Not book or comics- what else do we read?

[sheridan]

I used to love White Dwarf - news, articles, scenarios, Thrud the Barbarian - even had Dredd on the cover once. I remember picking up a copy on a whim several years ago and wondered why they were charging money for a Warhammer catalogue

Yes, well, it's been like that since around issue 100 - and that was in the 1980s!  It's on 457 as of this month but I'd maintain that the first one hundred are what other RPG mags should aspire to (particularly from around 40 - 90).

[Colin YNWA]

Dragon and Imagine (was it called?) were also really good around the time White Dwarf was at its peak as well.

[Barrington Boots]

I've got a bunch of 80s-era White Dwarf and Dragon magazines that my parents thoughtfully put in the loft for me instead of in the bin when I left for university.
Even though I'm doubtless nostalgic, old WD is great - book and game reviews, articles, adventures and support for dozens of games, a lot of it steeped in that particular British sense of humour. I loved Warhammer when joke names were par for the course (including Spikes Harvey Wotan, relevant here)

[shaolin_monkey]

Did you guys used to read ZZAP64 and that one for Spectrum users? The only one I bought was Electron User, as it always had superb programming tips and suchlike. They were a brilliant reference tool when I was doing computer science in school. Then my dad threw them all out as a punishment for not cleaning my bedroom, and that ended my career in computers - I could t be arsed to start from scratch.

I read ZZAP64 and CRASH on the newspaper stand, and suss the best games. When my mates inevitably got the game I'd blag a copy via the old double tape deck recorder. Then, after my paper round each Saturday morning I'd go straight to Boots with the bootleg, load them up on the display machines, and stand there for hours playing the games. It was well over a year before the staff clocked what I was up to, and banned me from the store.

That was the second store I got banned from, after a rather embarrassing incident in John Menzies a few years previous, involving a Star Wars film on a loop all day at the toy display stand, and a bunch of parents who thought the area was a child minding spot they could leave their kids at, having seen me sat there watching the film. Anyway, longish story for another time.

[IndigoPrime]

Zzap!64 was a hugely influential magazine for me, in terms of going into writing and in some ways (along with Amiga Power and Digitiser) informing _how_ I write. Back when I had no life/lots of time, I spent quite a lot of time working with a games journo and an ex-Zzap! editor to make a new issue, #107. I also provided editing assistance for the special that went out with Retro Gamer (IIRC, for issue 18). I'm merely an interested consumer regarding the more recent hardback 'annual' versions of Zzap!64, though.

[wedgeski]

Zzap!64 was one of the most important parts of my youth. I devoured every issue front to back, back to front, multiple times, and bought every Gold Medal game I could afford. Whenever I was angsty, or just plain miserable, an hour with that pile of magazines would always bring me back.

I say WAS one of the most important things, but thanks to Fusion Retro, it still IS one of them most important things (https://fusionretrobooks.com/collections/retro-books/products/zzap-64-annual-2020 and its associated products; 2021 annual Kickstarter starting soon folks!).

I suppose I must have disposed of my original collection (though for the life of me I can't remember how or why), but I'm slowly building back up to complete via eBay.

[IndigoPrime]

Yep—Chris has done a good job with those, even if it does feel as a Zzap!64 #107 bod that our prior efforts have been sort of ret-conned out of history. (I did get the OK from Kean and Frey at the time, and we had Houghton, Hogg and Glancey working with us. Others later expressed regret at not joining in when they saw the final product!)

I'm less keen on the Crash mags, in part because I was a C64 chap, but also because the magazine itself just wasn't—to my mind—at quite the same level. I've still bought them all though. (The first Zzap!64 has the best design, IMO, and the second one has the superior writing.)

Also: if people like old games, get over to https://www.bitmapbooks.co.uk and check out Games That Weren't, Arcade, and the superb visual compendium series. (Disclosure: I contributed a little to two of the compendium books.)

[Dandontdare]

I used to love White Dwarf - news, articles, scenarios, Thrud the Barbarian - even had Dredd on the cover once. I remember picking up a copy on a whim several years ago and wondered why they were charging money for a Warhammer catalogue

Yes, well, it's been like that since around issue 100 - and that was in the 1980s!  It's on 457 as of this month but I'd maintain that the first one hundred are what other RPG mags should aspire to (particularly from around 40 - 90).

yeah, I often find myself saying "a few years ago" and then realising it was actually a few decades! 

[JayzusB.Christ]

I haven't missed an issue of Viz for about 25 years. Though that's kind of a comic, I suppose, isn't it?