Spectrum Computing

Hi everyone,

so it's not really an issue of CRASH and also lacking a bit as far as page numbers are concerned. This is just me having a bit of fun, and also serves as a tribute to Jonathan Smith who died on June 26th, 2010.



How to read this:
You may download a 14 megabytes PDF from here (use "book view" or w/e it's called in your PDF viewer of choice to display it properly) or alternatively use this link to view a couple of slightly higher resolution images than in the PDF, they're all 2180 pixels high (Protip: set your browser to full screen view, the pics will be much sharper that way!).

You'll find an awful lot of puns (sorry!), a bit of foul language and tons of inside jokes and references to people, games, names and events from the Spectrum scene. Most of this is based on WoS as it is what my magazine was based on at first, but I included some people from SC later on as I'm not biased towards any community.

I'm posting this on both World of Spectrum and Spectrum Computing, but if you liked it and wish to share it on Facebook or Twitter, please go right ahead! I don't do any social media myself but I'm certainly not opposed to my creation getting more exposure in the retro scene. The more the merrier!

In case you're wondering what this Oilboy 5 is all about - this is why you're actually seeing this whole thing in the first place! It was a fake game cover I made for my brother as a present for his 40th birthday a few years back. His first name happens to be Oliver and I remember seeing the "Oil" barrel in the 1st stage of Donkey Kong when we were youngsters - this prompted me to call him Oil too annoy him, which at some point (as we were recording our voices onto tape, talking crap) evolved to "Oilboy 5". The name stuck! So when I was looking at that cover a few weeks ago and what with Joffa's ten year commemoration date coming up, the idea was born. Most of the text was my own idea, but there are also bits and bobs taken/modified from various forum posts.

I hope Mr Kean and Mr Frey don't sue me!

Amazing work! Very well designed. It was a funny read.

By the way, I didn't remember that letter I supposedly wrote! Lloyd who???

Ah.. the Ashen's couch of Bloggo's Pow.
Looks great, will try and get the PDF download file to work (keeps timing out on me at the moment), I got the scan/pages to work though. SD Snooker 128k indeed!

Cheers guys. At least there are some replies. The same thread on WOS did get nil!

Well Juan, I guess you were very drunk when you wrote that letter, I can't think of any other reason why you'd have forgotten about it. I feel sorry for you having to pay so much money for an issue

MatGubbins, good to see people getting the references. I hope Kizza gets to see his little advert! And I've actually sent a mail to ashens, maybe he'll enjoy his little review.

47 downloads apparently...

Mark

Downloaded!
I will read later.

Looks great! Has this been uploaded anywhere else? My malware isn't keen on that site.

I will email it you [mention]R-Tape[/mention]

The design in amazing [mention]XTM[/mention].

Any chance of an alternative download link? The first doesn't work for me; the second has too-low resolution for me to read.

Cheers guys!

EDIT: I've added an alternative download source for the PDF file, get it from here:
https://easyupload.io/g4mbbs
This one will expire after 30 days, which is at the end of July.

By the way, the first download site ... I have no idea if it's dodgy or not, I managed to download from there with no problems as I tested it once, and as I'm writing this there have been 79 downloads. You'll need to activate JavaScript to see the download button though, so I can understand why people are wary of it.

Rorthron wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 11:23 am Any chance of an alternative download link? The first doesn't work for me; the second has too-low resolution for me to read.

The second link actually has pictures in a quite high resolution. Set your browser to fullscreen and click on the pictures, that will make them appear bigger. On 1920x1080 there should be no problems reading anything, or are you on a 4k monitor?

Thanks. The new download link works fine.

I was using my phone on Imgur, so definitely not a 4K monitor!

Looks nice, and the magazine styling seems very authentic. I like how you managed to capture something of the different forum members' personalities (with a bit of artistic license).

It looks so good, that I'm adding it to the official list of magazines in ZXDB!

...Well, that was suitably daft...

Loved all the doctored screenshots, that must have taken ages to do.

Hello again!

It saddens me, but I got a lot less feedback on WoS than I got here even though (as I mentioned before) the mag was based mostly on WoS people and forum posts. I guess they're all too busy posting in the Chit Chat section to notice my "present" ...

Okay, my replies but without quotes:

@djnzx48
Thanks, for it to look as authentic as possible was absolutely the plan, that's why I made sure it looked old and "used" like a real 80s issue of Crash, even though it's dated June 2020 ... and I had fun capturing the personalities, of course using a bit of exaggeration and artistic license. Wasn't going to be utterly politically correct either, that's where all the stereotypes (in the letters etc.) came in!

@Einar Saukas
Haha, for real? That would mean it gets preserved and won't disappear into obscurity a few weeks from now - thanks! I hope you liked being a reviewer, reviewing a game made with your own graphics engine

@Morkin
Daft is my 2nd name!
You're right, the screenshot indeed took ages as I had to come up with ideas for each game - did you count the pixels?
The Street Fighter ones were easy as I just took some from the 'net and reduced the colour count drastically. At least now I know how to manipulate "raw" Speccy screenshots to make them look like they're being displayed on a dodgy 80s TV set.

Keep the feedback coming, it's appreciated!

XTM wrote: ↑Sun Jun 28, 2020 8:00 pm It saddens me, but I got a lot less feedback on WoS than I got here even though (as I mentioned before) the mag was based mostly on WoS people and forum posts.

Welcome to SC forums!

Love the 'Steve Davis Snooker 128K' addy

But remember kids - You need to be 18 to buy it, so don't forget to change your birth year on your profile.

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I've not read all of it (yet) but the bits I have read had me in bits.

Well done, mate. It looks absolutely fantastic.

This is superb! It looks so authentic; you're a design wizard.

Quite a few of these fake games actually have legs. Especially "Plonker", that would be an ace Everyone's a Wally style production.

Loads of great references. I'd never heard of Bloggo's POW, but a quick google solved that mystery.

Thanks for putting this together. You've done a fantastic job of capturing the Crash look.

It's "official" now:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/magazine/327/Crap

Looks very authentic, like some old mag printed on so-so quality paper and scanned
I'll make a proper reading of it soon,

Cheers guys. I aim to please! British people (well, those who actually are) telling a German something he made is funny must be a rare accolade.

For some things referenced in the Bloggo's Pow intro text (before the three reviewers speak), I highly recommend you watch this video of Ashens losing it. It is absolutely priceless!
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adkWiJA9xR0[/media]

oh, please, can we get those SCUMSOFT games?! i am especially interested in Combat Skool Daze, it sounds like an instant hit!

(somebody, please! Spectrum NEEDS that game!)