The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Check out the interview with Dominic Handy (aka Paul Sumner) on http://crashonline.org.uk/99/handy.htm

Interesting stuff about Great Giana not being so great on the speccy, sounds similar to the Hawkeye fiasco with ZZap but even worse



Rob you might want to see if you could get Paul to join in the Def Guide....

Good interview, though I wish it was a bit longer.

I wonder what happened to the review copy of 'Giana' - makes me think it might have only been a preview copy, considering a) it hasn't surfaced anywhere and b) the game never made it to the shops before it was withdrawn.

I wasn't really bothered when I found out that Lloyd didn't exist (I think I realised when Gordon was 'being Lloyd'!), but I do feel a bit cheated that most of the PS reviews were done by Jaz and Gary - Surely they could have dragged in one of the schoolboys from CRASH to provide some comments? (I realise Warren Lapworth later did some of these comments).

Ta! Working on it.

LeeT wrote:Good interview, though I wish it was a bit longer.

...I do feel a bit cheated that most of the PS reviews were done by Jaz and Gary - Surely they could have dragged in one of the schoolboys from CRASH to provide some comments? (I realise Warren Lapworth later did some of these comments).

Gary Liddon did some Paul Sumner reviews, (after he 'left' Zzap) since they couldn't let him do it under his own name, because of his Thalamus connection. Fact.

I just got around to reading that interview, and it shook my fondness for CRASH a little bit - some editorial secrets and shortcuts should remain unknown to its readers, even years later...

Maybe the interview being as relatively short as it is was a good thing

I don't like to think a lot of their reviews were based on what the "power that be" and publishers wanted.

maf wrote: I don't like to think a lot of their reviews were based on what the "power that be" and publishers wanted.

I don't think it happened a lot, just on rare occassions.
It happened to the best (Zzap! hehe -with Hawkeye) and TGM (Foft) and Crash with Giana Sisters. It's a very short list, even if others may turn up, considering the software BOOM those days.

Yeah, I do believe that, that most of the reviews were genuine. Up until the tape wars and slim page-counts of late 1989 and into the early 1990s those mags were the best.