HEAD: First things first, click
here to skip this guff. For anyone who's still reading, this page tells you
what happened to all those ex-Zzap! staffers you might have vaguely wondered
about in the past few years when you had nothing better to do.
TAIL: It's only partly our own work, and we're deeply
indebted to the enthusiasts who post on Iain Black's Zzap! Rrap message board, and to Maff Rignall's 'Where are
they now?' site, which (before its demise) included excellent interviews with
many of those named below. The rest of the detective work is down to us—though
frankly, that's not saying much.
HEAD: If you want
to get out of here before that idiot starts droning on again, click on my face
to return to the Zzap! Index, my neck to visit the C64 page, and my shoulders to
visit The Burrow.
TAIL: Meanwhile, if you can help
fill in some of the gaps in this table, or you just like writing emails, or
you're simply curious about what will happen when you click this icon, go
ahead:. We'll reply. Honest.
HEAD: Speak
for yourself, Tail. He's so boring, isn't he? Oh yes he is. And so difficult to
work with, too. Few people understand what it's like having someone you hate
poke his head up your backside all day, all the while being forced to listen to
his sarcastic comments and feeling his nails jabbing into your calves. Someone
who's far removed from my first colleague, a genuinely kind and decent man; at
least until that fateful night when he backed up too far and fell ten feet into
the front row—
TAIL: That's enough, Head. Let them
read the stuff they came here for... And by the way, no one really
believes his death was an accident, you know.

So: where
are they now?

Wayne
Allen

'Art Director' Allen—the man
responsible for Chuck Vomit—moved to Future, then emigrated to Australia,
and was until very recently working for Imagine in San Francisco, in the
building next to Julian Rignall. He's now moved back to Sydney, where he
can be found in the custom magazines department at ACP.

Chris
Anderson

The original Zzap! exile, Chris
left when the mag shifted base to Ludlow. He set up the mildly successful
;o) Future
Publishing, sold it, then moved to the US where he now runs the entire
universe (or the Imagine
part of it, at any rate).

Ciaran Brennan

Like Gary Penn, Ciaran was part of
the EMAP team that created the ground-breaking 16-bit magazine, The One.
He's now an executive at the PR company Bastion, and describes
himself as "a father of two boys, living a fairly normal, boring (but
highly enjoyable) suburban life..."

Richard
Eddy

Larger-than-life Richard
metamorphosed into a kind of roving ambassador at Newsfield long before he
actually left and did the same job (successfully) for Codemasters. He's
now created his own PR firm called Rocket Media.

Maff Evans

Culled in the 'Night of the Long
Knives', Maff enjoyed a brief spell as a wildebeast before turning his
hooves to writing music articles and reviews for Future.

Oli Frey

Following the collapse of
Newsfield, Oli and a whole bunch of former staff left to form Prima
Creative Services. However, he can now be found at Thalamus Books.
There's not much on that website, but the email address is easy enough to
work out...

Paul
Glancey

Paul worked for many major
software and magazine companies after leaving Zzap!, among them Eidos and
EMAP. He is currently creative manager at Criterion
Studios.

Miles
Guttery

Post-CF, staffer and tipster Miles
joined Devon-based outfit, Computerfacts. When they fell apart he joined
Gameplay. When they fell apart, he joined a TV production company
in London. They haven't fallen apart (yet).

Kati Hamza

Briefly worked at Oxford
University Press before becoming a freelance editor, designer and project
manager. She had her first child in 2000.

The
Harlequin

a.k.a. Nik Wilde. Moved to Zzap!'s
sister magazine, The Games Machine when Chuck Vomit arrived; rejoined
Zzap! briefly in late 1990. Ol' Harley then moved on to Psygnosis for a
few years, but was last seen wearing the mask at International Sports
Multimedia.

Chris
Hayward

Commodore Force's ace tipster now
works with Steve Shields at Mayfair, and reputedly performs stand-up
comedy.

Lucy
Hickman

Moved from Zzap! to Impact's
colourfully cheesy N-Force; after that she joined EMAP and briefly worked
as deputy editor of Mean Machines Sega; and after that she
temporarily gave up the wonderful world of fun in order to study law.
However, she now exercises her gaming muscles for the Scottish newspaper,
The Sunday Post.

Robin Hogg

One of the few sensible people in
this list, Robin abandoned computing altogether to be an environmental
engineer on aerospace products. He and his wife Sam have also just had
their first child (and he's a cutie).

Gordon
Houghton

After spending many years
underground—all too literally—Gordon is currently writing novels. But slice him however you like, a fat man is
always a fat man, and Gordo's hobbies still include eating too much cake,
crisps, Coke, and other foodstuffs beginning with the letter 'C'. Except
cockroaches.

Steve Jarratt

After a brief spell freelancing
for EMAP, Steve left Ludlow to join Future.
He's now responsible for launching their leading edge magazines, and is
generally enjoying life as a head honcho. And, by the way, he's one of the
funniest guys I've ever met.

Roger Kean

Following the collapse of
Newsfield, Roger and a whole bunch of former staff... Well, this is the
same as Oli Frey's entry, above—basically Roger is at Thalamus
Books.

Mark
Kendrick

Arguably Zzap!'s craziest art
director, and the best impersonator of Michael Jackson this side of the
Atlantic, Markie is working for Paragon and the Total Games Network.

Phil King

The ex-ed is now Numero Uno at the
online games mag, PowerStation, and can also be found lurking in the
labyrinthine halls of the Total Games Network.

Warren
Lapworth

After a brief spell as Paul
Sumner, Warren joined Newsfield's multi-format magazine, The Games
Machine. Briefly returned as an authentic Zzap! staff writer before the
shit hit the fan. Now works with Oli and Roger at Thalamus
Books.

Gary
Liddon

Gary Liddon is still crazy after
all these years (allegedly) at the software house, Climax, where he is an
MD. He's also been known to turn up at the Back In
Time retro events.

Lloyd
Mangram

Rumours are rife concerning
Lloyd's whereabouts, and some even question his very existence. It's
claimed that he's enjoyed a variety of careers since quitting Newsfield,
including chicken sexer, thresher mechanic, bowling ball polisher, and
writing a piece for The Edge's 100th anniversary issue. Will the truth
ever be revealed? Does anyone care?

Sean
Masterson

Quite simply, Sean now croaks with
with Bullfrog.

Gary Penn

Left Newsfield for EMAP, where he
ultimately edited the best 16-bit magazine of its time (and my favourite
computer magazine of all time), The One. He then worked for DMA Design in
Scotland, but now smiles his lovely smile at Denki.

Adrian
Pitt

The former Pet Shop Boys fan is
now a marketing manager in his hometown of Wolverhampton, UK.

James
Price

Here's something unusual: James
left Ludlow to join... wait for it... Future.
But for the past three years he's been freelancing his way around the
games press, and has made occasional (disguised) visits to the Zzap! Rrap message board.

Paul Rand

Paul edited C&VG for a while,
then joined the Press Association in Yorkshire, and is now working back in
his native North East.

Julian
Rignall

Jaz left Newsfield to freelance
for EMAP, before taking a permanent post as editor of C&VG. He then
moved to the US, where he worked for Virgin Interactive and (later)
Imagine, first at IGN then
Snowball. The latest
info I have is that Jaz is now a freelance writer and part-time
DJ.

The
Scorelord

Little was heard of The Dark One
after the magazine folded, but he's recently been dragged away from
bleach-drinking oblivion to host the Scorelord page on this site.

Steve
Shields

Worked in Ludlow for sixteen
issues, and was editor for all of them—surely some kind of record?
Post-shit-hitting-fan, Steve got involved in soft porn, and is now editor
of Mayfair.

Paul
Sumner

a.k.a. Dominic Handy. Though many
have written under the PS pseudonym, Dom was the guy on whom the portrait
was based. After leaving Zzap! he eventually rose to the editorship of
CRASH!, and post-Newsfield he continued to contribute to a variety of
magazines. He now runs his own design firm, Creative
Hand.

Bob Wade

Like Chris Anderson (and many
others listed above), Bob left Zzap! to join Future. He then established
the software company, Binary Asylum, before moving on to Game Campaign, an
internet product monitoring service.

The White
Wizard

a.k.a. Steve Cooke... Steve worked
in a rather depressing basement office at EMAP for a while, as well as
engaging himself in many an interesting freelance project. He's currently
waving his magic wand for Hotgen.

Stuart
Wynne

Until recently, Zzap!'s
longest-serving editor strutted his funky stuff for Paragon, and was also
involved in the Total
Games Network. But... where is he
now?

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