The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Do you think Europress should have rebranded ZZAP! and changed it to Commodore Force, or do you think they should have let it go on as ZZAP! ?

I always think its a pity we didnt see a 100th issue of ZZAP! - I don't really consider counting on those issues of C-Force as a continuation.

One of the things I didnt like about C-Force was the staff situation - Every issue someone moved over to the mag or helped out. I know that Newsfield had trouble hanging onto staff, but this was ridiculous!! People from Sega Force and Nintendo Force used to help with reviews then disappear.

Another thing - Phil King was demoted. Not sure why he was but he had put in a good few years at Newsfield and had just been made Editor, then Steve Shields appeared and Phil was made Deputy Editor...

So lets hear your views on this subject...............

To my knowledge, Phil didn't like the way he was being forced to take the mag. Hence instead of firing him, they just brought someone else in as editor. I wonder what Steve is doing now Penthouse are about to go under?

Probably work on another w*nk mag!!

The right decision was made. Let's face it, as soon as Zzap started apeing Commodore Format, it was over.

They should have cancelled Zzap, and just start a new title like Commodore Force, without any zzap connection at all. I think they were just afraid of losing the last diehard 'zzap'readers. (if they hadn't lost them already anyway, although I remained loyal up to issue 89 )

When we did Zzap issue 107, I complained about the issue number to the others, I would have gone for issue 91 or something, or for no issue number at all, or issue 2001 maybe. But IIRC nobody agreed, and everyone said that C-force was the official follow up incorporating zzap blabla, so we had to go on from there, 90+16=106, so 107. Mmm.

Ta!
Rob

Well, the editorial team discussed this, and came to the conclusion that, while we didn't like it, Commodore Force incorporated Zzap!64, and the #100 pull-out was testament to that.

I hate Commodore Force. Zzap was dying. Commodore Format was a lot better. You could tell because C-force was always putting C-Format down but C-Format never bite. C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap and let it have a dignified death but unfortunately as much as I loved Zzap I can only remember it For C-FORCE.

sdoneill wrote:I hate Commodore Force. Zzap was dying. Commodore Format was a lot better. You could tell because C-force was always putting C-Format down but C-Format never bite. C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap and let it have a dignified death but unfortunately as much as I loved Zzap I can only remember it For C-FORCE.

Speaking as someone who worked for both mags, C-Format did keep having digs at C-Force. And look at what happened in the last few issues of C-Format - reprinting old tips! Gosh, that's a bad idea, isn't it?

For a perfect example, there was the "10 things we won't miss about C-Force" piece. Most of what is said in there could be applied to C-Format as well...

The main point I was trying to say was that C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap.[/quote]

sdoneill wrote:The main point I was trying to say was that C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap.

[/quote]

To be fair, Force was fairly different to ZZAP! - It seemed to be aimed at a younger age group (probably because Europress thought that kids were buying the C64 in the later years). That's one of the things I didn't like about it - The covertapes started off as being excellent, with proper full ex-releases being covermounted, but gradually the SEUCK reader games appeared every issue.

LeeT wrote:The covertapes started off as being excellent, with proper full ex-releases being covermounted, but gradually the SEUCK reader games appeared every issue.

In fairness they got VERY good at the end, what with World Games etc. supplied, it's just a pity that I had all the games already

Am I right in thinking if the next issue had come out, Frankie GTH was going to be on the tape?

I was under the assumption that it was going to be Impossible Mission 2 - this was the mystery game that had the quote from the original Zzap review, right? I found it after scouring back issues for hours

Ian (Osbourne) mentioned some things regarding the final Zzap!/CF on this thread.

Wow, quite interesting thread, so there was 2 unseen C= Force's, one at the printers and one in the production / editting stage.

How great it would be to get our hands on either of them! Chances are pretty slim I guess... Maybe there's a box of them sitting in the printer's warehouse somewhere