cough* *cough*
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Ant
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Post by Ant »

Hey, Gaz. Good to see you back here again.

Listen to the man, people. There's a lot of talent out there. Stop playing World of Warcraft and make me a new issue of Zzap!, dammit!
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Post by elminster »

Well you could put a magnetic scrolls section. The Pawn and Gold of Thieves and Corruption and Fish and Jixter and Myth. The pinnacle of retro parser adventuring along with Level 9 and even the illustrious Infocom. Ahh Zork possibly the most famous of the text adventures (next to maybe The Hobbit - most bug ridden piece of work ever I reckon)
What are they doing now even?

And a remakes review section (as discussed in the other forums) Head over Heels would certainly qualify, there are a number of other beauties (such as Klass of 99) as well as plenty of Krap.

Even little Rockford should have his own spread on himself and the many clones, remakes and different versions of his all time great - The history of boulderdash. Did you know that SPY vs SPY has been resurrected on the XBOX and Playstation in an all new game, I remember Beyond Softwares original. I wait for the PC version of the new one, they better have plans for its release or mighty upset I will be (I don't own a console).

An SSI dungeons and dragons section would be good.
Cracking examples of C64 ware which still live on today. Where would Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights be if it wasn't for SSI and Pool of Radiance.

I've even dug out my Pool of Radiance Map from years ago, and have started converting it into an excel spreadsheet with issue 108 hints and tips in section in mind. Enough there for a few pages I think.

... I must say I was glad to receive my DEF tribute copy over here in Ashtraylia, before retro gamer bought the farm. Was a close shave that one.

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Post by elminster »

Thats Guild of Thieves, not Gold of Thieves - stupid keyboard <grin>
.. and Jinxter not Jixter. Gee I better get a new keybored.. it could be the typers cramp and knuckle arthritis though.
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LeeT
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Post by LeeT »

elminster wrote:Well you could put a magnetic scrolls section. The Pawn and Gold of Thieves and Corruption and Fish and Jixter and Myth. The pinnacle of retro parser adventuring along with Level 9 and even the illustrious Infocom. Ahh Zork possibly the most famous of the text adventures (next to maybe The Hobbit - most bug ridden piece of work ever I reckon)
What are they doing now even?
But it's getting someone to write about these in an interesting way and to make it interesting enough so that it doesn't cover the same ground as in the original reviews.
And a remakes review section (as discussed in the other forums) Head over Heels would certainly qualify, there are a number of other beauties (such as Klass of 99) as well as plenty of Krap.
With respect, I wouldn't want to read about these as there is enough info on the internet about them (and those examples have been around for some time).
Even little Rockford should have his own spread on himself and the many clones, remakes and different versions of his all time great - The history of boulderdash. Did you know that SPY vs SPY has been resurrected on the XBOX and Playstation in an all new game, I remember Beyond Softwares original. I wait for the PC version of the new one, they better have plans for its release or mighty upset I will be (I don't own a console).
Covering other formats wouldn't be really true to the ZZAP! spirit though, would it?
An SSI dungeons and dragons section would be good.
Cracking examples of C64 ware which still live on today. Where would Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights be if it wasn't for SSI and Pool of Radiance.
See my first point about the adventure games.
I've even dug out my Pool of Radiance Map from years ago, and have started converting it into an excel spreadsheet with issue 108 hints and tips in section in mind. Enough there for a few pages I think.
That would be ok if enough readers wanted a map of a strategy game, but as the 'tributes' tend to be of limited size and it is a minority genre, then...


(Sorry to pull apart your ideas but I thought I should add my views).[/i]
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Post by CraigGrannell »

I tend to agree with most of Lee's points—if another Zzap! does happen, it really should be another issue of Zzap!, about the C64. elminster's ideas seem more suited to the likes of Retro:Bytes, or even the likes of Edge or games™.
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Post by andy vaisey »

CraigGrannell wrote:Even if Future did pick up Retro Gamer, there's a lot of "badwill" now associated with the magazine, so I doubt it would happen.
I mentioned the same thing over at Lemon64 but Shaun (Bebbington) said it was unlikely because RG circulation was rather small therefore Future would not be interested... :(
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Post by LeeT »

If RG was going to make a comeback, think it would have been announced by now - Apparently Live (or whoever is answering emails at their offices) are still stating that there are 'several interested parties' in buying RG but I doubt it, considering (as Craig said) there is a lot of bad feeling around the title.

It seems that the Directors of Live have set up a new company in order to publish some of the other titles in the Live stable, but I can't see them doing much with RG considering a) they have pissed off the contributors so much b) the contributors have blocked their work from appearing in any forthcoming issues and c) would anyone want to subscribe to RG when its connected to Live?

The good thing is that there are two spin-off's that have surfaced through this bad event.
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andy vaisey
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Post by andy vaisey »

LeeT wrote:c) would anyone want to subscribe to RG when its connected to Live?
/me politely shakes head...
The good thing is that there are two spin-off's that have surfaced through this bad event.
/me nods head very excited!
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