Julian 'Jaz' Rignall was a reviewer for the seminal Commodore 64 magazine ZZap! 64. He was the Computer and Video Games arcade champion of 1983, and at the time ZZap! was launched, he was the UK top scorer on Defender. He continued to display his game playing prowess during his time at the magazine as he repeatedly emerged the victor of the monthly ZZap! Challenge where readers and other reviewers were pitched against each other. Newsfield Publications Ltd (also known as Newsfield) was a British magazine publisher during the 1980s and early 1990s. ...

Caricatures of the staff writers were used to enhance the Zzap! 64 rating system. This became one of the magazine's best loved stylistic signatures.

Read the exclusive interview with Julian Rignall at the Mean Machines Archive

Rignall was highly regarded as an accurate and fair reviewer of C64 software, and was voted the reviewer most readers agree with in the 1987 ZZap! readers questionnaire. His loyalty to ZZap! 64 was rewarded in December 1987 when he became editor of the magazine, a position he retained until August 1988 (Issue 39) when he decided it was time to move on. After this he went freelance and became involved with Newsfield (the magazine's publisher) rivals EMAP.

Rignall then settled at EMAP Images, England's second-largest consumer publishing company. While there, he was editor-in-chief of The Official Nintendo Magazine, The Official Sega Magazine, Mean Machines, Computer and Video Games, and MegaTech.

He recently made a move into the business sector of gaming as vice president of design for Virgin Interactive Entertainment where he was in charge of overseeing product development and was responsible for licensing acquisitions from other game developers and publishers. While at Virgin, he was responsible for such titles as Zone Raiders, Nanotech Warrior, Lion King, and The Jungle Book.

He left Virgin to join the Imagine Games Network (better known as IGN).

In 1990 he married Glenys Powell, his longtime love since his days at Zzap! 64 (Glenys was a member of staff at the magazine). Unfortunately they divorced in 1997, although the decision was said to be amicable.

Julian now lives in San Fransisco, USA, working in the advertising business.