He who controls the Spice, controls the universe!

Sadly, the only spice that Richie Shoemaker has any influence over are the chilli flakes that make it onto his Lidl pizza. Not enough to control much of anything really, but just enough to be able to summon Rhianna Pratchett, Mark Hill, Martin Korda and Keith Pullin (PC Zone’s one time staff writer, news editor, section editor and Dear Keith respectively) to talk about their contributions to PC Zone circa June 2001.

As well as cover game Emperor: Battle for Dune, the team talk about the games they reviewed but can’t remember playing, dealing with reader’s dirty phone calls and dressing up for issue 103’s iconic stealth game Supertest.

You can access issue 103 of PC Zone at archive.org or download the full set of PC Zone issues and supplements from pixsoriginadventures.co.uk.

More stories from beyond the games at pczonelives.co.uk

A more traditional podcast format for the sixth episode of PC Zone Lives, where instead of trying – and often failing – to get a virtual room full of people to remember a very specific time in PC Zone history, your amiable host goes through one person’s entire Zone-infused CV. For this first audio Oi!, Richie chats with Vici MacDonald, a freelance designer who worked on the very first issues of PC Zone and who later oversaw the extensive 1998 redesign that saw PC Zone reclaim its rightful spot at the top of the UK PC games mag hit parade.

As well as her time as a globetrotting music journalist on Smash Hits, Vici remembers the life of her celebrated brother Duncan MacDonald - PC Zone’s immortal Mr. Cursor and legend of both Your Sinclair and Zero. Duncan sadly died in 2017, but not before writing South Coast Diaries, which Vici helped publish and you should absolutely read if you were ever a fan of Duncan’s work.

Note: If you’re yet to read South Coast Diaries, you may experience one or two minor spoilers during the episode, but none that should diminish your enjoyment of the book when you inevitably get around to reading it. Which you will, won’t you!

More stories from beyond the games at pczonelives.co.uk

PC Zone was the UK’s first games-only PC magazine. You know this because, (a) we don’t shut up about it, and, (b) it was plastered above the masthead when the first issue was delivered way back in March 1993 (so it must be true).

But, did you also know that PC Zone was conceived as early as 1991? You’ll know this because Your Sinclair and Zero legend Teresa Maughan talks about the difficult gestation and much more besides in this episode of PC Zone Lives.Also joining Richie Shoemaker to remember PC Zone in utero are launch editor Paul Lakin and art editor Duncan Hemphill, both veterans of PCZ precursor Game Zone magazine.

Completing the line-up is PC Zone’s long-serving publisher Tim Ponting, who after being lured away from Zero to work on a “proper magazine”, took over from the Mother of PC Zone when she snuck off to have real babies soon after the magazine had its arse smacked.

If you need to remind of yourself of just what a beautiful baby the launch issue of PC Zone turned out to be, check out archive.org.

More stories from beyond the games at pczonelives.co.uk