Games - CRASH

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CRASH was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by Europress.

CRASH was initially launched in 1983 by Roger Kean, Oliver Frey and Franco Frey as a mail order software catalogue including several pages of reviews. It then launched as a magazine in February 1984, maintaining its focus on Spectrum gaming (unlike its competitors, which tended to feature more serious technical items such as programming articles). Kean and the Frey brothers would continue to be involved with the magazine throughout its life.

In October 1986, CRASH boasted, "Over 100,000 copies sold monthly". Its ABC figures of 101,483 copies a month for the period of January to June were claimed by the magazine to be "more than any other computer magazine in the country by all accounts".

Much editorial content (for example, the previews and letters columns) were credited to Lloyd Mangram. In fact Mangram was a fictional character, usually representing the editor of the magazine at that time.

CRASH included the occasional column which seemed unusual for a computer magazine. Its first year saw the launch of both the Lunar Jetman strip (based on the character from the game by Ultimate Play The Game) and "The Terminal Man", an original piece of fiction. Later years would see a revival of The Terminal Man, as well as Mel Croucher's comic story "Tamara Knight". After the launch and collapse of LM magazine by Newsfield, CRASH also featured video reviews for a period, a strongly debated move.

The August 1985 issue of CRASH featured a spoof on rival magazine Sinclair User. This led to a successful injunction being taken out against the magazine, and copies being withdrawn from newsagents. Many issues had already been sent to subscribers, however.

By 1989, Your Sinclair regularly came with a free covertape containing a complete Spectrum game plus demos. CRASH, which had included occasional demo covertapes, was falling behind in circulation, and relaunched in June of that year. The redesigned magazine included a free covertape with a number of complete games, but the number of pages and the amount of editorial content had fallen dramatically. (The December 1988 issue had 212 pages; by June 1989 this was down to 36 pages, although some of this reduction is attributable to the season release nature of games, with many games being released shortly before Christmas)

The final issue published by Newsfield was October 1991. Following their liquidation, the magazine was relaunched by Europress in December, continuing until the final issue in April 1992. After this, CRASH was bought by EMAP, publishers 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 of Sinclair User the next month.

CRASH was notable for its distinctive cover art, mostly by Oliver Frey. The magazine Retro Gamer has acknowledged this by reprinting the CRASH issue 1 cover, as a poster, and a selection of Oliver Frey artwork as a calendar.

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Games - CRASH

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