The Def Guide to Zzap!64

True, there are advantages. But then there are also people who don't want to be tracked down or simply don't want to talk about the old days. Which is frustrating.

_________________
http://c64goldenyears.com
http://blog.myspace.com/merman1974
http://members.lycos.co.uk/merman64

Mm. John Van Ryzin (HERO) is the one I'd really loved to have chatted to, but, alas, he clearly has zero interest. And then there are others who just don't have the time. Retro Gamer's now on, what, issue 135ish? My RG folder in Mail is littered with commissions for making-ofs that just never happened, because the people behind the games didn't have time to talk, after initially expressing an interest and nailing down times and dates.

*looks at Mayhem in Monsterland commission from 2006, for RG35(!)*

*sighs at the never-ending quest to sort the Speedball II making-of, which has now been going on for well over five years*

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

Yeah, most people are perfectly willing and happy to talk, but some just don't want to. It's a shame, but what can you do other than respect their wishes, I suppose?

_________________
They Were Our Gods - a website charting my progress on an upcoming book of the same name, about the UK gaming scene in the 1980s.

Well, quite. Without those generous enough to give their time, Retro Gamer and similar but more indie-oriented projects simply wouldn't exist, but we should also respect those who don't want to talk (or those who only want to talk about very specific subject matter, such as Martin Walker). It's a pity we'll never get the insider insight to, say, 3D Deathchase, but that's just the way it is. At least we will have chronicled the stories of many hundreds of other games whose stories might never have been properly told.

And as for those subjects that make you feel a bit like the frog and the lily pad, I'm happy to keep on leaping for the time being!

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

Yeah, there's plenty of life left in the whole thing yet. I've only had two refusals so far, and one of them was extremely nice about it, haha! Also, thanks to Jacco of Boys Without Brains, we finally know that Stavros Fasoulas is alive and well... and has absolutely no interest in talking about his gaming past!

_________________
They Were Our Gods - a website charting my progress on an upcoming book of the same name, about the UK gaming scene in the 1980s.

Only two refusals? Blimey. I've had quite a few more than that, although timing's often a lot to do with it.

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

Well you've probably talked to a lot more than me!

_________________
They Were Our Gods - a website charting my progress on an upcoming book of the same name, about the UK gaming scene in the 1980s.

That must have blown your mind alright!

The official date of the site in my mind is November 1997 (hey 17 years this month!), when we had to build a site for a college project and I did mine on the C64 and a page for Zzap. It was originally on a web server in college and the Zzap page was just a few thumbnails of covers with a link to the full size scan with a small bit of bit. A mate had gotten a scanner very recently before that and I remember heading back home to get a few Zzap's to scan the covers.

It hardly seemed retro in 1997, just 3 years after the magazine had gone! The early issue were though I guess, for me around 40 etc.

The site expanded a good bit around 1998 / 1999 when I created a page for each issue etc. I think the domain and proper paid for web space came around in 1999. I started the first dynamic pages (the links page was probably the first) around end of 1999.

Just remembering the storage path now:

College server -> Tripod -> FortuneCity -> My own web space