The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Just interested to know what condition everyone's old issues of ZZAP! are in. Mine are still (mostly) in an excellent state, despite about six house moves since I bought them!

Also how many issues do you own?

Many of the ones I bought at the time they came out got abused naturally... how little I knew then compared to today. I've replaced most of them over the years with pristine copies. My issue #1 is a little worn on the cover, and a few issues have loose middle pages, but apart from that, just about in complete condition (barring one or two missing coupons).

Oh, and all 90 issues in binders

Since I never could get my hands on any binder before (and now I can't afford them) I just stacked 'm up by year in a special games magazine closet that I have. They lie there together with my CU's, my C+VG's, my TGM's, my Edge's, my Mean Machines, my Superplays etc. etc.
That way I can pick them up quite easily and flick thru them if I want to check something, and so every now and then I take an issue I didn't look in for quite some time and take it with me to the bathroom.

My special issues (1, being the first, 17 being my first and 107, being the first as a staffer ) are all in special binders in plastic showbags (or whatever they call them in the UK) to keep 'm nice and clean.

Issues 1 up to 50 I do have complete and in pristine condition (except for issues 1 (has a color copied frontpage) and 14 & 15 with loose covers-looking for replacements). Apart from those 50 , I have a lot of loose issues (almost all) including the Commodore Forces. But I don't care much for them, classic Zzap is the first 4 1/2 years for me, ending after the Gordon era. And I do have Mort's cd collection, so why bother?

My favourite issues are 9 to 21, I guess that's exactly 1986! (the year I got my c128, so I'm probably biased towards that time period)

And the others?

I have (cue: fanfare) #107 in... erm, average condition, and #44 with some pages missing, and that's it.

1 - 73. The first 40 issues are in SHITE condition, covers missing, pages falling out. Proberly coz they were the most read ones. Got them in the binders now - but after they were destroyed by too much reading! Stopped buying Zzap! after 73 as they dumped the Amiga coverage then and I was WELL into the Amiga by this time

CraigGrannell wrote:I have (cue: fanfare) #107 in... erm, average condition, and #44 with some pages missing, and that's it.

Nice to see that you've kept #44 -- warms the heart of my cockles, that. ...Anyhow, I used to have 1-50 in excellent condition before rationalising my attic space, and now have #44 (my favourite), #40 (my first as ed), 36 (my first as official staff writer), and #50 (my last), along with a bunch of Italian ones kindly sent to me by Paolo Besser, Zzap!'s last Italian editor. Oh, and #107 of course.

All in a marooooon binder...

g.

You didn't keep the other that you wrote in? I hope you didn't throw them out!!!! :-[ ]

iain wrote:You didn't keep the other that you wrote in? I hope you didn't throw them out!!!! :-[ ]

Yep. I was going through a "isn't life just a little bit pointless?" phase, and chucked them out. One day I'll probably buy Mort's CDs just for a bit of ego massage (or the reverse, if I find out how bad some of the stuff was -- I seem to remember some of my comments were a bit too wordy).

g.

Em, I understand, but never throw out Zzap's, many people have lived to regret it!

Yes indeed! ME for example!

Do you know what it cost me to get 1-50 back? (long live ebay.uk.co!)
Neverrrrmind

gordon wrote:Nice to see that you've kept #44 -- warms the heart of my cockles, that.

It was a great issue. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it, even when the likes of #3 were winging there way to some bloke who had a Zzap!64 site at the time (Steven something - Stuttard, maybe?)

iain wrote:You didn't keep the other that you wrote in? I hope you didn't throw them out!!!! :-[ ]

I originally kept _every_ magazine that I wrote something for, and bought those that I didn't get free copies of. In the end, I realised this was futile, especially as they're mostly design and computer mags that date extremely quickly. A couple of weeks ago I just cut out the pages I wrote, along with the covers, which are now sitting on a big pile elsewhere on this desk. But I now have more space and the recycling place here was happy.

LeeT wrote:Just interested to know what condition everyone's old issues of ZZAP! are in. Also how many issues do you own?

I have issues 46 to about 75, but with issues 57 and 71 missing. I also have issues 40 (my first ever - nice work Gordo and PG ) and 43.

Most of them are in terrible condition - I used to read them all the time, then literally chuck them in the cupboard when I was finished. I guess I didn't think I'd still care about them now. A few of them survived intact, but most of them are all but ruined.

A few weeks ago I went through them all and taped together all the falling-apart ones, and I've now stored them in folders, so at least they won't be getting any worse. Eventually I want to get a decent set of issues 1 to 73 (or whichever issue it was when they went all kiddie-comic).

I had a friend who had issues 24 to 50-something, all in pristine condition, and I was always offering to buy them off him, but he always refused. I told him to let me know if he was ever getting rid of them, and he said he would.... then I talked to him about it years later and it turns out he had chucked them all out. Bastard!

Not quite as bad as Gordo's effort, but still poor form. Anyone else have any Zzap!-related horror stories?

Oh yeah - about 2 years ago I went to a car boot sale one Sunday morning and saw a HUGE pile of Zzap! mags for sale - and I mean a HUGE pile - nearly every issue there. I only bought 3 issues - the one`s which I had lost the front covers for. The thing is....the quality of these mags were great - they looked like they were fresh from the printers - they even had the shitty ad inserts still inside them for software clubs - there were pristine and get this only 10p each! I always look back on my moth eared, raggged, ripped and torn issues now and wonder why I just did`nt buy the lot of them. Been to loads of car boot sales since and never ever saw 1 issue of Zzap for sale. DOH!

ARGHHH!!!! You mad man!!! only 10p each. sooo just to maker it a little worse for you in monitary terms. Say 90 Zzap issues @10p each = a cost of £9

Sell them on eBay. Value = around £300. That would have been quite a percentage gain!

I had a similar set to mayhem, read them all from issue 2 , got hold of issue 1 by swapping it for lazy jones with a m8, not a bad deal at the time for him as I got bored with the game and got the first issue for about £6 in early 86 as it was already unavailable in the back issues dept.

Then the usual replacing of tatty issues, hence only 1 dodgy issue (30 as it has the pc show coupon missing). Other than that all issues are fine and Dandy from 1 to 107 in Maroon binders. Iain has perused my set at my abode. Sorry no post recently as I had a burglary (fortunately the mags stayed).

I will be a bit more regular from now on (I`ll keep eating the prunes!)


Mort