GAME OVER
Glyn Davies takes a look at the art of Oliver Frey, whose dis(nc(ve illustra(ons helped spearhead a small but significant publishing revolu(on in the 1980s. It’s June 1984. Fluorescent is the colour of now, Quatro is the sugar-‐ and-‐addiOve-‐filled soW drink to be seen quaffing, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood have triumphantly deposed Wham! from the top of the charts with the era-‐defining “Two Tribes”. I have just had my 12th birthday, for which I have gratefully received a spanking new Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer. I tootle off to the local newsagent, keen to spend a small porOon of my birthday money on a computer magazine to advise me on the best new games to buy. Scanning the shelves, I find the Spectrum secOon and glance at the covers. Sinclair User, inexplicably, features a grinning woman holding a boXle of fizzy wine, and offers such inviOng aXracOons as add-‐on keyboards, chess and the new, soon-‐to-‐be-‐obsolete Sinclair QL. Your Spectrum is even less promising: a large photo of a black-‐ and-‐white printout, with some waffle about screen-‐dumps and sOll more about this QL contrapOon, about which I care
liXle. I flick through both magazines briefly. Lots of text, a preponderance of computer code, the occasional picture of a computer peripheral, but not much about games, bar a few grudging pages of terse reviews. Barely an aWerthought. I put them back despondently. Then I spot it. A bold white-‐on-‐ blue logo with a few sparks thrown in for good measure. The cover features a very cool painOng of a sleek spaceship, which is hurtling through a canyon comprised of computer game cases, pursued by equally sleek enemies. This looks promising. A corner flash informs me that this mag is also for the Spectrum. I pick it up and thumb through it. Games reviews. Tons of them, many geqng a whole page to themselves. Some even get two pages and are in full colour. Most are illustrated with at least one in-‐ game screen shot. This, I tell myself, is the one. Exactly what I was looking for. The magazine is called Crash. >
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