Crash Crash began life in 1983 as a software catalogue, offering reviews of games and a
mail order service. The first issue of the dedicated monthly magazine was published in February 1984. Focusing exclusively on the
ZX Spectrum, it was a lively, colourful magazine that soon attracted a considerable
cult following. It remained in print, as a Newsfield publication, until October 1991. When Europress Impact took over publication of the magazine, it lasted for a further six months before finally being sold in 1992 to rival publisher EMAP and merged with
Sinclair User. The May 1992 issue was the only merged issue published.
Sinclair User ceased publication in 1993. In December 2020, Crash was relaunched as a bi-monthly publication by Fusion Retro Books. Consisting of reproductions of original covers from Oliver Frey, retrospective articles, new reviews and contributions from many of the original team.
Zzap!64 Zzap!64 was launched in May, 1985 as the sister magazine to
Crash. It focused on the
C64, but later incorporated
Amiga game news and reviews. Like
Crash, it had a dedicated cult following amongst C64 owners, but extensive changes prompted a relaunch of the magazine, this time published by Europress Impact. Issue 91 of Zzap!64 would become issue 1 of
Commodore Force, a magazine that itself lasted until March 1994. Special issues in digital format were later made in March 2002 and July 2005, the latter celebrating the 20th anniversary of its creation and included with issue 18 of
Retro Gamer. The title was revived for a series of annuals, and now continues in an A5 format, available bi-monthly via
Patreon.
Amtix! Amtix! was Newsfield's short-lived gaming magazine dedicated to the
Amstrad CPC platform. Launched in November 1985 (although a special "issue zero" was given away with
Crash and
Zzap!64), it offered as much in-depth coverage of the Amstrad gaming scene as its sister magazines did for the Spectrum and C64.
Amtix! was unable to compete with
Amstrad Action, the leading publication for Amstrad CPC users; only 18 issues of
Amtix! were published before Newsfield sold the magazine to Database Publications, who merged
Amtix! features into their own publication,
Computing With The Amstrad.
CWTA was a general Amstrad CPC/PCW/PC magazine, which used
Amtix as the brand for its games review section.
CWTA later split into three single-format magazines including
Computing with the Amstrad CPC, and it was
CWTACPC which continued using the
Amtix name for its games section.
LM LM (variously said to be short for
Leisure Magazine,
Leisure Monthly, or
Lloyd Mangram - a pseudonym used by editors in Newsfield's computer magazines) was launched in December 1986. It was a bold move for Newsfield, attempting to capture a youth market within the 18-30 demographic with a wide range of pop-culture coverage. The magazine failed to attract sufficient advertising revenue and was discontinued after four issues. It began life as a full-colour newsstand magazine edited by former deputy editor of
Sinclair User John Gilbert. Newsfield, keen to find publishing ventures outside the volatile computer game market, agreed to publish
Fear with Gilbert as managing editor. The first issue of the magazine, which would be dedicated to horror book/film reviews and original horror, fantasy and science fiction, was published in June 1988. Despite relatively low sales it managed to survive for the duration of Newsfield's business operations, seeing off rivals such as
Skeleton Crew and
Phantasmagoria, which entered the market midway through its run.
Mark Kermode wrote several film reviews for the magazine.
Fear reviews have been quoted on the back cover of books by authors including
Peter F. Hamilton.
Movie Newsfield's next venture was
Movie - The Video Magazine. The market for commercial/sell-through pre-recorded
VHS tapes was beginning to bloom and Newsfield decided it would be wise to try to capture a slice of this market. Launched in October 1988,
Movie managed to attract the interest of advertisers within the video industry, but circulation of the magazine remained low and it failed to make a profit. It lasted for seven issues
Frighteners In an attempt to gain some much needed revenue, Newsfield decided to publish a spin-off of
Fear magazine. Launched in June 1991,
Frighteners was intended to be a monthly fiction magazine, showcasing up and coming new talent within the horror genre. The first issue had to be pulled from the shelves after receiving consumer complaints about the blood-dripping cover painted by Oliver Frey, which featured a story by novelist
Graham Masterton. Only two more issues were printed.
Sega Force and N-Force With their flagship titles,
Crash and
Zzap!64, no longer attracting sufficient advertising revenue or circulation, due to the fading 8-bit gaming market, Newsfield were in severe financial difficulty. As a last-ditch attempt to capitalise on the rising popularity of the new generation of video game consoles, Newsfield planned to split
Raze into two separate publications,
Sega Force and
N-Force (the N standing for
Nintendo). However, following an audit during the autumn of 1991, it became clear that Newsfield would no longer remain solvent beyond March 1992. The company's directors signed for voluntary liquidation in September 1991. ==References==