GO BACK TO THE
C64 PAGE
I've made a terrible mistake.
I didn't mean to come here: I don't know what came over me. What is Zzap!
anyway? Some brand of constipation cure?

GO BACK TO THE
BURROW
The mistake is worse than I
first realised. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a fan of the C64 or its
associated magazines. I have a life, you know. And a job. And lovely hair, too.
So leave me alone... And by the way, I'm not going to buy your novels
either, so don't bother putting in that hyperlink.

THE ZZAP!
107 PROJECT
Leave it out—I've got
every single issue lovingly preserved in maroon binders, and the last time I
counted (this morning at 3.13am), there were only 106 issues, including
Commodore Force. So don't think for one minute you can fool me into believing
there's now a 36-page special tribute issue available.

THE
ZZAPTIONNAIRE
The answers to the
questions you always wanted to ask, but forgot because you lost your memory in
that incident with the... um...

WHERE
ARE THEY NOW?
The pantomime horse
takes a break from his global two-man Dick Whittington tour to guide you through
the bewildering number of locations that ex-Zzap! staffers have fled to in their
desperate desire to forget. Please don't ask me to repeat that.

THE
SCORELORD RETURNS!
The man in black is back
on track with a cracking pack of... er...
high scores from C64 emulators.

INSIDE
ZZAP! TOWERS
What was it really like
in Zzap! Towers? Former Zzap! staff reveal all... Read Chuck's
intro, or go straight to Page 1
(Me, Kati, Steve J, Wayne Allen), Page 2
(Paul Glancey, the Harlequin, and Phil King), or Page 3
(Warren Lapworth).

THE ZZAP!
GALLERY
Sample pages, cartoons, logos,
and photos from my own private collection. Ice creams are available in the
foyer.

ZZAP!WORLD
Lloyd Mangram crawls from his coffin to reveal the truth
about Zzap!'s multiformat Italian cousin, and discovers a new online version of
the magazine to boot.

ZZAP!
LINKS
So... this site isn't good
enough for you, eh? Well, try one of these, then. Go on, I dare you.

SIGN MY GUESTBOOK...
...And I won't
send the Scorelord round to your house armed with a bottle of bleach, a wire
brush and a polecat.

Return to the top

Welcome to my Zzap! pages.
Zzap!64 was a computer games magazine which covered the C64 scene from May
1985 to March 1994—106 issues in all. At its height it was the top-selling
magazine of its type in Britain and had a sizeable fan base around the
world. This was in part due
to the staff's evident enthusiasm for Commodore software; but Zzap! also
had a personality and charm absent from its rivals, and plenty of
innovations in magazine design and content—the most obvious was that every
game was reviewed by three people. Above all, Zzap! had a uniquely gifted
workforce, including an innovative and talented leader in Roger Kean and a
wonderful cover artist in Oliver Frey.

A dull
sub-heading

I was a reader and fan long
before I worked for Zzap! (for me the Gary Penn / Julian Rignall
stewardships were the best), and I remember desperately waiting for each
new issue to arrive—which is one of the reasons why, when I left college,
I applied for a job at Newsfield. I got lucky, and following a miserable
couple of months on CRASH, I joined Zzap! as a staff writer in Issue 36
(April 1988). After Jaz left to work for EMAP I was promoted to editor, a
job which lasted eleven months (issues 40-50); and along with Kati Hamza,
Paul Glancey, Maff Evans, and Paul Rand, I helped create a more zany,
colourful and informal Zzap! than before. Some people liked it, others
hated it—but we had a lot of fun.

And another

That's what these pages are
intended to be: fun. They're not a detailed history, or a catalogue of
reviews, or a comprehensive collection of interviews: there are plenty of
other sites which do that already, and do it very well—you'll find them in
the Links section. What you will get is a personal insight into my time at
Zzap!, including the answers to some frequently asked questions, and the
return of an old friend. In addition, a few of the staff reveal their
thoughts about what it was like to work on Zzap! (check out the Towers
section), and I've also scanned in some sample pages and pictures to give
you a flavour of the mag (check out the Gallery). And of course, there's
the all-new Zzap!107, a special tribute issue produced by fans from around
the world... Finally, if you have any questions about Zzap!, or you'd like
to see something on this site that isn't here or in the links, email
me.

—Gordon
Houghton

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