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.