Last month saw the release of Bitmap Books' latest mighty retro gaming tome, The Games of a Lifetime. Written by Julian "Jaz" Rignall, this book details key gaming events through the eyes of the author, one of the UK's most famed and respected games journalists. Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, Rignall worked on (and helped launch) some of the era's most iconic and influential video game magazines. Join Graeme Mason as he looks back at five of these mags and discovers what made them so special.
ZZAP! 64
Newsfield Publications / 1985-1992
The success of its ZX Spectrum magazine, Crash, inspired Newsfield Publications to launch ZZAP!, a monthly magazine dedicated to the Commodore 64 in the Spring of 1985. Rignall would take on several roles during his time on ZZAP!, from reviewer to tips compiler and, ultimately, editor.
ZZAP! was hugely respected and loved by its fans, thanks primarily to its honest and sometimes brutal reviews. Gamers knew that if a game received a ZZAP! SIZZLER award, it was great. If it went one better and got a Gold Medal, it was a must-buy.
Like most of Newsfield's magazines, ZZAP! had a tone and style that took the games industry seriously and didn't talk down to its predominantly teenage audience. With his head and shoulder 'Oli Pic' appearing in each review, tailored to the quality of the game, ZZAP! helped cement Rignall as one of the UK's most recognisable games journalists.
ZZAP! magazine continues today, with the contemporary version published officially by Fusion Retro Books.
CVG
EMAP / 1981-2004
When the multi-format magazine Computer & Video Games (CVG) first appeared in the early Eighties, few could have predicted it would still be around over twenty years later. Mixing news, reviews, game guides and more, CVG focused firmly on games, first on the emerging eight-bit micros before shifting to the booming console market the following decade.
Rignall joined the CVG team in the late winter of 1988, replacing Paul Boughton as deputy editor. Despite his experience in the home computer field, Rignall was keen for the magazine to embrace the incoming games consoles, which he saw as more akin to his beloved arcade games.
Less than a year later, Rignall took over the editorial reins and began steering the magazine's focus to machines such as the PC Engine and SEGA Mega Drive, championing a dedicated console segment within its pages. Recognising the increasing popularity of games consoles, he pushed for publisher EMAP to launch a separate console-only magazine.
Rignall departed CVG in 1990 to take over this new monthly, named after the console section in CVG, Mean Machines, leaving EMAP's flagship magazine to soldier on for another 14 years.
Mean Machines
EMAP / 1990-1992
From the home micro scene of the Eighties sprung the console wars of the Nineties. At the forefront of this exciting time was Julian Rignall as editor of Mean Machines, and his enthusiasm for the industry helped propel it to the top of the multi-format magazine sales chart.
With the internet still out of reach for most ordinary consumers, video game magazines remained pivotal in providing games news, tips, opinion and more to hungry gamers. Mean Machines' signature became its pioneering fusion of European and Japanese releases, tapping into the relatively niche but significant import market.
Despite initially covering the SEGA Mega Drive, Master System, Game Boy and the Amstrad GX4000 (!), by 1992, it became clear that this was a two-horse race: the Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo, or SNES. The Mean Machines team, driven by Rignall, felt it could better serve each console and its manufacturer by producing a dedicated magazine. Thus, Mean Machines SEGA and Nintendo Magazine System were born.
For further info, Damien McFerran's excellent Mean Machines archive is still viewable via Wayback Machine.
Nintendo Magazine System
1992-2006 / EMAP
After the Mean Machines split, Rignall became the managing editor of both magazines and continued to contribute reviews, opinion and more. Nintendo Magazine System (NMS) proved to be the most enduring, seeing out both Mean Machines SEGA and its own consoles, the SNES, Nintendo 64 and GameCube.
Some fans were disappointed that their favourite mag had split into two. Yet, both Mean Machines SEGA and NMS continued in the same vein: flashy, opinionated, cheeky, knowledgeable, and informative. They also represented a change in the video games publishing market, shifting from multi-format to manufacturer-specific magazines, highlighting the rivalry with other machines and emphasising the growing polarised nature of video game fandom. NMS had the added advantage of the official seal of approval from Nintendo.
EMAP's Nintendo Magazine System survived under several names for an incredible fourteen years until its absorption into the Future Publishing empire and a subsequent (final) rebranding. Julian Rignall had long departed the magazine by this point, having shifted across to…
SEGA Magazine
EMAP / 1994-1998
With Nintendo Magazine System having the honour of official support from Nintendo, in late 1993, EMAP launched the official SEGA Magazine with Rignall again at the helm alongside Richard Leadbetter. With SEGA's ill-fated add-on, the 32X, still several months away, the Mega Drive remained popular and justified a second SEGA magazine for EMAP. The official branding gave the magazine access to exclusive games and details concerning SEGA's next console, the Saturn.
"We are indeed an official SEGA magazine," noted Rignall and Leadbetter inside issue one's editorial. "Well, not AN official SEGA Magazine. THE official SEGA magazine – the only one in Britain." SEGA Magazine rebranded to SEGA Saturn Magazine in late 1995 to reflect the arrival of the manufacturer's new console that summer.
SEGA Magazine and SEGA Saturn Magazine reflected the changing demographic of game players. Like the journalists behind the mags, gamers were getting older, and the latest round of CD-based consoles ushered in a maturer audience. Gone were the cartoons and manic layouts, replaced with industry news and a structured, box-like design with a clean, uncluttered aesthetic.
Video games had grown up. So had the magazines.
Thanks for reading the latest entry in the Bitmap Books blog. Don't forget you can read all about these brilliant magazines and more in the latest Bitmap Books release, The
Games of a Lifetime, by Julian Rignall.
Cover image: Thanks to Time Extension.
