Speccy Mags
Well, over the years we have had some excellent magazines for our Spectrums. Sadly, they are now GONE! We thought we'd take a look back over the past years of the wonderful publications.
In my opinion 'CRASH' was the best of the three for serious stuff. Its layout and presentation was always good and it was always good value for money.
June 1989 saw the releases of the new look 'CRASH'. At first glance it looked quite attractive. 1.50 for a new cover tape packed with 4 games, 1 demo and pokes. However, if you opened the mag, the first thing you noticed was 32 pages! 32 pages? Where had they all gone... The following month, 'CRASH' had one of the worst covers ever. It featured BATMAN, INDY and BOND. To be quite honest, the quality of the front page was 'crap'. Content wise, the magazine was better, now 50 pages. In August 1991 the magazine format returned to normal. The usual size and better quality. The cover featured a brill picture of Arnie. Content wise, very good. This issue featured that clasic reader cartoon: 'Anyone else for a wet hoddock?'. In the coming months, NEWSFIELD went bust and CRASH, crashed. Shortly, CRASH popped up again, this time published by EUROPRESS IMPACT. CRASH was better than ever. Good readable content, loads of colour and glossy paper. Sadly, EUROPRESS sold CRASH off to Sinclair User. SU basicly killed CRASH off. The following month, SU/CRASH was released. Where was the CRASH features? Nowhere. SU had totally killed the mag off. SHAME!
Now, SU... At one time this was a great mag. Years ago, readers used to write in to 'The write stuff' and slag off Tony Dillon (Where's he now?). Content was ALWAYS good, features were good and to be honest the whole mag was good. I loved reading 'Tell it to the Bear' each month. Then, disaster. Graham Taylor left as Editor, soon all original reviewers left. Bye Chris Jenkins, Tarama Howerd, Jimbo, Tony! THEN.. GARTH STUMPER and the new crew. The whole magazine went down hill. The artwork, covers, content and general magazine got sloppy. What was a good magazine had turned into a poor childish publication. I mean, one month there was 2 pages dedicated to ALIEN BUSTERS. I.E, two massive photos of Al Dykes and Garth Stumper. Why? What a waste of space, who in their right mind would cut them out and wear them as masks? Enough said. I'm sad SU's gone, but it was probably for the best!
Now, Your Sinclair. Sadly this month saw the death of this great magazine. Funny, Serious and brilliant, that was Y.S. Over the years we've seen some great issues and some smashing reviewers. Each issue was packed with colour and features, and not to mention the brilliant cover tapes. Although in its last few months the mag got a bit thin, it was still worth the money just to have the software. Y.S was the back bone of the Speccy world for many months and will be sadly missed by all of us. Do you remember those amusing Photo Lurve storys and that 'crap games corner'? All good clean fun. And what about some of the risky covers and crude words used when 'Dennis' owned the mag? For example, The Vixen cover. I can remember seeing that on top shelves in Gravesend (SERIOUS!!!). Again, it's a shame to see the last remaining mag go....
NEXT MONTH: A loof (loof? That should have been Look) at Fanzines Etc.
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