The Def Guide to Zzap!64

gordon wrote:Does anybody know where I can get some World of Warcraft power levelling? I'm feeling the urge, for some inexplicable reason.

Ha! Recession finally hit the real world of warcraft, or was it the fake one?

@Iain: get that spambot off our face!!! They're all over us!!

@Gordon: good to know you're still lurking. Makes me feel less miserable for doing the same.

ps. finally diggin' Morrissey's music man!

Doing my best!

No too many junk messages these days anyway.

One advantage (well the only one I guess!) it that I get to reread some old threads when deleting the spam. E.g. the one in Memories from the first Zzap Challenger. Very interesting that!

Stop lurking for a month or so and I miss Gordon resurfacing like some elder god from Lovecraftian mythos. No doubt he has already sunk back unto the briny depths until the stars are right once more.

Back on subject, I've actually resurfaced here myself after a bit of a hiatus. I've been ordering some new releases from Psytronik and it occurred to me that, with the resurgence of new development on the C64, it'd be great to review a whole bunch of these in, oh, say Zzap! 108.

However, casually flicking my glance around my messy office I see a recent issue of Retrogamer lying open at the Homebrew section and wonder of they've now got all of that covered -- truly marking the end of any need for 108?

Ant wrote:Back on subject, I've actually resurfaced here myself after a bit of a hiatus. I've been ordering some new releases from Psytonik and it occurred to me that, with the resurgence of new development on the C64, it'd be great to review a whole bunch of these in, oh, say Zzap! 108.

However, casually flicking my glance around my messy office I see a recent issue of Retrogamer lying open at the Homebrew section and wonder of they've now got all of that covered -- truly marking the end of any need for 108?

Great idea and wouldn't worry so much about RG because it's no ZZAP!64...

Then there's C64 Forever, Virtual Console, Chameleon... there's material out there for another issue. Just the putting it together in a nice form for consumption that is the thing.

Possibly having it as more of a traditional review issue, might be "easier" than 107, since that was mainly about getting together articles on various subjects. Although I guess it's no less time consuming laying out reviews and subbing them than for other type of articles.

Certainly is plenty of new C64 stuff out there though. As Ant said, no shortage of games and I'm guessing there's probably a few mind blowing demos to talk about as well..

How about a Zzap 360, Wii Crash, or Playtix fanzine (in the stylee of the original mags) for modern consoles?

There must be a hell of a lot of games that Zzap never reviewed either that can always be included.

Check out:

http://www.retrogamer.net/forum/viewtop ... =5&t=15543

Iain wrote:Possibly having it as more of a traditional review issue, might be "easier" than 107, since that was mainly about getting together articles on various subjects.

I can't vouch for Rob, but for 107, it was definitely quicker to do the review layouts and to sub them. Given that they follow a specific format, they could be punched in pretty rapidly.

That said, if z108 does happen, I won't be having much to do with it unless I win the lottery. When we did 107, I merrily spent weeks on the thing. Now, with wife/mortgage/credit crunch, times are a wee bit different!

Personally, I don't really see the need for it anyway. 107 gave the mag the send-off it really needed (as opposed to it just 'stopping') and Rob's special provided a really nice coda. Time to move on, I'd say. (And although I'm biased, I reckon Retro Gamer does a damn fine job of continuing the philosophy of those mags of old, even if the review scores are sometimes a tad suspect and 'kind'.)

Bah humbug...

[quote="CraigGrannell']..sensible stuff...[/quote]

I agree 100% with Craig.

And let's be honest guys, the 'momentum' is gone as well. Let's face it this forum isn't the buzzing hive of activity anymore, and if we aren't truly 'into it' anymore, who will be?

There's only two things I'd be interested in:

1: I hope RG will do something with 25 years of Zzap!64 early 2010. I hope for some sort of interview with Roger/Oli and or Penn/Rignall/Jarratt/Houghton, that era. Or some sort of lookback on Zzap/Newsfield in general. I'd love to help out with some stuff if someone would ask me, but I think Craig would be an excelent specialist for that, plus he's in touch with the oldskool team.

2: RG issue 19. The *lost* issue 19. On a personal level I'd still would like to see that magazine. I'm 100% shure there's a file somewhere. And it contains an interview with me + 4 to 8 extra pages of the DEF Tribute to Zzap as well. I hope it will 'surface' one day. I think they keep it somewhere 'safe' to use it as a 'special' giveaway or something. Grrr.

Btw, I stopped reading/sunscribing RG around issue 38 or something. I'm having too much fun with my Wii/DSi+VC/Ware these days to bother with the 'old days' I'm afraid. Yeah, I know, it's kinda sad, innit?

Just like Steve Jarratt said to me back in 2005, you got to keep moving on! He couldn't believe people we're still toying around with these old computers, games and magazines. I have to agree with him now, although I must say: The Future is Retro. In more ways you could image...

See you, folks!

I'm with the leave it alone crowd. 107 was good, as was the RG supplement. I can't see you topping these so what's the point? If anything you risk diminishing what you've already done. Time to move on.

Mr Zzapback you're forgetting that Imagine-Publishing has a few ex Newsfield staff on board so if they had the appetite to do a Newsfield feature they are well placed to do so. I'm in frequent contact with some of those guys and don't detect any great interest levels along those lines, though I do find it funny that a couple of old back issues can be found round the office.

Hi Song Long Ago, I haven't forgotten about ex-Newsfield staff over at Imagine, but 'a few? I only can think of Markie. And, IMHO, he's not exactly from the golden days of Zzap, is he? I wonder who else is around over there?

Also, we still haven't figured out who you are, eh? I remember that right around the time we were busy finding out who you were the Rrap crashed and all messages were lost. Hmm.

But really, I'd love to see an extensive feature with Roger and Oli how they ran the magazine(s) and everything they bumped into those days, fun quotes, rare pics and gossip and all that. I mean, the material I got from Roger about the start of Zzap and the floorplans of the King St. office were surely only the tip of the iceberg.

Maybe I could throw in some 'juicy' bits that I'd left out of the DEF Tribute...like Chris Anderson's thoughts about... oh well!

Anyway, april 2010, Zzap!64: "it was 25 years ago today...", surely RG should cover 'something'.