UK · 1985–1992
Newsfield's Commodore 64 counterpart to Crash, launched in 1985 and beloved for its irreverent humour, exhaustive C64 coverage, and star reviewers like Julian "Jaz" Rignall — a national gaming champion whose scores literally provoked developers to code against him.
Buoyed by the runaway success of its ZX Spectrum magazine Crash, Newsfield Publications launched Zzap!64 as a dedicated Commodore 64 monthly in the spring of 1985. The first issue, dated May 1985, went on sale on 11 April 1985. Newsfield applied the formula that had worked for Crash — serious, independent reviewing wrapped in strong visual design and a distinct editorial personality — to the C64's large and enthusiastic user base, and the result quickly earned a cult following among Commodore owners that mirrored Crash's standing among Spectrum fans. The magazine's identity was inseparable from its writers. Chris Anderson, formerly of Personal Computer Games, helped assemble the launch team and brought in Julian Rignall, a national video-game-playing champion who held world-record scores on Defender and Pole Position. Rignall — universally known as "Jaz" — became the magazine's most famous personality, rising to editor in December 1987. His gameplaying prowess was a genuine feature of the magazine: in the recurring Zzap! Challenge, readers pitted themselves against the reviewers, and Rignall repeatedly won. His skill was so notorious that Andrew Braybrook, developer of the classic Uridium, wrote "anti Julian Rignall" code into the game specifically to stop Rignall from beating it once he started to master it — a piece of gaming folklore that captures the magazine's intimate relationship with the C64 development scene. Zzap!64 was known for its irreverent sense of humour and for the depth and honesty of its C64 coverage, from big commercial releases to the sprawling world of budget titles and the demoscene. Its Gold Medal award marked the platform's finest games, and its reviews were trusted implicitly by a readership that treated the magazine as the authoritative voice on Commodore gaming. The personalities of the review team, the running in-jokes, and the direct engagement with readers gave Zzap!64 a warmth and community feel that many later, more corporate magazines never matched. Like its sister publication, Zzap!64 ran through the late 1980s and into the early 1990s before Newsfield's financial troubles caught up with it. The title passed through changes of ownership and format as the Commodore 64 market itself contracted, eventually ending its original run in the early 1990s. Its legacy endures strongly: Zzap!64 has been the subject of tribute revivals and remains one of the most affectionately remembered magazines of the 8-bit home-computer era, emblematic of a moment when games journalism was defined by the character of the people who wrote it.