Your Sinclair
Encyclopedia
Your Sinclair or YS as it was commonly abbreviated, was a British computer magazine for the Sinclair
range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum
.
.
Initially, it was published bimonthly, changing to monthly in June 1984. With the January 1986 issue, the title was relaunched as Your Sinclair, with the intention of expanding coverage of the QL
into the main magazine (previously, QL User had been a pull-out section within the magazine), and any future computers produced by Sinclair. However, the magazine quickly focussed almost entirely on the ZX Spectrum games scene.
In 1990, the magazine was sold to Bath-based Future Publishing
, and the April 1990 issue was the first to be published by the new company. That issue's news section contained a feature on the move, which jokingly suggested that Future had intended to buy a Sinclair C5
and had ended up buying the magazine by mistake.
It folded in September 1993, after the commercial life of the Spectrum ended and the magazine had fewer than 40 pages per issue. A 94th issue, a retrospective on the magazine, was published in 2004 and given away free with Retro Gamer
magazine. It featured interviews with notable writers and reviewers, a four page memoir written by former staff writer Phil South, and several new reviews and tips, keeping the style of the original magazine throughout.
The magazine introduced a unique writing style, inspired by launch editor Roger Munford and expanded upon by subsequent editors and writers. Influences can be found in titles ranging from Private Eye to Viz. Towards the end of the magazine's life, and particularly under the editorship of Jonathan Nash, the style was further influenced by magazines YS had itself inspired, in particular Amiga Power
and fanzine The Thing Monthly.
The original 1986 team included Kevin Cox (editor), Teresa "T'zer" Maughan (deputy editor), Sara Biggs (production editor), Pete Shaw
(editorial assistant), and Phil "Snouty" South (writer). Marcus Berkmann
joined as staff writer in early 1987 when Maughan took over as editor. Freelance writers of the time included John Minson (writing under various pseudonyms, including Gwyn Hughes and Rachael Smith), Mike Gerrard, Max Phillips, Tony Worrall and David McCandless. The final 1993 team consisted of just two permanent staff members: Jonathan Nash (editor) and Andy Ounsted (art editor). Steve Anderson, Rich Pelley, Tim Kemp, Simon Cooke
, Dave Golder and Simon Forrester were among those working on a freelance basis.
news, rumours and reviews. It was written by Dave Golder, who went on to be the second editor of the successful SFX
. Writing in the 100th issue of that publication, Golder cited his earlier work on YS and described SFX as "like hundreds of Killer Kolumns stapled together". Flip! was discontinued, but the Killer Kolumn was kept on until the penultimate issue in 1993. A similar page to Flip!/The World had existed in 1987-88 called Street Life, but this had also contained Spectrum game charts.
Subsections of Pssst and Frontlines included T'zers, a column which contained rumours about possible forthcoming releases for the Spectrum and, later on, the SAM Coupe
. It was named after and originally written by Teresa Maughan, but the column remained after she left the magazine, as it was felt 'T'zers' was an appropriate title since it contained 'teasers' for future games. Rock Around The Clock, which first appeared in 1991, was a small column dedicated to looking at a particular back issue, as well as news and current affairs from the same time.
Perhaps one of the odder sections of Pssst was the Peculiar Pets Corner. Editor Matt Bielby originally intended this to be a showcase for YS readers' exotic pets such as snake
s, pig
s, monkey
s or spiders, but these "pets" also included such things as a purple fruit gum
and a tuba
.
When an editor or member of the writing staff left, the magazine would often concoct fanciful stories surrounding their leaving. Matt Bielby was carted off to the funny farm
after declaring himself to be God
, Andy Ide became a Green Party
ambassador, and Andy Hutchinson left to design a skate park at Alton Towers
. In actuality, the majority of ex-YS staff went on to work for other magazines, such as Amiga Power.
, after which it was named). The hit and miss system was abandoned with Issue 19, and with the transition to Your Sinclair, the review section was renamed Screen Shots. In Screen Shots, games were still rated out of ten, but they were also given separate ratings for graphics, playability, value for money and addictiveness. They were also now reviewed by individual writers, rather than a panel.
In 1988, Joystick Jury was superseded by Joystick Jugglers, and the familiar cartoons of reviewers were introduced. Screen Shots was removed as a self-contained section in 1989, and reviews began to appear throughout the magazine, generally with the bigger games being reviewed towards the front. Budget games had their own section, Bargain Basement (later replaced with Replay when it was felt that original budget games should be reviewed alongside full price games). The magazine also began using a rating out of 100, rather than ten, when reviewing games. However, this was referred to as a 'degree scale' rather than a percentage scale, with a graphic of a thermometer
representing the rating; the higher the rating, the "hotter" the game. Reviewer Jon Pillar embraced both extremes of the review scale, giving Count Duckula 2
a mere 9˚ and Mercenary
99˚. The final change in review style came in late 1992 when the various ratings for addictiveness, graphics, and so forth were replaced by a summary of the game's good and bad points, with an overall mark (now as a percentage) below that.
Games which were scored at more than 90˚/90%, or 9/10 before the degree scale was introduced, were awarded YS's coveted "Megagame" status, though this was undermined slightly when Duncan MacDonald gave his own deliberately bad Sinclair BASIC
creation Advanced Lawnmower Simulator, the status in a moment of surreal humour
. Reader games were also reviewed for a while in the "Crap Games Corner", many being inspired by Advanced Lawnmower Simulator or being just as deliberately bad. Good reader games sometimes ended up on the covertape
.
YS reviewers were often 'interviewed' in a column at first called Joystick Jury (the same as the reviews section in Your Spectrum), then Joystick Jugglers, and finally (when there were fewer games to review and they wanted to introduce the team as a whole, including design staff) The Shed Crew, a reference to the recurring joke that after the move to Future Publishing, their office was now a garden shed. The Jugglers were depicted with caricature
s mostly drawn by Nick Davies, although some writers (such as Jon Pillar/Jonathan Nash) drew their own and art editor Andy Ounsted drew most of the latter reviewers. The Juggler caricatures took on something of a life of their own, and in 1990, a game, YS Capers, was given away with the magazine in which you had to shoot the YS crew, depicted in their cartoon forms.
It contained all tips, cheats and complete solutions sent in by readers, and spawned its own book, the YS Tipshop Tiptionary. Dr. Berkmann's Clinic (renamed The YS Clinic With Dr. Hugo Z Hackenbush after Marcus Berkmann
left to go freelance), originally set up to provide help for the game Head Over Heels
, allowed readers to provide solutions to each other's gaming problems, more often than not solved by Richard Swann. Practical Pokes, hosted mainly by Jon North, was the successor to Hacking Away, and contained both type-in and Multiface
POKEs. The Tipshop was hosted variously by Phil South, David McCandless, Jonathan Davies and Linda Barker.
Program Pitstop, first hosted by David McCandless, then Jonathan Davies and finally Craig Broadbent, contained type-in program
s and was one of the last columns of its kind, a remnant of an era when computer magazines would dedicate entire sections to BASIC
program listings. Most of the programs were in Sinclair BASIC, although some were in hexadecimal
machine code
, for which a special interpreter, the Hex Loader, was written. It replaced the pull-out section Program Power; the main difference was that Program Pitstop mainly included listings for utility programs and demos (for example, a level editor
for games such as Atari's Gauntlet
), while Program Power also included games. Program Pitstop also featured contributions from well known programmers, such as the Rainbow Processor by Dominic Robinson
, which allowed the Spectrum to display more than two colours per character.
Spec Tec (Adam Waring) and its descendant Spec Tec Jr (Simon Cooke
) were home to readers' technical queries. The introduction to these columns were typically written in the style of a Philip Marlowe
monologue, occasionally including ongoing plots.
Other technical columns included Rage Hard, an occasional page which brought news of peripherals and other enhancements for the Spectrum; Steve's Programming Laundrette, in which Steve Anderson took the reader step-by-step through producing a BASIC game; and Simon Hindle's Dial Hard, which helped you connect a Spectrum to the Internet
.
Before the magazine's relaunch as Your Sinclair in 1986, Your Spectrum contained a plethora of technical articles, including guides on programming in machine code
and Forth, and information on how to upgrade the basic Spectrum set-up to incorporate better sound and more memory.
The Star Letter was awarded three full-price Spectrum games. When asked what qualities a star letter possessed, editor Linda Barker answered "A star letter is one that makes the entire Shed crew rock with mirth, or touches their hearts," although other editors had their own criteria for the type of letter they awarded Star Letter status to.
Like many later computer magazines (such as Zero and Amiga Power) Your Sinclair created a sense of community with its readers through the letters page, and many readers wrote in regularly, becoming almost part of the team themselves. Indeed, several letter writers went on to write for YS in a freelance capacity, including Leigh Loveday and Rich Pelley. Along with Jonathan Davies, Pelley had formerly written for the fanzine
Spectacular, and both became regular contributors for the magazine between 1988 and 1993. After YS closed, Davies went on to become editor of Sega Zone, Amiga Power and PC Gamer
, while Pelley regularly wrote articles for a number of magazines.
, there was a follow-up top 50 listing, chosen by the journalists from that magazine.
-like viewer program and a collection of some fifty or so 'extra' pages of content largely written by then editor Jonathan Nash and regular contributor Steve Anderson. It contained, amongst other things, short stories
, surrealist
and absurdist
humour, and Private Eye-style news satire
. Not long before the magazine folded, plans were being made to improve the interface and increase the number of pages.
The code for YS2 had been taken (supposedly without permission) from adventure game company Delta 4
's similar Sceptical program. The writers often jokingly referred to a possible lawsuit
against them, and wrote as an acknowledgement "The Sceptical driver is copyright Delta 4, who are really nice and hardly ever sue". No lawsuit materialised - YS and Delta 4 had a good working relationship, the magazine having featured several of their games on the covertape in the past.
In 1999, a webzine, YS3, was launched by comp.sys.sinclair newsgroup
regulars Nathan Cross and Jon Hyde, and managed to recreate something of the original magazine's style and humour. It ran irregularly until 2002 before going on an extended hiatus. It has since returned in blog form.
Sinclair Research Ltd
Sinclair Research Ltd is a British consumer electronics company founded by Sir Clive Sinclair in Cambridge. Originally incorporated in 1973 as Ablesdeal Ltd., it remained dormant until 1976, and did not adopt the name Sinclair Research until 1981....
range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
.
History
The magazine was launched in December 1983 as Your Spectrum by Sportscene Specialist Press, later known as Dennis PublishingDennis Publishing
Dennis Publishing Ltd. is an independent publisher. It was founded in 1974.As of April 2010 the company publishes 31 magazine or online titles, predominately in the UK....
.
Initially, it was published bimonthly, changing to monthly in June 1984. With the January 1986 issue, the title was relaunched as Your Sinclair, with the intention of expanding coverage of the QL
Sinclair QL
The Sinclair QL , was a personal computer launched by Sinclair Research in 1984, as the successor to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum...
into the main magazine (previously, QL User had been a pull-out section within the magazine), and any future computers produced by Sinclair. However, the magazine quickly focussed almost entirely on the ZX Spectrum games scene.
In 1990, the magazine was sold to Bath-based Future Publishing
Future Publishing
Future plc is a media company; in 2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography. Future is the official magazine company of all three major games console manufacturers...
, and the April 1990 issue was the first to be published by the new company. That issue's news section contained a feature on the move, which jokingly suggested that Future had intended to buy a Sinclair C5
Sinclair C5
The Sinclair Research C5 is a battery electric vehicle invented by Sir Clive Sinclair and launched by Sinclair Research in the United Kingdom on 10 January 1985. The vehicle is a battery-assisted tricycle steered by a handlebar beneath the driver's knees. Powered operation is possible making it...
and had ended up buying the magazine by mistake.
It folded in September 1993, after the commercial life of the Spectrum ended and the magazine had fewer than 40 pages per issue. A 94th issue, a retrospective on the magazine, was published in 2004 and given away free with Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer
Retro Gamer is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Although launched as a quarterly publication, Retro Gamers soon became a monthly...
magazine. It featured interviews with notable writers and reviewers, a four page memoir written by former staff writer Phil South, and several new reviews and tips, keeping the style of the original magazine throughout.
The magazine introduced a unique writing style, inspired by launch editor Roger Munford and expanded upon by subsequent editors and writers. Influences can be found in titles ranging from Private Eye to Viz. Towards the end of the magazine's life, and particularly under the editorship of Jonathan Nash, the style was further influenced by magazines YS had itself inspired, in particular Amiga Power
Amiga Power
Amiga Power was a monthly magazine about Amiga computer games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996....
and fanzine The Thing Monthly.
The original 1986 team included Kevin Cox (editor), Teresa "T'zer" Maughan (deputy editor), Sara Biggs (production editor), Pete Shaw
Pete Shaw
For the football player of the same name see Pete Shaw .Pete Shaw is a British author, broadcaster, programmer and theatrical producer.- Early life :...
(editorial assistant), and Phil "Snouty" South (writer). Marcus Berkmann
Marcus Berkmann
-Life:Educated at Highgate School and Worcester College, Oxford, he began his career as a freelance journalist, contributing to computer and gaming magazines...
joined as staff writer in early 1987 when Maughan took over as editor. Freelance writers of the time included John Minson (writing under various pseudonyms, including Gwyn Hughes and Rachael Smith), Mike Gerrard, Max Phillips, Tony Worrall and David McCandless. The final 1993 team consisted of just two permanent staff members: Jonathan Nash (editor) and Andy Ounsted (art editor). Steve Anderson, Rich Pelley, Tim Kemp, Simon Cooke
Simon Cooke
Simon Cooke is a British video games developer, currently resident in Seattle, Washington.-Biography:He went to Secondary School at St...
, Dave Golder and Simon Forrester were among those working on a freelance basis.
Content
YS's content varied widely, occasionally ignoring the subject of computers entirely. As the Spectrum scene diminished and there was less software to review, this happened more frequently. In 1992, under the editorship of Andy Hutchinson, several 'lifestyle' type sections were introduced. These included Haylp!, an agony aunt column, and The World (later retitled Flip!), which contained reviews of films and books. This section included The Killer Kolumn From Outer Space, dedicated to science fictionScience fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
news, rumours and reviews. It was written by Dave Golder, who went on to be the second editor of the successful SFX
SFX magazine
SFX is a British magazine covering the topics of science fiction and fantasy.-Description:SFX magazine is published every four weeks by Future Publishing and was founded in 1995. The magazine covers topics in the genres of popular science fiction, fantasy and horror, within the media of films,...
. Writing in the 100th issue of that publication, Golder cited his earlier work on YS and described SFX as "like hundreds of Killer Kolumns stapled together". Flip! was discontinued, but the Killer Kolumn was kept on until the penultimate issue in 1993. A similar page to Flip!/The World had existed in 1987-88 called Street Life, but this had also contained Spectrum game charts.
Pssst/Frontlines
The news section was originally called Frontlines and dealt with Sinclair news and rumours. It also regularly contained mock celebrity interviews (such as the "At The Bus Stop With..." series) and trivial charts, as well as features about the writers themselves.Subsections of Pssst and Frontlines included T'zers, a column which contained rumours about possible forthcoming releases for the Spectrum and, later on, the SAM Coupe
SAM Coupé
The SAM Coupé is an 8-bit British home computer that was first released in late 1989. It is commonly considered a clone of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer, since it features a compatible screen mode and emulated compatibility, and it was marketed as a logical upgrade from the Spectrum...
. It was named after and originally written by Teresa Maughan, but the column remained after she left the magazine, as it was felt 'T'zers' was an appropriate title since it contained 'teasers' for future games. Rock Around The Clock, which first appeared in 1991, was a small column dedicated to looking at a particular back issue, as well as news and current affairs from the same time.
Perhaps one of the odder sections of Pssst was the Peculiar Pets Corner. Editor Matt Bielby originally intended this to be a showcase for YS readers' exotic pets such as snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s, pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
s, monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
s or spiders, but these "pets" also included such things as a purple fruit gum
Rowntree's Fruit Gums
Rowntree's Fruit Gums are circular sweets formerly made by Rowntree's, who were later acquired by Nestlé. They appear in different colours, each with a different flavour: strawberry, orange, lemon, blackcurrant and lime. They are primarily composed of glucose syrup and fruit juices and are as a...
and a tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
.
When an editor or member of the writing staff left, the magazine would often concoct fanciful stories surrounding their leaving. Matt Bielby was carted off to the funny farm
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
after declaring himself to be God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
, Andy Ide became a Green Party
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
ambassador, and Andy Hutchinson left to design a skate park at Alton Towers
Alton Towers
Alton Towers is a theme park and resort located in Staffordshire, England. It attracts around 2.7 million visitors per year making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom. Alton Towers is also the 9th most visited theme park in Europe...
. In actuality, the majority of ex-YS staff went on to work for other magazines, such as Amiga Power.
Reviews
Your Sinclairs reviewing system varied throughout the magazine's life. During the Your Spectrum era, game reviews were confined to the Spectrum Soft section, later called Joystick Jury. Games were reviewed by a panel of reviewers and given a mark out of 10. In practice this was a score out of 9, since no game ever received a perfect 10, on the rationale that a better game could come along at a later date. After the name change to Joystick Jury, games were judged by each individual reviewer to be either a 'hit' or a 'miss' (in the manner of television show Juke Box JuryJuke Box Jury
Juke Box Jury was a musical panel show which originally ran on BBC Television from 1 June 1959 until December 1967. The programme was based on the American show Jukebox Jury, itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series....
, after which it was named). The hit and miss system was abandoned with Issue 19, and with the transition to Your Sinclair, the review section was renamed Screen Shots. In Screen Shots, games were still rated out of ten, but they were also given separate ratings for graphics, playability, value for money and addictiveness. They were also now reviewed by individual writers, rather than a panel.
In 1988, Joystick Jury was superseded by Joystick Jugglers, and the familiar cartoons of reviewers were introduced. Screen Shots was removed as a self-contained section in 1989, and reviews began to appear throughout the magazine, generally with the bigger games being reviewed towards the front. Budget games had their own section, Bargain Basement (later replaced with Replay when it was felt that original budget games should be reviewed alongside full price games). The magazine also began using a rating out of 100, rather than ten, when reviewing games. However, this was referred to as a 'degree scale' rather than a percentage scale, with a graphic of a thermometer
Thermometer
Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer is a device that measures temperature or temperature gradient using a variety of different principles. A thermometer has two important elements: the temperature sensor Developed during the 16th and 17th centuries, a thermometer (from the...
representing the rating; the higher the rating, the "hotter" the game. Reviewer Jon Pillar embraced both extremes of the review scale, giving Count Duckula 2
Count Duckula 2
Count Duckula 2 is a computer game for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC released in 1992 by Alternative Software.It was the follow-up to the 1989 release Count Duckula in No Sax Please—We're Egyptian...
a mere 9˚ and Mercenary
Mercenary (computer game)
Mercenary is the first in a series of computer games, published on a number of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s, by Novagen Software...
99˚. The final change in review style came in late 1992 when the various ratings for addictiveness, graphics, and so forth were replaced by a summary of the game's good and bad points, with an overall mark (now as a percentage) below that.
Sinclair BASIC
Sinclair BASIC is a dialect of the BASIC programming language used in the 8-bit home computers from Sinclair Research and Timex Sinclair...
creation Advanced Lawnmower Simulator, the status in a moment of surreal humour
Surreal humour
Surreal humour is a form of humour based on violations of causal reasoning with events and behaviours that are logically incongruent. Constructions of surreal humour involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational situations, and/or expressions of nonsense.The humour arises from a...
. Reader games were also reviewed for a while in the "Crap Games Corner", many being inspired by Advanced Lawnmower Simulator or being just as deliberately bad. Good reader games sometimes ended up on the covertape
Covermount
Covermount is the name given to storage media or other products packaged as part of a magazine or newspaper...
.
YS reviewers were often 'interviewed' in a column at first called Joystick Jury (the same as the reviews section in Your Spectrum), then Joystick Jugglers, and finally (when there were fewer games to review and they wanted to introduce the team as a whole, including design staff) The Shed Crew, a reference to the recurring joke that after the move to Future Publishing, their office was now a garden shed. The Jugglers were depicted with caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
s mostly drawn by Nick Davies, although some writers (such as Jon Pillar/Jonathan Nash) drew their own and art editor Andy Ounsted drew most of the latter reviewers. The Juggler caricatures took on something of a life of their own, and in 1990, a game, YS Capers, was given away with the magazine in which you had to shoot the YS crew, depicted in their cartoon forms.
Tipshop
Originally, the tips section of the magazine was called Hack Free Zone, to distinguish it from Hacking Away, which was dedicated to type-in POKEs. Both sections were written by Phil South under the pseudonym of Hex Loader. The sections were merged in 1987 to become the Tipshop.It contained all tips, cheats and complete solutions sent in by readers, and spawned its own book, the YS Tipshop Tiptionary. Dr. Berkmann's Clinic (renamed The YS Clinic With Dr. Hugo Z Hackenbush after Marcus Berkmann
Marcus Berkmann
-Life:Educated at Highgate School and Worcester College, Oxford, he began his career as a freelance journalist, contributing to computer and gaming magazines...
left to go freelance), originally set up to provide help for the game Head Over Heels
Head Over Heels (game)
Head Over Heels is an arcade adventure, released in 1987 for several 8-bit home computers, and subsequently ported to a wide range of formats. Originally, the working title for the game was Foot and Mouth....
, allowed readers to provide solutions to each other's gaming problems, more often than not solved by Richard Swann. Practical Pokes, hosted mainly by Jon North, was the successor to Hacking Away, and contained both type-in and Multiface
Multiface
The Multiface was a hardware peripheral released by Romantic Robot UK Ltd. for several 1980s home computers. The primary function of the device was to dump the computer's memory to external storage, and featured an iconic 'red button' that could be pressed at any time in order to activate it...
POKEs. The Tipshop was hosted variously by Phil South, David McCandless, Jonathan Davies and Linda Barker.
Technical sections
While YS is often thought of as primarily a games magazine, throughout its life it hosted a variety of technical columns, mainly dedicated to programming technique.Program Pitstop, first hosted by David McCandless, then Jonathan Davies and finally Craig Broadbent, contained type-in program
Type-in program
A type-in program, or just type-in, is a computer program listing printed in a computer magazine or book, meant to be typed in by the reader in order to run the program on a computer....
s and was one of the last columns of its kind, a remnant of an era when computer magazines would dedicate entire sections to BASIC
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
program listings. Most of the programs were in Sinclair BASIC, although some were in hexadecimal
Hexadecimal
In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen...
machine code
Machine code
Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Each instruction performs a very specific task, typically either an operation on a unit of data Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions...
, for which a special interpreter, the Hex Loader, was written. It replaced the pull-out section Program Power; the main difference was that Program Pitstop mainly included listings for utility programs and demos (for example, a level editor
Level editor
A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
for games such as Atari's Gauntlet
Gauntlet (arcade game)
Gauntlet is a fantasy-themed hack and slash 1985 arcade game by Atari Games. It is noted as the first class-based multiplayer game. Released during the emergence of popularity of other role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, the game was a sensation, being one of the first true dungeon crawl...
), while Program Power also included games. Program Pitstop also featured contributions from well known programmers, such as the Rainbow Processor by Dominic Robinson
Dominic Robinson
Dominic Robinson is a computer game programmer. He came to prominence as an in-house programmer for Hewson Consultants when he converted Uridium to the Spectrum in 1986. This was followed by another classic Spectrum shoot-em up, Zynaps, and a puzzle/shooter, Anarchy, both of which were released...
, which allowed the Spectrum to display more than two colours per character.
Spec Tec (Adam Waring) and its descendant Spec Tec Jr (Simon Cooke
Simon Cooke
Simon Cooke is a British video games developer, currently resident in Seattle, Washington.-Biography:He went to Secondary School at St...
) were home to readers' technical queries. The introduction to these columns were typically written in the style of a Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
monologue, occasionally including ongoing plots.
Other technical columns included Rage Hard, an occasional page which brought news of peripherals and other enhancements for the Spectrum; Steve's Programming Laundrette, in which Steve Anderson took the reader step-by-step through producing a BASIC game; and Simon Hindle's Dial Hard, which helped you connect a Spectrum to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Before the magazine's relaunch as Your Sinclair in 1986, Your Spectrum contained a plethora of technical articles, including guides on programming in machine code
Machine code
Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Each instruction performs a very specific task, typically either an operation on a unit of data Machine code or machine language is a system of impartible instructions...
and Forth, and information on how to upgrade the basic Spectrum set-up to incorporate better sound and more memory.
Letters
From the magazine's inception, letters were answered mainly by the magazine's editor. The letters page contained several subsections, which varied through the magazines' lifetime, but included:- Small Print - either deliberately short letters, or parts of longer letters taken out of context, most often for comedy value.
- Doodlebugs - readers' cartoons, often based around puns on current Spectrum games (e.g. a cartoon based on the game Midnight ResistanceMidnight Resistanceis a side-scrolling action shooting game produced by Data East for the arcades in . The game was ported by Data East to the Sega Mega Drive in and by Ocean Software to various home computer platforms during the same year...
showed a house with the bedroom light on and a speech bubble saying "Not tonight dear, I've got a headache"). Doodlebugs spawned one of YS's occasional comic strips, Ernie The Psychotic Madman, drawn by Phil McCardle. - Kindly Leave The Stage - readers' jokes, often nonsensical or surreal (an example being Q: Why is an orange orange? A: Because you can't clean a window with a spade), and often met with a gongThe Gong ShowThe Gong Show is an amateur talent contest franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. It was broadcast on NBC's daytime schedule from June 14, 1976 through July 21, 1978, and in first-run syndication from 1976–1980 and 1988–1989. The show was produced by Chuck Barris, who also served...
. - Wonderful World of Speccy - letters from readers for whom English was not their first language, many from Eastern EuropeEastern EuropeEastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, where the Spectrum scene was flourishing well into the early 1990s. - Trainspotters - where readers would send in mistakes they'd noticed in a previous issue of the magazine, in the hopes of convincing the editor to send them a Trainspotter Award. Most of the time, however, the editor found a way out of sending the award, by coming up with convoluted reasons why the 'mistake' wasn't a mistake at all (for example, by insisting there was no such place as the Isle of ManIsle of ManThe Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
after accidentally omitting it from a map in Issue 50). The Trainspotter caricature was supposedly based on the man pictured on the cover of Issue 1 of Your Spectrum. As with the Jugglers, this was drawn by Nick Davies. The last ever award was given to Stuart Campbell, a then former writer who had since left, who found a mistake in a reprint of an article that he wrote. - The Picos - a fictional family created for a series of columns in the letters page. Firstly there was Madame Pico, a psychic and agony aunt who answered readers' problems with "ooh, you poor dear". After her kidnapping, her son Bud Pico, a DIY specialist, took over. His solutions to readers' DIY problems often involved Rice KrispiesRice KrispiesRice Krispies is a breakfast cereal that was created by Clayton Rindlisbacher for the Kellogg company, and later marketed by Kellogg's in 1927 and released to the public in 1928...
. After Bud's "death", the baton was passed to cousin Femto Pico, a scientist and nightclub bouncer, and finally, Femto's sister Soya Pico, a vegetarian hippy. Most of the letters to the Picos were fictional. - Norman TebbitNorman TebbitNorman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment...
's Dead Serious Corner (originally Peter SnowPeter SnowPeter Snow, CBE is a British television and radio presenter. He is the grandson of First World War general Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, and cousin of Jon Snow, the main presenter of Channel 4 News, nephew of schoolmaster and bishop George D'Oyly Snow, and the brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret...
's Dead Serious Corner) - one of the last additions to the letters pages, containing, as the name suggests, more serious letters than the rest of the pages. These often dealt with consumer issues, such as the price of games, or declining software support for the Spectrum.
The Star Letter was awarded three full-price Spectrum games. When asked what qualities a star letter possessed, editor Linda Barker answered "A star letter is one that makes the entire Shed crew rock with mirth, or touches their hearts," although other editors had their own criteria for the type of letter they awarded Star Letter status to.
Like many later computer magazines (such as Zero and Amiga Power) Your Sinclair created a sense of community with its readers through the letters page, and many readers wrote in regularly, becoming almost part of the team themselves. Indeed, several letter writers went on to write for YS in a freelance capacity, including Leigh Loveday and Rich Pelley. Along with Jonathan Davies, Pelley had formerly written for the fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
Spectacular, and both became regular contributors for the magazine between 1988 and 1993. After YS closed, Davies went on to become editor of Sega Zone, Amiga Power and PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
, while Pelley regularly wrote articles for a number of magazines.
Official Top 100 games
Between the months of October 1991 and January 1992, contributor Stuart Campbell compiled his list of the Top 100 ZX Spectrum games of all time. In the months leading up to the final issue, readers were invited to vote on their ten favourite games, which was then compiled into a 'readers choice' top 100, which was published in the final issue alongside Stuart Campbell's list. In the 2004 special issue, presented by Retro GamerRetro Gamer
Retro Gamer is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Although launched as a quarterly publication, Retro Gamers soon became a monthly...
, there was a follow-up top 50 listing, chosen by the journalists from that magazine.
| Number | Readers choice | Official list | 2004 Special edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chase HQ | 3D Deathchase | Manic Miner |
| 2 | Rainbow Islands Rainbow Islands is a 1987 arcade game developed and published by Taito. The game is subtitled "The Story of Bubble Bobble 2" and is the sequel to Taito's hit game Bubble Bobble from the previous year... |
Rebelstar Rebelstar --Rebestar Raiders was originally released for the 48k ZX Spectrum in 1984 by Red Shift Ltd, a war games publisher who had also released Gollop's space strategy game, Nebula. It was written in BASIC.... |
Knight Lore Knight Lore Knight Lore is a computer game developed and released by Ultimate Play The Game in 1984. The game is the third in the Sabreman series, following on from his adventures in Sabre Wulf and Underwurlde. Unlike the earlier games in the series it used Ultimate's filmation engine to achieve a 3D look... |
| 3 | R-Type R-Type is a side scrolling shoot-em-up arcade game produced by Irem in 1987. The player controls a space fighter named R-9a "Arrowhead" to defend humanity against a mysterious but powerful alien life-form known as "Bydo", which was later discovered to be not entirely alien in origin... |
All or Nothing | Chaos |
| 4 | SimCity SimCity SimCity is a critically acclaimed city-building simulation video game, first released in 1989, and designed by Will Wright. SimCity was Maxis' first product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1994,... |
Stop the Express Stop the Express Stop the Express is a ZX Spectrum video game made by Hudson Soft in 1983. There were also versions for the Commodore 64 and the MSX.- Gameplay :... |
Skool Daze Skool Daze Skool Daze is a computer game created by David Reidy for the ZX Spectrum and released by Microsphere in 1985. A Commodore 64 port was subsequently made... |
| 5 | Chaos Chaos (video game) Chaos: The Battle of Wizards is a turn-based tactics computer game which was released on the ZX Spectrum in 1985. It was written by Julian Gollop and originally published by Games Workshop.-History:... |
Head Over Heels | Dizzy Dizzy - The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure Dizzy, or Dizzy – The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure, was the first video game featuring the character Dizzy, an anthropomorphic egg. The game was designed by two British brothers, Philip and Andrew Oliver, frequently referred to as the Oliver twins... |
| 6 | Manic Miner Manic Miner Manic Miner is a platform game originally written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith and released by Bug-Byte in 1983 . It is the first game in the Miner Willy series and among the pioneers of the platform game genre. The game itself was inspired by the Atari 800 game Miner 2049er... |
R-Type | Jet Set Willy Jet Set Willy Jet Set Willy is a computer game originally written for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time.... |
| 7 | Elite Elite Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence... |
The Sentinel | Lords of Midnight |
| 8 | Back To Skool Back to Skool Back to Skool is a computer game, sequel to the popular Skool Daze, created by David Reidy for the ZX Spectrum and released by Microsphere in 1985... |
Rainbow Islands | Atic Atac Atic Atac Atic Atac is a ZX Spectrum video game developed and released by Ultimate Play The Game in 1983. It takes place within a flip-screen castle in which the player must seek out the "Golden Key of ACG"... |
| 9 | Robocop RoboCop RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"... |
Boulderdash | Elite |
| 10 | 3D Deathchase 3D Deathchase 3D Deathchase is a 1983 computer game written for the ZX Spectrum by Mervyn Estcourt and published by Micromega in the UK and Ventamatic in Spain.-Gameplay:... |
Tornado Low Level Tornado Low Level Tornado Low Level is a game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC computers, and released by Vortex Software in 1984. It was written by Costa Panayi who also coded Android, Android 2, Highway Encounter, Cyclone and Revolution.-Summary:The player controls a Tornado fighter jet and must... |
Match Day 2 |
| 11 | Midnight Resistance Midnight Resistance is a side-scrolling action shooting game produced by Data East for the arcades in . The game was ported by Data East to the Sega Mega Drive in and by Ocean Software to various home computer platforms during the same year... |
SimCity | Sabre Wulf Sabre Wulf Sabre Wulf is a ZX Spectrum video game developed and released by Ultimate Play The Game in 1984. The game is the first in the Sabreman series. It was written originally by Tim Stamper and Chris Stamper, and later ported to many other computer platforms... |
| 12 | Myth | Carrier Command Carrier Command Carrier Command is a landmark 1980s computer game available on Amiga, Atari ST, PC, ZX Spectrum, Apple Macintosh, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC computers.... |
Magicland Dizzy Magicland Dizzy Magicland Dizzy is a platform adventure game published in Europe in 1990 by Codemasters for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amiga platforms. By 1992 there were also DOS, Atari ST and Amstrad CPC versions available. It is the sixth game in the Dizzy series, and the fourth adventure-based Dizzy title... |
| 13 | Target: Renegade Target: Renegade Target; Renegade is a scrolling beat'em up computer game released on the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum systems in the late 1980s by Ocean Software on their "Imagine" label, as well as a Nintendo Entertainment System version published by Taito. The game is a sequel to Renegade and was... |
Chuckie Egg Chuckie Egg A&F Software's Chuckie Egg is a home computer video game released in 1983, initially for the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro and the Dragon. Its subsequent popularity saw it released over the following years on a wide variety of computers, including the Commodore 64, Acorn Electron, MSX, Tatung... |
Head over Heels |
| 14 | Head Over Heels | Ant Attack | Jet-Pac |
| 15 | Mercenary Mercenary A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he... |
Lords of Midnight | Wanted: Monty Mole Wanted: Monty Mole Wanted: Monty Mole is a platform game that was published in 1984 by Gremlin Graphics. Versions were released for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers.-Gameplay:... |
| 16 | Laser Squad Laser Squad Laser Squad is a turn-based tactics computer game, originally released for the ZX Spectrum and later for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga and Atari ST computers, as well as PC computers. It was designed by Julian Gollop and his team at Target Games and published by Blade Software... |
Elite | Treasure Island Dizzy Treasure Island Dizzy Treasure Island Dizzy is a computer puzzle game published in 1987 by Codemasters for the Amstrad, Commodore 64, Spectrum, DOS, NES, Amiga and Atari ST.... |
| 17 | Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge | Starquake | Underwurlde Underwurlde Underwurlde is a video game for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 developed and released by Ultimate Play The Game in 1984. The game is the second in the Sabreman series, following on from his adventures in Sabre Wulf. The format of the game is a 2D side view flip-screen platform game... |
| 18 | Spellbound Dizzy Spellbound Dizzy Spellbound Dizzy is an adventure video game, featuring the character Dizzy, released in December 1990 by Codemasters. The series was originally developed by the Oliver twins; however, they had little involvement with this title other than executive sign off - confident in leaving Big Red Software... |
Underwurlde | Boulderdash |
| 19 | Quazatron Quazatron Quazatron is an action video game genre released in 1986 by Graftgold Ltd. It was designed by Steve Turner for the ZX Spectrum.-History:Quazatron was a Spectrum version of Paradroid, which was written by Graftgold partner Andrew Braybrook in 1985... |
Back to Skool | Bounty Bob Strikes Back |
| 20 | Lemmings | Spy vs. Spy Spy vs. Spy Spy vs. Spy is a black and white comic strip that debuted in Mad magazine #60, dated January 1961, and was originally published by EC Comics. The strip was created by Antonio Prohías.The Spy vs... |
Chaos 2 Chaos 2 Chaos 2 is a combat robot from the UK Television Series Robot Wars, designed and built by self-employed mechanic George Francis, from Ipswich, and operated by Team Chaos. Twice winner of the UK Robot Wars Championship and the only robot with that distinction, it was the first robot to use its... |
YS2
As reduced advertising and lack of material to review caused YS's page numbers to drop, YS introduced YS2, which was incorporated on the cover tape, and contained a teletextTeletext
Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
-like viewer program and a collection of some fifty or so 'extra' pages of content largely written by then editor Jonathan Nash and regular contributor Steve Anderson. It contained, amongst other things, short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
, surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and absurdist
Non sequitur (absurdism)
A non sequitur is a conversational and literary device, often used for comedic purposes. It is a comment that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what it follows, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing....
humour, and Private Eye-style news satire
News satire
thumb|right|220px|[[The Daily Show with Jon Stewart]] is a news satire program.News satire, also called fake news , is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content...
. Not long before the magazine folded, plans were being made to improve the interface and increase the number of pages.
The code for YS2 had been taken (supposedly without permission) from adventure game company Delta 4
Delta 4
Delta 4 was a British software developer created by Fergus McNeill, writing and publishing interactive fiction.Delta 4 designed games between 1984 and 1987. Some were self-published, others were released by CRL Group, Piranha or Silversoft...
's similar Sceptical program. The writers often jokingly referred to a possible lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against them, and wrote as an acknowledgement "The Sceptical driver is copyright Delta 4, who are really nice and hardly ever sue". No lawsuit materialised - YS and Delta 4 had a good working relationship, the magazine having featured several of their games on the covertape in the past.
In 1999, a webzine, YS3, was launched by comp.sys.sinclair newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
regulars Nathan Cross and Jon Hyde, and managed to recreate something of the original magazine's style and humour. It ran irregularly until 2002 before going on an extended hiatus. It has since returned in blog form.
Where are they now?
Today it is unusual to find former YS writers as regular staff members in the mainstream press; however, many of them continue to work in the industry as freelancers.- Marcus BerkmannMarcus Berkmann-Life:Educated at Highgate School and Worcester College, Oxford, he began his career as a freelance journalist, contributing to computer and gaming magazines...
writes for Private EyePrivate EyePrivate Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
, The OldieThe OldieThe Oldie is a monthly magazine launched in 1992 by Richard Ingrams, who for 23 years was the editor of Private Eye. It carries general interest articles, humour and cartoons, and has an eclectic list of contributors, including James Le Fanu, John Sweeney, Thomas Stuttaford, Virginia Ironside,...
and The SpectatorThe SpectatorThe Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
and has published several books. - Phil South was a freelance writer for Amiga FormatAmiga FormatAmiga Format was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future Publishing. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when, in the wake of selling ACE to EMAP, Future split the dual-format title ST/Amiga Format into two separate publications...
and Computer ShopperComputer Shopper (UK magazine)Computer Shopper is a magazine published monthly since 1988 in the UK by Felix Dennis's company, Dennis Publishing Ltd.. It contains reviews of home computers and related hardware / software products, as well as news and features on related subjects...
, then was a freelance contractor for Disney ChannelDisney ChannelDisney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
in the UK. He is currently working at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre SchoolBristol Old Vic Theatre SchoolThe Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, opened by Laurence Olivier in 1946, is an affiliate of the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama, an organisation securing the highest standards of training in the performing arts, and is an associate school of the Faculty of Creative Arts of the University of the...
. - Dave Golder was the editor of SFXSFX magazineSFX is a British magazine covering the topics of science fiction and fantasy.-Description:SFX magazine is published every four weeks by Future Publishing and was founded in 1995. The magazine covers topics in the genres of popular science fiction, fantasy and horror, within the media of films,...
from 1996 until 2005, then after a short break returned to work alongside the current team with the title Special Projects Editor. - Stuart Campbell continued to work for Amiga Power and other magazines before going to work for Sensible SoftwareSensible SoftwareSensible Software was a software house active during the 1980s and 90s, from the United Kingdom.The company was well-known for the very small sprites used for the player characters in many of their games, including Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder and Sensible Golf.- Early history :Sensible Software...
as a designer. He subsequently created the World of Stuart site, a cross between a blogBlogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
and a portfolio of his work for potential employers. - Matt BielbyMatt BielbyMatt Bielby is the managing director and proprietor of Blackfish Publishing, a specialist magazine and internet publishing company based in Bath, UK. He is best known as a magazine editor, launching many successful titles in assorted markets during the 1990s, mostly on the subjects of computer and...
launched and edited a number of magazines for Future and other publishers, including SFX, Total FilmTotal FilmTotal Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
, .net.net (magazine).net is a monthly Internet magazine published in the UK by Future Publishing. Founded in 1994, .net magazine is published every four weeks . The magazine is aimed at professional and amateur web designers, and a significant proportion of its readers are full-time web developers. The front cover...
and NutsNuts (magazine)Nuts is a weekly lad mag published in the United Kingdom. It was the first weekly lads magazine to be published in the UK and is sold every Tuesday...
. - Teresa 'T'zer' Maughan has written a number of pop books and worked on Star Pets magazine.
- Pete ShawPete ShawFor the football player of the same name see Pete Shaw .Pete Shaw is a British author, broadcaster, programmer and theatrical producer.- Early life :...
(aka Troubleshootin' Pete) is now a freelance computer programmer and theatre producer. - Jonathan Davies, a staff writer and regular contributor, went on to edit Amiga Power and PC Gamer. He now runs the Games Press website, a PR resource for the games industry.
- Jonathan Nash, YS's last editor, also went on to work for Amiga Power and PC Gamer, and was also responsible for the short-lived satirical webzine The Weekly. He recently resurfaced with the similar Or Something, a collection of video game reviews, short stories and other articles.
- Tony LeeTony LeeTony Lee is a British comics writer, screenwriter, audio playwright and novelist.-Early life:Lee was born in Hayes, Middlesex in England...
, Joystick Juggler in the late eighties is now a #1 New York Times Best Selling List writer of audio dramas, comics and graphic novels, most recently known as the writer of the ongoing Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
comic for IDWIDW PublishingIDW Publishing, also known as Idea + Design Works, LLC and IDW, is an American publisher of comic books and comic strip collections. The company was founded in 1999 and has been awarded the title "Publisher of the Year Under 5% Market Share" for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Diamond Comic...
. - Simon CookeSimon CookeSimon Cooke is a British video games developer, currently resident in Seattle, Washington.-Biography:He went to Secondary School at St...
went on to write for .net, Internet Today, Internet & Comms Today, Net User, How To Get Online and Arcane. He currently works for X-Ray Kid StudiosX-Ray Kid StudiosX-Ray Kid Studios is a privately held entertainment company specializing in Video Game Development, Comic Books, Television Production and Film based in Newport Beach, California and Seattle, Washington, U.S.A....
as Director of Engineering, and was Principle Technology Engineer and Lead Gameplay Engineer on This is VegasThis is VegasThis is Vegas is a video game which was developed by Surreal Software and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and was intended for release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.-Development:...
for Surreal SoftwareSurreal SoftwareSurreal Software is a video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington, USA, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Surreal Software, best known for The Suffering and Drakan series, employed over 130 designers, artists and programmers. Surreal was acquired by Warner Bros....
; he also worked on The Suffering: Ties That BindThe Suffering: Ties That BindThe Suffering: Ties That Bind is a video game developed by Surreal Software and published by Midway Games, released in 2005 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 game consoles as well as the PC. The Xbox version of the game is not supported by the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility feature.It is the...
. - Nat Pryce now consults in software design and development and was a winner of the 2006 Gordon PaskGordon PaskAndrew Gordon Speedie Pask was an English cybernetician and psychologist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology....
Award for contributions to AgileAgile software developmentAgile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams...
practice. He is the author of Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests. - Leigh LovedayLeigh LovedayLeigh Scott Loveday is a Welsh-born video game writer and designer. He is known for his unusual sense of humour with which he writes the material.-Your Sinclair:...
, a regular letter writer and reviewer in the latter days of the magazine, now works for Rare. - David McCandless since became a freelance writer for WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Tank, and The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, and writes and designs the blog Information is Beautiful. - Rich Pelley now writes for Ralph, LoadedLoaded (magazine)Loaded, first published in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag". Its motto is "For men who should know better".-History:...
, NMENMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
and The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
.
See also
- Amiga PowerAmiga PowerAmiga Power was a monthly magazine about Amiga computer games. It was published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and ran for 65 issues, from May 1991 to September 1996....
- CRASHCRASH (magazine)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.-Development:...
- Sinclair UserSinclair UserSinclair User, often abbreviated SU, was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum...
- Future PublishingFuture PublishingFuture plc is a media company; in 2006, it was the sixth-largest in the United Kingdom. It publishes more than 150 magazines in fields such as video games, technology, automotive, cycling, films and photography. Future is the official magazine company of all three major games console manufacturers...
External links
- The YS Rock 'N' Roll Years — Unofficial site, dedicated to archiving games reviews and feature articles from the magazine.
- YRUA? The Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive — Archive of articles from Your Sinclairs forerunner, Your Spectrum.
- Your Sinclair: A Celebration — Fan-written website detailing both YS and YS-related material.
- YS2/100 — An article written in dictionary form describing aspects of the magazine, written by former editor Jonathan Nash.
- [ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/YourSinclair Full page scans of the magazine] at World Of Spectrum.
- Good Old Games — Scans of Your Sinclair Magazine and other.