As you've probably heard us say before, CVG is the longest running games publication in the world. But back when most of the current team were just babies though, or reading the magazine before the days of the internet, a chap called Julian Rignall shot to fame with his mad gaming skillz. A few weeks ago you asked him some questions and he's taken time out of editing the Official Warcraft Magazine to answer them. Here we go:
First up, can you give us a quick rundown of your career highlights and tell us what you've been doing for the past decade?
Probably the biggest thing I've done in the US was launching IGN.com. When I arrived at Future in 1997 (then called Imagine Publishing), there was a staff of about 9 people creating a bunch of different web sites about the PlayStation, Dreamcast and whatnot.
We consolidated them all into a network called IGN and thanks to a rather creative affiliate program where we linked to about a billion fan sites, IGN became the 20th biggest site on the web and had about 100 editorial staff. We all thought we were going to be billionaires, but the dot-com bubble burst and the value of our paper money was not worth the paper it was written on.
Fortunately the site survived, and it's still going strong today. Since then I've worked with some big corporations on their web sites/marketing (great money, not-so-fun-work) such as Walmart and Dell, before rejoining Future a couple of years ago as Editorial Director to launch its new US Custom Publishing Division.
What drew you back to working on a games mag? Are you a massive WarCraft fan then?
I think that it's an exciting time to be back in magazines. People say print is dead, and it's true that many magazines are closing, but I think it's all a shakeout, not the print apocalypse.
The publications that are not evolving are the ones that are dying - the challenge is to figure out how to make magazines be interesting and relevant in today's market, and I think that there are a lot of interesting things we can do to that end.
When done right, magazines offer an experience that's very different to any other media, and it's that idea of helping evolve magazines and finding new ways of making them even richer and more interesting that got me back into print.
And yes, I am a huge, huge Warcraft fan. I spend a ridiculous amount of my time in the game, raiding several times a week and doing a lot of PVP. It's a truly magnificent game, and being able to make a magazine about it is really cool.
What was it like it write for a games mag 'back in the day' compared to today? And how did you make a magazine without the internet?
Information was mostly in people's heads and not on some centralized worldwide resource, so you had to spend a lot of time on the phone, cultivating relationships and digging for info.
It was a lot more personal in some sense, because if you didn't have relationships, you couldn't get the info, so you really had to work with people and not burn bridges. Writing today has a completely different set of challenges. Certain things are easier, certain things are harder.
It's still important to have relationships, but information is a lot more fluid and easy to get now - and exclusives are now exclusives for a matter of minutes, instead of weeks as they used to be.
What was CVG mag's best and worst cover in your opinion?
Actually, the worst cover was the one you never saw. Back in the olden days of 1989, a company called System 3 was about to release a shooter called Dominator, and we were going to feature it on the cover.
System 3 had arranged to have a special effects company create a model Dragon based on a monster in the game that we were going to photograph and put on the cover, and then give away in a competition. System 3 told me that this thing was going to be absolutely awesome... but when it arrived is was shiiiiiiiiiit. It was sooo bad - it looked like a really crap paper mache model of a retarded Puff the Magic dragon made by a bunch of spectacularly ungifted three year olds.
So we had to scrap that cover entirely and stick something else on it instead. Shame, really, as the game was pretty good. I think one of our best covers was one we did with the Joker on the front (the Jack Nicklaus character from the first Batman movie).
That was pretty good, although if truth be told, CVG covers were never my favorite. We always had way too many headlines and stupid freebies and whatnot, plus they had crazy late 80's primary colour styling so they all tended to look like an explosion in a crayon factory.
What was better: C64 or Spectrum 48k? Amstrad didn't count, right?
My personal favorite was the C64, just because I liked more C64 games than Spectrum ones. The colours were better, the sounds were supa skillin' and there was just a bit more horsepower under the hood.
Sure, there were some absolutely great Spectrum games that I still remember very fondly, but pound-for-pound the C64 was the one to have, if only to play games like Impossible Mission, Boulderdash and Dropzone...
And yes, the poor ol' Amstrad was sadness personified.
Do people still call you Jaz?
Yes, close friends, and people who used to read the magazine.
Here are the best reader Qs er received
Back in the day Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway's music tracks a mind blowing part of gaming experience. Do you feel that game music today is as inspirational or do you think that as technology has advanced artists do not need to be so creative? - deanoz2
Back then you had to write your own player, program the SID chip to create voices, and then use those voices to make a tune (and do it all in a small amount of memory) - so you had to be both technically and artistically creative.
These days it's just about the artistry, because there are virtually no limits - you can use whatever instruments you want, or even vocals, and it's essentially all just recorded.
It's just about making a good piece of music, rather than figuring out how to push a tiny little 8-bit chip to new heights. What was different back then is that these people were pioneers and were doing something nobody had done before - and that made it very cool and exciting.
Did you (or do you) have a favourite piece of C64 music and do you ever check out the many fan-made remixes out there? - funkymonkey18
Crunchy 8-bit sounds are now a part of the musical landscape, and it's funny hearing some of the old stuff being recycled again since there's a new generation of people who've never really heard that stuff before.
Sure, some of it sounds a bit wobbly today, but that's part of the aural, lo-fi aesthetic. Delta, Platoon, Rambo, One Man and his Droid and Thrust are ones that spring to mind immediately as just really outstanding pieces of 8-bit music that are not only definitive sounds of their era, but have very much stood the test of time.
You have written tons of video game reviews, features, articles etc. Which one piece of writing are you most proud of? - JamieO
I think it's pretty apparent to the readers of any of the mags I've edited that we always used to have a lot of fun reviewing games, particularly the bad ones, where the team would try to out-do one another to find novel and entertaining ways of saying horrible things about some poor piece of software we took a particular umbridge to.
I can't really single out anything in particular I'm proud of - I tend to consider the magazines as a whole, rather than a sum of their parts, because they're put together by a team of people who are responsible for the thing collectively.
I definitely think ZZAP! 64 from 85-87 had a lot going for it, because we had a team that really gelled together, and the first two or so years of Mean Machines were packed full of funny stuff - again, because the team was full of very funny, creative people that loved what they did.
When that team was broken up and the magazine was split into Nintendo and Sega versions, neither were as good as the original because we lost that rapport and crazy competitive humour.
Have you still got Rad Automatic locked away in his basement? MrMoobs
Hehehe. I haven't seen him in a long while! The last time I heard about him he was working on Time Out. Funny, funny guy for sure.
Would it ever be possible to release a 'best of compilation' of classic gaming magazines? (ZZAP!64, C&VG;, Complete Guide to Consoles, Mean Machines, Nintendo Magazine System, Mean Machines Sega). JamieO
That would be a cool idea for sure. One day when I have the time, I'd love to put together some kind of online celebration of the olden days where people can come and reminisce on some kind of forum thingy.
Perhaps we could even get some of the original team to contribute, which could be a laff. But I just need to find the time, which I never have 'cos I'm too freakin' busy playing Warcraft...
Do you think modern games are as fun as the older ones, or have production values started to overshadow the gameplay somewhat? - peteuplink
Games have aged badly on the whole - which to me is a really good thing, because if the games were the same as they were 20 years ago, I wouldn't be playing them any more because I would have gotten bored of them.
That evolutionary process is key to keeping things fresh and interesting. Comparing today's games with ones from years ago is a little bit apples to oranges. But I think you can sort of judge them on a similar level by simply saying the best games from 20 years ago kept me enthralled and playing all night, and the best games today do exactly the same.
The technology might change, but the emotional experience and sheer sense of fun is the same as ever, and I'm really glad about that. And people still make really crap games, just like they did back then. The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems.
In regards production values - do we need a huge, rendered intro story? Do we need licensed music? Some people like it. Some people don't. But if the game itself is really cool and fun, then who cares? That's what it's all about at the end of the day - the game itself. We can argue whether the window dressing is necessary - but as long as the game itself rocks, it's all a moot point really.
Wasn't there a guy in your team called Gary Liddon that quit to start programming and develop games for Thalamus or something? How did it go? And are you still in contact with him or other members of the Zzap!64 staff? - gnokgnik
Gary was a very talented guy and was particularly good at helping programmers realise their vision by pushing them technically - they'd do something and he'd see a way of doing it even better.
It was that expertise that helped turn Thalamus into a publisher of truly great games - Delta, Sanxion and Hunter's Moon were all really good. I still occasionally hear from the original ZZAP team, just to say hello and whatnot.
Last but not least - this one's been asked a few times - when did the mullet go? CVG Gav
Hmmm. I think it was in 1994 that the thing that started as a Howard Jones haircut, but then became a Duran Duran 'do, then a Mohican, then a mullet, then el mullet supremo and finally a "90's ad exec ponytail" was finally all chopped off and became something much less crap and infinitely more sensible. Now I've got a "just pulled off my crash helmet" haircut, because I just did.
Top guy. Thanks to CVG for picking my question and thanks to Julian for answering. I'm a musician myself, and I believe I learnt a lot about chord structure and melody from the C64 days of listening to Hubbard and Galways music (Rob's story of how he wrote the Commando theme is pretty inspiring). It's too bad I don't play WOW, but if there is ever a ZZAP64 or Mean Machines type of reunion, I'm there!
Nice interview although bit miffed about his Amstrad comments. It was technically a very capable machine but sadly didn't get the software support due to early adopters of the two rival systems. In some of the classic 8 bit games from that era (Renegade, Op Wolf, Robocop, Cybernoid) you'll find the Amstrad had the superior version. NOTHING on C64 or Speccy looked as good as TRANTOR THE LAST STORMTROOPER coded by Dave Perry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz7RxwiYGIo
Still much respect for his legendary game journo status.
I knew the C64 was better than the Speccy. I loved them both but the 64 definately had the edge. A bit like the 360 over PS3 (laughs hysterically as he hides inside leadlined anti-fanboy bunker.)
Nah man, its totally true, I had a 64, my mate had a zx and then a third associate around the corner had an amstrad. He never got to be part of the discussion when we argued whose machine was superior, we tolerated his presence and that was pretty much it...
" It was sooo bad - it looked like a really crap paper mache model of a retarded Puff the Magic dragon made by a bunch of spectacularly ungifted three year olds. "
Nice to see Jaz hasn't lost his creative insulting abilities!
I'm not sure any modern games journo would come up with "A shambling mockery of a sad travesty."
WOW that’s taken me back. I had the very first C&VG and all the others in a pile for years but binned them in a move. Gutted! Here’s a great site to see all the old covers…
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/zzap10/eidolon.html
second link greta cartoon of the man himself!
I loved my Amstrad but I have to say the C64 felt more like a games machine and the games seemed to have a certain shine a bit like the old N64 compared to the PS1. Anybody know what I mean? The best bit about the Amstrad though was it’s built in tape deck. Ahhhh, those were the days.
just looking at the zzap site i posted earlier and some of the scoring is insane! it may just show how good the games were in those days though. lots of 97% and 98%.
"Impossible Mission" wow great game and great developer Epyx they did some cool stuff. Heres a link for all you fans of a classic... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aNdv0-gsHU Great artical CVG thanks Oh and for the record C64 ruled!!!
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