In a move not entirely in keeping with the minimal public profile cultivated and maintained by this website over the course of the last twenty years, eschewing all media interest in favour of focusing all our energies on keeping our seven readers happy, we recently received – and accepted – a very kind invitation to […]

“PC Zone’s Alive!?” Yes, it is, and it’s with that exclamation from Brian Blessed, grabbed from the Zone archives and neatly repurposed as part of the introductory jingle, that the greatest PC magazine of the 1990s returns, this time in podcast form. It’s all down to the sterling efforts of ex-Deputy Editor Richie Shoemaker (occasionally […]

It’s Part 8, and from the bright and breezy complacency of the mid-00s, we come to 2008: the era of Mock the Week and the global financial crisis. Part 8: 2008-10 – The Bitter End Just as I was getting used to the new Zone family (I blame the mildly disturbing Zone Christmas card from […]

We’re into the penultimate part of our history of PC Zone magazine. Having missed a significant chunk of it out (sorry), we rejoin Zone in the mid-late 00s. Part 7: 2006-2007 – A Bright Future Sadly, I can’t tell you much about Zone between 2003-2005. I never bought or read the magazine, and I can’t […]

We’re into part 6 of our history of PC Zone. Here are the previous instalments, if you haven’t read them already. This is the part where those looking forward to detailed coverage of the magazine during the early-mid 00s are likely to be disappointed. Part 6: 2002-2005 – The Zone-less Years I think I bought […]

2000: the year in which Silverchair said they’d make it up to us. Did they ever get around to it? I’m not sure. Whatever am I talking about? Never mind, we’re into part 5 of our history of PC Zone magazine, so let’s get on with that. Part 5: 2000-2001 – Reality Check At some […]

Part 4 of our history of PC Zone, and we’re into 1998: past the peak of the 90s, but still, to my mind, a vaguely optimistic time. Okay, so Britpop was dead and Be Here Now was rubbish, but we still lived in hope that England might win the World Cup and The Phantom Menace […]

We’re onto part 3 of our history of PC Zone (part 1, part 2) and it’s getting to the point in the 90s where one of those nostalgic TV documentaries about Cool Britannia (which I would try – but fail – to resist watching) might focus its attention: Britpop, Euro ’96, Tony Blair and the […]

Welcome to part 2 of our history of PC Zone (part 1 here, if you missed it). This time, we’re into the mid-90s, and what many consider the era of peak Zone. This is around the time that I started reading, too (my first issue was Zone 24, March 1995, with Dark Forces on the […]

Earlier in the year, we had a request from our reader Nick, who asked if we might consider a feature on old PC magazines. Although there were quite a few around at various points in the 90s, there’s really only one that we could ever really write about. PC Zone magazine may not be familiar […]