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ENGLISH PUBLICATIONS
SINCLAIR PROGRAMS
Sinclair Programs was a British magazine with lists of programmes, created by the magazine’s readers, for the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.
Published between May/June 1982 and September 1985, with a total od 35 numbers.
It was one of the three magazines published by ECC Publications, being the other two the renowned Sinclair User and Sinclair Projects (dedicated to hardware projects).
SINCLAIR USER
Sinclair User is also a British magazine dedicated to Sinclair’s range of computers, with its’ main focus on the ZX Spectrum.
This was the Sinclair-dedicated magazine that was published the longest time in the UK: between April 1982 and May 1993, with a total of 134 numbers, released monthly.
It started off being published by ECC Publications and, after September 1984, by EMAP.
In May 1992 the Crash magazine merged with Sinclair User, but in reality the only change was that the Crash logo started appearing on the magazine covers.
Over the years it tried to remain fresh by changing its language and characters used in the magazine.
It gained haters when the publication started releasing very poorly written game reviews, with the Nemesis “scandal” being the most well-known (the review shows pictures and images of a non-existing game). More information here.
TIMEX SINCLAIR USER
The Timex Sinclair User was a 1983 spin-off of the Sinclair User, with a short publication duration (7 numbers), focused on the American market where Timex was ever-present and Timex Sinclair computers were sold.
CRASH
Crash was another British magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum. It is, perhaps, the most vibrant publication and, to this day, it still brings back a lot of emotions amongst fans, when commemorative numbers are released.
It began being published in 1983, by Roger Kean and brothers Oliver and Franco Frey. It started out as a software catalogue for mail-in orders, and that came with a lot of reviews.
In February 1984, it was released as a magazine focused on the games. Since its’ first number ever released, this magazine always stood out for its writing and graphic arts, by Oliver Frey, that sometimes created a lot of polemic.
Its’ target audience was the younger readers. Due to that, plenty youngster contributed to the magazine, writing honest game reviews, free of the pressure sometimes imposed by game developers and press itself.
The mags opinion was so important that United Kingdom’s videogame industry recognized the importance of the “Crash Smash” awards and ratings, given only to the very top and favourite reviewers’ games (with a score higher than 90%). Some of the awarded games were Jet Set Willy, Sabre Wulf, and Head over Heels.
In 1986 it became UK’s most sold computer magazine, with a monthly printing number that surpassed 100,000 units. By the end of the decade, it was greatly impacted by the decline of the Spectrum, and with the release of cassettes by other rival publications.
It was published from 1984 until 1991, by Newsfield Publications Ltd (until the company went bankrupt) and, later and until April 1992 (number 98) by Europress Impact.
It was sold to EMAP – Sinclair User’s publisher – which combined both magazines, but it ended up simply being a pasting of the Crash logo onto Sinclair User’s cover.
During this last decade, a few special edition numbers have been released through crowdfunding, led by Chris Wilkins from Fusion Retro Books.
YOUR SPECTRUM | YOUR SINCLAIR
A bi-monthly publication, the Your Spectrum was a British mag that started being published in January 1984, by Sportscene Specialist Press (later renamed Dennis publishing, in 1987).
It started being published monthly in June 1984 and stayed that way until December 1985.
In January 1986 it was renamed Your Sinclair, with the aim of including the Sinclair QL and any future models (they had previously published a detachable number, QL User).
Nevertheless, it gradually dedicated more and more attention to entertainment, which ended up becoming very connected to the ZX Spectrum.
In 1990, the magazine was sold to the Future Plc publishing house. The first issue from the new owners was released in April 1990.
The magazine stopped being published with an issue released in September 1993,
number 93.
number 93.
In 2004, a commemorative issue, number 94, was created and offered with the Retro Gamer mag.
PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD
The Personal Computer World (usually referred to as PCW) was the first British magazine focused solely on computation.
The name, however, has nothing to do with Amstrad’s computer line, or even with the PX expression (from IBM PC), that did not even exist at the time.
It started being published in February 1978, and the printed publication lasted until June 2009.
It began being published monthly right after the second issue was released.
It was presented as “Europe’s leading microcomputer magazine” and “United Kingdom’s most sold microcomputer magazine”.
The cover style with just a picture or illustration became a trademark that lasted until the early ‘90s.
Something very common to happen would be that the covers would have humoristic features, like presenting Sinclair computers (starting with the ZX81) starring with chimpanzees.
YOUR COMPUTER
Your Computer was a British computer mag published monthly from 1981 until 1988.
It was focused on the many systems released in the ‘80s.
According to the magazine itself, it was even Britain’s biggest selling home computer magazine.
It was published by IPC Business Press Ltd.
ZX COMPUTING
ZX Computing was a British magazine published by Argus Specialist Publications.
It focused on the entire Sinclair computer line, starting on the ZX80 and going on until the QL or Spectrum 128.
Published as a bi-monthly mag from 1982 until April 1986. It became a monthly publication in May 1987.
INPUT
A British magazine published by Marshall Cavendish, between 1984 and 1985, dedicated to microcomputer programming.
It released 52 weekly issues.
It would focus mostly on BASIC and Assembly type ins that users would type into their computers and that were meant to run on United Kingdom’s most popular computers (ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Dragon 32).
QL USER | QL WORLD
These magazines from the mid-‘80s were the most well-known that were dedicated to the QL, and that were all interconnected with each other.
In the beginning, there were two “QL User”. The first one, with a short publication period, was initially released as a Your Spectrum’s supplement, in 1984.
The other one, with the same name, was published by EMAP Business and Computer Publications Ltd, during 1985 and the beginning of 1986.
During the same period, an independent mag called QL World was also published.
Both decided to merge in March 1986 and create the Sinclair QL World (incorporating QL User), that was published up until May 1994.
RETROGAMER
Retro Gamer is a British mag, published all over the world (with license in many other countries), dedicated to retro videogames. It was the first commercial publication to exclusively dedicate itself to this theme.
IT started off as a tri-monthly publication, in January 2004, but soon became a monthly publication.
It was released by Live Publishing, with Martyn Carroll being the editor for the first two years.
After that, it was bought by Imagine Publishing, and, more recently, by Future Publishing (that had merged with Live Publishing). The current editor is Darran Jones.
Website: www.retrogamer.net