ZZAP! or C-Force?

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LeeT
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ZZAP! or C-Force?

Post by LeeT »

Do you think Europress should have rebranded ZZAP! and changed it to Commodore Force, or do you think they should have let it go on as ZZAP! ?

I always think its a pity we didnt see a 100th issue of ZZAP! - I don't really consider counting on those issues of C-Force as a continuation.

One of the things I didnt like about C-Force was the staff situation - Every issue someone moved over to the mag or helped out. I know that Newsfield had trouble hanging onto staff, but this was ridiculous!! People from Sega Force and Nintendo Force used to help with reviews then disappear.

Another thing - Phil King was demoted. Not sure why he was but he had put in a good few years at Newsfield and had just been made Editor, then Steve Shields appeared and Phil was made Deputy Editor...

So lets hear your views on this subject...............
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Post by Mayhem »

To my knowledge, Phil didn't like the way he was being forced to take the mag. Hence instead of firing him, they just brought someone else in as editor. I wonder what Steve is doing now Penthouse are about to go under? :lol:
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Post by LeeT »

Probably work on another w*nk mag!! :twisted:
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Post by CraigGrannell »

The right decision was made. Let's face it, as soon as Zzap started apeing Commodore Format, it was over.
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Post by Lloyd Mangram »

They should have cancelled Zzap, and just start a new title like Commodore Force, without any zzap connection at all. I think they were just afraid of losing the last diehard 'zzap'readers. (if they hadn't lost them already anyway, although I remained loyal up to issue 89 :wink: )

When we did Zzap issue 107, I complained about the issue number to the others, I would have gone for issue 91 or something, or for no issue number at all, or issue 2001 maybe. But IIRC nobody agreed, and everyone said that C-force was the official follow up incorporating zzap blabla, so we had to go on from there, 90+16=106, so 107. Mmm.

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Post by CraigGrannell »

Well, the editorial team discussed this, and came to the conclusion that, while we didn't like it, Commodore Force incorporated Zzap!64, and the #100 pull-out was testament to that.
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Post by sdoneill »

I hate Commodore Force. Zzap was dying. Commodore Format was a lot better. You could tell because C-force was always putting C-Format down but C-Format never bite. C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap and let it have a dignified death but unfortunately as much as I loved Zzap I can only remember it For C-FORCE.
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Post by Professor Brian Strain »

sdoneill wrote:I hate Commodore Force. Zzap was dying. Commodore Format was a lot better. You could tell because C-force was always putting C-Format down but C-Format never bite. C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap and let it have a dignified death but unfortunately as much as I loved Zzap I can only remember it For C-FORCE.
Speaking as someone who worked for both mags, C-Format did keep having digs at C-Force. And look at what happened in the last few issues of C-Format - reprinting old tips! Gosh, that's a bad idea, isn't it? :wink:

For a perfect example, there was the "10 things we won't miss about C-Force" piece. Most of what is said in there could be applied to C-Format as well...
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Post by sdoneill »

The main point I was trying to say was that C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap.[/quote]
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Post by LeeT »

sdoneill wrote:The main point I was trying to say was that C-Force should of cut all ties with Zzap.
[/quote]

To be fair, Force was fairly different to ZZAP! - It seemed to be aimed at a younger age group (probably because Europress thought that kids were buying the C64 in the later years). That's one of the things I didn't like about it - The covertapes started off as being excellent, with proper full ex-releases being covermounted, but gradually the SEUCK reader games appeared every issue.
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Post by Iain »

LeeT wrote:The covertapes started off as being excellent, with proper full ex-releases being covermounted, but gradually the SEUCK reader games appeared every issue.
In fairness they got VERY good at the end, what with World Games etc. supplied, it's just a pity that I had all the games already :(
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Post by Mayhem »

Am I right in thinking if the next issue had come out, Frankie GTH was going to be on the tape?
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Post by Gazunta »

I was under the assumption that it was going to be Impossible Mission 2 - this was the mystery game that had the quote from the original Zzap review, right? I found it after scouring back issues for hours :P
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Post by CraigGrannell »

Ian (Osbourne) mentioned some things regarding the final Zzap!/CF on this thread.
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Post by Iain »

Wow, quite interesting thread, so there was 2 unseen C= Force's, one at the printers and one in the production / editting stage.

How great it would be to get our hands on either of them! Chances are pretty slim I guess... :( Maybe there's a box of them sitting in the printer's warehouse somewhere 8-)
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