Happy 20th Birthday to Zzap and New Additions

[Iain]

Happy 20th Birthday to Zzap! A detailed history of Zzap has been added to the site, along with many more scanned issues and because I have brought some more webspace, all scans will be up quite soon! The News on the front page now comes from within the Announcements section in the forum, making it easier for me and more consistant for the site. I have also cleaned up the front page somewhat, although it is not 100% yet.

The News section on the front only displays the first paragraph of each announcement with a link to the full item in the forums.

I got a new (another) website for $7.77 a month with 2Gb of space and a 5Gb bandwidth limit a day! Pretty good I'd say, although there have been complaints about their uptime etc. I ordered a year and got 6 months free for around $90 so I'll see how I get on with them. So that's how all the Zzap scans are being made available all the time... might even be room left for a couple of other issues of other mags.

Comments and error reporting on any of the above much appreciated!

And again, Happy Birthday to Zzap!64. He's a young adult of 20 now!

[Mort]

Great News Iain,
Be good to see the scans up again, and also it may leave space for some of the other projects (64 related) to be made available freely rather than dvd or other site.

Looking forward to reading the History of ZZap which I will print so I can add it to my binders,anyhow must sleep as it is nearly 1am

[Ockhams Razor]

Happy birthday old friend... i am sure you will still be remembered in another 20 years!

[LeeT]

Blimey, where have the last twenty years gone?!
If someone had told me back in 1985, that I would be still talking about ZZAP! in the 21st century, I wouldn't have believed them!

[Ant]

Happy birthday, Zzap! and thanks Iain for this great site. Your work here is really appreciated even though that appreciation may not always be obvious.

[Lloyd Mangram]

(sings ala Sgt Pepper)

It was twenty years ago today,
Lloyd Mangram taught the team to play
They've been going in and out of style
But they're guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you
The mag you've known for all these years:

ZZAP!64

Congrats you excellent mag!
We never had it so good when you were around.

Btw, this morning I was ping-ponging e-mails with a certain Mr. Penn -duh!

edit: last week Gaz' first reaction was: 20 years!? No. Way.

[Iain]

Happy birthday, Zzap! and thanks Iain for this great site. Your work here is really appreciated even though that appreciation may not always be obvious.

Thanks very much for that, I know I neglect the site from time to time but I seem to have a renewed enthusiasm for it the past while so hopefully that lasts enough to do more stuff with it

[Iain]

The scans from issue 1 to 50 are now all online and I'm currently uploading the rest. Hope my anti leech systems hold up alright!

[fgasking]

I was kind of a late starter with Zzap, buying from about issue 78 I think? (With the Terminator 2 cover).

I had the reverse Midas touch at the time, where buying that issue of Zzap mean't that the company went bust.... and the same thing happened after buying Your Commodore out of curiousity (Also with Terminator 2 on the front ironically...).

I was glad when the magazine came back (seeing CF eat humble pie after issue 14's news notice), and it was the start of buying both Commodore Format and Zzap each month. I used to get really excited each month when both came out, and its only something recently brought back by the likes of Games TM and Retro Gamer.

Over the years i've managed to get all the issues of Zzap (now just after the binders and other bits and bobs), and its very interesting to see how it started and progressed over the years. It's a shame I was too young when the magazine first came out, so I could have enjoyed it from the start (And not paid the sky high prices on ebay for a copy! ).. but its nice to look back.

Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, but has there been any consideration of getting Retro Gamer to print Zzap 108 as a freebie copy, like they did with Your Sinclair?... IMO, this would be a fantastic way to celebrate its 20th anniversary... but I understand how much work it would probably take, but its just a thought.

[CraigGrannell]

Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, but has there been any consideration of getting Retro Gamer to print Zzap 108 as a freebie copy, like they did with Your Sinclair?

I assume you mean Rob's special edition rather than z108, which is on hold? For what it's worth, I did start talking to games™/Highbury about doing something like that with z108 (prior to us canning the project), and the discussion went quite far, but it became clear that Highbury wouldn't proceed without very clear copyright permissions, which we didn't have. Therefore, if something like this was to happen with the Zzap! 25th, the relevant copyright holders would have to okay it.

In my mind, I actually think it's perhaps better kept in the fan community now, rather than being a means of a commercial company persuading more people to buy their magazine.

[fgasking]

In my mind, I actually think it's perhaps better kept in the fan community now, rather than being a means of a commercial company persuading more people to buy their magazine.

I think thats fair enough.. I think what I more hope for anyway mainly is that it gets a print run like 107. I was chuffed to bits when I got a nice colour print of it ... so if thats as before, and not from one of the mainstream magazines, then thats fine by me

[CraigGrannell]

I don't know if there are any plans for that this time round—I guess Rob could answer that. I've certainly not heard of any. Part of the problem would be that this issue has many more pages than z107, meaning it'd be more expensive to produce.

[Iain]

It probably would cost a good bit more to professional print alright and add inflation over the past couple of years as well...

I'm not planning anything in that regard anyway, don't have the money upfront to print copies anyway.

The first 150 copies of z107 went like hot cakes but the last 50 went reeally slowly.

[Lloyd Mangram]

Hi folks,

well, the idea I had in mind was to just go for distribution through the www.
I'll prepare two, maybe 3 versions of the pdf (64 pages) a lo-res version 72 dpi for reading the mag on your monitor, a semi lo-res version just good enough to print and read it from paper (I might as well, skip that one, depends on how 'heavy' the pdf's are going to be,) and finally a hi-res professionally printable version, AT 225 dpi.

I'm toying around with the idea to offer the hi-res version on cd-r as well for a fiver or so (incl. s&h).

Everybody who worked on the project will get a fully printed version in their mailbox.

It *might* be possible that I'll offer printed copies, I might use the excellent printers at my work -I have to ask permission from my boss though- in that case I'll be able to print a couple, but they'll end up with a 10 pound price tag (€ 15) I think.

If the mag turns out to be a succes and RG or Games TM or whoever ask me to put it on a cd or whatever, I'll let THEM arrange everything copyright wise. I'm just a family man, and I have no clue about these things.

So, I hope your questions have been answered.

[Iain]

While going through some of my Zzap's just now for adding the Test Drive II review to the site, I had a look at my printed z107 again and damn it was a nice job (the mag and content I mean). Everybody should be very proud of it!