Word Up!

In which Hutch explains all those peculiarly YS-ish words that have perplexed you, and the rest of the team, since the third moon in Septuagesima. Eh?

Andy Hutchinson Adventure: nope, not a Saturday afternoon with the East Stand boys at Wolves, but a game (usually purely textual) in which you have to solve puzzles and explore strange worlds. Main skill you'll need is the ability to type "Go north", "Eat food", "Hit troll", "Get all" and "Die of boredom" repeatedly.     Beat-'em-up: a game in which you're required to make your character hit lots of computer controlled characters. Usually includes the word 'karate' in the title.     Beaut: really beautiful, man.     Blim: shouted in amazement; as in "Blimmin' hell." A golden nugget of knowledge from possibly the brainiest YS team ever.     Blooters: expression of amazement, ie "Blooters! There's the Loch Ness monster."     Brillig: top hole, really rather good. Not to be confused with its meaning in Lewis Caroll's Jabberwocky - "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves ..." in which we think it means dank. Of course, we can't be 'pletely sure cos it is a load of nonsense.     Cheesy: hackneyed, old, not worth a lot really.     Clock this: look at this.     Collect-'em-up: a game in which you're required to collect things. Usually involves an egg called Dizzy. Hmmm.     Corker: an article of the highest quality.     Crap: an article of the lowest quality.     Dead serious: rarely of consequence in YS.     Dig?: do you agree with my point of view?     Fabby: fabulous.     Fish: a finny thing that swims around in water, silly!     Flip: see Blim.     Frolic: an adventure.     Funky: brimming over with positive vibes.     Gedoudameeway: phrase used when making a dash for t' bog.     Groovesome: utterly brilliant, great, fab, excellent.     Gripply: that peculiar way in which mothers and middle aged women (usually laden with four large Tescos bags) run and manage to keep their bodies and heads absolutely level.     Guff: to drop one's guts. To fart.     Hooba: the way you cough if you push something too far into your ear.     Jangler: when a bit of ice cream hits a rotten tooth, or tin foil touches a filling.     Megagame: the highest accolade you can give a game.     Microphone head: someone with very, very curly hair.     Most considerable: it's superb.     Moving: smart.     Natch: naturally.     Nesty: what your hair looks like first thing in the morning. Small boys are particularly susceptible to this phenomenon. Mothers think it looks sweet. Bleurgh!     Platformer: a game of the platform genre.     Pleb: a ridiculous person.     'Pletely: totally.     Radical: flippin' excellent.     Ripping: of the best quality.     Schleping: to lounge around a lot doing as little as possible.     Scrummy: tasty.     Skidoober: when you trip and nearly fall over in front of loads of people; as in "That geezer just pulled a radical skidoober."     Shed: a haven of wisdom and immense grooviness.     Shed-crew: the YS team.     Shoot-'em-up: a game involving piloting a spaceship and shooting down other craft.     Skill: radical, marvellous.     Slope off: to amazingly disappear when there's washing-up/homework/nappy changing to be done.     Spanky: new, fresh, ace.     Spanner: a boring person.     Spec-chum: one who subscribes to the doctrines of Clive Sinclair and Your Sinclair.     Spiffy: new, fresh, minty.     Spizzical: when you open a can of fizzy pop which has been shaken around a lot despite knowing that it's going to spray all over the place.     Spook: exclamation, a bit like Eek! (Also Matt Bielby's fave expression.)     Sploop: that funny little jet of spit which sometimes comes out of your mouth whilst eating something mouth-watering.     Spurtsome: the amazing speed with which you can make it back home having purchased a new game, record or video.     Stonking: really rather good.     Stoopid: more than just stupid, idiotic.     Strident: the way that a heavy metal music fan walks.     Techie: anything involving electricity or machine code.     Toungle: the urge to lick the two nodes on top of one of those square batteries. This is closely allied with the urge to look at the contents of your hanky after you've blown your nose or the bottom of the toilet after you've... (Snip! Jane the Publisher)     Trainspotter: a sad individual who revels in minutiae.     Tribble: that peculiar way in which a girl's bum wiggles when she walks; as in "Hasn't she got a tribbly bum."     Trolleywar: activity small boys participate in on hot Sunday afternoons at the local multi-story carpark in which they hop into shopping trollies and race each other down the ramps.     Umbilical: a small runty boy who follows the hard kids around all the time laughing at their crappy jokes and saying "Hit 'im Mauler" a lot.     Wibbly: strange.     Wodges: lots and lots.     Wowzers: that really is rather incredible.     Zesty: vital, happening, radical.      Now, if you want to sound as cool as a cucumber that's been left in the freezer for 24 hours, simply string a few of these words together. For example, "Wowzers! Gedoudameeway tribbly, gripply microphone head." Or "Clock this! It's a strident, umbilical pleb!" Good eh? Or should I say groovesome, I think I should. Hey! totally groovesome, dude!

Published in the July 1992 issue of Your Sinclair

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