The first issue of
Zzap!64, dated May 1985, was released on 11 April 1985. Its inaugural editorial team included editor
Chris Anderson, Software Editor Bob Wade, freelance writer Steve Cooke (who joined the staff from the recently folded
Personal Computer Games), and reviewers
Gary Penn and
Julian Rignall, who won their jobs after having placed as finalists at a video game competition. The editorial headquarters was in
Yeovil, more than 120 miles from Newsfield's headquarters in
Ludlow; the team was relocated to Ludlow after three months to cut costs, and Anderson and Wade left the staff after declining to make the move. Anderson would later found
Future Publishing and the
TED Conference. As the Amiga gained popularity in the UK,
Zzap!64 began to publish occasional reviews of Amiga games. The Amiga coverage became a fixed feature of the magazine in issue 43 (November 1988), when the title was renamed to
Zzap!64 Amiga. The magazine experienced controversy in 1989, when three out of four reviewers (Gordon Houghton, Kati Hamza and Maff Evans) were fired and replaced during production of issue 50 (June 1989). The only one remaining, Paul Rand, had been employed at
Zzap!64 a mere two months. Issue 50's editorial mentioned nothing of what happened, Issue 90 (November 1992) was the last official
Zzap!64 issue. From the following month, the magazine was replaced by
Commodore Force.
In Italy The Italian edition (just titled
Zzap!), authorised by the original publisher, was not limited to Commodore 64 games, but it also reviewed games for other 8-bit machines like the
ZX Spectrum,
MSX,
Amstrad CPC, and
Atari 8-bit computers. Around 80% of the content was translated with the remainder written in Italy. From 1996 to 1999,
Zzap! became an online magazine, a PC gaming website with a different "cover" each month and a mailbag, which reviewed games with the same style of the original magazine. In 2002, a special "issue 85", dedicated to then recently released games for 8-bit machines, was released in PDF format. In 2021, the
Airons cultural association in
Vigevano resumed the publication of a new
Zzap! magazine, founded by a group of former editors. The magazine is published aperiodically and only sent via mail to the members; it focuses on retrogaming and new games for 8- and 16-bit systems, still made by enthusiasts and small independent software houses. ==Commemorative issues==