The YS Story

YS. It's been here for ten (ten! Ten!) years (give or take a couple of years) and has inspired countless perfectly ordinary people to call themselves 'Spec-chums' and use phrases like 'wagga wagga' and 'or something' in everyday conversation. Ace investigative journalist Jonathan Davies leaves no jokes untold in this in-depth report revealing where YS came from, what happened in it, and whose fault it all was.

Jonathan Davies It began in a poky little office in central London, on a shoestring budget, amid fear and uncertainty. It ended in, erm, a poky little shed in Bath, on a shoestring budget etc. But in between, YS became the most popular, most successful, most biggest sellingist Spectrum magazine the world has ever known. In 10,000 dynamic pages it delivered 3,118 game reviews, 2,589 interesting pieces of news, 14,509 Ed's comments, 236,623 spelling mistakes, 19,422 examples of juvenile innuendo, 12.5 miles of hexdump, 125 letters from appalled parents, 417 unintelligible readers' maps of Codemasters games, and three pictures of the Queen (all figures are, of course, approximate). It was first with all the latest Speccy-related news. It told you exactly which games to buy, and which ones not to. It cemented an eternal bond between Spec-chums across the globe. And yet it was completely crap. 1983-85 The seeds were sown nearly ten years ago, right at the end of 1983, when Sportscene Specialist Press (who?) launched a brand new bi-monthly magazine called Your Spectrum. Piloted by one Roger Munford, and printed on shiny, heavily-starched paper, the first issue told you how to build your own keyboard buffer and how to break out of machine code loops, and rounded up state-of-the-art chess packages. Later issues followed up with features on a DIY joystick interface, upgrading your Speccy to 48K, the ZIP compiler, and printing out screens on a printer. Hex dumps came with detailed assembly listings. Even letters had hex dumps in them. Every issue came with a free copy of QL User. And games (at least, those you didn't have to type in yourself) were confined to the Spectrum Soft pages, reviewed by the members of local computer clubs. Eek.      THE HIGHS   *   Player's guides complete with specially-drawn full-colour maps and in-depth Hacker's Guides of favourites like TLL, Alien 8, Jet Set Willy (with a full explanation of the 'Attic bug'), JSW 2 and Highway Encounter.   *   The Ant Attack poster that came with issue 2.   *   The introduction of the Trainspotter Award.   *   Going monthly after issue 4.      THE LOWS   *   'Byte High, No Limit.' (The Your Spectrum slogan.)   *   The Grafpad cover on issue 5.   *   Robert Maxwell almost (but not quite) buying a troubled Sinclair Research Ltd for £12 million.   *   The regular program by Dick Head which readers had to debug for pleasure.      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 1 (the original Trainspotter)   *   Issue 7 (replacement keyboards ahoy!)   *   Issue 14 (the chocolate Speccy)   *   Issue 20 (The Rats)      THE GAMES   *   Fighter Pilot   *   Android Two   *   3D Tanx   *   Pssst   *   Hunchback   *   Stonkers   *   Atic Atac   *   Maziacs   *   Planetoids   *   Hungry Horace   *   Flight Simulation   *   Valhalla   *   Kosmic Kanga   *   3D Seiddab Attack   *   Ad Astra   *   Eureka!   *   Mugsy   *   Cavelon   *   Pitfall 2   *   Jack And The Beanstalk   *   Jasper   *   Cyclone   *   Daley Thompson's Decathlon   *   Kokotoni Wilf   *   3D Starstrike   *   Match Day   *   Knight Lore   *   Nodes Of Yesod   *   Technician Ted   *   Gyron WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Sinclair ROM cartridges   *   DK'Tronics   *   Troubleshootin' Pete   *   The Currah Micro Speech   *   ZX Microfairs   *   32K RAM packs   *   Software Projects   *   16/48 - 'the monthly cassette magazine'   *   Programmable joystick interfaces   *   Miner Willy Meets The Taxman   *   the Wafadrive   *   The Spanish Spectrum 128K, complete with keypad     But by the end of 1985, Your Spectrum had done a bit of thinking. The QL, it reasoned, was the machine of the future, the new 128K Spectrum might not even be called a Spectrum, and YS didn't want to be cut out of the equation. So, in a display of crapness that was to set a precedent for the future, YS wrapped itself in silk, hung itself up in a quiet corner of the office... 1986 ...to emerge a month later as Your Sinclair! Hurrah! Issue 1 had the first ever YS covertape - a demo of Rasputin - sellotaped to the front, partly obscuring a picture of a commando with a machine gun. Inside were lots of dull black and white news pages, much less programmingy, hex dumpy-type stuff... and loads of games! And proper reviews of them, too, by people like Rachael Smith, Gwyn Hughes, Sue Denham, Alison Hjul and Steve Addams. The Editor had changed as well - into Kevin Cox - and the Production Editor was Teresa Maughan.      THE HIGHS   *   The 'win a flight on Concorde' compo in issue 1.   *   The Arcade Dream April fool.   *   YS Adventures, with Mike Gerrard.   *   The Saboteur map.   *   The YS Band in issue 7.   *   The huge Elite hacking program.      THE LOWS   *   Hex Loader.   *   Program Power, the pull-out type-ins section.   *   Microdrivin'.   *   The 'win a Vektar electronic bike' compo in issue 6.   *   The girl in the Addictive Games ad.   *   Giving the budget re-release of Deathchase 6/10 in issue 9, and Paperboy 9/10 in issue 11.      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 2 (The Young Ones)   *   Issue 7 (Rock 'n' Wrestle)   *   Issue 11 (Scooby Doo)      THE GAMES   *   Fairlight   *   Saboteur   *   Back To Skool   *   Gunfright   *   Wham! The Music Box   *   Turbo Esprit   *   ID   *   Uridium   *   Sam Fox Strip Poker   *   Heavy On The Magick   *   Ping Pong   *   Jack The Nipper   *   Trap Door   *   Scuba Dive   *   TT Racer   *   Dandy WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Street Hawk   *   Durell Software   *   YS MegaBASIC   *   Max Headroom   *   Now Games   *   'Hurdie hurdie ho'   *   Sweevo   *   Spec Drum 1987 A cloud had covered the Speccyverse by 1987. YS was going from strength to strength, of course, groovier than ever, and T'zer had ascended to the rank of Deputy Editor. But Sir Clive had sold out to arch-rival Alan Sugar. The QL was something people made jokes about, rather than regarding it in awe as they were supposed to. And even the Speccy was looking a little pallid.      THE HIGHS   *   The free Road Race tape.   *   The F-15 Strike Eagle poster, free with issue 18.   *   The 'know your Star Trek cliches' guide   *   T'zer dressed as Santa.   *   The YS binder ad.   *   The Barbarian ad.   *   Printing Frontlines upside-down in issue 19.   *   The Game Over ad - other mags fought shy; YS revealed all in poster size.   *   Batty.   *   'Ten Good Reasons Why You Should Get A YS Sub' in issue 22.      THE LOWS   *   The Spectrum +2 and +3.   *   Page 63 of issue 14.   *   The headline for the compilation round-up in issue 19.   *   The introduction of Program Pitstop (from a personal viewpoint).   *   Giving Game Over 9/10 (great ad, though).      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 18 (for the coverline)   *   Issue 21 (for the free wobbly Jack The Nipper)   *   Issue 22 (Battleships)      THE GAMES   *   Frost Byte   *   Fat Worm Blows A Sparky   *   Miami Vice   *   WAR   *   Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona   *   Arkanoid   *   Enduro Racer   *   Head Over Heels   *   Zynaps   *   Amaurote   *   Exolon   *   Pneumatic Hammers   *   Starfox (no, really)   *   Super Sprint   *   Z   *   Renegade   *   Super Hang On   *   Dizzy   *   ATV Simulator WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Micro Live   *   Desert Island Disks   *   Monty Mole   *   Cliff Joseph   *   The YS Clapometer   *   The Seiko RC-1000 Wrist Terminal   *   Battleships 1988 YS had weathered the storm of Speccy uncertainy, and hit a now unthinkable circulation high of 80,368 copies every month. That's not to say there hadn't been casualties, though. Kevin had been given a smart suit and an office of his own, leaving T'zer to capture the Editor's chair - and the hearts of countless Spec-chums. At her side were Deputy Ed Marcus Berkmann and Technical Ed Phil South.      THE HIGHS   *   A free copy of Moley Christmas with the January issue.   *   Street Life, the, er, 'street life' section.   *   Free 'Wagga Wagga' badges.   *   Mike Gerrard's Top Ten Jaffa Cakes.   *   The first use of the word 'hatstand' in large letters.   *   Advanced Lawnmower Simulator.   *   The Vixen pin-up with issue 29.   *   The Joke Police.   *   The Psycho Pig UXB T-shirt.   *   The Psycho Pig UXB advert.   *   Breakfast Frontlines.   *   'I've Got Big Tips' badges.      THE LOWS   *   Kindly Leave The Stage.   *   The Tony Worrall 'Worrallucky man' joke.   *   On The Warpath.   *   Phil's Role Playing Games round-up in issue 26.   *   Play For Your Life (we're sorry, okay?).   *   Postman's Knock, the play-by-mail column.   *   The PC 200, of which YS concluded 'there's a very bright future ahead for this line of computers'.      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 27 (Rolling Thunder)   *   Issue 29 (Vixen)   *   Issue 30 (Psycho Pigs UXB - the game that had it all, as long as you didn't try actually playing it)   *   Issue 36 (Afterburner)      THE GAMES   *   Match Day 2   *   Mad Balls   *   Gryzor   *   OutRun   *   Dark Sceptre   *   Driller   *   Blockbusters   *   Tetris   *   19 - Boot Camp   *   Where Time Stood Still   *   Street Fighter   *   Operation Wolf   *   Buggy Boy   *   Ballbreaker II   *   Carrier Command   *   Impossible Mission   *   Chubby Gristle WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Owen and Audrey Bishop   *   The Cleveland Chair Company Ltd   *   Nat Pryce   *   The Kempston joystick   *   Ultimate Play The Game   *   Daley Thompson   *   Slots Of Fun   *   Lightbulb jokes   *   The PC 200 1989 A new year, and the same old Editor. But there'd been changes further down the line, with Jackie Ryan being installed as Production Editor and the slightly odd Duncan McDonald coming in as Staff Writer. And it was just as well, because 1989 turned out to be a vintage year for games, with no less than about 700 really good ones coming out.      THE HIGHS   *   The January issue issue, which was a dizzying 156 pages long.   *   YS Smash Tapes, which now came with every issue.   *   National Rescue (the comic strip).   *   The 'Oooh! You Put The Willies Right Up Me!' compo.   *   The Jockey 'Jelly-Bot' Wilson simulator.   *   Hold My Hand Very Tightly (Very Tightly) by Whistlin' Rick Wilson (the chart-topping single).   *   The YS Personality Test.   *   David Darling quotes.   *   The '89 range of mugs.   *   'Love In A Cold Climate' - the first YS photo love story.      THE LOWS   *   Giving a second budget re-release of Deathchase just 69°.   *   Tsk.      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 42 (Dominator)   *   Issue 43 (Jaws)   *   Issue 45 ('As seen on TV')   *   Issue 47 (Power Drift)      THE GAMES   *   R-Type   *   Frank Bruno's Big Box   *   Thunder Blade   *   Ring Wars   *   WEC Le Mans   *   Heroes Of The Lance   *   Xenon   *   Captain Blood   *   Thunderbirds   *   Eliminator   *   Navy Moves   *   Stormlord   *   Rock Star Ate My Hamster   *   Xybots   *   The Running Man   *   Silkworm   *   Rick Dangerous   *   The New Zealand Story   *   Wellington At Waterloo   *   Time Scanner   *   Starglider II   *   Bob's Full House   *   Altered Beast   *   Ghouls and Ghosts   *   Power Drift   *   Strider   *   Stunt Car Racer   *   Cabal   *   Saint And Greavsie WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Bernadette Tynan   *   Madame Pico   *   OutRun Europa   *   Bargain Basement   *   Pippin the Wondermule   *   The Sinclair Magnum Lightphaser   *   Kevin Toms   *   Farty the Warthog   *   Wayne Kerr of Huddersfield 1990 T'zer had moved on to try to discover what it is that publishers actually do, and YS had entered what has since become known (not without irony) as the Matt Bielby Golden Age. It had got a new Deputy Ed - David Wilson - too, and a rather frightening-looking Production Editor - Andy Ide. And there followed a year of tumultuous upsets at Your Sinclair, not least of which was the shock move from smelly London to swish Bath, leaving David and Duncan behind. Bewildering comings and goings ensued - the recruitment of a whole new design team, for starters: Sal Meddings (Designer) and Andy Ounsted (Design Assistant). Oh, and Linda Barker stepped in as Staff Writer.      THE HIGHS   *   The celebratory fiftieth issue. (Hurrah!)   *   The 'I've Got a Big Red Testie' compo.   *   Peculiar Pets Corner.   *   The SAM Coupe finally issuing forth.   *   YS Capers, in which you got to shoot the entire team dead.   *   The letter about underpants in the July issue.   *   The picture of the litter of kittens in the August issue.   *   The demise of the +3.   *   YS moving from London to Bath...      THE LOWS   *   ... and into a rather tight-fitting shed   *   the 'Bandits at Four O'Clock' joke on issue 51's cover.   *   The Castle Master preview illustration.   *   The pictures in the P47 review.   *   Issue 53's back issues order form.   *   Crap Games Corner.   *   The end of the SAM Coupe's brief existence.      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 49 (Dan Dare)   *   Issue 51 (Scramble Spirits)   *   Issue 53 (Dynasty Wars)   *   Issue 55 (football games)      THE GAMES   *   Chase HQ   *   Gazza's Super Soccer   *   Moonwalker   *   Tintin On The Moon   *   Ghostbusters II   *   Hard Drivin'   *   Myth   *   Australian Rules Football   *   Kick Off   *   Stir Crazy   *   Scramble Spirits   *   Wild Streets   *   X-Out   *   Rainbow Islands   *   Beverly Hills Cop   *   Impossamole   *   Fighter Bomber   *   Dynasty Wars   *   Switchblade   *   Pipe Mania   *   Turrican   *   Midnight Resistance   *   Sim City   *   Monty Python's Flying Circus   *   Total Recall   *   Robocop II WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Codies games on CD   *   Mel Croucher, Europe's Funniest Man   *   Sly Spy Secret Agent   *   Dusty Fleming 1991 After a few months of stability, 1991 quickly deteriorated into another chair-swapping frenzy. Out went Matt (to a posh 16-bit mag), up went Andy (to Editor), in came James Leach (as Games Editor), off went Sal (to have a baby), up went Andy O (to Designer), in came Maryanne Booth (as Design Assistant) and finally, barely having adjusted his new chair to the right height, off went Andy Ide (to a bicycle mag), handing his red pen to Andy Hutchinson. Criminy. As for YS itself, while sales were going up and up, it was starting to look just a teeny bit thin.      THE HIGHS   *   The Smash Tapes became 4-Packs which became 6-Packs which became Magnificent 7s - Spec-chums had never had it so good.   *   The 'It's Crap' T-shirt.   *   Another photo love story.   *   The 'Win a Shed' compo.   *   'Speccy Moonlighting' Pssst!   *   Stuart's All-Time Top 100 Speccy Games.   *   The team pics in issue 72.      THE LOWS   *   Sinking to another joystick round-up. (It was a jolly good one, though.)   *   The 'writing two as 2' period      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 62 (Shadow Dancer)   *   Issue 63 (Back to the Future 3)   *   Issue 67 (Toki)   *   Issue 71 (Dizzy) (Mmmgmmmph! Ed)      THE GAMES   *   Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge   *   Five On A Treasure Island   *   Cromwell At War 1642-1645   *   OutRun Europa (oh, there it is)   *   Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles   *   Kick Off II   *   F-16 Combat Pilot   *   Golden Axe   *   Gazza II   *   North and South   *   Crete 1941   *   Turrican II   *   SWIV   *   Night Shift   *   Predator   *   Final Fight   *   Darkman   *   Terminator II   *   Prince Of Persia(nearly)   *   Dizzy's Excellent Adventures   *   WWF   *   Hudson Hawk WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Raymond Castle   *   Eliza, Sal's baby   *   Liz and Angela from the Dejeuner D'Amour photo-story 1992 Things bumbled along happily for a while. But then... oh no! It started happening again! And with a new twist - empty chairs! First James vanished (absorbed into new mag Gamesmaster), and then Hutch disappeared as well! (Nobody's quite sure where to.) And Maryanne! That just left Linda struggling to regain control, while Andy O and new boy Jon Pillar tried to calm down the passengers. Even the top brass didn't escape - Jane Richardson, who'd been smiling down on YS since the move to Bath, handed her executive calculator and car keys to Colin Campbell.      THE HIGHS   *   Tipshop in colour (sort of).   *   Haylp! (No! Ed)   *   The Support Our Speccy Campaign.   *   The free 'Push Off! The Fate of Atlantis is in my hands!', erm, thingy with the July issue.   *   YS's trip to Alton Towers.      THE LOWS   *   YS really was getting dangerously thin.   *   A whole page discussing alternative uses for last month's free Steg the Slug high score card.   *   Passing up yet another opportunity of Deathchase redemption - 82%?      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 76 (Bonanza Bros)   *   Issue 80 (for the sheer audacity)      THE GAMES   *   Super Space Invaders   *   Neighbours   *   Lemmings   *   WWF Wrestlemania   *   Santa's Xmas Caper   *   Rodland   *   Space Crusade   *   Wile E Coyote   *   Double Dragon III   *   Robocop III   *   The Addams Family   *   Fireman Sam   *   Street Fighter II WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Ammonites. 1993 Rain lashed against the Shed. Inside, with the door firmly padlocked, Linda, Andy and Jonathan gripped each others' hands, their eyes wide with terror. What was happening? What mysterious force was draining YS of its team? Of its games? Of its pages? Their only hope, they knew, was to cling to what remained with every fibre of their beings. But it wasn't to be! A momentary lapse of concentration and - fwoosh! - Linda was gone (a victim of another pesky 16-bit mag). The rain beat down harder...      THE HIGHS   *   The gerbils picture?   *   No, it's no good. Sorry.   *   But wait!   *   Issue 90 had Deathchase on the covertape! Absolution!      THE LOWS   *   The picture of Cilla Black.   *   Stuart's 'the final word in soccer management simulations' joke.      THE TOP COVERS   *   Issue 85 (the snowman)   *   Issue 90 (the 3D games)   *   Issue 91 (the Dalek)      THE GAMES   *   Bully's Sporting Darts   *   Playdays   *   (That wasn't a game. Ed)   *   Super Monaco Grand Prix   *   (And that was a re-release. Ed)   *   Well, they weren't to know   *   (Damn. Ed)      WHERE ARE THEY NOW?   *   Your Sinclair   *   Erk      Many thanks to Jonathan Nash for providing this article

Published in the September 1993 issue of Your Sinclair

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