THE NEWSFIELD YEARS

'The Newsfield Years' focuses on the complete story of Newsfield Publications, the publishers behind some of the most influential group of magazines in the 8 bit 80s. Featuring in-depth interviews with Roger Kean, Matthew Uffindell, Oliver Frey and Franco Frey the film focuses on the remarkable impact it had through its publications such as Crash, Zzap!64 and Amtix, featuring very open accounts of how they were created right through to Newsfield's demise in the early 1990s. The film explores how they dealt with the early days of getting their magazines into the Newsagents, the 'Unclear User' legal battle, developing a comic strip, their journalists becoming celebrities, resisting incredible pressure from Games Publishers for positive reviews as they knew they could literally make or break a game's success and the stunning artwork of Oliver Frey.

[Therealwenders]

I was a Spectrum owner and I bought Crash and occasionally ZZAP 64 as I absolutely loved reading these magazines. They were fresh & exciting and I loved Oliver Frey's artwork. I must have been unusual then as I was a 14 year old girl not a boy lol!

[JETJOOBOY]

Brilliant!

I was one of the Very Few that Received a Copy of "Unclear User"!!!

It was on holiday and hours later they had snipped out the section with Pinking Shears!

[ufcbrains]

I lived in the USA and had to go to special news stands to buy this UK magazine. But it was well worth it, I used to love reading these.

[Rhdan]

Trip down memory lane, Zzap '64 was full of energy and witty humor anbd in my opinion still stands far, far above any magazine that came after. We'll miss you guys. If you ever think of relaunching ( for a different platform ofcourse) using the same format, I'll subscribe, instantly.

[griffin]

Beautifully made, and a lovely bittersweet tale. Very fond memories of the magazines that these men made.

[itsaPIXELthing]

Good old days ;)
Not all of those publications were available here in Portugal, nonetheless I devoured almost every single Zzap!64 and Crash magazines!
Thanks for the memories!

[WaypointComics]

Fantastic. Living half way around the world (New Zealand), Zzap 64 gave me a real feeling of being connected to the gaming community. It was a 'friend' to look forward to catching up with every month and reinforced the very British influenced outlook kids had in New Zealand was back then. Glad I've still kept all mine though I've read them so many times, many covers are clinging on for dear life! Thanks for this doco, would love to hear from Rignall and Penn one day via a video doc. cheers.

[villenium]

Can't believe I threw issue one of Crash away when I moved house. I'm so nostalgic for it now. Great trip down memory lane with this video.

[RetroDawn]

How does this not have more views? Same reason I didn't know this existed until just now! This needs to be promoted!

[adroharv]

great times these not to be repeated. The machines and these magazines shaped a number of folk in ways you can't really do now. A great lesson in how less is most certainly more regards to the games themselves too

[davedogge]

Oliver Frey and his amazing Zzap 64 covers .. amazing. He did Terminal Man the comic also right ? 16:15 yeah he did

[johnny]

Julian Rignall, Robin Candy and Gary Penn were like rockstars to us young kids !
I think everyone who bought Crash! wanted to work for Newsfield. Their enthusiasm just shone through in what they did.

[goldblatalex]

its been around 30 years ago i waited without patient to the Zzap64 magazines and of course loaded the awesome games in Tape they put as a bonus (like previews of new game) . fantastic days of my youth. thanks you very much Zzap64 makers for doing the absolutly best games magazine ever made since the 80s up to this day. totally miss the good ol' days, last but not least stunning & exciting Artwork by Oli Frey !! always was great reading!!

[fluffymatthew]

I was working in Ludlow at a games developer in the early nighties, so we got to know a few people at Newsfield, I even went to the Newsfield Christmas party in around 1991/1992. Happy days!

[madcommodore]

R.I.P. Oli and Roger, such pioneers :(

[BtanTyronne]

Wonderful thing to watch and I still have my Christmas edition of Zzap 64 where I wrote in and got a letter printed, they spelt my first name wrong but then I did not care as I was in Zzap :)

[hucknalllad]

Wow - never thought I'd be famous - Name in lights at 15:33 - High score on ACE - Bruce Wood, Harworth

[johnpeelslovechild]

Kelvin Gosnell = Tharg the Mighty. Mind blown.

[davidborisfernandezsharp]

Brilliant, I used to be first at my newsagents for Zzap 64 !

[kernzyp]

FKN AWESOME !
Makes me fuzzy inside....! :)