The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Just wondering what Software House had the greatest success with Zzap awards? Not taking into account Silver Medals for budget re-releases.

Obviously US Gold and Ocean released a shed load of games and proberly ( have not checked ) have had the most GM's and Sizzler's than any other software house, but which company had the greatest ratio of awards to games covered in Zzap.

Not checked, but I reckon it has to be Palace:

Barbarian 2
Cauldron
Cauldron 2
International 3D Tennis
Sacred Armour of Antirad

Can't remember too many games that they released which were reviewed by Zzap, only Barbarian, Rimrunner and Stifflip & Co - all which rated ok.

8 games reviewed in Zzap ( that I'm aware of ) with 5 of them being honoured - just can't think of better.

Obviously there are the publishers like Hutchinson who released The Fourth Protocol which received a Gold Medal, but ( to my knowledge ) had no other releases

Damn, how could I forget System 3?

Bangkok Knights
IK+
Last Ninja
Last Ninja 2
Last Ninja 3
Myth
Tusker
Vendetta

Thalamus?

Sanxion - Sizzler
Delta - 70s
Quedex - Sizzler
Hunter's Moon - Sizzler
Hawkeye - GM
Armalyte - GM
Heatseeker - 70s
Retrograde - Sizzler
Snare - 80s
Summer Camp - 80s
Creatures - GM
Creatures 2 - GM
Winter Camp - Sizzler
Nobby the Aardvark - GM

(needless to say I might have made one error above no doubt)

I hope you boys are using the ZzapBible for all this research!

All you need to do is get the games that scored 96% or over and see what companies come up. Actually this reminds me of a few Rrap letters, were a person would write in with lots of stats related to company/marks/averages etc.!

p.s. 73 games got 96% or more, of course they weren't neccesarly gold medals and remember a couple of gold medals got no marks, since they were too "revolutionary"!!!

Iain wrote:I hope you boys are using the ZzapBible for all this research!

I did, but only 5 of the Palace releases came up!

Mayhem wrote:Thalamus?

Don't forget, Hawkeye should have been a high-80s game (and maybe a Sizzler).

Fiery Phoenix wrote:I did, but only 5 of the Palace releases came up!

Wasn't Rimrunner a Palace game? Very pretty, but very dull. The first game from them that ever disappointed me. Got around 50%, IIRC, which was the Mark of Death in those days.

And the Outlaw label was Palace as well...

gordon wrote:

Fiery Phoenix wrote:I did, but only 5 of the Palace releases came up!

Wasn't Rimrunner a Palace game? Very pretty, but very dull. The first game from them that ever disappointed me. Got around 50%, IIRC, which was the Mark of Death in those days.

Was it CU or C+VG who gave it a 9 or something? (probably C+VG)
Apart from the animation, awful game!

And the Outlaw label was Palace as well...

That means another GM for SEUCK on their list then...
(SEUCK and Int. 3d tennis were of course sensible software titles)
And Cauldron, and Barbarian II were wa-hay overrated. (IMHO)

Iain wrote:...remember a couple of gold medals got no marks, since they were too "revolutionary"!!!

I know that one of these was The Sentinel, but what the heck was the other? It wasn't that text based 'life' game, was it?

Alter Ego?
No, that one was scored properly. (and a GM too, btw)

The only one I can think of besides The Sentinel, which was Liddon's 'fault' was Activision's Portal.

The only other non-graded Gold Medal I can think of is 'Graphic Adventure Creator'.

The Sentinel
SEUCK
Portal
GAC

were not rated I think (as in given a score).