My video about ZAP! Classic Gaming Newletter

[OldSchoolGamer]

My latest video in support of my friend TER who runs the ZAP online Classic Gaming website and forums and who was the creator of the ZAP! Fanzine back in the early 90's.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd-oUzIQcWI

[OldSchoolGamer]

Anyone have these during the original run? Know of any other Fanzines? Comments?

[OldSchoolGamer]

All riiiiiiiighty then.....................

[megasdkirby]

Anyone have these during the original run? Know of any other Fanzines? Comments?

Hey Max,

Dom does. We were rearranging a few years ago, and I remember seeing them. Since we have to rearrange once again, if I stumble across them, I will let you and Ter know ASAP.

Other fanziens were:

Mastermind (was this the one with Todd Litner?)
Paradox

[Zap!]

I had a bunch. My favorite was my first. It was early to mid 1991 and it was The 2600 Connection. This newsletter and Tim Duarte inspired me to do Zap! I give him full credit. There would be no Zap! it it were not for Tim.

I also read Digital Press from the very first issue. His first issue beat mine by just a couple of months, but looked far more polished. This was 1991 and I was just 18 with no job and little money, and very immature. Joe had to be approching 25 so he had the advantage, along with a team of contributers and writers (I did Zap! entirely by myself the first few issues). Anyway, I always loved this fanzine and Joe even published my hints.

The Lynx. Phil Patton and I had many, many great exchanges in letters. His newsletter was about 80% devoted to the Lynx, and the rest were mostly other Atari coverage. I loved his fanzine, I really wish I could find him around somewhere.

Project: Ignition. Either Jess Ragan or myself were the first to mix politics with video games. I'll have to check the date of the first issue.

There were many, many others. If anyone's interested, just pick up a Zap! set and check out my Fanzine Forum section. I reviewed lots of them.

[slapdash]

Yeah, I had tons... But not even close to all of them. Here's a partial list.

[hoaryhag]

Ya, thanks for the link. Never got into the fanzines myself.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Ya, thanks for the link. Never got into the fanzines myself.

OK cool, not sure why the need for the eye roll avatar though, if you weren't into it then fine, just another area of the gaming community........

[digitalpress]

As you guys know, I never throw anything out. I have boxloads full of fanzines from the 90's. I'm pretty sure I was getting every single one every time one was produced by just about anyone. We used to do fanzine reviews and as one of the higher profile 'zines of that era, everyone was pretty eager to send their latest creation along.

I loved so many of them. MOST of them, really. Fanzines typically oozed with personality, a far cry from the prozines of the time.

Digging those boxes out of storage would be a huge effort but I might feel inspired someday to scan some of the best ones in for our library section.

[Zap!]

As you guys know, I never throw anything out. I have boxloads full of fanzines from the 90's. I'm pretty sure I was getting every single one every time one was produced by just about anyone. We used to do fanzine reviews and as one of the higher profile 'zines of that era, everyone was pretty eager to send their latest creation along.

I loved so many of them. MOST of them, really. Fanzines typically oozed with personality, a far cry from the prozines of the time.

Digging those boxes out of storage would be a huge effort but I might feel inspired someday to scan some of the best ones in for our library section.

Joe, Digital Press started with the September/October 1991 issue? That's exactly when Zap! started. For some reason, I thought you were first. I've been meaning to come down to the store and give you a re-mastered set of 1-8. You going to be at the store today? I'll be in NJ in Englishtown for the Swap Meet.

[digitalpress]

Yup yup, September 9, 1991 was the "birthdate" of Digital Press. And I don't know where that stands in relation to other fanzines. There were plenty of them around when we got started and loads and loads more afterwards. I always wondered - was that big spike in 'zines simply due to the publicity they were receiving in professional mags? Because it seemed like fandom in general started to evaporate when that publicity ended.

Anyway, I'll be in the store later, after 5pm... feel free to drop by. Sean Kelly and John Hardie will be there as well.

[c0ldb33r]

Digging those boxes out of storage would be a huge effort but I might feel inspired someday to scan some of the best ones in for our library section.

That would be awesome!

[slapdash]

As you guys know, I never throw anything out. I have boxloads full of fanzines from the 90's. [...] Digging those boxes out of storage would be a huge effort but I might feel inspired someday to scan some of the best ones in for our library section.

There should be an archive... Note, for anyone who wants a sampler, Jess Ragan already started a project along those lines, On-File.

Joe, Digital Press started with the September/October 1991 issue? That's exactly when Zap! started. For some reason, I thought you were first.

Yup yup, September 9, 1991 was the "birthdate" of Digital Press. And I don't know where that stands in relation to other fanzines.

I always like to point out that the 2600 Connection was among the first of that era, with a Summer 1990 issue. A.P.E.: Atari Portable Entertainment Newsletter (by Clinton Smith) came out about the same time; I don't recall which was first. The Atari Zone (by Daniel Iacovelli) and/or Arnie Katz's own Megagaming might have beat both of them to the punch. The Subversive Sprite (by Lance Rice) and maybe Cyberbeat (by Mike Ciletti, Ed Finkler, Ed Karpp, Adam Query and Russ Robinson) were up there too...

However, there WERE zines further back -- I have an issue each of Arena and Joystick Jolter, both from 1984. So, one of them maybe wins the actual medal.

[quote]There were plenty of them around when we got started and loads and loads more afterwards. I always wondered - was that big spike in 'zines simply due to the publicity they were receiving in professional mags? Because it seemed like fandom in general started to evaporate when that publicity ended.[/quote[

While that's probably part of the equation, I think the actual timing was something else... Fanzines got more common as publishing software and printers got cheaper and cheaper, and more people had computers. Then, paper zines started to die out when the web was born and got more popular. It's mostly the web that killed zines, methinks.

[Zap!]

Anyway, I'll be in the store later, after 5pm... feel free to drop by. Sean Kelly and John Hardie will be there as well.

So sorry I couldn't make it into the store. I was at Englishtown longer than expected (picked up a few things too, I'll post that in a thread later when I take pics). I will try and come down this Friday with the Zap! set in hand. Dunno how many issues you had in the original run, but I know you don't have issue #8 because it was a prototype I recently completed.

[Zap!]

There should be an archive... Note, for anyone who wants a sampler, Jess Ragan already started a project along those lines, On-File.

That's actually a great idea. Having .pdf's of all the classic newsletters is something we should all do, ensuring that the original content never gets lost.