The PM's CBMs
Commodore have presented Margaret Thatcher with their one millionth and two millionth computers manufactured in Britain, both 64s. The presentation was made at the House of Commons by two young workers from the Corby factory.
Sad to say Maggie will not be rushing out each month to buy Zzap! 64 or the latest batch of Sizzlers, because she has donated the machines to a local school in Corby.
The computers made at Corby are of course for distribution in Europe as well as Britain. Still, congratulations from me, Commodore. I'm now standing by to celebrate number three million. Why not hasten the day by cutting the price, eh?

N.E.W.S.f.l.a.s.h, ZZAP!64, May 1985

Back to the original
Duckworth who publish 'Exploring Adventures on the 64' by Peter Gerrard among other things, have just brought out a version of the original adventure, Colossal Cave, by the same gentleman, which the White Wizard will be looking at next month.
They've also released Timesearch by John Ryan and Castle Dracula by Ray Davies. Expect to pay £7.95 for the privilege of loading these into your 64. They also publish Mountain Palace Adventure, but WW's advice is to stick well clear that one -- a worthy attempt but not a great example of the art of adventure programming.

Steve Cooke, Adventure News, ZZAP!64, May 1985

With the 100% version of SSI's excellent RPG Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday (6 disksides)!

I don't know if you have noticed, but the htmlized ZZAP!64 reviews are produced with as much attention to detail as possible: All text of the review is reproduced carefully with minimal alterations where needed, all images are processed pixel-by-pixel to make-up for the originals' deterioration, all screenshots are edited so they resemble the original review's screenshots as much as possible -- especially where the screenshot caption refers to items pictured in the screenshots... I just hope you are actually READING them! :)

Misprint in the directory!
Had an interesting phone call from British Telecom, the other day. 'Is that Zzap!64?' they wanted to know. That's right, I said, the people at the back, the VERY back, of your directory.
'But that's just the problem,' said the lady. 'We can't put you in the directory. Our computer can't handle exclamation marks.'
I couldn't believe that! But it was true!! BT, the multi-billion pound pinnacle of British computerised telecommunications. And their computers can't punctuate.
Come on, BT, get on with it. Buy yourselves a 64.

N.E.W.S.f.l.a.s.h, ZZAP!64, May 1985

This month we have a real pot of gold for adventure fans. We've reviews of no less than eight new games, including the latest release from Level 9, Ram Jam Corporation's Valkyrie 17, and a new version of The Hobbit on disk. We'll also be taking a look at disk games in general over the next two issues -- do they offer enough extra punch to justify the added expense of a drive, or (if you've already got one) which games are most worth wasting your precious pennies on?

Steve Cooke, ZZAP!64, May 1985

Entries in database: 12550 (+217)
Unchecked: 513 (-49)
Missing: 33 (-1)
Not 100% working: 74 (-)

Or rather, ZZAP!64 review of the week. It's a SIZZLER!

Hail, fellow adventurers! Welcome to this first instalment from the Chronicles of the White Wizard, with news, reviews, help, gossip, and much, much more. On these pages we shall light our lamps, draw our swords, and risk our lives in some of the most exciting locations of adventureland. If you want to train your Balrog the Wodehouse way, check out the canteen facilities in the Goblin's Dungeon, or just find out which adventures belong on your shelf, then DROP whatever you're carrying, TAKE a comfortable chair, and READ ON...!

Steve Cooke, ZZAP!64, May 1985...

SSI's Panzer Strike is the new addition, as requested in our Forum...

Don't get excited, but from now on there will be some Wednesday updates to go with the regular Sunday one. This won't be a regular feature, however, but it will be only happening from time to time (oh dear, oh dear) -- Rare Games Corner won't be updated on Wednesdays, though, only the Games of the Week.

BTW, here's updated Missing/Bugged games lists:

Missing: 34 (+2)
Not 100% working: 74 (-2)

Do you like Cricket? Never mind, here's a ZZAP! review.

Do you like Terror? Never mind, here's a ZZAP! adventure review! :)

The new ZZAP!64 review concerns Addictive Games' effort to create a successful follow up to Football Manager.

Happy Easter everyone!

ZZAP!64 review of a Level 9 adventure.

As promised in our forum, a copy of Reaktor's Lunari graces the Rares Corner this week...

A new ZZAP! review has been htmlized and is currently displayed in glorious technicolour!

I've decided to go through the ZZAP! adventure games review section in parallel to the normal reviews. This means that for a limited period of time (i.e. until the first issue's adventure reviews run out) there will be two Games of the Week: One action game and one adventure game!

Microprose's Decision in the Desert is now keeping company to the similar Crusade in Europewhich was uploaded many moons ago...

Ehh, yes! After considering various proposals (some of which were statements like "We decided to cancel the project" or "Andrew Braybrook donated to Gamebase his new 'Paradroid Y2K+1' which will be shortly available for download") I finally decided not to play with your nerves or your psychopathology! Messages of gratitude will be -accepted on the Forum :)

Entries in database: 12333 (+171)
Unchecked: 562 (-34)
Missing: 32 (-8)
Not 100% working: 76 (-2)

Do the ZZAP! reviews look strange in your computer? The speech bubbles look strangelly formatted perhaps? Please note that I (Dimitris) am using large fonts in my own PC, and naturally these pages are optimised for my own setup. Let me know in the Forum if things are bad for your particular setup and I'll see what I can do.

The english version of Infogrames' The Inheritance is the newest addition.