'Sinclair Abuser' Rare Collectable Magazine
JWelsh
Somewhere deep in the depths of my attic I have tucked away a copy of a very
special issue of the famous UK speccy mag 'Crash'. The 'special' thing about
it is that its the 'infamous' issue that included the slagging off of rival
eighties speccy mag 'Sinclair User'. This was in the form of a several page
long, centre pull out entitled 'Sinclair Abuser'. It is, I am reliably
informed, highly collectable because the offending pages were only left
intact in the issues that went out to annual subscription holders. The
copies that went on sale through newsagents and other normal channels had
the offending pages crudely removed due to a last minute court injunction by
the real Sinclair User mag.
I know for sure I have the issue, but would not be able to put my hands on
it immediately so don't anybody get too exited. I am also unsure what
condition it is in but do recall it being pretty intact when I last saw it
several years ago!!! (I have a very full attic).
I am posting this message because I am am curious about its potential value
as a collectable Sinclair item, especially given the current retro craze. If
anyone wants to make an offer, please feel free and I will keep hold of your
details until I actually find it. If you know roughly what it may be worth,
but aren't interested in it yourself then please get in touch anyway as I'm
curious to hear opinions on it.
There was a comment about it in EDGE magazine several months which described
it as one of computing's 'true collectables'.
If it does prove to be worth a decent sum I may end up auctioning it on
eBay, then again I may even keep it!
Get in touch if you have any comments.
Thanks
James
BTW I am not sure but its also possible that I may be wrong about it being
'Crash', it could have been 'Zzap 64' but I'm sure someone here can clear
that up for me.
David L
JWelsh <jwe...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:81chu9$qsh$1...@neptunium.btinternet.com...
> BTW I am not sure but its also possible that I may be wrong about it being
> 'Crash', it could have been 'Zzap 64' but I'm sure someone here can clear
> that up for me.
>
Definately Crash - issue 19 IIR - the one with the Spectrum Surfer on the
cover I believe.
The pages are on NVG as well IIR
Garf
the next month.
David L <dave...@theoffice.net.spamtrap> wrote in message
news:dYj_3.1401$7a.3...@nnrp3.clara.net...
Jim Grimwood
wrote:
>Here's something collectable that you guys may be very interested in.
>Somewhere deep in the depths of my attic I have tucked away a copy of a very
>special issue of the famous UK speccy mag 'Crash'. The 'special' thing about
>it is that its the 'infamous' issue that included the slagging off of rival
>eighties speccy mag 'Sinclair User'. This was in the form of a several page
>long, centre pull out entitled 'Sinclair Abuser'. It is, I am reliably
>informed, highly collectable because the offending pages were only left
>intact in the issues that went out to annual subscription holders. The
>copies that went on sale through newsagents and other normal channels had
>the offending pages crudely removed due to a last minute court injunction by
>the real Sinclair User mag.
It was Unclear User, actually - and it was at the back on pages 123-126,
bound in in the normal way, so it wasn't a pull-out supplement (well, not
in the very convenient sense, anyway). (A Sinclair Abuser mag was one of
the objects in Treasure Island Dizzy IIRC.) I'm very dubious about the
rarity of this as well. Firstly, it definitely got shipped to (at least
some) newsagents intact, as that's where I got my original copy at the
time, and all the ones in the shop still had the SU parody in the back.
Secondly, I've had several copies of Crash 19 pass through my hands, and
they've all had it in as well; ie. I've never seen a copy of issue 19
which *hasn't* had it in - although I suppose that could be some highly
improbable fluke on my part. Anyway, I either swapped my spare copies or
sold them for around a pound.
So maybe it's the copies *with* "the offending pages crudely removed"
which should be considered rare? (Sounds of tearing Crash pages all over
the country ... :-) )
--
Another Fine Product from:
Jim Grimwood (ji...@globalnet.co.uk), Weardale, England
--
/|ndy |<avanagh
Nov 1999 20:36:38 -0500), sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do
comp.sys.sinclair, yawatina tan reek esk Garf fornis do marikano es bono tan
el:
>Now I am 99.99% sure it was dubbed "Unclear User". There also was an apology
>the next month.
It was - Sinclair Abuser was an item in Dizzy!
/|ndy
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Simon Haynes
I've got ish 19 with the Unclear User too. I did have an earlier one
without the pages but that's gorn.
On the subject of retro-edited mags, how about this one: I used to buy a
mag for the Atari ST, and one day I got an issue where they had physically
glued the editor's column into the mag. It spoke at length about the
magazine changing hands and the bright future of Atari. Being a nosy sod I
peeled off the column and read the one underneath - it said this was the
final issue of the magazine and the editor was glad because of the dire
state of the Atari market.
Cheers,
Simon
Perth, Western Australia
Equin0x
> On the subject of retro-edited mags, how about this one: I used to buy a
> mag for the Atari ST, and one day I got an issue where they had physically
> glued the editor's column into the mag. It spoke at length about the
> magazine changing hands and the bright future of Atari. Being a nosy sod I
> peeled off the column and read the one underneath - it said this was the
> final issue of the magazine and the editor was glad because of the dire
> state of the Atari market.
One of the Amiga mags was once published with a page headed 'Type some
s**t here'. The next issue featured an apology and a sticker with the
correct article title!
Michael Bruhn
wrote:
Hey great, I got one of those. I got one of both actually.
I think you are into something here, Jim. It's probably only issues
ordered as back issues that doesn't have the pages included. So the
one without Unclear User is probably more rare.
Bye.
--
Michael Bruhn
E-Mail: fra...@image.dk
Editor Of The Spectrum Fanzine 'Desert Island Disks'
Homepage (Desert Island Disks): http://www.image.dk/~frankie/
Address: Petersborg 23, 6200 Aabenraa, Denmark
Jim Grimwood
>On Tue, 23 Nov 1999 20:10:32 GMT, ji...@globalnet.co.uk (Jim Grimwood)
>wrote:
>[...]
>>So maybe it's the copies *with* "the offending pages crudely removed"
>>which should be considered rare? (Sounds of tearing Crash pages all over
>>the country ... :-) )
>
>Hey great, I got one of those. I got one of both actually.
>
>I think you are into something here, Jim. It's probably only issues
>ordered as back issues that doesn't have the pages included. So the
>one without Unclear User is probably more rare.
Yes, I think this Unclear User issue of Crash being rare is developing the
status of an urban myth. Looking at the publisher's statement in the next
issue, they said they had to "recall all unsold copies from the
retailers". So all the ones except those kept for sale as back issues had
already been shipped, and given the popularity of Crash at the time I
would expect that only a small proportion remained unsold to be returned,
so the majority would already have been sold with the Unclear User pages
still intact - plus I expect that a good proportion of newsagents wouldn't
have gone to the bother of taking a good seller off their shelves and
returning them anyway.
So the question now is how to tell the difference between a Crash 19 which
had the UU pages removed by Newsfield in 1985, and one which has had them
removed subsequently in order to artificially increase its value? ;-)
Matthew Wilson
Jim Grimwood wrote:
>
> So the question now is how to tell the difference between a Crash 19 which
> had the UU pages removed by Newsfield in 1985, and one which has had them
> removed subsequently in order to artificially increase its value? ;-)
The former had little stickers on, apologising for the missing pages.
Matthew Wilson
CRASH Online at http://www.mjwilson.demon.co.uk/crash/
David L
Matthew Wilson <mat...@mjwilson.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:384028DF...@mjwilson.demon.co.uk...
>
>
> Jim Grimwood wrote:
> >
>
> > So the question now is how to tell the difference between a Crash 19
which
> > had the UU pages removed by Newsfield in 1985, and one which has had
them
> > removed subsequently in order to artificially increase its value? ;-)
>
> The former had little stickers on, apologising for the missing pages.
"Pages 123-126 removed for legal reasons" or something similar iir
Graham Goring
Equin0x <y982...@cpca6.uea.ac.uk> writes
If anyone here reads EDGE magazine, they'll probably remember the recent
article where all the screenshots over a five or six page spread had the
same descriptive text under them, and all the people in the article
were referred to as things like "french bloke" instead of their proper
names.
Her-uge cock-up, there. Well done, Future Publishing!
Graham Goring
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\==== http://www.duketastrophy.demon.co.uk/index.htm ====/ Philadelphia
Andrew
wrote:
>On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, Simon Haynes wrote:
>
>> On the subject of retro-edited mags, how about this one: I used to buy a
>> mag for the Atari ST, and one day I got an issue where they had physically
>> glued the editor's column into the mag. It spoke at length about the
>> magazine changing hands and the bright future of Atari. Being a nosy sod I
>> peeled off the column and read the one underneath - it said this was the
>> final issue of the magazine and the editor was glad because of the dire
>> state of the Atari market.
>
>One of the Amiga mags was once published with a page headed 'Type some
>s**t here'. The next issue featured an apology and a sticker with the
>correct article title!
>
Hehe, I've got that issue at home of Amiga Format (with the follow-up
errata), I still haven't quite clicked to the apology to this day
(something about the art editor been given the wrong text?!), but it
was kinda amusing, considering it was for some lame kiddy paint
program :D
Captain Offensive
more coz those of us wot are still here playing with our speccies are the
ones wot bought the mags as sson as they came out in the first place. The
plebs that bought their Crashes "en spec" from their newsagents without the
pages are them who probably chucked it in the bin 5 weeks later.
David L <dave...@theoffice.net.spamtrap> wrote in message
news:DR_%3.1063$4a5....@nnrp4.clara.net...
Robert J. Baker
<gra...@dukeVOMITtastrophy.demon.co.uk> spake thus about "Re: 'Sinclair Abuser'
Rare Collectable Magazine":
>If anyone here reads EDGE magazine, they'll probably remember the recent
>article where all the screenshots over a five or six page spread had the
>same descriptive text under them, and all the people in the article
>were referred to as things like "french bloke" instead of their proper
>names.
>
>Her-uge cock-up, there. Well done, Future Publishing!
>
>Graham Goring
I remember when New Computer Express, the weekly which Future published for a
couple of years, made a slmilar balls-up of its letters page. That was towards
the end of its life IIRC (about 3-4 months), and I stopped reading it soon after
because it had become such crap...
Good Speccy column though, but Robin Alway never sent me either of the prizes I
was promised, although as I can't remember what one of them was for I suppose
that's fair enough. (The other one was for my Driller walkthrough, which I've
since lost...)
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In article <81chu9$qsh$1...@neptunium.btinternet.com>,
"JWelsh" <jwe...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Here's something collectable that you guys may be very interested in.
> Somewhere deep in the depths of my attic I have tucked away a copy of
a very
> special issue of the famous UK speccy mag 'Crash'. The 'special'
thing about
> it is that its the 'infamous' issue that included the slagging off of
rival
> eighties speccy mag 'Sinclair User'. This was in the form of a
several page
> long, centre pull out entitled 'Sinclair Abuser'. It is, I am reliably
> informed, highly collectable because the offending pages were only
left
> intact in the issues that went out to annual subscription holders. The
> copies that went on sale through newsagents and other normal channels
had
> the offending pages crudely removed due to a last minute court
injunction by
> the real Sinclair User mag.
>
> BTW I am not sure but its also possible that I may be wrong about it
being
> 'Crash', it could have been 'Zzap 64' but I'm sure someone here can
clear
> that up for me.
>
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Damien Guard
for a
> couple of years, made a slmilar balls-up of its letters page. That was
towards
> the end of its life IIRC (about 3-4 months), and I stopped reading it soon
after
> because it had become such crap...
Now that was a superb mag. Multiformat news with articles on supercomputers
(and a brief
guide of how long it would take to buy one working full-time at McDonalds).
Type-in-listings were superb - great little utilities, even a Spectrum
windows-style desktop
with mouse support if memory serves me correct. I've still got a few issues
stashed in the
parents attic.
[)amien
Equin0x
> Type-in-listings were superb - great little utilities, even a Spectrum
> windows-style desktop with mouse support if memory serves me correct.
There was a library of window-drawing code in YS Program Pitstop: WindowX
by Paul Dias. You could call the functions from BASIC using some obscure
DEF FN syntax. Problem was, it only drew the things - it wasn't a real
windowing system that could keep track of things like z-order.
Technium 220 extended it a bit but I'm not sure how far they got.
Eq.
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