Personal Computer Games


Personal Computer Games was a multi-format UK computer games magazine of the early/mid-1980s published by VNU.

History

Personal Computer Games was launched in July 1983.
The magazine was part of VNU and had its headquarters in London. The second issue was published on 28 October 1983 with the magazine going monthly from February 1984.
Computer coverage at the time were mainly consisted of the Spectrum, C64 and the BBC Micro, although there were others featured such as Atari 8-bit, Electron, Vic 20 and the newly released Amstrad CPC.
The February 1985 issue was the last of the magazine. Chris Anderson and Bob Wade went on to launch the Commodore 64 magazine Zzap!64.

Screen Test

One of the sections of the magazine was the 'Screen Test' pages where the latest games were reviewed. The PCG Panel, who voiced their opinions on the games reviews, consisted of the PCG staff plus several contributions from readers. The review was laid out with an explanation of the gameplay and then three opinions from the reviewers were given in boxouts at the end. PCG Ratings were out of ten, with a score giving to the graphics, sound, originality, lasting interest and the overall score.

Game of the Month

The highest accolade awarded by Personal Computer Games was the "Game of the Month", issue 1 did not have a Game of the Month. Issue 2's Game of the month was actually called the "Screen Star" award.
In February 1984 PCG gave away a cover-mounted FlexiDisc containing game data that could be transferred to cassette. These included free programs for the Vic 20, Spectrum, BBC and Dragon 32/64 computers.