The Burrow - Gordon Houghton's Zzap!World page

Many moons ago, when I was gainfully employed on Zzap!'s = letters=20 pages rather than the numbing series of demeaning half-jobs that now = pass=20 through my mundane existence, news reached the Towers of a European = version of=20 our humble rag. At first we thought it was idle speculation. Then we = glimpsed=20 the evidence—a picture of Julian Rignall speaking in a tongue = alien to the=20 Ludlovian pub-crawling crowd... So it was true: Zzap! had an Italian = cousin!=20 (You can read more about it at the splendidly-designed Progetto Zzap! = Italia.) In the=20 years that followed I have often wondered what happened to our = Mediterranean=20 friends, though never to the point where I actually did anything about = it.=20 However, I was recently contacted in my bedsit on Clee Hill by none = other than=20 Paolo = Besser—Zzap!'s last=20 Italian editor, the man responsible for overseeing its transition from a = magazine to a website in the 1990s, and now the translator of Zzap!107. Despite my reputation for acerbity and = poor personal=20 hygiene, he kindly agreed to an=20 interview...

LM: Tell me the story = behind Zzap!=20 Italia...
It was based in Milan, and started life as a translation of = Zzap! with=20 added Italian content. We acquired the rights for the magazine; then, = when=20 Newsfield went out of business, we went our own way with exclusively = Italian=20 material. The first issue was published in May 1986: the magazine = normally had=20 84 pages, but there were months with more, especially near Christmas. = The last=20 "official" issue came out in December 1992; after that it was reduced to = a=20 16-page insert in the best-selling magazine The Games Machine. (This started, like Zzap!, as a=20 translation: it first came out in September 1988 and is still going = strong). The=20 insert took the mag through to December 1993, at which point we decided = that=20 dwindling interest in the Commodore 64 could no longer sustain it... = However,=20 three years later, with the internet market growing, we had the idea to = create=20 an e-magazine about PC and Amiga games. We called it Zzap!, and used an = html=20 version of the original design. This website lasted until January 1999, = when it=20 was closed due to a change in the publisher's editorial = policy.

LM: What was your = role?
I started as a journalist writing "BovaByte's = corner", a funny=20 parody of games magazines. The articles proved popular with the Zzap! = staff, and=20 I was invited to join the crew, becoming a fully-fledged reviewer in May = 1990.=20 In November 1992 I was elected editor-in-chief by the publisher, but my = role was=20 merely to accompany the mag to its grave two months later—its fate = had already=20 been decided. I kept the title of editor-in-chief both for the 16-page = insert in=20 TGM, and on the website.

LM: What were the = major=20 differences between the UK and Italian Zzap!s?
Overall, the differences weren't huge, but perhaps the = greatest was=20 that the Italian Zzap! covered all 8-bit computer platforms, not just = the C64.=20 Apart from that, we made our own decisions about design, and the = translation was=20 never literal. For example, during the Newsfield era we preserved only = the game=20 ratings and the general substance of the comments—the rest was = totally rewritten=20 in a humorous way. On the whole, I think our Zzap! has always been = something=20 original.

LM: Are there any = websites=20 devoted to the Italian Zzap!?
There was a project called "Progetto Edicola", which was = set up to=20 collect old magazines generally; but I know of no specific collection of = old=20 Italian issues on the web. As the Italian publisher still own the rights = for our=20 version of Zzap!, it could be that our readers and collectors are a = little shy=20 to scan the magazines and put them on the web—I don't know anybody = involved in a=20 project similar to The Def=20 Guide to Zzap!64. The situation is different for the Italian version = of=20 Issue 107: we coordinated the translation directly from our official = webpage, TGM = Online.

LM: What are your current=20 projects?
Apart from working = for The Games=20 Machine, I recently organised the translation of Zzap!107 for an Italian audience. It was designed on = Quark=20 Xpress 3.3, using the Basilisk II Mac emulator on my PC... So I created a = magazine=20 about emulated games on an emulated Macintosh!

LM: What are your Top 5 C64=20 games?
Oh... I played so many, = and every=20 one is a special memory; I tend to remember games more for the time in = which I=20 played them than for the game itself. For example, years and years ago = when I=20 was at school, there was a strike by the students (I don't recall why); = and at=20 some point during that period, I and my friend Davide Corrado went to a = local=20 computer shop and bought a copy of R-Type. We spent the rest of the = morning and=20 afternoon playing it... Anyway, these are the games I enjoyed=20 most:

Bubble Bobble = (coin-op and C64=20 conversion)
The Great Giana Sisters
Road=20 Runner
R-Type
Barbarian

LM: And your Top 5 non-C64=20 games?

Guitar Freaks (and = all=20 Bemanis)
Black & White (PC)
Parappa the Rapper=20 (Playstation)
Turrican (Amiga)
Bomb Jack = (coin-op)

LM: Is there = anything you'd=20 like to add about C64 games in general?
Um... Sometimes I = think I=20 miss them very much. But I realise I don't actually miss the games = themselves,=20 but the things they represented for me in those years. I was a teenager, = I went=20 to school, I fell in love for the first time... And I played them with = friends,=20 too (and I don't even know if those friends are still = alive...)

...On that wistful and slightly = melancholy note,=20 it was mutually agreed that my body odour had forced the interview to a = close. I=20 thanked Paolo for his time and olfactory endurance, and returned to Clee = Hill=20 with half a dozen copies of the Italian Zzap! stashed in my briefcase. = It had=20 been an interesting few hours, but I couldn't help wishing that we'd = spoken a=20 decade earlier, when I still had all my own hair and was a little more = sane...=20 LM

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