Zzap!64

Zzap!64 was a British magazine focussing on Commodore home computers, primarily the Commodore 64. It was the sister magazine to CRASH, which covered the ZX Spectrum. The Zzap! name (without the “64”) was licensed for use in Italy and the Italian version was edited at one point by the famous local adventure writer Bonaventura Di Bello.

In the UK, Zzap!64 was initially published between May 1985 and November 1992. It had several name changes during its run; at one point being known as Zzap!64 Amiga (1988-1991). The magazine was relaunched as Commodore Force in December 1992 and continued being published in that form until March 1994. Special anniversary editions of Zzap!64 were produced in 2002 and 2005 involving many members of the original team.

Retro Fusion are now the owners of the UK Zzap!64 brand and after initially creating annuals in 2018/19 and 2019/20, they have produced a regular bi-monthly magazine since March 2021. In October 2021 an additional magazine focussing on the Amiga was launched, using the Zzap!64 Amiga title.

Many of the issues of the original Zzap!64, Zzap!64 and Commodore Force included sections dedicated to Commodore adventures and strategy games written by columnists including:

Steve Cooke, writing as The White Wizard.
Nik Wild, writing as The Harlequin.
Kati Hamza, writing as Chuck Vomit.
Phil King, writing as Prof Norman Nutz.
Nik Wild and Robin Hogg in The Think Tank.
Robin Hogg, writing as Boris Myashirov.
Mandy Rodrigues, writing as Bash the Barbarian.

The revived magazine has also continued covering interactive fiction in its adventure section written by:

Annuals (2019, 2020): Stuart Williams, (2021, 2022, 2023, Amiga 2023, 2024): Colin Bell.
New Zzap!64 #1 – New #5: Colin Bell.
New Zzap!64 #7-13 & #15 – present: Stefan Vogt (as Professor Norman Nutz) and Christian Simpson (as The Geek).
New Zzap!64 Amiga #1 (October/November 2021) - #8 (January/February 2023): Colin Bell.

Links

Zzap!64 (magazine) at Wikipedia.
The Def Guide to Zzap!64.
Zzap!64 at Retro Fusion.