ZZAP!64
C64 gaming authority
The defining Commodore 64 magazine. Ninety issues from April 1985 to November 1992, whose reviewers became names in their own right and whose Gold Medal was the award a C64 game most wanted.
ZZAP!64 was the defining Commodore 64 gaming magazine. Issue 1 carried a May 1985 cover date and reached shops on 11 April 1985; the original run ended with issue 90 in November 1992. Newsfield published it for most of that time, but not all of it — after Newsfield collapsed in 1991 the title continued under Europress Impact, whose name appears throughout the 1992 issues.
📘 The title has also been revived more than once since. A March 2002 issue picks up the numbering at 107, decades after issue 90. Its enthusiastic coverage, detailed review system, and iconic Gold Medal awards made it essential reading for C64 owners. Sister publication to CRASH, ZZAP!64 brought the same passion and personality to Commodore coverage.
Fast facts
- Publisher: Newsfield, then Europress Impact from 1991
- Run: 1985-1992
- Cover tape: Megatape (from 1988)
- Notable staff: issue 1’s masthead lists Chris Anderson as editor, Bob Wade, and Gary Penn and Julian Rignall as the reviewing pair — under joke titles: “Slavedriver”, “Tape collector”, “Joystick junkies”. Oliver Frey supplied the art, as he did for CRASH, and Jeff Minter wrote a column (“Hairiest columnist in galaxy”). Steve Jarratt and Gordon Houghton came later; Jarratt went on to edit.
- Innovation: Gold Medal awards, detailed scoring
The Review System
ZZAP!64 pioneered thorough game evaluation:
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Multiple reviewers | Different perspectives |
| Detailed scores | Presentation, Graphics, Sound, Hookability, Lastability, Overall — hookability, not playability, which was never a ZZAP box label. A sixth axis, Value For Money, ran from issue 1, was shortened to plain Value during 1986-87, and was retired for 1988 |
| Gold Medal | Introduced in issue 2, June 1985, and defined there in the magazine’s own words: “our biggest rave of the month”. ⚠ Never a fixed percentage — Elite and Dropzone took Gold at 95%, Paradroid at 97%. The Sizzler predates it, running from issue 1, and normally wanted 80%+ for value |
| Screenshots | Generous visual coverage |
Notable Staff
| Person | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Julian Rignall | Reviewer from issue 1, later editor. A long career in games journalism followed, eventually including IGN |
| Gary Penn | Reviewer, later DMA Design |
| Steve Jarratt | Editor |
| Gordon Houghton | Reviewer |
The Megatape
The cover cassette began with issue 42 in October 1988, and it began badly.
That tape was to be Katakis, a U.S. Gold horizontal shoot ’em up “very much in the R-Type mould”. Activision held Irem’s licence for the official R-Type conversion and thought the resemblance close enough to act on; U.S. Gold agreed to withdraw the game and all promotional material connected with it. The cover cassette counted as promotional material. ZZAP! had already printed the cover and duplicated the tapes.
“This meant we were legally obliged to remove the cassette from the cover. In fact, all versions of Katakis have now been withdrawn — so you won’t see it on the shelves, either!”
U.S. Gold supplied a replacement at the last minute. It turned out to be Time Tunnel, which the magazine was given to understand was previously unreleased, and which ZZAP! had in fact reviewed itself in issue 12 at 49%. The magazines were already printed, so there was no way to explain any of it; readers got a tape that was not the one on the cover, with no instructions. Issue 43 printed the apology, the explanation, and the instructions for Time Tunnel — and announced that the tape promised for that month, Armalyte, had been pulled too.
From there it settled. Megatape ran to the end of the original title, and by 1990 the cover was selling the tape as hard as the magazine: “Boo hoo, life is meaningless without the ZZAP! Megatape!”
Cultural impact
ZZAP!64’s influence extended beyond reviews:
- Set standards for C64 journalism
- Gold Medal became sales guarantee
- Staff moved to game development and industry roles
- Archived the golden age of C64 gaming
The Italian edition
Zzap! was published in Italy from May 1986 — twelve months after the British issue 1 — by Edizioni Hobby of Milan, under a licence its colophon states as “Su licenza di NEWSFIELD PUBLICATION”. It was registered at the Tribunale di Milano as no. 251 on 10 May 1986.
It carried translated Newsfield material — Andrew Braybrook’s development diaries, Julian Rignall’s reportage, Gary Penn and Gary Liddon — alongside Italian staff and an Italian letters page on which readers argued, at length and in Italian, about British review scores.
The title passed to Xenia Edizioni in September 1991 and dropped the Newsfield credit the following month, in the same two-step and the same two months as Newsfield’s other Italian licence, The Games Machine. The Italian Zzap! ran to December 1993 — 99 issues, outliving the British issue 90 by a year.
Legacy
ZZAP!64 remains the benchmark for platform-specific gaming coverage. Its passionate writing, thorough reviews, and community focus created a template that modern gaming media still follows.