The Def Guide to Zzap!64

Had Zzap! retained its Amiga coverage and kept its presentation of earlier episodes would ye lot think it could have carried on like CU did ?

If it had carried on as it was, I doubt so as the C64 cover tapes would have put off many Amiga users, and with Commodore Format being C64 only the competition would be really tough..... Forget YC 1990 onwards.

For it to be a multi format C= magazine to rival Commodore User, it would have to drop the cover-games as it would really be too tricky and expensive to implement, I think there were too many Amiga magazines and not enough C64 at the time for Zzap to drop the C64 anyway.

All in all, Zzap made the correct decision at the right time in dropping the Amiga and keeping with the cover-tapes, imo

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I guess what they really should have done, around the time they implemented full time Amiga reviews (early 40's), was to create a new Zzap! Amiga magazine and have the original Zzap! C64 only again. Might have been a risky decision and no doubt people who owned both computers would have complained about now having to buy two magazines but I think it would have been the best thing in the long run.

Probably other things going on in Newsfield that might have lead to this not happening, e.g. the other failed magazine launches etc.

What is interesting is the period around issue 66 where it was C64, Console (GS) and Amiga. This was when Format launched and I think that was the real trigger to go back to C64 only.

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I bet Newsfield were really pissed off when Future decided to launch a C64 magazine, especially since they didn't do it near the beginning of the company's (Future) life and at the late stage that they did, one would think they wouldn't have bothered.

Well, as Greg Ingham (CF publisher) said at the time - nobody was doing a C64 magazine particularly well by that stage and they saw an opportunity to muscle in and do something. That's why Commodore Format launched.

Steve Jarratt also mentions on at least three occasions in issue one that CF will be "an Amiga free zone" - an obvious dig at Zzap - so it's hard to think that Zzap's unpopular Amiga reviews weren't also a big factor in Future deciding to launch a C64 only mag.

All very interesting points raised above. To answer my own question I believe if they had kept the earlier ZZAP! style they could have kept going for a while, with the Amiga coverage included of course. The fact that there was some excellent magazines around at the time did'nt help either. (TGM, ACE, CU ).

Reviewing the versions side by side was always a mixed blessing. I think I would have preferred an Amiga Zzone supplement.

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True that. I remember reading CU where the C16 games got less and less until the C64 took over, which then in turn ended up the same as the C16 due to the Amiga !

I believe that was the fatal mistake ZZAP! made, by not follwing the above. It was a great magazine though.

Now I just need one more copy of MAXIMUM to complete the set.......

The Amiga stuff should have remained as a pullout, or a series of one-off specials, for sure. Looking back, I think it muddied the waters and confused the identity of the magazine for readers. However, I seem to remember that there were some months back then when there would only be four or five full-priced C64 games for review (as well as a load of budget stuff). Also, there was no great enthusiasm at Newsfield for an Amiga-only magazine, which would have taken a significant chunk out of The Games Machine's territory.

But yeah, with hindsight, it was the wrong decision to mix the two machines in one mag. Full-colour supplements would have been the way to go.

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When the Amiga was dropped from Zzap!64 I was expecting a dedicated magazine to launch, but it never did. As Gordon says, I half suspected it was due to the Games Machine still being active at the time, and by that moment, was pretty much 16-bit only.

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I have issue 45 to hand (WEC on the front, GH era) and I thought that format was a good one - C64 reviews at the front and Amiga at the back.

Therefore both owners were catered for.

Well CU didn't really drop the C16 as there were very few releases by 1987 and 1988 anyway. It just naturally disappeared. I stopped buying CU around the time the C16 naturally vanished from their pages, I had got hold of a C64 around that time anyway and so started buying Zzap instead.

I found it a shame that the C16/Plus4 never got much coverage in Zzap64, and only more extensive coverage in Zzap Italia. Other magazines did cover the C16, some really well but it's CU which led the way for the 264 series, in the UK anyway

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