The Def Guide to Zzap!64

What was the worst C64 magazine?
Give your reasons here!

I really disliked the reviews in the earlier C&VG issues. Almost everything seemed to get a 7 or 8 (even if it was the most dreadful piece of software to come crawling out of the abyss) and a lot of the tiny reviews were poorly written and completely uninformative. They could have saved a lot of time and money by summarising all of their reviews into one huge two-page spread saying, "WE GIVE EVERYTHING A 7.5!"

Still, the mag had other redeeming features so it wasn't all bad.

I wouldn't say YC (the newer version of Your Commodore) was the worst C64 magazine but it was certainly the weirdest. It used to even have readers that didn't own a C64 and weren't interested in it. Strange humour was used throughout, certainly a VERY different magazine than it started off as.

Cheating here a bit as it was a 16 bit mag - but I thought ZERO magazine was shite. They never gave a game a bad review - the only good thing was the free Merv the Merciless game on Issue 1 - anyone remember it?

What about underrated mags - I thought Games X the weekly magazine for ALL systems was pretty good for a weekly read and it was only about 70p

Strange how all the weekly computer mags never really took off. I wonder could kids not afford to get an issue every week? It seemed like a good idea especially regarding news, since news in the monthly issues was very out of date, although this was before the web I guess...

Weekly one`s just did not sell - good idea but never really took off. I did think the other underrated mag which covered all formats was ACE - remeber their grapg scoring system which told you how long it would be befor you got fed up of the game? The best thing about ACE was some superb articles and features they did - up there with Zzap! and The One mags for me.

One thing I do remember about ACE was the whole percentage thing taken to its logical (and very sad) conclusion, marking games out of 1000... daft, really.

Really? That is stupid, even marking things out of 100 is nearly going too far. How can you say what makes a game 56% or 57%?!!?

I hated the really stuffy C64 magazines - A prime example being Commodore Computing International (CCI) where they looked down at gamers, and were more interested in modifying Disk Drives etc! Of course they dared criticise ZZAP! and ZZAP! came back with the 'fluffy lollipop issue' which was one of the funniest things ever!

ACE didnt bother me at the time with the ratings - In fact I bought Issue 2 from ebay a few months ago - Does anyone know how long ACE lasted for? - I used to own quite a few issues but they were thrown out a number of years ago (Arrghh!). I know that EMAP bought the title from Future and buried it so as not to compete with C&VG.....

The last issue of ACE I have is issue 41 from Feb`91, I`m pretty sure it was wound up a few months later. Just remembered those pink pages they used to have at the back of the issue - class!

CCI without a doubt, what a pile of trash!
I can't believe I bought it so every now and then!
Just because I already had bought Zzap, CU & C+VG that month,
and it seemed to take ages for the new issues to come, I couldn't resist buying CCI. Duh!

biggestjim wrote:CCI without a doubt, what a pile of trash!
I can't believe I bought it so every now and then!
Just because I already had bought Zzap, CU & C+VG that month,
and it seemed to take ages for the new issues to come, I couldn't resist buying CCI. Duh!

Thanks, LeeT and BJ -- Commodore Computing International is the magazine I've been scratching my head trying to remember all this time. That, for me, was definitely the worst one going -- but being the whore that I am, it didn't stop me writing for it during my freelance days . Kati did, too, and true to its non-gaming snobbery, they wanted a serious article on speech recognition software (for the C64, mind ).

Anyway, they were also abysmal payers -- I think they paid something like 4p per word (the going rate was 10p), and even then they hardly ever paid up, AFAIR. I remember Kati and I going in there one day, after not having received a cheque for six months, and we sat in the accountant's office refusing to move until he wrote a cheque, signed it, and handed it over.

Jesus, what a mag.

g.

Got paid 4p per word?
I wished I got paid 4p per word on this board!

Mm, so CCI were as horrible for their readers as for their writers too, oh dear.
I remember them reviewing games every now and then without *any* screenshot. Their art department was no good either.
Thinking of it I get so curious again to see how bad they actually were I'd almost wanna go to ebay to see if I could get my hands on an issue.

Well, maybe not.

Cheers,
Rob

I am gonna have to have a look through all my old computer mags to see if I can relive the horror of CCI - Trouble is there are three 5ft piles of them, including ten years of C&VG, all ZZAP!'s, most CRASH'es, etc.....

I remember the Editor being called Anthony Jackson IIRC. When I was about 15, I thought of him as being the stereotypical pantomime baddie in a long dark coat, and the ZZAP! lads with their spiky hair as the heroes!!

Hey LeeT,
it sounds like you had a vision of the Matrix then
Rob