35 years ago, Sega rolled out its initial marketing campaign for its brand new mascot. It was bright and it was bold - and you really couldn't miss it. Sonic went from nobody knowing who he was to being the hottest topic of gaming conversations within just a few weeks.

Here's the decidedly pedestrian box art for this disk-only game. However, inside was a remarkable program that let you play out an entire life through seven major stages, making important decisions that you could have a huge impact on on your destiny. Absolutely fascinating.

40 years ago I was being wowed by Alter Ego, an offbeat but brilliant C64 icon-driven adventure in which you can live an entire life. Lots of key decisions and some really strange and unexpected outcomes - including being murdered or killed. Pretty brutal, but totally compelling.

35 years ago, with the Mega Drive officially out in Europe, Sega was discounting the trusty (and very successful) Master System. The console and Miracle World package was £140 in today's money; the plus pack a very reasonable £187. Games starting at £23 was pretty decent too.

Not only did Blockout not look that great in screenshots, its cover didn't exactly set your pulse racing either. One of those classic "don't judge a game by its cover" situations.

Here's a fun game I betcha didn't buy. Blockout was a bit dull on computers to be honest, and even on the Mega Drive it had pretty freakin' awkward controls. However, persevere with it, and you'll discover a really cool puzzler that has a surprisingly entertaining two-player head-to-head mode.

40 years ago it was snooze news. Amstrad's PC would soon launch, as would a new version of the Mac. Mirrorsoft and others showed products at the first UK CES Show at the Olympia, and Sinclair's repair and return service was rejiggled after Amstrad's buyout. Pretty dull stuff...

Here's the Chess Master review from this issue. This was a real classic for me. At a time when I was traveling all over the world (on planes, trains, and buses), Chess Master was the perfect game for when I wanted something to do, but didn't feel like playing a "real" video game.

Here's the Sonic preview from this issue. This is how many kids first learned about Sega's newest character.

35 years ago, Mean Machines featured this then unknown but soon-to-be-everywhere blue hedgehog. Top reviews: SNES Pilotwings (90%), Mega Drive Afterburner (90%), Game Boy TMNJ (88%) and Chess Master (96%), and SMS World Class Leaderboard (92%) and Galaxy Force (85%).

35 years ago, I was having a lot of fun with this platform-puzzler created by the legendary @PitfallCreator. As far as I know, it was the first video game to feature a fully controllable pet - which was able to shape-shift into a variety of extremely helpful forms. Great game!

Here's the game's title tune, which should give you an idea why we rated the sound so highly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gO...

35 years ago I was playing Software Creations' Solstice, an NES isometric 3D platform-puzzler presented in classic mid-80s Rare style. I was a big Rare fan back in the day and liked the game a lot, while Matt found its rock hard difficulty somewhat frustrating but still fun.

Posted a wrong page for this (from the prior month's programmer challenge). This is the correct third page.

40 years ago, ZZAP! held a staff challenge which included prior month's programmer challenge winner Jeff Minter. He chose Mama Llama to confound us, but I knew the game and had no problems with it, eventually emerging the winner ahead of the hairy one himself. Super fun day!

40 years ago, more Amstrad-Sinclair buyout details emerged, including why Sinclair employees were angry and the QL survival "seeming likely" (it wasn't). Meanwhile, Acorn was moving ahead with its RISC tech. Not seen as important at the time, but this was huge for the company.

35 years ago I was being totally blown away by F-Zero, which was both a brilliant game and a fantastic SNES demo. And before you start complaining, sometimes peoples' taste in music is different to yours. We weren't super-keen on the game's music. If you loved it, good for you!

Here's that Dr Who review. Interesting game. Certainly more so than the TV show of the era which was struggling as Colin Baker shapeshifted into Sylvester McCoy. It was taken off the air just a few years later before being successfully resurrected some two decades later.

40 years ago it was zombies ahoy on ZZAP!'s cover. Top reviews: Thrust (94%), PSI 5 Trading Company (88%), Alter Ego (98%), Dr Who and the Mines of Terror (86%), Super Bowl (90%), and Silent Service (88%). A really solid and varied selection of games, it must be said.

This is how we reviewed this flaming bag o' shite when we finally played it in late 1986. Which was some weeks after its release cos Ocean didn't send us a review copy because they knew it was utter garbage. No worries. It was only kids' pocket money they were thieving.

40 years ago, Ocean was advertising Knight Rider. As they had been since the prior year and would continue to do so until the game arrived in October. It was absolutely NOT worth the wait. Speccy version kinda humdrum - C64 and Amstrad versions were flaming bags o' shite.

There’s me book. Getting a third print no less. Probably not a bag o’ shite after all.

40 years ago, Amstrad bought Sinclair for just £5m. Which goes to show that you can produce a best-selling period computer and still totally eff up your biz. Meanwhile Acorn was still farting about with micros and didn't yet understand just how important its RISC chips would be for its business.

35 years ago, I wrote about an arcade game I'd been obsessively playing for weeks. No other magazine had mentioned it at this point, but I had a hunch that it was going to be big. But never did I realize just how big it was going to be. One of THE games of the 90s, no less!

40 years ago I was playing Thrust on C64, an exceptional £1.99 special from Firebird. It was basically a superb version of Atari's Gravitar coin-op that also had brilliant music - which was slightly effed up on our review version, hence the much lower score than it deserved.

40 years ago, ZZAP! published this map for Lucasfilm Games' The Eidolon, a very esoteric 3D exploration game for the Commodore 64. It was drawn by Oli Frey, who effectively captured the essence of the game with his depiction of its denizens. Just a really cool piece of art.

35 years ago, I wrote this YOB's Gossip page for Mean Machines. The list of celeb Game Boy players originated from America and was then added to by the Nintendo UK folks, creating a veritable period galaxy of stars who enjoyed using Nintendo's classic black and white handheld.

40 years ago, ZZAP! invited some of the best programmers of the day (Archer Maclean, Jeff Minter, Chris Butler, Tony Crowther, Andrew Braybrook) to play one another in contest using their own games (plus one chosen by the ZZAP team). Minter won, with Braybrook coming a close 2nd.

Here's the Atari ST Gods review from this issue. The Bitmap Bros combined audiovisual splendor and platform puzzling to excellent effect in this quality period platformer that featured interesting weapons and cool strategic-use potions.

40 years ago, concerns about heavily marketed but delayed games were raised. Ocean was especially guilty of this practice. Yet more Speccy games were found to be 128-incompatible, and the cost of a US Amiga fell, but remained £4,600 in today's money in the UK. Holy freakin' crap!

35 years ago, CVG featured this brilliant Snow Bros cover. Top reviews: SNES Actraiser (95%), PGA Tour Golf Mega Drive (91%) and Amiga (91%), ST Gods (93%), Eye of the Beholder Amiga (95%) and PC (96%), PCE Final Match Tennis (90%), and Ramparts Arcade (93%). Incredible variety!

This CVG April fool from 1990 caught out a lot of people. I cobbled together this fictitious peripheral out of random old bits from our junk box in the games room and then wrote this absolute nonsense. Sounded too good to be true - and it most certainly wasn't. Utter bollocks!

40 years ago, ZZAP! published this infamous April Fool about an astonishing new 3D C64 game that used the disk drive's CPU for extra processing horsepower. It was just screenshots and BS, but it fooled loads of people - including publishers who phoned us to find out more details!

I hope that fiver’s in the mail.

35 years ago, I was having a fun time with Mega Drive Midnight Resistance. The controls were a bit awkward, but great sound and plenty of action made this a pretty decent run-and-gunner. As long as you didn't play it on easy, of course, which really was a walk in the park with yer granny.

35 years ago, I was really enjoying Atari's Ramparts, an underappreciated arcade gem that is extremely difficult to play without the original coin-op's trackball. I'd also ridden my motorbike into work that day as you can tell from my grinning bollock helmet hair. Lol.

Great time at the Bournemouth Gaming Market. Finally got hold of @jazrignall.bsky.social’s book. Beautifully garnished and definitely not a cack sandwich.

35 years ago, it was still a year before the SNES would be released in Europe. However, Advance Console Entertainment were one of numerous importers bringing Japanese Super Famicoms into the UK. This distributor also offered an advanced color mode mod that I know nothing about, so don't ask.

40 years ago, Commodore announced the Amiga 1000 would hit stores on May 9th but didn't say which stores and how much it would cost. It turned out to be a tiny number of dealers and hugely expensive. It was basically a stopgap until the Amiga 500 finally arrived 12 months later.

35 years ago, Mega Drive shooters were ten a penny. The market was saturated, and there were still plenty more to come. Because of this, we were becoming somewhat jaded, but Darius II piqued our interest. Sure, it wasn't the greatest, but it was smooth, slick, and packed a BIG challenge.

Here are the Actraiser tips we published in the issue below to coincide with our review. Considering it was an import game and had quite a bit of Japanese in it, we thought all the stuff we'd figured out through trial and error might be useful to you readers. You're welcome.

Here's that Revenge of the Gator review from the issue below. A pretty early Game Boy game and a bit of a hidden gem in my book as it was generally overlooked at the time. Still a really fun pinball game with some entertaining secrets and bonuses to unlock.

35 years ago Mean Machines featured this brilliant Simpsons cover. Top reviews: Mega Drive PGA Tour Golf (91%), Game Boy Revenge of the Gator (91%), SNES Actraiser (91%), NES Rad Gravity (82%), and SMS R-Type (92%). Something good for every system, which is what we like to see.

35 years ago, CVG reviewed SNES Actraiser. I'd already reviewed it in Mean Machines and thought it was great, and the CVG team echoed that opinion. It really was terrific, combining different gameplay elements and top-tier audiovisuals to deliver unique gaming experience. Brilliant!

35 years ago, Eye of the Beholder helped continue the evolution of the RPG formula. The 1987 real-time Dungeon Master had been the prior benchmark. This game featured an improved UI, higher degree of NPC interaction, and far better party customization. A real milestone RPG.

40 years ago, there was news about Amstrad's cheapo PC. More interestingly, Sinclair confirmed his Pandora portable would launch in '87 (it became the Z88), there were early phishing scams happening on Prestel, and Exploding Fist was confirmed as the top-selling game of 1985.

This 35-year-old chart is grim reading. Just two 16-bit games selling big while almost everything else is 8-bit budget stuff. Kids were switching to consoles, resulting in a huge revenue decline for the UK games biz - which was later compounded by rampant 16-bit piracy. Not good!

35 years ago, Mean Machines reviewed the then two-year-old SMS version of Galaxy Force. While the original coin-op was all graphics and little gameplay, the SMS version was fettled and tweaked to deliver a really fun 3D shooter that was far better than it had any right to be!

Here's that Zoids review. An absolutely bonkers game, it must be said. Essentially an incredibly detailed Zoids combat simulation in which you drove a Zoid around engaging in strategic battles with other Zoids. All icon-driven and very esoteric.

40 years ago, Datel's Sound Sampler music feature inspired this ZZAP! "Wild Boys" cover. The only big review was Zoids (96%). And no. Not overrated. Yes, it way too weird/esoteric for kids, but many older players appreciated its cleverness and complexities. Other than that, a poor month for games.