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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 2:49 pm
by Mangram's Tippex Thinner
Good points, well taken.

Will be interested to see in RG what its readers think of the supplement.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:32 pm
by CraigGrannell
LeeT wrote:unless we can got back twenty years, we are never gonna see the original staff working together and the original ZZAP! still coming out.
It is also worth noting that, as I said, Roger Kean has written a couple of pieces for the mag. Also, some of the Zzap!back columns have comments from Gordo and Gary Penn alongside those by the 107 gang and more recent additions. 107 was, for me, "validated" by the fact that Gordon edited the thing and also by the contributions of Paul and Robin. This issue is similarly validated by the pages of contributions from ex-Zzap! staff—it's not just about the Zzap!back reviews.
it looks very much like the ZZAP! we know and love
It looks better, actually. Rob's done a stunning job in keeping the Zzap! image intact, yet adding some surprisingly contemporary touches here and there. While my shot at the design for 107 was a mix of the Penn and Gordo eras, Rob's one is firmly in the Zzap! teens and twenties, and it works very well indeed.
Finally, none of the people involved (Rob, Craig, reviewers) are making any money out of this
Yes, that's right: we're not making any— Hang on! Rob, what about that ten grand you promised me? And all the bananas I could eat? And Lloyd's antique typewriter and long-word dictionary? I've been had!

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:39 pm
by Professor Brian Strain
And I got to use the word "genre" :D which has long been a favourite of mine...

(Fair enough, it's not officially a "real" ZZAP! But it feels so good to be part of the TRIBUTE. )

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:40 pm
by CraigGrannell
So, Mr. Thinner, I assume you're ex-Newsfield, like some of the other posters here? If so, care to enlighten us as to your true identity, or do you want to hide under the threadbare blanket of anonymity? Or something.

Mugshots

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:40 pm
by Ant
Thanks everyone for the kind compliments. I'm glad you liked the sketches.

Unfortunately only "thumbs-up" sketches were done for the Def Tribute. Rob had confirmed fairly early on that these would be the only ones needed. This saved a lot of time ... for 107 I drew all three poses for nine reviewers which was a lot of work considering that not all of them were required.

This means, of course, that I must have drawn the "thumbs-up" MayhemUK being used as his avatar. :wink:

I'm more than happy to send the final scanned sketches to their respective likenesses (if that's ok with Rob).

Speaking of Rob -- congrats, man. You're hard work more than paid off. Truly amazing!

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 3:46 pm
by CraigGrannell
Professor Brian Strain wrote:(Fair enough, it's not officially a "real" ZZAP!
Seriously: I would dispute that. What is a "real" Zzap!64? I would have thought an issue okayed by Roger Kean, that also happens to have an editorial and article by him, and that has various comments and opinion pieces by Gary Penn and other old staff members, and that actually looks like the original article, is pretty much "the real thing". If it looks like a banana, smells like a banana and tastes like a banana, it's unlikely to be a bicycle.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:15 pm
by Mangram's Tippex Thinner
A real Zzap would've been independently distributed to newsagents, for sale as a separate publication! :P

I was a Paul Sumner, y'know...

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:24 pm
by CraigGrannell
Mangram's Tippex Thinner wrote:A real Zzap would've been independently distributed to newsagents, for sale as a separate publication! :P
Although I know you're taking the piss a bit now, I'm still going to point out that plenty of publications on the shelves these days are welded to other magazines and don't have independent distribution of their own.
I was a Paul Sumner, y'know...
Well, that narrows it down, I guess.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:29 pm
by Mangram's Tippex Thinner
To be honest, if 107 was the supplement to RG, it would've been more of a Zzap -- new games to review, no existing staff so various new people write the reviews. Tagging comments onto old reviews seems like filler to me; better to have had lower pagination.

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:42 pm
by Lloyd Mangram
Mangram's Tippex Thinner wrote:...for sale as a separate publication! :P

I was a Paul Sumner, y'know...
Here: http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/zzap.shtml
Happy now, Paul, Dominic, Warren err? :wink:

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:48 pm
by Mangram's Tippex Thinner
Mr.Zzapback wrote:
Mangram's Tippex Thinner wrote:...for sale as a separate publication! :P

Here: http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/zzap.shtml
Got me on a technicality, Mr Zee! Although it's not for sale in newsagents, so...! :P

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:49 pm
by Mangram's Tippex Thinner
^^ Agh, buggered up the coding with my quote-on-quote action!

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:59 pm
by CraigGrannell
Mangram's Tippex Thinner wrote:To be honest, if 107 was the supplement to RG, it would've been more of a Zzap -- new games to review, no existing staff so various new people write the reviews. Tagging comments onto old reviews seems like filler to me; better to have had lower pagination.
Just out of curiosity, have you actually seen the new tribute? While the Zzap!back stuff does take up a fair amount of space, each of the reviews has a page introducing it, with plenty of interesting tid-bits of information, along with the new comments. And there are plenty of other things in the mag, too.

The "new games" thing has come up elsewhere, but then that was never the intent for this special—despite what Retro Gamer said, Rob's special was never intended to replace 108 (which would have had a load of new reviews in it had we actually have created it).

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:10 pm
by Mangram's Tippex Thinner
I saw the new tribute before most people -- I work with Roger Kean! (Tho mostly work from home now.)

Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2005 5:52 pm
by CraigGrannell
Mangram's Tippex Thinner wrote:I saw the new tribute before most people -- I work with Roger Kean!
Fair enough, Warren.