THE HISTORY OF THE REVIEW OF VIDEO GAMES - PART II
Andrea Packages
Magazine: Zzap!
Publisher: Edizioni Hobby / Xenia
Quattro lettere onomatopeiche (e un punto esclamativo) unite in un lampo che squarcia il buio, per incarnare il desiderio diffuso in gran parte dei giovani legati all'epoca degli otto bit. Un mantra mistico da pronunciare ad libitum al povero edicolante di turno, "Quando esce Zzap? Quando esce?" fino al punto da farlo impazzire.
Se Video Giochi rappresenta senz'altro la fase dell'infanzia della critica videoludica, con le sue rappresentazioni minimali e i mille disegni colorati che la accompagnavano, Zzap! è di sicuro il momento adolescenziale, con la sua ribellione, la vis comica, il linguaggio moderno, la vena sarcastica.
Il primo numero nasce nel maggio 1986 ad opera dello Studio Vit, borrowing the basic concept and much of the content from the homonymous Zzap! 64 Newsfield published in England by the publisher. Even starting simply as "the Italian edition of the British magazine's best-selling" its autonomy from the outset Mature themes, aiming to show a complete picture of the games released for all existing home computer, rather than simply the Commodore 64.
In England Newsfield had several single-issue journals, devoted to Crash Spectrum, Zzap! 64 dedicated precisely to the C64, Amtix all'Amstrad CPC, while the Zzap! Italian now embraces a calling platform that will be its main strength. On its pages will also be presented the first games for new monsters to sixteen bits, at least until they will get a magazine entirely dedicated to them, The Games Machine, this choice inextricably bind the fate of Zzap! that of C64 and associates, following the parable of glory and then the inevitable crisis.
probably the golden era can be traced back to 1987-89, when production was at the highest levels of games and gold medals abounded: the time of such masterpieces as McKraken Zak, Mission Impossible 2, and a thousand Armalyte others took turns pages, where in the meantime the firm had given way to Vit Bonaventura Di Bello and the team that had started to assemble from number 23. Through countless changes in layout and editorial changes problems begin to arrive in the early '90s, when it becomes increasingly difficult to find quality content for review by machines now "dying": you try to make room for consoles like the NES and Game Boy or collateral activities such as Japanese anime, but everything seems to end with the number 73 of December 1992.
Starting next month, although Zzap! ceases to exist as an autonomous entity, somehow continues to exit swallowed up by the now famous sister TGM: you attach a 16-page stapled insert (then only 8) until December of that year, with the number 84 that definitively closes this historical period Game Over with a terse written on with a black cover.
The basic structure of Zzap! takes many features of previous experience, but it certainly did the school both in terms of how to review games for the general attitude of those who wrote. Until then, the editor was a simple descriptor of hardware features and game modes, while the main merit of the original members and Julian Rignalla was precisely to create the editors "superstar", instantly recognizable thanks to the portraits that stood out in each review: T-shirts with their dark and white magic initials engraved on fire, became veritable icons showing from time to time joyful or disgusted expressions. Next to the description
principale di ogni gioco, ognuno poteva fornire la sua impressione personale in appositi box di commento, per poi concludere con una pagella descrittiva. Caratteristiche come Presentazione, Grafica, Sonoro, Appetibilità e Longevità sono entrate dunque nella storia, per arrivare poi al fantomatico Globale, che aveva l'ingrato compito di riassumere il giudizio complessivo e dava spesso adito a grandi discussioni nelle pagine della posta.
In un periodo in cui internet, l'email e i forum erano solo illusioni, la posta scritta dai lettori aveva una grandissima importanza e quella di Zzap! non fece eccezione, andando a creare quasi una rivista dentro la rivista, con i suoi protagonisti, le sue vicende, le sue polemiche. Personaggi come Spadini FFS and remain in the hearts of many, not to mention the philosopher MBF then managed to make the big jump, from a simple player editor itself.
There were not even the age-old discussion on piracy, and in this sense Zzap! was a brave experiment with your campaigns in favor of the original software: it is well to remember that in the mid 80s, the gaming market in Italy was dominated by magazines from newsstands literally "with a box attached. Accomplice to the lack of legislation about it, then it was legal to sell copied games editing a bit 'graphics and titles, reaching a curious perversions that now make you smile when you find yourself on a tape instead of Bolle Bolle un Bobble Bobble.
Accanto a questo, diverse pagine ogni mese erano dedicate alle soluzioni e ai trucchi per ottenere le agognate vite infinite, con vagonate di istruzioni poke da digitare e che presto vanificarono la rubrica del "signore dei punteggi" dedicata ai record, dato che non si poteva più stabilire se uno avesse imbrogliato o no ad un certo gioco.
Come dimenticarsi poi dei meravigliosi diari dei programmatori, in cui eroi solitari come Jeff Minter o Martin Walker ti ipnotizzavano parlavando di multiplexing e trucchi hardware? Delle meravigliose copertine di Oliver Frey che da sole invogliavano ad un acquisto compulsivo?
Zzap! è stata un avventura meravigliosa sia per i redattori che per i lettori, e chi non l'ha lived has lost a unique piece of history now: it was not just a magazine, but a way of being and to identify with a common passion, the place around which gather with friends at recess for the comments of the day, catalog of wonders, a dream that still lives on in memory.
I can only conclude this article by thanking publicly Bonaventure Bello (Executive Director) and Fabio Rossi (managing editor) for their presence on these pages.
Bonaventure BEAUTIFUL
is not easy for me to say a few lines in what was Zzap! because I've lived through a period of my life that was now far from carefree adolescence, I had plenty of the past twenty years and was married for a few years, plus I had moved to Milan from a small town in Campania.
I can say that has been largely positive experiences only: the professional development in the role of Executive Director (and one man band "in the early months, or before I began to recruit reporters), and the esteem and support of two wonderful people like Fernando Ferri and Roberto Monti, who ran the publishing house and that gave me more of an opportunity both before and after the enthusiasm and desire to learn, discover and grow in the (then) as a young Fabio Rossi , Marco Auletta, Stefano Giorgi and all gli altri che comunque non ho dimenticato e mi piacerebbe incontrare di nuovo, prima o poi, per scoprire com'è andata la loro vita e dirgli che li porto ancora nel cuore; l'essermi ritrovato nel pieno del fenomeno videoludico fino al passaggio dagli otto ai sedici bit, potendone cogliere tanto l'aspetto giocoso quanto quello di trend mediatico e commerciale; l'incontro con l'editoria 'vera' e con i suoi strumenti, dal Macintosh al laboratorio del fotolitista, un bagaglio di esperienza che negli anni mi ha offerto sempre nuove opportunità professionali.
Un periodo della mia vita intenso, quindi, sotto ogni punto di vista, al quale non posso che guardare sorridendo e asciugandomi l'inevitabile lacrima di nostalgia e affetto per tutto quanto and all those who have enriched immeasurably.
FABIO ROSSI
Zzap! was in all respects a great adventure. Not only we were in the forefront of cutting-edge video game phenomenon, which is now part of everyday life for anyone but it was still an oddity for impallinati; Not only we were in a period and in a situation that allowed it to make a magazine " punk, "where we were sailing in sight ignoring all convention and creating new ones ... but he was also my baptism as a journalist "true", from which depended a good part of my life.
What we lacked in graphics and sound (my god, we believe that we worked con i cut-up di Battiato in sottofondo?) lo compensavamo in pieno con Longevità (piaccia o no, tante riviste di videogiochi seguono ancora lo stile che inventammo all'epoca) e Giocabilità - anche se il lavoro era massacrante, passare giorni e notti in redazione era un divertimento impareggiabile.
Ormai a 38 anni sono tecnicamente un vecchio bacucco incarognito e nostalgico, però quegli anni per me restano senza pari proprio per la vitalità che avevamo non solo noi, ma l'intera pionieristica industria dei videogame. I giochi uscivano senza preavviso, con concetti imprevedibili (chi si ricorda Space Seed? E le assurdità di Jeff Minter?) in cui oggi non si avventurano neanche più i casual game, lanciando tecnologie innovative we now take for granted and real characters from movies like the spirited Fasoulas, Garriott in perpetual crisis mystic, philosopher or Crawford - tell me anything - like a volcano BDB, capable of brilliant insights.
I fear that since the twenty-first century Zzap! not make the same impression, a bit 'like Elvis Presley today is just smile. But we did rock 'n' roll, guys - and do not know what we are sorry to see your minimalism.
NOTE: This article was originally published on No. 3 of Gamers, Hobbymedia editions. The rights belong solely to the undersigned on the text and not the publisher for any use which is licensed under the Creative Commons located at the bottom of this blog.
scans of the article (as published in the paper on Gamers) are on the blog WOPR Box at the following address .
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