During most of the 90’s the only readily available source of information for many PC gamers like myself were video gaming magazines. The first of these to purely focus on PC games in the UK was PC Zone which started up in April 1993 and ran for about 250 issues until September 2010. The reviews were irreverent and laddish but largely reliable if you wanted a guide of what was worth spending your pennies on. The quality waned after a while but it was by far my favourite of the available magazines in the 90’s.
I’d seen numerous requests for PC Zone scans on the web since then but there was precious little available. I’ve made liberal use of other people’s old magazine scans and wanted to contribute in return so a year or two back I came up with the ambitious and unlikely aim of getting a complete set of scans and cover discs together up to the end of 2001. As so often with this sort of project my interest ultimately waned but with help I did get about half of them done. The site hosting all of these has gone down since then and I’d hate for them not to be available somewhere so I’ve dumped them onto my webserver for anyone who wants them. I may add more issues at a later date but if any reader wants to take up the baton in the meanwhile then any additions would be gratefully received.
Excellent stuff, I’ve been looking for scans of this classic magazine for a while now!
Oh man, I couldn’t even have dreamed of this, 90’s issues of PCZ at long last! I’m so glad I swing by your site every now and then (also started playing x-wing a few weeks ago, heh)
I looked into scanning of magazines and can now safely say that I can contribute issue 41 and 44 of 1996, the only physical copies I still have. no41 is done.
I’d sure like more 1993-94 though… 🙂
Great stuff especially since I’m missing #44. Send me a link when you are done and I will add them on.
Nice to see some interest in this project again. I think it’s enough motivation to start some scanning of my own.
Thanks so much for putting these up – I’ve been looking for some of these for years!
I managed to get three old issues from eBay a while back – two you already have, however I can scan May 1995 if you don’t have it already 🙂
Thanks for the offer. Not sure if I have that one without checking but I definitely don’t have it scanned in so it would help out if you fancy the job.
OK, will take a look as soon as I have the scanner up and running again!
Hi,
Good work on the scans.
Do you have copies dated 2005 onwards?
I am looking for a certain picture in one of the multiplayer sections for counter strike source.
Cheers.
I’ve got all the 2005 issues + a couple of the 2006 ones and then nothing later than that. I can have a look for this picture if you can let me know exactly what it is you are after.
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply, I forgot all about this.
What it is is that there was a picture of me playing counter Strike Source. It showed me holding a couple of pistols I think, and I must have been playing with or against some PC Zone people. My friend doesnt believe that I was in the magazine, so just want to prove him wrong.
Would be brilliant if you have the mag with it in.
Cheers
I’m guessing it would have been in the online gaming section from your description. Those stopped in about mid 2005 and I had a look from Jan 2005 on but couldn’t spot anything that looked like it matched the description. There are bits on Counterstrike and/or photos of gamers in just about every issue. The odds are I have it somewhere but I’d need a lot more to go on.
Hi,
If I am remembering right, the screenshot was from my view, like when you die, you can view the remaining players from there viewing perspective. At the time I was holding Dual Berettas, or maybe two small machine guns, like uzi’s perhaps. And I remember my gaming name “Aradax” was clearly visble in the screenshot.
Wiki says CCS was released Nov 2004, so thats why I think the screenshot was sometime in 2005…..
Hope this helps….
Cheers.
I think I found it. Try https://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/aradax.rar
On a side note, I joined Steam on the 16 November, 2004.
So there may be the possibility it was in Nov / Dec 04 mag, but I dont think so.
Thats it !, You are an absolute gem !!!!!! Thank you very very much.
Which issue was it in, I may try and get a copy off ebay. 🙂
Thanks again ! 🙂
ɅЯɅĐɅХ
It’s from April 2005. I thought I might have a spare copy but you are out of luck. It should be cheap enough on Ebay if you can find it.
Great, I will have a look for one.
Thanks for your time and effort on this. Really appreciated.
Pix can you do me a HUGE favour and take a look at your 2002 copies for a motorcycle racing sim that was featured on one of the demo discs? It doesn’t belong to the long-running Moto GP series and I have not found any information about it after years of searching for it on the internet.
I had the demo installed at one point and my strongest memory about the game was that it had hilariously brutal ragdoll rider physics.
The only one that gets a mention in the CD pages of the magazines is Moto Racer 3 but if you were getting the dvd versions then they threw all sorts of other demos on those.
Thanks for making the effort Pix. It’s not Moto Racer 3 though.
Pingback: Puns, Promises and Poppycock: A Brief History Of Sim Ads | Rock, Paper, Shotgun
This is grand! I got some scans a couple of years ago, and I’m at work now so I’m not sure exactly how many of these I already had, but the list seems a lot longer than mine! And it’s got all the goodie late 90s bits too!
Wish someone made a magazine sized tablet
Thank you! This brings back so many beautiful childhood memories! Really appreciate the effort. The PC Review ones are awesome too!
Do you have PC Zone issue 13 by any chance. It was the one that had the review of Doom. This was the first issue I ever had (I don’t have it anymore). Would love a scan for that one if possible.
Sorry, I have 12 and 14 but am missing that one.
🙂 No worries. I remember issue 14 too. If my memory doesn’t fail me, that was the one that had Battle Isle 2 and Overkill demos on the cover disks. If you ever plan to scan some of those 1994 issues, it would be truly appreciated.
I’ll move #14 to the top of the list once I get the handful I’ve already pulled out to scan done. The intention is to get all of these done eventually but they tend to get scanned in short bursts as time/enthusiasm allows so progress is usually extremely slow.
thanks you for the upload, very great work ^^
i have been looking for a long time the issue that had the review of Little Big Adventure, i think is December 1994, on the cover there is Magic Carpet. Anyone has it? it would be great to find it.
Yes, I’ve got that one. I just haven’t scanned it in yet. Is it only the LBA review you want?
hi, yes it would be great ^^ also there was the walkthrough of System Shock on the issue (i bought the magazine for that
reason). Little Big Adventure and System Shock are still my favourite games.
The LBA review is at https://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/LBA.rar.
I played the floppy version of this at the time but it’s been that long I don’t remember it all that well. The main thing that sticks in my head now is that it was the first commercial game I played in SVGA. I really should give it another look sometime.
thank you so much! I have been looking for this last 3-4 years. I remembered almost all the words ^^ it was great to read again these pages. If you play the game i think
it’s better the Cd version, there is the amazing soundtrack and the videos.
Thanks again!
Hi,
Just a not to say thank you for all the hard work – it’s a real treasure trove of scans!
I sadly lost all my early ’90s PCZones when my garage got flooded a few years back.
I had planned to put issue 1 and the final issue into a frame and hang it up in my ‘man cave’.
Is there any chance you would be able to rescan the cover of issue 1 to get all of it in, so that I can print it and frame it?
It would be awesome if you could!
Terri
Sorry, someone else scanned that one. The first one I ever bought was #3 and I don’t have a hardcopy of the first two.
Do you have or know the June to December 1997 issues of PC Zone? Whichever one that had this cover. https://tcrf.net/images/b/b5/SiN-pczcover.png
I’m missing June and September, one of which must be that one as I don’t recognise the cover.
This is beyond awesome. I was a PCZ reader from issue 1 and had a subscription for years. I even had a letter published and sent them a review I’d written of Grand Theft Auto (the first one) in the hope of landing a job when I left school! Thank you for being what I think is the only place on the web where these back issues can be found. I would be very happy to hunt down / add / mirror any issues if you do want some help, by the way.
Thank you so much for scanning and hosting these. Very enjoyable trips down memory lane