Do you remember the 8-bit videogaming heyday of the 1980s? Perhaps you also remember the neat little fanzines that were being produced at the time? While these fanzines were obviously not up to commercial standard–often photocopied black and white pages with very little in the way of images–they did convey a certain tone that was a welcome break from the glossy magazines on sale in the shops. Back in August 2016, James Ford ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to produce his very own fanzine covering the Amstrad CPC. As backers of the campaign, we have now been able to take a look at the first issue of Colour Personal Computer that was sent out this week.

On his Kickstarter campaign, James Ford told us that he had always wanted to create an Amstrad CPC fanzine, and with the recent resurgence of the 8-bit computer–with many new developments in both games and hardware–he felt that it was the perfect time to try once more. So Ford began working on a new fanzine called the Colour Personal Computer (which is what the CPC in Amstrad CPC stands for).

Colour Personal Computer harks back to those 1980s fanzine days with its A5 page size, black and white design, and its minimalistic 36 pages. While the layout is intentionally low-fi, the content is definitely not. Kicking off the zine is an article called Genesis that sets the tone for the first issue, and humourlessly retells the history of the Amstrad CPC computers. There are some fascinating hardware articles, but the highlight is seeing a new publication with game reviews–well, new homebrew game reviews. The cover feature is a review of the new adventure game Doomsday Lost Echoes, along with an interview with its developer. There are also articles on the C4CPC and Amstrad CPC coding tools, while other game highlights include reviews of A Prelude to Chaos, Jewel Warehouse, and Golden Tail.

Colour Personal Computer is not intended as a one-off production, either, as Ford is planning on making this a long term production with an issue being released quarterly. If any Amstrad CPC or, 8-bit gamer for that matter, managed to miss this great little fanzine first time around, it is still available from the CPCFanzine website. Not only that, but on the website, there is the opportunity to pre-order the forthcoming issue 2, or even go for a four-issue subscription special offer.

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