CRASH (magazine)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CRASH
The cover of CRASH issue 1 (1983)
Editor	Roger Kean Graeme Kidd Barnaby Page Steve Jarratt Dominic Handy Stuart Wynne Oliver Frey Richard Eddy Lucy Hickson
Categories	Computer and video games
Frequency	Monthly
Circulation	101,483
First Issue	February 1983
Final Issue — Date — Number	April 1992 98
Company	Newsfield Publications Ltd Europress Impact
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Website	http://www.crashonline.org.uk/
ISSN	-

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 that included several pages of reviews.^[1] It then launched as a magazine in February 1984, maintaining its focus squarely on Spectrum gaming (unlike its competitors, which tended to feature more serious technical coverage). Kean and the Frey brothers would continue to be involved with the magazine throughout its lifetime.

This cover, from 1985, caused controversy at the time

By October 1986, CRASH boasted regular sales of over 100,000 copies.^[2] Its ABC figure 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 responses to readers' letters) was credited to Lloyd Mangram, a fictional character, although written by members of the editorial staff. 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. This was in stark contrast to the magazine's practice (more common in later years) of accompanying each review with a small likeness of the writer. Lloyd Mangram's editorials made frequent references to his ancient Hermes Typewriter, which was likely as much a work of fiction as Mangram himself and more likely a shared joke of the writing staff, possibly devised to excuse editorial delays.

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 closure of Newsfield's short-lived lifestyle magazine LM, 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, with copies withdrawn from newsagents and an apology published in the following issue.^[3] 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 but still lagged behind in circulation, relaunched in June of that year, including a free covertape with a number of complete games as a regular feature. This came at the expense of page count and editorial content, both of which fell dramatically in 1989. (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 seasonal release nature of games.)

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, 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 of Sinclair User for several months.

CRASH was notable for its distinctive cover art, mostly by Oliver Frey. The magazine Retro Gamer has acknowledged this by reprinting CRASH's first cover as a poster and a selection of Oliver Frey artwork as a calendar.^[4] Much of his work was published in book form for the first time in 2006.^[5]