Phew, a busy week here hence the lack of posts and it looks like the guys over at ‘Commodore is Awesome’ have been busy too with the release of some cracking digital scans of old retro gaming magazines just lately.
First we have the entire collection of Zzap64 magazine. Back in the day, the best Commodore C64 magazine in the UK and still a brilliant read today.
The scans appear to be the same as those on the zzap64 website and on the collection DVD that you can purchase Zzap shop
I brought the DVD a few years ago and have most of them sitting on my NAS server ready to pipe to my iPad via iBooks or Kindle app. The scans are ok and are perfectly readable but some of the early issues are scanned from original magazines that where in a poor state. Mind you, who has early issues of Zzap64 that aren’t creased and ripped these days (if you do, fancy scanning them?)
Certain issues stand out really well in my clouded memory. For example, I remember reading this issue 22 years ago, it was one incredibly hot Sunday afternoon and the Wimbledon men’s final was being played out….funny how I can remember that from all those years ago, but for the life of me can’t remember where I’ve just placed my car keys 
Next up is the complete collection of ‘Zero’ magazine. This was a multi format magazine that was in circulation during the exciting time of the emerging 16-bit era of computers and consoles. It also includes PC’s as gaming machines too which up until then just couldn’t compete with the multi talented powerhouse Atari ST’s and Amiga.
I must admit, I never brought Zero. I can remember seeing the odd issue on the newsstand but as a one system owner (or two) back in the day, I dismissed multiformat magazines and favoured dedicated mags to read about the software and hardware for the equipment that i owned.
Of course, nowadays and with my retro collection including more machines than back then, these multiformat magazines are a great resource for discovering things that may have been missed first time around.
A great article from issue #1 about the upcoming Konix multisystem. Sadly is wasn’t to be, but it still remains as one coolest ideas for a console and at least someone (aka Mr Minter himself) got the chance to sample a prototype.
Finally we have the CU Amiga magazine collection. Originally starting out as Commodore User magazine and catering for C64 owners CU and Zzap64 were the magazines I religiously brought and read. As the popularity of the Amiga grew during the twilight years of the c64, Commodore User magazine was changed to CU Amiga and this is we’re this particular collection begins.
Its such a great magazine and early editions are chock full of all those, now classic, Amiga games just waiting to be rediscovered again. I did a art essay at college based on an article in the PD section of CU magazine.. It would be great to search through the archive and find the correct issue again.
Reminiscing with old Cinemaware magazine advert in CU Amiga. I played all four of these extensively on my A500 after pimping it with the required 512mb upgrade.
All of the scans are in PDF format and so can be read via a variety of suitable readers on PC etc. For me, this is one of my favorite bits about have owning a tablet/iPad as it makes re-reading these classic magazines a real joy.
All magazines, including many more collections can be found here -
http://awesome.commodore.me/magazine
Time to put ones feet up!
Happy reading
