Spectrum UK zine

[equinox]

Hello guys, here's a 1990s story from a British guy, about a printed paper zine called "Spectrum UK", which existed from about 1994 to 199...6?

I mentioned it in this thread, and Peter asked for more info:
https://www.spectrumcomputing.co.uk/for ... php?t=9958

My memories of Spectrum UK: I (and most people) found them via an ad in the little Micro Mart classifieds. I believe most of their readership was people who probably realised they couldn't get a magazine in the shops any more, so they looked in Micro Mart to find Speccy stuff.

it was run by two people called Roy and Julie (honestly I'm not sure if I ever knew their surnames, or if they were married). They lived in Leicester. You can discover the address if you want. I won't post it here. They did write about (after setting up the zine) how they made friends with the local postman, 'cause he would bring them big sacks of mail. I'll assume that was true.

I don't know how they actually printed the zine. As far as I remember, it was monthly (quite hard work!) and it was something like 20 pages stapled together (A5). The entire thing was black and white, but they would have a picture on the cover. I can't recall any of the covers at all. A very characteristic thing was that the text was almost entirely in ALL CAPS. I always got an Alphacom 32 vibe... I don't know... but it was usually ALL CAPS, aligned, and read like a typewriter message.

The mag started with an editorial. I, equinox, had a little section in there, called "Paul's Programs", which taught some ZX BASIC stuff. (My section wasn't in ALL CAPS because it was printed on a ZX printer? I think? Or maybe I sent them Tasword files on a floppy or cassette.) They also had a guy called Joe Blizzard (don't know if real name or not) who had an adventure section, you know, GO EAST, LIGHT LAMP, that kind of thing. I *might* be mixing it up with another zine, but I believe they also they had a guy who was doing an A to Z of rare/classic software houses. A was Automata and B was Buttercraft. His name was Nic (odd spelling) and I remember I sent him a nice copy of "Pimania" and he sent me back a lovely Ultimate box of something. I wish we had Nic around here to school us on classic software houses.

Peter says (I don't know where the figure came from) that there were 15 issues. Remember it was monthly so that only represents a year and a half. I might be wrong but I feel it was running for well over a year, and into 1996.

I remember drama. Spec UK was not sent out at some time, it didn't arrive, and people on the "scene" started to spazz. A lot of us also took AlchNews (the diskzine of Alchemist Research, from Andy Davis), and Andy tried to deal with the mess by saying "if the writers want to send anything to us, we will publish it in our zine". Then it turned out that Julie (Spectrum UK) had got septicaemia in her arm, and they took this really badly, they thought Alchemist was trying to steal their writers. (This was particularly painful for me because I wrote for both of them. Don't go and look it up. I was like 14 years old. It's rubbish.)

What ultimately happened, I dunno, I don't think we ever found out. There was talk of somebody going and visiting the address and bothering them in person, but lol...

[PeterJ]

@equinox,

Interesting read. I got the issue count of 15 from the ZXDB archive.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/magazin ... pectrum_UK

I did a random search of eBay for ZX Spectrum Fanzine, and came across one that we don't have indexed:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314779457523

I would so love to see a new printed Spectrum Fanzine. Don't think it will ever happen though.

[equinox]

@equinox, Interesting read. I got the issue count of 15 from the ZXDB archive.

I believe that must be about right! (That 15 approximation might even have come from something I said myself, long ago.) But yeah, apparently nobody has copies of this old zine.

I did a random search of eBay for ZX Spectrum Fanzine, and came across one that we don't have indexed:

That's quite fascinating. Since it's 2023 and people create nonsense based on keywords, I dunno. But — looks cool,

I would so love to see a new printed Spectrum Fanzine. Don't think it will ever happen though.

I had the idea of making some sort of sarcastic zine and hiding it in the legal books on the 2nd floor of Reading Uni library. Nobody really wants
to check case law from 1932. -- UNTIL--
Anyway yeah, not really cool.
I think that finding actual paper copies of Spectrum UK is pretty much zilch. If you think i'm lying, I can probably dig up two people who know it is real though -- lol -- never mind, it was mentioned in a scroller.

I have some thoughts about "a new printed [paper] fanzine" but I'll have to get back to you. love, eq.

[PeterJ]

@equinox,

The following was forwarded to me by Roelof Koning.

https://meltontimes.co.uk/news/people/f ... on-3532271

[equinox]

@equinox,
The following was forwarded to me by Roelof Koning.
https://meltontimes.co.uk/news/people/f ... on-3532271

Wow... I wrote Leicester but indeed it was Melton, i was too broad...
That's a punch in the stomach to read. And really bizarre that it's so recent, when we're talking about it now, but it was about 1996 when I last read the magazine. (What stopped me engaging with 'physical' Speccy hardware was half getting a PC, circa 1996, and half going away to university, and discovering how to annoy you all on Usenet. huh.)

But there you go. I can 100% guarantee that I never knew (or asked) Roy's or Julie's surname -- it just didn't matter. I'd remember if I'd known it. He was just Roy.
Had no idea the dude was a historian or collector. You never want to read someone's obituary but yeah, the zine was just a side project, and it's good to see that his local community loved him for other things. Wow. Ouch. And thanks Roelof for the note...

Not to forget Julie either, who (as far as I vaguely remember by now) did a lot of the editorials, and quite possibly half putting the damn thing together. Did I mention that I used to send them Alphacom 32 print-outs? What a pain. But that's as Speccy as it gets. <3

[equinox]

One little extra memory that came back to me: there was a column called "Go FORTH", or "Going FORTH"? -- which was teaching how to write the FORTH programming language on the Spectrum. I can't remember who wrote it.

[PeterJ]

@equinox,

Roelof has found six issues of SpecUK, and has scanned them at 600dpi. I should have them available soon.

Peter