Zzap!64- computer games magazine

Zzap!64 was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact.

The magazine launched in April, with the cover date May 1985, as the sister magazine to CRASH. It focused on the C64 for much of its shelf life, but later incorporated Amiga game news and reviews. Like CRASH for the ZX Spectrum, it had a dedicated cult following amongst C64 owners and was well known for its irreverent sense of humour as well as its extensive, detailed coverage of the C64 scene. The magazine adopted an innovative review system that involved the use of the reviewers' faces, artistically rendered by in-house artists Oli Frey and Mark Kendrick, to express their reaction to the games. These eventually evolved into static cartoons as the magazine began catering for a younger market.

By 1992, the magazine had changed so dramatically in design and editorial direction that then-publisher Europress decided to relaunch the magazine. Thus, issue 91 of Zzap!64 became issue 1 of Commodore Force, a magazine that itself lasted until March 1994.

The first issue of Zzap!64, dated May 1985, was released on April 11, 1985. Its inaugural editorial team included editor Chris Anderson, Software Editor Bob Wade, freelance writer Steve Cooke (who joined the staff from the recently folded Personal Computer Games), and reviewers Gary Penn and Julian Rignall, who won their jobs after having placed as finalists at a video game competition. The editorial HQ was in Yeovil, more than 200 kilometers from Newsfield's headquarters in Ludlow; the team was relocated to Ludlow after three months to cut costs, and Anderson and Wade left the staff after declining to make the move. Anderson would later found Future Publishing and the TED Conference.

As the Amiga gained popularity in the UK, Zzap!64 began to publish occasional reviews of Amiga games. The Amiga coverage became a fixed feature of the magazine in issue 43 (November 1988), when the title was renamed to Zzap!64 Amiga.

The magazine experienced controversy in 1989, when three out of four reviewers (Gordon Houghton, Kati Hamza and Maff Evans) were fired and replaced during production of issue 50 (June 1989). The only one remaining, Paul Rand, had been employed at Zzap!64 a mere two months. Houghton wrote a farewell editorial,[citation needed] which was never published—instead, issue 50's editorial mentioned nothing of what happened, and the issue featured content from the three fired reviewers without discussing their fates.

Issue 74 (June 1991) saw the dropping of all Amiga coverage (the word "Amiga" was dropped from the name in 1990), and the magazine became completely devoted to the C64 once more.Four months later the publisher Newsfield declared bankruptcy and publication was suspended for a month. Europress Impact (a satellite company of Europress launched by Roger Kean, Oliver Frey and Jonathan Rignall) became the new publisher of Zzap!64, beginning with issue 79 (December 1991).

Issue 90 (November 1992) was the last official Zzap!64 issue. From the following month, the magazine was replaced by Commodore Force.