David Hayward pays homage to one of the greatest computer magazines of all time
Thirty years ago the UK enjoyed a golden age of computer magazines. Sinclair User, Your Sinclair, Personal Computer Games, What Micro, C&VG (Computer & Videogames) and (of course) Crash were the highlight of the month for many teenager who visited the newspaper shops.
These magazines were more than just words on paper, they were a part of our lives and we absorbed every page as if it were a religious text in front of us.
If then these publications were our religion, the high temple was that of Newsfield Ltd, located in sunny Ludlow. With its ever-impressive Crash selling in excess of 100,000 copies a month to eager Spectrum users - informing us, keeping us up to date and helping us get the best from our tiny rubber keyboard machines - it was inevitable that the Newsfield editorial team of Roger Kean, Oliver Frey and Franco Frey would turn their sights to the other great 8-bit machine of that time, the Commodore 64.
Mid-1984
Within just six issues of Crash it was evident that the readers wanted more of that Newsfield magic, but for those who owned a C64. The end result was of course Zzap!64, with the first copy hitting the shelves on April 11th 1985.
"When Oliver and Franco Frey discussed possibilities with me, the first thing that became clear was that we'd need an editor, since I still had my hands fully occupied with Crash." Said Roger Kean, who we spoke to about the history of Zzap!64.
The lack of modern day printing, word processing, emailing, and instant imaging meant long days and nights slaving over what would constitute the content of Crash for those involved - to make sure that the same attention to detail was inherited by Zzap!64, there was a lot of work ahead and many creases to be ironed out. However, as Roger goes on to say, "The decision to go ahead and prepare a C64 magazine leaked to Computer Trade Weekly and a week after a small news item I was astonished to take a phone call from Chris Anderson, then editor of the multi-format Personal Computer Games magazine." Chris Anderson, as it turns out, was interested in heading up a single format magazine, and as Roger mentions, he "professed an admiration for Crash, and wanted to do something similar for C64 users."
With Chris expressing his interest, a meeting was soon scheduled and over a bottle of wine, Roger, Oliver and Chris (who apparently favoured soft drinks), began to hash out what would ultimately become the first issue of Zzap!64. There were some differences in ideas that needed to be addressed first, though.
As Roger goes on to explain. "It became clear too that his idea of translating Crash into Zzap! meant completely rewriting the rulebook. Out went the 'set solid' typesetting in 8pt Helvetica; teenage boys can't read such small print with no space between the lines... and out went what we felt had made Crash unique - using local schoolboys to review the games. Chris wanted a dedicated, fully employed team of reviewer-writers. Young, but older than school kids. And they'd be based where he lived at Yeovil."
Thankfully, Chris liked the title of the proposed magazine, Zzap!, since it followed on nicely from Crash. interestingly, 'Bang' and 'Wallop' were also possible titles (and were, at one time, also considered for an Amstrad magazine), and the 64 part was later added to confirm that this was in actual fact a magazine for C64 users.
Also, as Roger tells us, where Crash had been a nightmare to get off the ground in terms of cashflow, with it being the first magazine in this style and the fact that the printers wanted to be payed nearly two months before the money from the sale of the magazine started to come in, Zzap!64 began from a much better position. What's more, since Crash was already established and the audience was chomping at the bit for a C64 magazine that followed in much the same style as that much-beloved title, the advertising space was sold well before the first issue was due to hit the printing presses.
Issue 1: April 11th, 1985
When Zzap!64 was finally unleashed on the public, it was met with the same kind of reverence that Crash had enjoyed over the last year. Finally, there was a C64 magazine that didn't just look amazing, but also one that featured honest reviews, from people who were more or less the same age as the readers; but more importantly, from proper gamers.
Julian Rignall and Gary Penn soon became big names within the Commodore scene; their opinions mattered and their sense of humour was wicked. This formed the basis of what the magazine meant for its readers, and was conveyed in such a fashion that you swore blind you knew these two as well any close personal friend.
Rivalry between the magazines was good too, as Roger explains. "I thought staff relations between the two magazines might be sticky, but at the launch party held at the Penny-Anthony restaurant in Ludlow the day the first copies of issue one were delivered, the rivalry was friendly. That was just as well because on that night no one knew that within three months the Zzap!64 crew would be moving into the King Street premises alongside the Crash team."
Later, as Roger mentioned, to cut costs and streamline the publishing of Zzap!64, it was relocated to Ludlow, with Chris Anderson leaving the helm after declining to move with the magazine.
This though didn't stop Zzap!64 in its tracks, in fact it became more solid - and, if possible, even more focused on delivering what the readers wanted. After Chris, Roger edited the magazine for a time, but was then followed by Gary Penn, Ciaran Brennan, Julian Rignall, Gordon Houghton, Stuart Wynne and Phil King. As Roger fondly recalls, "their dedication made the magazine what it was."
Issue 90, November 1992
Unfortunately all good things inevitably come to an end, and issue 90 was Zzap!64‘s final bow. With the fall of Newsfield in 1991 - Roger describes the day he called the staff together to announce their redundancies as the "most awful of my life" - Zzap!64 continued with the newly formed (with Roger, Oliver and many other previous Newsfield staff) Europress-Impact Ltd. An eventual re-launch with Europress changed Zzap!64 into Commodore Force, but the final nail in the coffin was the collapse of Europress in 1994 with just 16 issues of Commodore Force to its name.
The Zzap!64 Legacy
So thirty years later here we are, in this modern age of the internet, next generation consoles and PCs so powerful that they were purely science fiction back in the Zzap!64 days. It brings a smile to our faces though to see that there's still a following of Zzap!64 readers. With plenty of sites dedicated to bringing a digital version of the magazine, along with countless other fond recollection sites and a popular Facebook page, we can still enjoy reading and reminiscing over the imagery, reviews, and shenanigans of Jaz Rignall and Gary Penn. Zzap!64 held a special place in the hearts of those who read it, and the new generation who are now interested in retro gaming. Let's hope this continues for the next thirty years.
Behind The Scenes
Obviously, we need to thank Roger Kean and Oliver Frey for supplying us with a detailed background to how Zzap'64 was born but, as Roger mentions below, there were others who worked behind the scenes to bring us such an iconic masterpiece.
"The 'longest-lived' Newsfield employees who worked on Zzap!64 were in the production department: Matthew Uffindell (1983-1999), Ian and Paul Chubb (1985-1999), the unsung heroes of putting magazines together. One other, a voice on the telephone for readers ringing to ask about matters like mail order and subscriptions: Carol Parkinson nee Kinsey (1984-1999)."