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58-407: The shareware version included the "Fantasy" table and nonplayable versions of "Blood", "Snooker Champ", and "Odyssey" in which the plunger does not work. There are also two tables which appear in the later released Silverball Plus 2 , as well a bonus table that could be ordered for free when purchasing Silverball directly from Epic MegaGames. Computer Gaming World stated that "the ball's action

116-629: A Chicago publishing house. Ziff's first venture in magazine publishing was Ziff's Magazine , which featured short stories, one-act plays, humorous verse, and jokes. The title was changed to America's Humor in April 1926. Bernard George Davis was the student editor of the University of Pittsburgh 's humor magazine, the Pitt Panther , and was active in the Association of College Comics of

174-589: A circulation of 100,000 in 1929. The magazine's title became Aeronautics in June 1929 and the publishing company's name became Aeronautical Publications, Inc. The title was changed back to Popular Aviation in July 1930. The magazine became Flying in 1942 and is still published today by the Bonnier Corporation . The magazine celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2017. The company histories normally give

232-510: A contributor in 1983), became editor-in-chief, although Sipe remained as publisher. In 1993, Sipe sold the magazine to Ziff Davis —by then the magazine was so thick that a reader reported that the December issue's bulk slowed a thief who had stolen a shopping bag containing it —but continued on as publisher until 1995. The magazine kept growing through the 1990s, with the December 1997 issue weighing in at 500 pages. In January 1999, Wilson left

290-620: A decline in revenue. In 2006, Ziff announced it would be refocused as Games for Windows , before moving it to solely online format, and then shutting down completely later the same year. In 1979, Russell Sipe left the Southern Baptist Convention ministry. A fan of computer games, he realized in Spring, 1981 that no magazine was dedicated to computer games. Although Sipe had no publishing experience, he formed Golden Empire Publications in June and found investors. He chose

348-604: A display advertising network oriented towards consumer electronics and technology publishers, from ImPowered. Also in 2013, Ziff Davis acquired TechBargains.com, a deal aggregation site for consumer electronics. In 2014, Ziff Davis acquired eMedia Communications from Reed Business Information . In December 2014, Ziff Davis acquired Ookla, owner of Speedtest.net . In 2015, Ziff Davis acquired Offers.com an online source of offers, deals, coupons, coupon codes, promos, free trials, and more. In October 2016, Ziff Davis entered into an agreement to acquire Everyday Health . The deal

406-419: A domestic content management system. The common CMS lets oversea editions get content from Ziff Davis' owned-and-operated markets and re-purpose it for their own editions. To establish itself in foreign markets, Ziff Davis asks its local partner to hold events. Popular past events include IGN Convention Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. In November 2018, employees from Mashable, PCMag, AskMen, and Geek.com formed

464-490: A few issues. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel was the art director of the comics line; other notable creators who worked for Ziff-Davis Comics included John Buscema , Sid Greene , Bob Haney , Sam Kweskin , Rudy Lapick , Richard Lazarus , Mort Leav , Paul S. Newman , George Roussos , Mike Sekowsky , Ernie Schroeder , and Ogden Whitney . In 1953, the company mostly abandoned comics, selling its most popular titles—the romance comics Cinderella Love and Romantic Love ,

522-447: A guest appearance by Erik Wolpaw , formerly of Old Man Murray . For many years, CGW never assigned scores to reviews, preferring to let readers rate their favorite games through a monthly poll. Scores were finally introduced in 1994, but beginning in April 2006, CGW stopped assigning quantifiable scores to its reviews. In May of the same year, CGW changed the name of its review section to "Viewpoint", and began evaluating games on

580-439: A major publisher of computer and Internet-related publishing. It acquired PC Magazine in 1982, and the trade journal MacWEEK in 1988. In 1991, the company initiated ZiffNet, a subscription service that offered computing information to users of CompuServe . This grew into the news website ZDNet , launched in late 1994. In 1995 it initiated the magazine Yahoo! Internet Life , initially as ZD Internet Life . The magazine

638-528: A more diverse combination of factors than a its content. Elements considered include the communities' reaction to a game, developers' continued support through patches, and whether a game's online component continued to grow. The reviews were formerly based on a simple five-star structure, with five stars marking a truly outstanding game, and one star signalling virtual worthlessness. Three games, Postal² by Robert Coffey, Mistmare by Jeff Green, and Dungeon Lords by Denice Cook "...form an unholy trinity of

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696-438: A number of other pulp magazines and, later, digest-sized fiction magazines during the 1940s and 1950s, and continued to publish Amazing and Fantastic until 1965. Ziff-Davis published comic books during the early 1950s, operating by their own name and also the name Approved Comics . Eschewing superheroes , they published horror , crime , sports, romance , and Western comics , though most titles did not last more than

754-523: A quarterly newsletter called Computer Game Forum (CGF), which was published during the off-months of CGW . The newsletter never became popular; only two issues were published before it was cancelled. Some of CGF's content became part of CGW , which became a monthly. The magazine went through significant expansion starting in 1991, with page counts reaching 196 pages by its 100th issue, in November 1992. During that same year, Johnny Wilson (who started as

812-473: A separate company known as Consensus. Following the split, J2 rebranded as Ziff Davis, Inc. In 2023, Ziff Davis acquired Lifehacker for an undisclosed sum from G/O Media . On February 6, 2024, employees at IGN publicly announced their intention to unionize as the IGN Creators Guild with NewsGuild-CWA . Ziff Davis voluntarily recognized the union later that month. On May 21, 2024, it

870-550: A sister magazine to Computer Gaming World , entitled PC Gaming World , in the United Kingdom. It was the region's third-largest computer game magazine by August 2000. In 1998, journalist Stuart Campbell described PC Gaming World as a publication with a predominantly American bent, thanks to its "sober, serious, text-heavy style". He considered it to be out of step with the British game audience. Campbell later called

928-450: A technology-themed television network . From 1999 through 2000, as part of an effort to restructure Ziff-Davis Inc, SoftBank would sell ZDTV to Paul Allen 's Vulcan Inc. which would later be renamed to TechTV , and spin off ZD and ZDNet. It also sold its magazine division to Willis Stein & Partners L.P. for $ 780 million. In July 2000, CNET Networks agreed to acquire Ziff-Davis Inc. for $ 1.6 billion in stock. The combined company

986-741: A total of 7438 pages covering 11 years of gaming. The archive was created by Stephane Racle, of the Computer Gaming World Museum, and is available in PDF format . Every issue was processed through optical character recognition , which enabled the creation of a 3+ million word master index. Although Ziff Davis has taken its CGW Archive site offline, the magazines can be downloaded from the Computer Gaming World Museum. CGW featured reviews, previews, news, features, letters, strategy, and columns dealing with computer games . While console games are occasionally touched on, these are primarily

1044-493: A union with the NewsGuild of New York. The Ziff Davis Creators Guild finalized its first contract in June 2021. In 2019, Ziff Davis acquired Spiceworks , a professional network for the information technology industry. In 2020, Ziff Davis acquired RetailMeNot for $ 420 million, an aggregator of coupon offers across multiple website properties. In April 2021, J2 Global announced plans to spin off its cloud fax business as

1102-425: Is a bit strange", behaving like rubber instead of steel. The magazine concluded that " Silverball ranks high for those who don't mind the unrealistic ball action". This pinball -based video game article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Computer Gaming World Computer Gaming World ( CGW ) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of

1160-561: Is now an independent company named Ziff Davis Enterprise Group (ZDE). On March 5, 2008, Ziff Davis Media Inc. announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to restructure its debt and operations. and emerged, after a court supervised corporate restructuring in July 2009. In conjunction with this announcement they also stated that they are discontinuing their print copy of PC Magazine. According to BtoBonline , Ziff Davis Media made an agreement with an ad hoc group of noteholders, who will provide $ 24.5 million to fund

1218-466: The Origins Award for Best Professional Adventure Gaming Magazine of 1987 . The New York Times repeatedly praised CGW, placing it as one of the premier computer game publications of its time. In 1997 the newspaper called it "the leading computer game magazine", In 1999 "the bible of computer game purists", and in 2005 "one of the top computer game magazines". Ziff Davis also published

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1276-420: The April 1938 issues. Radio News was published until 1972. The magazine Popular Electronics , derived from Radio News , was begun in 1955 and published until 1985. Amazing Stories was a leading science fiction magazine and Ziff Davis soon added a new companion, Fantastic Adventures (FA). In 1954 FA was merged into the newer magazine Fantastic , founded in 1952 to great initial success. ZD published

1334-592: The East. During his senior year he attended the association's convention and met William B. Ziff. When Davis graduated in 1927 he joined Ziff as the editor of America's Humor . Ziff, who had been an aviator in World War I , created Popular Aviation in August 1927 that was published by Popular Aviation Publishing Company of Chicago, Illinois. Under editor Harley W. Mitchell it became the largest aviation magazine, with

1392-562: The GFW Radio Penny Arcade Expo reunion, Jeff Green claimed that the deal with Microsoft allowed CGW/GFW to continue operating, and that if it had not occurred, Ziff Davis would have shut down CGW . Simultaneously with the release of the final CGW issue, Ziff Davis announced the availability of the CGW Archive, which features complete copies of the first 100 issues of CGW , as well as the two CGF issues, for

1450-557: The URLs of Ziff Davis. Ziff Davis Media Inc. gained thereby the online content licensing rights to 11 publications, including PC Magazine , CIO Insight , and eWEEK , webpage of industry insider Spencer Katt. In July 2007, Ziff Davis Media announced the sale of its enterprise (B2B or business-to-business) division to Insight Venture Partners . The sale included all B2B publications, which include eWeek , Baseline, and CIOinsight, and all related online properties. The enterprise division

1508-617: The Western Kid Cowboy , and the jungle adventure Wild Boy of the Congo —to St. John Publications . Ziff-Davis continued to publish one title, G.I. Joe , until 1957, a total of 51 issues. From 1958, under the direction of sole owner Bill Ziff Jr., a polymath with a photographic memory , Ziff-Davis became a successful publisher of enthusiast magazines, purchasing titles like Car and Driver , and tailoring content for enthusiasts as well as purchasing agents ("brand specifiers");

1566-459: The Ziff Davis, Inc. name and "ZD" ticker symbol , essentially converting the Ziff Davis purchase into a reverse merger . The William B. Ziff Company , founded in 1920, was a successful Chicago advertising agency that secured advertising from national companies such as Procter & Gamble for virtually all African American weekly newspapers. In 1923, Ziff acquired E. C. Auld Company,

1624-470: The acquisition of Ziff Davis Inc. as the "first step in building a new digital media company that specializes in producing and distributing content for consumers making important buying decisions." On November 12, 2012, Ziff Davis Inc., was acquired by cloud computing services company J2 Global for $ 167 million cash. According to an October 2015 Fortune article, Ziff Davis comprised 30% of parent company J2 Global's $ 600 million annual revenue in 2014 and

1682-443: The business, serial purchased logicbuy.com, geek.com, computershopper.com, toolbox.com, and Focus Research. Focus Research was a major provider of online research to enterprise buyers and high-quality leads to IT vendors, operating ITManagement.com, ITSecurity.com, VOIP-News.com and InsideCRM.com. It was later renamed to Ziff Davis B2B Focus and operated as a stand-alone unit within Ziff Davis. On November 16, 2012, Great Hill sold

1740-407: The cancellation of Official PlayStation Magazine . They cited a lack of interest in the magazine (and its demo disk) due to digital distribution. OPM had begun in 1997. In 2001, the new company Ziff Davis Media Inc. , a partnership of Willis Stein & Partners and James Dunning (former Ziff Davis CEO, chairman, and president), made an agreement with CNET Networks Inc. and ZDNet to acquire

1798-513: The company to J2 Global, a provider of cloud services. The purchase price was $ 175 million, approximately 2.9 times the estimated 2013 revenue. J2 Global actually paid $ 167 million in an all-cash deal. On February 4, 2013, Ziff Davis acquired IGN Entertainment from News Corporation . Soon afterward, Ziff Davis announced the discontinuation of the 1UP.com , UGO.com , and GameSpy.com sites in order to "[focus] on our two flagship brands, IGN and AskMen". In 2013, Ziff Davis acquired NetShelter,

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1856-427: The company was able to attract advertising money that other, general-interest publications were losing. In 1958, Ziff-Davis began publishing a magazine, HiFi and Music Review , for the growing hobby of high fidelity equipment. Ultimately, the magazine evolved into Stereo Review . ZD also became a prolific publisher of photography and boating magazines during this period, and such magazines as Modern Bride ; after

1914-527: The company was predominantly a publisher of hobbyist magazines. The company was founded by William B. Ziff Company publisher Bill Ziff Sr. with Bernard Davis. Upon Bill Ziff's death in 1953, William B. Ziff Jr. , his son, returned from Germany to lead the company. In 1958, Bernard Davis sold Ziff Jr. his share of Ziff Davis to found Davis Publications, Inc.; Ziff Davis continued to use the Davis surname as Ziff-Davis. Throughout most of Ziff Davis' history, it

1972-434: The company's operations and help plan the restructuring. In June 2010, Boston private equity firm, Great Hill Partners, purchased Ziff Davis, with online media executive Vivek Shah. At the time, Ziff Davis properties consisted of PCMag.com, ExtremeTech, GearLog, GoodCleanTech, DLtv, AppScout, CrankyGeeks, Smart Device Central and TechSaver.com, and reached over 7 million users a month. Shah, with intentions of revitalizing

2030-456: The entire staff will be transferred to the new magazine. Because of these announcements, Ziff Davis' actions appeared more on the order of a rebranding of CGW , rather than an actual cancellation. The final CGW -labeled issue was November 2006, for a total of 268 published editions. On April 8, 2008, 1UP Network announced the print edition of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine had ceased, and that all content would be moved online. At

2088-465: The few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983 , it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through the 1990s and became one of the largest dedicated video game magazines, reaching around 500 pages by 1997. In the early 2000s its circulation was about 300,000, only slightly behind the market leader PC Gamer . But, like most magazines of the era, the rapid move of its advertising revenue to internet properties led to

2146-473: The first half of 2001; Computec moved the publication's subscribers to PC Gameplay , which nevertheless struggled to grow its base. The company "relaunched" PC Gameplay as PC Gaming World in 2003, but did not release the new publication's subscriber count through the Audit Bureau of Circulations during the first half of that year. Writing for GamesIndustry.biz , Kristan Reed noted that this decision

2204-435: The founding date as 1927. This is when B.G. Davis joined and Popular Aviation magazine started. However, it was not until 1936 that the company became the " Ziff-Davis Publishing Company ". ( Popular Aviation , April 1936, was the first issue by Ziff-Davis Publishing.) Davis was given a substantial minority equity interest in the company and was appointed a vice-president and director. He was later named president in 1946. Davis

2262-433: The information that you've been having to dig out of three or four or five (or six...). Get it." Page 6 reviewed Computer Gaming World and stated: "Quite apart from being an interesting read, you will get more out of your existing games and will have a much better idea of what to buy as your next piece of software. No other computer magazine that I can think of will give you reviews of such depth." In 1988, CGW won

2320-982: The leading technology magazine business. Ziff Davis sold the majority of its consumer magazines to CBS and its trade magazines to News Corporation in 1984, keeping its computer magazines. In 1979, Ziff Davis expanded into broadcasting, after an acquisition of television stations originally owned by greeting card company Rust Craft . Ziff Davis's stations included NBC affiliates WROC-TV in Rochester, New York and WRCB-TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee , CBS affiliates WEYI-TV in Saginaw, Michigan , WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia and WSTV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio (which changed its name to WTOV-TV and its network affiliation to NBC after Ziff Davis assumed control of

2378-591: The magazine an "oddity" that was "clearly aimed primarily at a 40-something audience and beyond", in comparison to more youthful rivals such as PC Gamer UK and PC Zone . In July 2000, Ziff Davis sold its publishing arm in Europe to Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU), including three magazines in Germany, three in France and four in the United Kingdom. PC Gaming World migrated with these publications. At

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2436-699: The magazine and George Jones became editor-in-chief, at a time when print magazines were struggling with the growing popularity of the Internet. Jones had been the editor-in-chief of CNET Gamecenter , and had before that been a staffer at CGW between 1994 and 1996. He was replaced by Jeff Green in the summer of 2001. On August 2, 2006, Ziff Davis and Microsoft jointly announced that CGW would be replaced with Games for Windows: The Official Magazine . The new magazine replaced CGW as part of Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative. In their press release, Ziff Davis indicated that much of CGW's core content and

2494-470: The magazine's contents, but rather featured work by artist Tim Finkas. In January/February 1986 CGW increased its publication cycle to nine times a year, and the editorial staff included popular writers such as Scorpia , Charles Ardai , and M. Evan Brooks. CGW survived the video game crash of 1983 , which badly hurt the market; by summer 1985 it was the only survivor of 18 color magazines covering computer games in 1983. In autumn 1987 CGW introduced

2552-445: The name Computer Gaming World ( CGW ) instead of alternatives such as Computer Games or Kilobaud Warrior because he hoped that the magazine would both review games and serve as a trade publication for the industry. The first issue appeared in November, about the same as rivals Electronic Games and Softline (Sipe's religious background led to " Psalm 9:1–2 " appearing in each issue. His successor as editor, Johnny L. Wilson,

2610-621: The only games in CGW history to receive zero-star reviews." According to MDS, CGW had a circulation slightly above 300,000 as of 2006. In this regard, it was slightly behind industry arch-rival PC Gamer . Bruce F. Webster reviewed the first issue of Computer Gaming World in The Space Gamer No. 48. Webster commented that "I strongly recommend this magazine to computer gamers, and just one reason alone will (in my opinion) suffice: You can now start getting from just one publication

2668-447: The sale of Fantastic and Amazing in 1965, their editor Cele Goldsmith Lalli began working on the bridal magazines, becoming a notable and influential editor in that field before retirement. During the 1970s and 1980s, the company's success increased with this strategy, and a rapidly expanding interest in electronics and computing. With titles such as PC Magazine , Popular Electronics , and Computer Shopper , Ziff Davis became

2726-732: The station), and ABC affiliate WJKS-TV in Jacksonville, Florida (which would also switch to NBC soon after its acquisition was finalized). These stations would be sold to other owners by the mid-1980s—most of these would become owned by a new ownership group, "Television Station Partners", the exceptions being WRCB (which would be sold to Sarkes Tarzian ) and WJKS (which was acquired by Media General ). Ziff Davis first started technology-themed publications during 1954, with Popular Electronics and, more briefly, Electronics World . This resulted more or less directly in its interest in home-computer magazines. From that time, Ziff Davis became

2784-409: The territory of CGW's sister magazine. Electronic Gaming Monthly . In 2006, two of the most popular features were "Greenspeak", a final-page column written by editor-in-chief Jeff Green, and "Tom vs. Bruce", a unique "duelling-diaries" piece in which writers Tom Chick and Bruce Geryk logged their gameplay experience as each tried to best the other at a given game. "Tom vs. Bruce" sometimes featured

2842-582: The time, The Register reported that VNU saw PC Gaming World as a poor match for its business model, which left the magazine's future uncertain. The publisher sold PC Gaming World to Computec Media a month after the purchase, citing its lack of synergy with VNU's existing brand. This transition was set to be completed in October 2000. According to Golem.de , Computec planned to fold PC Gaming World together with its own PC Gameplay magazine, which it launched in 2000. PC Gaming World had closed by

2900-562: Was "never a healthy sign". Computec sold its entire British game magazine branch to competitor Future Publishing in late 2003. Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis , the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping -related services, internet connectivity services, gaming and entertainment brands, and cybersecurity and martech (marketing technology) tools. Previously,

2958-615: Was a photography enthusiast and the editor of the Popular Photography magazine started in May 1937. In early 1938, Ziff-Davis acquired the magazines Radio News and Amazing Stories . These were started by Hugo Gernsback but sold as a result of the Experimenter Publishing bankruptcy in 1929. Both magazines had declined since the bankruptcy but the resources of Ziff-Davis rejuvenated them starting with

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3016-465: Was a publisher of hobbyist magazines, often ones devoted to expensive, advertiser-rich technical hobbies such as cars, photography, and electronics. Since 1980, Ziff Davis has primarily published computer-related magazines and related websites, establishing Ziff Davis as an Internet information company. Ziff Davis had several broadcasting properties, first during the mid-1970s, and later with its own technology network ZDTV , later renamed to TechTV , that

3074-493: Was an evangelical Christian minister). The first issues of Computer Gaming World were published from Anaheim, California , and sold for $ 2.75 individually or $ 11 for a year's subscription of six issues. These early bimonthly issues were typically 40–50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings (SSI), Dan Bunten (Ozark Software), and Chris Crawford . Also, early covers were not always directly related to

3132-590: Was completed in December of that year. In 2017, Ziff Davis acquired Mashable , an American entertainment, culture, tech, science and social good digital media platform, for $ 50 million. Following its acquisition of Mashable, Ziff Davis announced that it would implement longer, more in-depth content to boost the site's search traffic and restructure the platform to reduce costs. In 2018, Ziff Davis had 117 million readers, reaching 115 countries with 60 international editions. Most of Ziff Davis' international editions are partnerships with local publishers, all of whom use

3190-559: Was considered the eighth-largest internet company. Since 2004, Ziff Davis has annually hosted a trade show in New York City known as DigitalLife. DigitalLife showcases the newest technology in consumer electronics, gaming and entertainment. Unlike E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) or the Worldwide Developers Conference , DigitalLife is open to the public. In November 2006, Ziff Davis announced

3248-466: Was increasing 15% to 20% each year. Analyst Gregory Burns of Sidoti & Company calculated that Ziff Davis is worth $ 1.9 billion. In April 2021, J2 Global announced that it would spin off its cloud services business as Consensus; the transaction was approved by its shareholders in September 2021, with J2 Global consisting primarily of its media business and VPN services , and subsequently taking on

3306-459: Was meant to accompany and complement the site Yahoo! . Owner William Bernard Ziff Jr. had wanted to give the business to his sons—Daniel, Dirk and Robert—but they did not want the responsibility. In 1994, he announced the sale of the publishing group to Forstmann Little & Company for US$ 1.4 billion. It was then sold to SoftBank a year later. In 1998, Ziff Davis started the ZDTV channel,

3364-642: Was sold to Vulcan Ventures in 2001. Ziff Davis' magazine publishing and Internet operations offices are based in New York City , Massachusetts , and San Francisco . On January 6, 2009, the company sold 1UP.com to Hearst 's UGO Entertainment and announced the January 2009 issue of the long-running Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine would be its last. Former Time Inc. executive Vivek R. Shah , with financial backing from Boston private equity company Great Hill Partners, announced on June 4, 2010,

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