ZERO Magazine.

Chris · 08 January 2002, 17:34

This was THE BEST magazine of the era!!

Though it wasn't dedicated to the Amiga, it showed a major bias to our beloved machine.

It was incredibly witty and well written, but unfortunately, it went badly downhill for the last three or four issues, where upon it died a horrible death.

Ah, the memories!

I've still got all my old copies, and I like to take them out every once in a while, to remind myself of those heady days.

Bloodwych · 08 January 2002, 23:50

I totally agree!!

Probably went down hill once they knew their jobs were on the line.

I've got ALL the mags in pristine condition and my favourite cover disk is the very first - with that infamous game Merv the Merciless!!

Read my recent post on finally finishing the game

:

Finally finished Merv the Merciless off Zero Issue 1

Codetapper · 09 January 2002, 00:35

I must admit that I thought Zero was one of the worst Amiga magazines put out. My cousin used to regularly buy them but as soon as Amiga Format, Amiga Power and CU Amiga were mainstream, Zero was doomed.

- They seemed to hate the Amiga - always putting PC versions ahead of the Amiga ones, saying the Amiga couldn't do this and that constantly. They even liked the puke ST better!

- The jokes were childish. I have one mag at home which has Giles Brandeth (whoever the hell he is) mentioned about 30 times throughout the mag, from the coverdisk right through most reviews. Completely childish.

- The reviews were way over the top, 75% seemed to be a standard score for a naff game. And PC games always got better marks than Amiga ones for some reason.

- Too much space wasted on big pictures and not enough text.

On the plus side:

- Their hackers page where a Basic listing added infinite lives or whatever to games was unique at the time.

- Crystal Tips was good sometimes, like their Shadow of the Bast solution!

Please note that my opinions are based on about 6 Zero mags I have read properly so perhaps I had a bad run?

Big-Byte · 09 January 2002, 09:57

It was the humour that made Zero so special.. anyone remember the driving lessons.. and Dave Macca McCandless.. I think some of them work for PCZone now...

Tim Janssen · 09 January 2002, 09:59

I have only two ZERO mags in my posession (November 1990 and June 1992) and have asked myself often why I haven’t bought more issues. I think lack of pocketmoney is an obvious reason.

The most positive point about the magazine is the way reviews were written: although not in-depth they had lots of humour and a style. I quite liked the lay-out: one part of a review is an objective description about the story and features of the game and in the other part the reviewer stressed his/her opinion. It kinda reminded me to Zzap.
I agree with Codetapper about the scores: they were way too high. ZERO was an allround 16-bit magazine and followed the typical “never mind the gameplay, look at the graphics!”-ideology. Even a crap game like Virgin’s Judge Dredd scored somewhere in the 70%.
The number of advertisements in the November 1990 –issue was way too high: it almost took up half the magazine. But on the other hand these are the most beautiful I have ever seen: Mean Streets, Paradroid 90, Awesome, Obitus, Killing Game Show and the Flip-It & Magnose-ad are really artworks.

I don’t know what happened the last few issues of ZERO, but from one month to the other it had turned from an intelligent looking glossy paper into a loudy American A4-sized mag packed in plastic with Smurfs-snot for free. Add to this the fact the magazine was banned one month from WH Smiths because they put a demo of Covergirl Strippoker on coverdisc the chances for survival were nihil.

Big-Byte · 09 January 2002, 10:18

On another note, does anyone remember another magazine available around that time (UK only I think) - New Computer Express?. It came out fortnightly and sometimes had a dual (or three even) format disc.

Chris · 09 January 2002, 11:00

Codetapper,

I think you must have had a bad run, but as the mag was written by Brits, there were probably a lot of jokes and references that you didn't get, such as the "Giles' Jumpers" section. Classic!

The Critics' Corner was another work of literary genius!

When they all had to act out a scene from Neighbours!
Dangerous Dave McCandless! Legendary!

Ah.

Bloodwych · 09 January 2002, 14:09

Just to let you know I've uploaded Zero Iss 1 coverdisk in the Zone with Merv the Merciless.

Let me know what you all think in the Merv is Free thread!

Twistin'Ghost · 09 January 2002, 16:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Big-Byte
On another note, does anyone remember another magazine available around that time (UK only I think) - New Computer Express?. It came out fortnightly and sometimes had a dual (or three even) format disc.

This mag?

Big-Byte · 09 January 2002, 16:42

Thats the one!! Blimey, I didnt know that mag had come out over in America.

I used to read it all the time but one day it just stopped.. I think they said it was just a money pit.

Do you remember the edition where they did a spoof future version. It had something like 'Starglider III - realtime raytraced 3d graphics!!'

Big-Byte · 09 January 2002, 16:46

Update

Just found this link via Google

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/es.../world/nce.htm

Off to read it now...

Twistin'Ghost · 09 January 2002, 16:51

Hehehe...not bad for a yank, eh? As far as I know, however, it was never really sold in the states (like most of the European magazines we had to import). Which is better, really. At least one of the Euro mags (Amiga Format, I think) had US editions with lamer ads and a few other quibbles that was a turn-off for me. I bought the Euro mags because they were Euro and didn't insult the readers' intelligence. American mags' game coverage was an abomination and it still repulses me to thumb through those old US Amiga mags even today.

Galahad/FLT · 11 January 2002, 18:32

I used to buy this mag, spookily enough, I stopped buying it when it for some bizarre reason turned into a bad copy of C&VG (is this possible!).

I found it funny, but more often than not, found it was simply a bible for the next load of games I wanted to copy.

The Giles Brandeth thing was funny because of the stuff they used to get away with (having the Giles Brandeth Anagram jumper... WNKEAR)

Taking the piss out of Gremlin for parking a Lotus in a field with a ground clearance of 2mm! It was a genuinly funny mag.... ok the review scores were hit and miss, but frankly, plenty of Amiga mags were guilty of that..... but at least Zero was funny.

Shadow of the Bast 2 anyone? Now Dave 'Macca' McCandless works for some PC rag, as for everyone else...... other than Ludwig Ledbury (Certified God!) who else are we likely to remember?

Sorely missed in this day of endless boring shit!

MethodGit · 11 January 2002, 22:57

Unfortunately I missed out on the whole ZERO mag times - back around the time of popularity for UK Amiga mags I didn't even know it existed.

Ditto for NCE.

I do remember occasionally buying another virtually-forgotten miggy mag - Amiga Mania. Unfortunately my memory on this one is so scarce (not helped by the fact that the mags are long gone from my possession, seemingly joining all the other C64/Amiga mags that gradually "mysteriously" disappeared throughout the years

) I can only remember what was on the few coverdisks I got from it, so I can't tell you what kind of mag it was, or what the covers were like.

I remember the following full games Amiga Mania supplied on the one disk each time:

Brainball (I think this was from the first issue. For some reason I have two copies of this disk, maybe we bought the same issue again?

)
Dungeons Of Avalon (I'm sure Amiga Mania supplied an English version of this normally-German RPG - did an English one exist?)
Dungeons Of Avalon 2 (Ditto for this one)
Crazy Sue 2 (I have a working disk (both as in runnable and disk2fdi-compatible

) of this one, if anyone wants me to I can upload this disk for you when I find it)
Ramses (Interesting Egyptian-ship strategy game where you had to travel across places a lot, and ship stuff. Lots of them. That's it. Multi-player as well. Though not simultaneously, obviously. In German by default, but options at startup allow you to swich to the English tongue, so no problem.

Still have disk of this one.)

There was also another game I vaguely remember but sadly lost the disk of (probably almost as fast as I obtained it and the issue it came from). I can't remember the title, but I know it had cool music, it had a rather futuristic tone, and it always showed green fireworks before the start of every stage (and I remember a lot of the stages had a green floor), with a message at the bottom giving you level details and "press fire to continue", and I think you made a trail everywhere you went or something? It also had a kind of level-editor, I vaguely remember. Oh well, hope someone can find the game matching these descriptions and end the mystery.

Were there any other Amiga Mania readers, surely?

I really revolt my whole family now, though - they never treated Amiga mags with respect. I only have a small selection of Amiga Power mags left now..... *sobs*

Twistin'Ghost · 12 January 2002, 11:29

@Galahad
Your comparison of Zero to a bad C&VG was exactly what I though when reading Codetapper's description of Zero (which I may or may not have seen myself...can't remember). I do have several C&VG issues and find them to be utter shite.

@Marz
I also have several issues of Amiga Mania. The reason your memory probably fails you on them was because it was such a shitty, amateurish effort. It looks like it was aiming at the 8-year olds. An over-abundance of garish colors, big text, messy screenshots and idiotic reviews that read more like portions of a badly written manual (skimpy on opinions, heavy on descriptions of gameplay). I still have them only because they are a period piece.

MethodGit · 12 January 2002, 14:46

Are you able to scan the issues you have, Twist? I'd like to remind myself what the covers looked like again (I can still remember the mag's logo from years ago, it was on the coverdisks

).

Also, do you still have any of the coverdisks from the issues you bought? You might even have that game I made a long description about!

BippyM · 12 January 2002, 15:55

I Have a few issues of Amiga Mania and Zero knocking about with all my others, I also have all the GamesX issues, and many other mags, can't quite remember tho! I'll have to dig 'em out!

As I remember Zero was quite childish in its approach, and Amiga Mania was just crap. I just bought them cuz they were there I suppose.

Twistin'Ghost · 12 January 2002, 17:13

Marz, even if I had the time (which I don't), it would be better spent scanning manuals or better Amiga magazines. Maybe I'll take the issues that I have to work with me Sunday night and scan the covers at least (assuming it's a slow night at work). I can't remember the coverdisks off the top of my head, but they didn't even have labels on them (charming). I think Crazy Sue II, Alianator ... stuff like that. I get that mag confused with another crap mag, Amiga Fun. Heck, even one of the issues doesn't even mention the coverdisk anywhere inside! But the others do, so I'll have that info with the scans.

thinlega · 14 January 2002, 00:05

hummmm... ZERO ....I liked that mag as well but for one reason if my memory is right they always seemed to print F.A.S.T`s anti copying advert .......it was a cool cartoon strip with a dodgy game sellor called BLOGGO and a kid tempted to by a game!!!!
Anyone got a scan????

08 January 2002, 17:34	#1
Chris Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Merseyside Posts: 37	ZERO Magazine. This was THE BEST magazine of the era!! Though it wasn't dedicated to the Amiga, it showed a major bias to our beloved machine. It was incredibly witty and well written, but unfortunately, it went badly downhill for the last three or four issues, where upon it died a horrible death. Ah, the memories! I've still got all my old copies, and I like to take them out every once in a while, to remind myself of those heady days.

09 January 2002, 00:35	#3
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	I never liked Zero I must admit that I thought Zero was one of the worst Amiga magazines put out. My cousin used to regularly buy them but as soon as Amiga Format, Amiga Power and CU Amiga were mainstream, Zero was doomed. - They seemed to hate the Amiga - always putting PC versions ahead of the Amiga ones, saying the Amiga couldn't do this and that constantly. They even liked the puke ST better! - The jokes were childish. I have one mag at home which has Giles Brandeth (whoever the hell he is) mentioned about 30 times throughout the mag, from the coverdisk right through most reviews. Completely childish. - The reviews were way over the top, 75% seemed to be a standard score for a naff game. And PC games always got better marks than Amiga ones for some reason. - Too much space wasted on big pictures and not enough text. On the plus side: - Their hackers page where a Basic listing added infinite lives or whatever to games was unique at the time. - Crystal Tips was good sometimes, like their Shadow of the Bast solution! Please note that my opinions are based on about 6 Zero mags I have read properly so perhaps I had a bad run?

09 January 2002, 09:59	#5
Tim Janssen Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Den Bosch / The Netherlands Age: 47 Posts: 1,271	ZERO Hero I have only two ZERO mags in my posession (November 1990 and June 1992) and have asked myself often why I haven’t bought more issues. I think lack of pocketmoney is an obvious reason. The most positive point about the magazine is the way reviews were written: although not in-depth they had lots of humour and a style. I quite liked the lay-out: one part of a review is an objective description about the story and features of the game and in the other part the reviewer stressed his/her opinion. It kinda reminded me to Zzap. I agree with Codetapper about the scores: they were way too high. ZERO was an allround 16-bit magazine and followed the typical “never mind the gameplay, look at the graphics!”-ideology. Even a crap game like Virgin’s Judge Dredd scored somewhere in the 70%. The number of advertisements in the November 1990 –issue was way too high: it almost took up half the magazine. But on the other hand these are the most beautiful I have ever seen: Mean Streets, Paradroid 90, Awesome, Obitus, Killing Game Show and the Flip-It & Magnose-ad are really artworks. I don’t know what happened the last few issues of ZERO, but from one month to the other it had turned from an intelligent looking glossy paper into a loudy American A4-sized mag packed in plastic with Smurfs-snot for free. Add to this the fact the magazine was banned one month from WH Smiths because they put a demo of Covergirl Strippoker on coverdisc the chances for survival were nihil.

09 January 2002, 14:09	#8
Bloodwych Moderator Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: I'm behind you! Posts: 3,763	Just to let you know I've uploaded Zero Iss 1 coverdisk in the Zone with Merv the Merciless. Let me know what you all think in the Merv is Free thread! Last edited by Bloodwych; 09 January 2002 at 15:03.

11 January 2002, 18:32	#13
Galahad/FLT Going nowhere Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: United Kingdom Age: 50 Posts: 8,986	Zero I used to buy this mag, spookily enough, I stopped buying it when it for some bizarre reason turned into a bad copy of C&VG (is this possible!). I found it funny, but more often than not, found it was simply a bible for the next load of games I wanted to copy. The Giles Brandeth thing was funny because of the stuff they used to get away with (having the Giles Brandeth Anagram jumper... WNKEAR) Taking the piss out of Gremlin for parking a Lotus in a field with a ground clearance of 2mm! It was a genuinly funny mag.... ok the review scores were hit and miss, but frankly, plenty of Amiga mags were guilty of that..... but at least Zero was funny. Shadow of the Bast 2 anyone? Now Dave 'Macca' McCandless works for some PC rag, as for everyone else...... other than Ludwig Ledbury (Certified God!) who else are we likely to remember? Sorely missed in this day of endless boring shit!

08 January 2002, 23:50	#2
Bloodwych Moderator Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: I'm behind you! Posts: 3,763	I totally agree!! Probably went down hill once they knew their jobs were on the line. I've got ALL the mags in pristine condition and my favourite cover disk is the very first - with that infamous game Merv the Merciless!! Read my recent post on finally finishing the game : Finally finished Merv the Merciless off Zero Issue 1

09 January 2002, 09:57	#4
Big-Byte Long time member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: UK Posts: 754	It was the humour that made Zero so special.. anyone remember the driving lessons.. and Dave Macca McCandless.. I think some of them work for PCZone now...

09 January 2002, 10:18	#6
Big-Byte Long time member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: UK Posts: 754	On another note, does anyone remember another magazine available around that time (UK only I think) - New Computer Express?. It came out fortnightly and sometimes had a dual (or three even) format disc.

09 January 2002, 11:00	#7
Chris Registered User Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Merseyside Posts: 37	Codetapper, I think you must have had a bad run, but as the mag was written by Brits, there were probably a lot of jokes and references that you didn't get, such as the "Giles' Jumpers" section. Classic! The Critics' Corner was another work of literary genius! When they all had to act out a scene from Neighbours! Dangerous Dave McCandless! Legendary! Ah.

09 January 2002, 16:42	#10
Big-Byte Long time member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: UK Posts: 754	Thats the one!! Blimey, I didnt know that mag had come out over in America. I used to read it all the time but one day it just stopped.. I think they said it was just a money pit. Do you remember the edition where they did a spoof future version. It had something like 'Starglider III - realtime raytraced 3d graphics!!'

09 January 2002, 16:46	#11
Big-Byte Long time member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: UK Posts: 754	Update Just found this link via Google http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/es.../world/nce.htm Off to read it now...

09 January 2002, 16:51	#12
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	Hehehe...not bad for a yank, eh? As far as I know, however, it was never really sold in the states (like most of the European magazines we had to import). Which is better, really. At least one of the Euro mags (Amiga Format, I think) had US editions with lamer ads and a few other quibbles that was a turn-off for me. I bought the Euro mags because they were Euro and didn't insult the readers' intelligence. American mags' game coverage was an abomination and it still repulses me to thumb through those old US Amiga mags even today.

11 January 2002, 22:57	#14
MethodGit Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: The Streets Age: 39 Posts: 2,731	Unfortunately I missed out on the whole ZERO mag times - back around the time of popularity for UK Amiga mags I didn't even know it existed. Ditto for NCE. I do remember occasionally buying another virtually-forgotten miggy mag - Amiga Mania. Unfortunately my memory on this one is so scarce (not helped by the fact that the mags are long gone from my possession, seemingly joining all the other C64/Amiga mags that gradually "mysteriously" disappeared throughout the years ) I can only remember what was on the few coverdisks I got from it, so I can't tell you what kind of mag it was, or what the covers were like. I remember the following full games Amiga Mania supplied on the one disk each time: Brainball (I think this was from the first issue. For some reason I have two copies of this disk, maybe we bought the same issue again? ) Dungeons Of Avalon (I'm sure Amiga Mania supplied an English version of this normally-German RPG - did an English one exist?) Dungeons Of Avalon 2 (Ditto for this one) Crazy Sue 2 (I have a working disk (both as in runnable and disk2fdi-compatible ) of this one, if anyone wants me to I can upload this disk for you when I find it) Ramses (Interesting Egyptian-ship strategy game where you had to travel across places a lot, and ship stuff. Lots of them. That's it. Multi-player as well. Though not simultaneously, obviously. In German by default, but options at startup allow you to swich to the English tongue, so no problem. Still have disk of this one.) There was also another game I vaguely remember but sadly lost the disk of (probably almost as fast as I obtained it and the issue it came from). I can't remember the title, but I know it had cool music, it had a rather futuristic tone, and it always showed green fireworks before the start of every stage (and I remember a lot of the stages had a green floor), with a message at the bottom giving you level details and "press fire to continue", and I think you made a trail everywhere you went or something? It also had a kind of level-editor, I vaguely remember. Oh well, hope someone can find the game matching these descriptions and end the mystery. Were there any other Amiga Mania readers, surely? I really revolt my whole family now, though - they never treated Amiga mags with respect. I only have a small selection of Amiga Power mags left now..... sobs

12 January 2002, 11:29	#15
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	@Galahad Your comparison of Zero to a bad C&VG was exactly what I though when reading Codetapper's description of Zero (which I may or may not have seen myself...can't remember). I do have several C&VG issues and find them to be utter shite. @Marz I also have several issues of Amiga Mania. The reason your memory probably fails you on them was because it was such a shitty, amateurish effort. It looks like it was aiming at the 8-year olds. An over-abundance of garish colors, big text, messy screenshots and idiotic reviews that read more like portions of a badly written manual (skimpy on opinions, heavy on descriptions of gameplay). I still have them only because they are a period piece.

12 January 2002, 14:46	#16
MethodGit Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: The Streets Age: 39 Posts: 2,731	Are you able to scan the issues you have, Twist? I'd like to remind myself what the covers looked like again (I can still remember the mag's logo from years ago, it was on the coverdisks ). Also, do you still have any of the coverdisks from the issues you bought? You might even have that game I made a long description about!

12 January 2002, 15:55	#17
BippyM Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Derby, UK Age: 48 Posts: 9,355	I Have a few issues of Amiga Mania and Zero knocking about with all my others, I also have all the GamesX issues, and many other mags, can't quite remember tho! I'll have to dig 'em out! As I remember Zero was quite childish in its approach, and Amiga Mania was just crap. I just bought them cuz they were there I suppose.

12 January 2002, 17:13	#18
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	Marz, even if I had the time (which I don't), it would be better spent scanning manuals or better Amiga magazines. Maybe I'll take the issues that I have to work with me Sunday night and scan the covers at least (assuming it's a slow night at work). I can't remember the coverdisks off the top of my head, but they didn't even have labels on them (charming). I think Crazy Sue II, Alianator ... stuff like that. I get that mag confused with another crap mag, Amiga Fun. Heck, even one of the issues doesn't even mention the coverdisk anywhere inside! But the others do, so I'll have that info with the scans.

14 January 2002, 00:05	#19
thinlega .:Part-Time Winner:. Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: UK Posts: 531	zero mag hummmm... ZERO ....I liked that mag as well but for one reason if my memory is right they always seemed to print F.A.S.T`s anti copying advert .......it was a cool cartoon strip with a dodgy game sellor called BLOGGO and a kid tempted to by a game!!!! Anyone got a scan????

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