''Crash'', stylized as ''CRASH'', is a
magazine
A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
dedicated to the
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...
home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...
, primarily focused on games. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by
Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by
Europress
Europress was a British magazine and software publisher based in Adlington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. Their magazine publishing business was previously known as Database Publications. The software division was renamed in 1999 to Actualize.
Hi ...
. It was relaunched as a quarterly A5 magazine in December 2020 with the backing of the original founders.
The magazine was launched to cater for the booming Spectrum games market. It was immediately popular owing to its quality of writing and distinctive, though occasionally controversial, artwork created by
Oliver Frey. By 1986 it had become the biggest-selling British computer magazine with over 100,000 copies sold monthly, but struggled towards the end of the decade after other magazines put cassettes of games on the front cover. In the 2010s, a number of retrospective issues were created via a
kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
campaign leading to the new publication by Fusion Retro.
History
''Crash'' was launched in 1983 in
Ludlow
Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...
,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...
by Roger Kean,
Oliver Frey and Franco Frey. The trio had met the previous year when they were working for newspaper publisher Alan Purnell, learning how to write and produce a magazine from scratch. Franco Frey had worked for an electronics company, and had been asked by one of his business contacts if could get hold of video games. Kean remembers that "The High Street was ignorant of computer games" and they wanted to source titles and sell them.
[ They set up a mail order catalogue called ''Crash Micro Games Action'' and advertised in contemporary computer magazines such as '']Computer and Video Games
''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') is a British-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot web ...
''. It was immediately successful, so by late 1983, they decided to launch a dedicated magazine, forming the company Newsfield to do so. Kean and Oliver Frey wanted a catchy title for the magazine, choosing "Crash" after J. G. Ballard's novel of the same name.
Though he had regularly played video games throughout the 1970s, the middle-aged Kean realised that the target market for the magazine was teenagers and young men, and the writing needed to accommodate this. Consequently, he hired teenage staff writer Matthew Uffindel and the pair recruited local schoolchildren to review the games, including Ben Stone and Robin Candy.[ To produce screenshots, a camera was set up to directly capture the television set or monitor that the Spectrum was plugged into. The film was then processed in-house, printed and delivered to a local print shop to prepare the final page.]
The first issue was intended to be published in November 1983, in time for the pre-Christmas trade, but owing to a conflict with retailers WH Smith
WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service st ...
it was published in February the following year. The magazine maintained focus squarely on Spectrum gaming. It was an instant hit thanks to Oliver Frey's artwork and Kean's writing, assisted by Uffindel. Kean and the Frey brothers would continue to be involved with the magazine throughout its lifetime.
Reviewers would give their direct opinions on whether a game was good or not, regardless of advertising or any pressure from software houses. Though publishers sometimes tried to bribe the magazine editors to give games good reviews, the children would not do that, and once gave a game a low score of 9%. This honesty gave ''Crash'' a good reputation and made it highly influential in the games industry.[ If a game was awarded a "Crash Smash" (an overall rating of 90% or above), the industry believed it was genuinely good and it would sell well.][ The logo was used in advertisements for games, big and small. Notable Crash Smashes included '']Jet Set Willy
''Jet Set Willy'' is a platform video game written by Matthew Smith for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time.
The game is a sequel to '' Manic Miner'' pub ...
'', ''Sabre Wulf
''Sabre Wulf'' is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith helmet, pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D computer graphics, 2 ...
'' and '' Head over Heels''. In 1986, Gremlin Graphics published a compilation, ''Four Crash Smashes'', which featured ''Spy Hunter
''Spy Hunter'' is a vehicular combat game developed by Bally Midway and released for arcades in 1983. The game draws inspiration from the James Bond films and was originally supposed to carry the James Bond brand. The object of the game is t ...
'', '' Alien 8'', '' Dun Darach'' and ''Night Gunner''.
In October 1986, ''Crash'' reported sales of over 100,000 copies. Its ABC figure of 101,483 copies a month for the period of January to June were claimed by the magazine to be higher than any other British computer magazine.
By 1989, rival Spectrum magazine '' Your Sinclair'' regularly came with a free cassette attached to the cover that contained a complete game and various demos
Demos may refer to:
Computing
* DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system
* DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR
* Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems
* Plural for Demo (computer programming ...
.[ ''Crash'' had occasionally featured cassettes on the cover, but began to lag in circulation. It was relaunched that June with a free cover-mounted cassette with a number of complete games, which continued as a regular feature. This came at the expense of page count and editorial content, both of which were reduced.][ Kean was annoyed by having to put tapes on the cover to keep up with the competition, as it increased costs and obscured Frey's cover artwork.][
Newsfield was suffering increasing financial difficulties by the early 1990s. The last edition of ''Crash'' published by the company was in September 1991. Following the company's liquidation, the magazine was relaunched by Europress that December, continuing until the final issue in April 1992. After this, ''Crash'' was bought by ]EMAP
Ascential (formerly EMAP) was a British-headquartered global company, specialising in events, intelligence and advisory services for the marketing and financial technology industries. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was ac ...
, publisher of ''Sinclair User'', who merged the two magazines. In practice, this meant little more than the appearance of the ''Crash'' logo on the front cover.[
In May 2016, No. 2 King Street, Ludlow was awarded a ]Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
as the premises of Newsfield while it was publishing ''Crash'' and ''ZZap!64
''Zzap!64'' is a computer games magazine covering games for computers manufactured by Commodore International, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact.
The magazi ...
'' from 1984–9, which both hired pupils from Ludlow Church of England School alongside professional journalists.
In 2017, the magazine was commemorated in a special exhibition in Ludlow Buttercross Museum documenting Newsfield's contribution to the local industry. The same year, a special edition of the magazine was issued following a Kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
campaign that raised £12,000.[ Kean, Oliver Frey and Nick Roberts all returned to contribute to this issue. The following year, a similar campaign led to the 2019 ''Crash'' annual – issue 100.
]
Cover art
''Crash'' featured distinctive cover art, mostly drawn by Oliver Frey. Much of his work was published in book form for the first time in 2006.
The cover of issue 18, July 1985, which depicted a scantily clad sorceress with a man on his knees in collar and chains, was considered provocative by some shops who moved it to the top shelf.[ Issue 31 in August 1986 was criticised for the front cover featuring staff writer Hannah Smith in a swimsuit mud wrestling with an alien.][ The cover of issue 41, June 1987, was a particularly violent image depicting two barbarians fighting, with one about to slit the throat of another. The picture was deemed too strong by ]W H Smith
WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service st ...
and that issue was relegated to the top shelves. However, these controversial covers helped boost the sales of ''Crash'', particularly doubling the circulation from 1985 to 1986.[
]
Editorial content
Much editorial content (such as previews and responses to readers' letters) was credited to Lloyd Mangram, a fictional character, although written by members of the editorial staff. He was created by the team simply to make the magazine look more important and professional by appearing to have a greater number of writers, and named after golfer Lloyd Mangrum.[ On one occasion, Mangram was depicted visually in the magazine by a sketch of a man wearing a paper bag over his head with holes cut for eyes, and was reported to work on a Hermes typewriter.
The "Playing Tips" section featured solutions to games cheats to make them easier. Candy was a regular host of this section in its early years. Issue 27 in April 1986 included a special "Robin Candy's Playing Tips" supplement of cheats and game modifications, including a room editor for the Crash Smash game ''Sweevo's World''. Following Candy's departure, Hannah Smith ran the section as a self-styled "girlie tipster", establishing a rivalry with fictional Melissa Ravenflame from ''Computer and Video Games''.][ Nick Roberts began his role in the magazine editing this section after Smith, and stayed for the remainder of its run, working out POKEs (alterations to the game's ]machine code
In computer programming, machine code is computer code consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). For conventional binary computers, machine code is the binaryOn nonb ...
in memory that allowed a player to cheat) using a Multiface, a Spectrum hardware add-on.[ The magazine also covered technical information and stories about future hardware and peripherals in its "Tech Niche" and "Tech Tips" sections, the latter frequently written by Simon N Goodwin. In 1988, a special "Tech Tape" was released, containing utilities and programs associated with this section.
''Crash'' included the occasional column which seemed unusual for a computer magazine. Its first year saw the launch of both the '' Lunar Jetman'' strip (written and illustrated by John Richardson, based on the character from the games by ]Ultimate Play the Game
Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade video game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a seri ...
) and ''The Terminal Man'', an original piece of fiction written by Kelvin Gosnell and illustrated by Oliver Frey. Later years would see a brief revival of ''The Terminal Man'', as well as Mel Croucher
Mel Croucher (born 1948) is a British entrepreneur and video games pioneer. Originally an architect, he moved into computers and in 1977 launched one of the very earliest games companies, Automata UK, as an extension of his publishing business. ...
's comic story ''Tamara Knight'', both of which ended mid-run. After the closure of Newsfield's short-lived lifestyle magazine ''LM'', ''Crash'' inherited its video reviews for a short period.
The August 1985 issue of ''Crash'' featured "Unclear User", a spoof on rival magazine '' Sinclair User''. This led to a successful injunction being taken out against the magazine two days before the official publication date on the grounds of copyright infringement.[ Copies were withdrawn from newsagents and an apology published in the following issue. Readers were also offered a back issue with the offending pages removed at a reduced price and priority delivery.]
Readers awards
Starting in 1984, the magazine published an annual readers awards article, based on votes from the readers.
See also
* ''Zzap!64
''Zzap!64'' is a computer games magazine covering games for computers manufactured by Commodore International, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact.
The magazi ...
'', sister magazine focusing on the Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...
* '' Amtix'', sister magazine focusing on the Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spec ...
References
External links
''Crash'' magazine: The Online Edition
Crash archives
at World of Spectrum
*
Crash
' at the Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
''Crash'' profile
at Planet Sinclair
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crash (Magazine)
Video game magazines published in the United Kingdom
Defunct video game magazines published in the United Kingdom
ZX Spectrum magazines
Magazines established in 1984
Magazines disestablished in 1992
Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom
1984 establishments in the United Kingdom
1992 disestablishments in the United Kingdom