Zzap 64 or Crash?

Filan · 25-05-2007 4:50pm #1

Used to save my pocket money for a very expensive Crash...later upgraded to Zzap in line with more advanced home technology . A large part of my childhood..Sadly lost most of them and much of my eyesight! Do they hold a place in the heart of anyone else here?

trout · 25-05-2007 4:53pm

Crash all the way for me ... although I did buy the last copy ever of Your Sinclair.
I still have many issues of Crash in the attic, I'd say there are a sorry sight now.

here's a interesting linkeh for all the Crash heads ... http://www.crashonline.org.uk/

Pigman II · 26-05-2007 6:02pm

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/

Dr Bob · 28-05-2007 4:17pm

zzapp for me , followed by C&vg and later mean machines as I changed computers .(I'd a few copies of "Page 6" as well prior to when I got the c64 and had an Atari 8bit)
Funnily enough a lot of the zzapp64 scanned covers on that site have Easons price stickers on them!
There's a torrent floating around he net of a full collection of scans of zzap too (its about 3 gigs though)

jimi_t · 28-05-2007 4:23pm

Pigman II wrote:

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/

Editorials, 1991

In short, don't write off the C64. Even without carts it's in good health. With them it's doing superb. The future is going to be as splindered as now, with Amigas, CD-TVs, Lynxes, Gamegears and especially the C64 grabbing a fair share of the market.

:rolleyes:

Owen · 28-05-2007 4:28pm

I ended up being a huge Commodore Force fan, and had quite a few letters posted in the Lloyd Mangram pages. Those were the days!

DublinWriter · 28-05-2007 7:34pm

Filan wrote:

Do they hold a place in the heart of anyone else here?

Ah yes, fond memories of a wasted childhood.

As well as Crash!, don't forget C&VG. I remember buying the first edition in 1982. It's worth a fortune now, shame I lost it!

I also remember getting my first paid writing gig for a game review what I wrote for ZX Computing back in 1984.

You can get a lot of those early mags online now in PDF format if you Google hard enough.

Goolay · 01-06-2007 1:57pm

Worth a fortune? really? I have a copy up in the attic somewhere.

meh, it's in rag order anyway, no cover or anything.

Owen · 01-06-2007 5:56pm

Anyone remember Miss Whiplash? Giggity giggity.

Amalgam · 07-06-2007 6:24am

My secondary school library, for some reason, had the very first issues of C&VG.. and they carried ads for umm.. 'Mens Clubs' at that time. The Blue Light or The Blue Lantern, in London, along with some very bad drawings of vampy women in stockings leaning against a street lamp.

The only full page ads in the magazine, stood out obviously, for style and content.

Anyone remember 'The Big K'?

Owen · 07-06-2007 6:40am

I used to lust over the full page ads for Datel Electronics too, they made some pretty cool toys for that era, robotic arms you could control with your C64 joystick, and the incredible Action Replay cart.

byte · 07-06-2007 11:14pm

Ah, I used to get Crash alright, I remember that logo. I used to get the odd Your Sinclair mag also. I remember wanting a SAM. :rolleyes:

podge018 · 09-06-2007 2:12am

Zzzap became Commodore Force, that ruined everything.

r3nu4l · 09-06-2007 1:34pm

Does anyone remember that one month there was no Zzap 64 in Ireland or England? I asked in Easons of O'Connell street about it and they said they hadn't received any copies that month.

Then the next month it was back on the shelves with a letter from the Editor explaining that the truck carrying last months copy had crashed and they had missed the distribution deadlines. I was young enough to have believed that but later discovered how seriously in trouble the publishing house were and that the title had been bought over by another house.

There is a good MP3 BBC documentary somewhere on the net...maybe even the BBC site that talks about a C64 game company going bust and the processes that were involved.

Sabre Man · 09-06-2007 11:16pm

Big Crash fan! I've still got them, and I actually read a few of them not so many months ago. Got a working Spectrum as well.

Also enjoyed Your Computer and Popular Computing Weekly.

hamster · 11-06-2007 2:14am

Hell yes! I still have my Zzap 64 mags. I got going on the them starting on issue 26 (read a few of my mate's up til then). Issue 26 was erm.. June 1987 onwards. I stuck with Zzap until October 1990 when I upgraded to the A500. Bought the soft copies again from Zzuperstore online.

Downloaded most of Crash. It's fascinating to read these now.

DaBreno · 13-06-2007 10:42am

Big Zzap fan here, bought an awful lot of the mags. A friend of mine in school bought Crash so swapping kept both of us going.
Loved Commodore Force when it came out. It was full of large, meaty articles about the C64 and its glorious past and they always gave away full games on the cover tape.

Trode · 13-06-2007 12:42pm

Always preferred Commodore Format to Zzap, it seemed better written, more intelligent and more mature. It had wit beyond the puerility that littered Zzap at the time. Unfortunately,they kept going long after the point where they had no games to write about, so the magazine went to pot, publishing sad "The C64 is still relevant! Honest!" articles and falling over themselves praising whatever crap someone knocked up in their bedrooms and sent in on tape.

r3nu4l · 13-06-2007 1:11pm

Trode wrote:

Always preferred Commodore Format to Zzap, it seemed better written, more intelligent and more mature. It had wit beyond the puerility that littered Zzap at the time. Unfortunately,they kept going long after the point where they had no games to write about, so the magazine went to pot, publishing sad "The C64 is still relevant! Honest!" articles and falling over themselves praising whatever crap someone knocked up in their bedrooms and sent in on tape.

I'd be of a similar opinion to Trode. Zzap 64 was fine for banter about games but they did go in for the in-jokes quite a lot and sometimes there were jokes in there that even long-time readers didn't get.

Commodore format was interesting but it started off in the game too late and as Trode says, continued on for far too long. I'm very surprised that the publishers allowed the magazine to continue for so long.

I remember at the time that the Amiga was becoming popular and Commodore were releasing the cartridge "C64 console" :rolleyes: that the magazines were having a difficult time holding onto their audience. The Amiga owners wanted more Amiga content and the C64 owners wanted less. Tough choices were made.

hamster · 13-06-2007 5:54pm

In fairness - Zzap was great when I started on issue 26 (june 1987) and was fine until about 1988-89. Then it went downhill. The reviews were more splashed across the pages and less detail on the game. I hung on until Sep 1990 and went over to Amiga Format.

r3nu4l · 14-06-2007 9:34am

Issue 107 of Zzap gives a good history of the magazine for anyone who is interested. It starts on Page 14 of that issue.

rextherawhead · 25-04-2014 3:34am

Both great magazines, I have them all on .pdf. A great read.

rextherawhead · 25-04-2014 3:37am

Both great reads, I have all of both of them on .pdf.

Amalgam · 25-04-2014 10:09pm

Crash for me please, way ahead of its time in layout and general attitude towards its readership.

Handy in-browser reader.

https://archive.org/details/crash-magazine

Sabre Man · 29-04-2014 4:10pm

I subscribed to Crash around 1985-1987 and read every issue cover to cover. I still have them all. Then I discovered the Commodore Amiga. I don't regret selling my Amiga to buy a PC but I really regret also giving away the Amiga magazines.

Zzap 64 or Crash?

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