The Def Guide to Zzap!64

since it's so, well, quite hot around here, I thought it would be nice to start a nice & cool Zzap Summer Topic:

Where & how did you get your copies of Zzap while you were on summer vacation?

To which exotic countries did you take your Zzaps?

Enjoy your holidays! (in case you're going)

Rob

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Once again I emerge from beneath a massive pile of paper which makes my desk groan to bring you the world’s most amazing posts.

This surely is one of my best Zzap! and c64 memories, as I can still feel the emotions while thinking about it. In the summer of 1988 I spent july and the beginning of august with my mother and brothers in a village to the seaside, while my father stayed in Genoa to work, and used to join us in the weekends. I still fondly remember the excitement when he arrived on fridays evenings, greeting him and then asking him if he got the new copy of Zzap!64

Issue 39 (last of JR, with Bionic Commando in it) and 40 (first of El Gordo, with Hawkeye) have always been two of my faves since then, and 1988 probably is my favourite c64 year...

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My top games: 1.Hawkeye, 2.Delta, 3.Creatures 2, 4.Armalyte, 5.Bubble Bobble, 6.Uridium, 7.Ikari Warriors, 8.Bionic Commando, 9.Buggy Boy, 10.Archon.

I can remember taking one of the early issues of ZZAP! on holiday to Santa Ponsa (Majorca) when I went with my parents. Must have read it about twenty times during that fortnight!

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Contributor to Def Tribute to ZZAP!
Compilation64 - http://compilation64.zzap64.co.uk/
Crazy about the C64? - www.lemon64.com
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After selling my Speccy in 85 to buy myself a C64, i soon became a dedicated monthly ZZAP reader. I remember the great artwork, posters & colourful reviews. I used to happily hand over my paper-round money to the miserable bloke in the Newsagent, then race home to read up on the latest gaming info. The excitement of the games reviewers was infectious. I regret to say that around two years later, i swapped my treasured collection with my best mate Boothly for his equally treasured collection of Razzle. The time had come for me to begin hammering my own joystick![/quote]

My local newsagent used to deliver my Zzap!64 with the newspaper. About a month before our holiday, my mum would "hide" all my magazines and comics, "saving them up" for the holiday journey!

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http://www.craiggrannell.com | http://www.projectnoise.co.uk

Issue 15, July 1986. Just looking at the cover reminds you of long hot summer days reading Zzap

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Fave Game: Thrust
Fave Music: Ocean Loader (original)

Discuss & view C64 endings here:

http://www.c64endings.co.uk./

Actually I bought my first ever issue of Zzap! (the real one, not the Italian version) while on summer holiday. It was issue 39 (July 1988). I was by the sea in Sardinia, and, every now and then, I and the family went to Cagliari (the nearest big city), where Zzap! could be found in the newsagent in via Roma, in front of Caffé Torino.

In 1989 it was the same, I could get Aug and Sep issues at the same newsagent while on holiday. In 1990, that newsagent did not have Zzap! , so I suffered for the whole summer. Luckily my father, who was still working, bought Zzap! Aug and Sep issues (alas, I missed July issue) and I could read them as soon as holidays were over.

In 1991 the same newsagent had Zzap! again, but I didn't care as I subscribed. My father reached the rest of the faily later, and brought me Zzap!s 75 and 76, collected from our mailbox. I used those issues to give English lessons to my brother, who got a bad vote at school and had to take an English exam in September to go to the next class. The exam went well, and he always had good votes at English after that: Zzap! obviously played an important part in that!

After April 1992, the importer stopped distribution in Italy

The summer of 1987 was particularly special for me.....pre GCSE times at school when everything was just a doss, coupled with a truly fantastic few months dating my "first" (?) proper girlfriend, and having a "first" (!) proper snog. Ahhh.....the memories! But - what topped that time off, was that i endered a competition in Zzap, and got my name printed in the "winners list". It was the James Bond/ Living Daylights comp.....and won a t-shirt/ keyring thing - that bleeped when you whistled. How cool was that?! That alone made the annuls of Zzap so special, just the fact my name was in print for the very first time. T-shirt didnt fit tho...but i didnt care!!

Extra special memories of some sublime front cover art from Oli Frey too.....I'll never forget that Leaderboard/ "Girl licking the lollypop" issue....just seemed to sum up the whole summer and the great times in my life. Cracking stuff.

Not really a summer holiday, more an autumn one. A family holiday from australia to the UK in1988 ,I took the June issue with me (the latest issue available in oz in September) it was amazing on my first day in England to be able to buy the latest issue off of the newsagents shelf. There were so many more mags than I was used to, It felt like I was at the party instead of hearing about it the next day. I remember The One being launched while I was there. I got the September and October issues of several english mags before we went home. WhEn we landed back in oz in late October I got the August issues but had missed the July one.
Not sure if it counts as an exotic destination but we spent most of our holiday in leicester and dorchester?

I've probably recounted this in another thread at some stage, but anyway:

My first Zzap was bought while on holiday to London, issue 41, September 1988, in WH Smith, Waltham Cross.

I still remember lying on the camp bed back at my Nan's reading it.

It wasn't my first issue but my first "current issue" . They were always 3 months old by the time we got them in australia, it was cool,to get them but always felt we were missing something or behind the times. We normally had got our hands on the games by then and competitions had expired already.To be able to walk into a WH smith and grab a fresh issue was shocking. There were so many other mags that weren't available in oz as well. Not to mention arcades everywhere and games for sale in chemist shops (boots I think it was called) it was certainly a different world for my 13 year old self. I can remember the first day when my energy finally running out and reading the mag in my grandmothers spare room too before I passed out.

I remember reading and re-reading issue 28 (Head over Heels, The Last Ninja) on a summer camping holiday. That was also the issue we sent off the subscription form from.

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Def Guide to Zzap!64 most probably

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Another visitor... stay awhile... stay forever!

I saw this topic, and then I thought it was a bit sad... until I found out I started it myself over 14 years ago! Errr... haha. Oh well!

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Once again I emerge from beneath a massive pile of paper which makes my desk groan to bring you the world’s most amazing posts.

Are we about ready to get nostalgic about the nostalgia we had for the nostalgia for the Zzaptastic 80's?