Julian Rignall | |
---|---|
Born |
London, England |
6 March 1965
Occupation | writer, editor |
Language | UK English |
Subject | Video games and gaming |
Julian "Jaz" Rignall (born 6 March 1965, London, England) is a publishing veteran with experience launching and managing numerous video game magazines and websites. A writer and editor, Rignall has also produced content for corporate websites such as GamePro Media, publisher of GamePro magazine and GamePro.com, marketing collateral and advertising campaigns.
Rignall is currently Editor-at-Large at USGamer.net.
Rignall's career as a gaming journalist began in London in the early 1980s as a student competing in video game tournaments. During his teenage years, Rignall held the UK and World Record high scores on video games such as Defender, Pole Position and Crossfire. He also won Computer and Video Games magazine's 1983 UK Video Arcade Game Championship, beating more than 500 of the country's top arcade players to win the title. Rignall's success at winning international video game tournaments launched his career as a video game journalist writing gaming hints and tips for magazines such as Computer and Video Games and Personal Computer Games.
In 1985, the former editor of Personal Computer Games, Chris Anderson, invited Rignall to join the launch team for Newsfield Publications' Commodore 64 magazine, Zzap!64. Rignall admitted that when asked about Commodore 64 games he described his experience of playing the Atari versions, as he had no experience of the 64 at the time. As a staff writer, Rignall continued to display his gameplaying abilities as he repeatedly emerged the victor of the monthly ZZAP! Challenge, where readers challenged the magazine's reviewers to one-on-one gaming contests.
In December 1987, Rignall became editor of Zzap!64, a position he retained until his elected departure in August 1988 (Issue 39).
In 1988, Rignall joined Computer and Video Games magazine, an EMAP publication. Upon his promotion to editor, Rignall changed the magazine's editorial direction focusing more on the newly emerging Japanese video game consoles instead of the fading 8-bit generation of computers.