Issue 48 January 1988

FEATURES

• GOING TO BED WITH CRASH
  The things we do for you!
• A SALLY DOWN ARCADE ALLEY
  What's coin-operated
• COMPILATIONS
  
• ON THE SCREEN
  Readers' Spectrum SCREEN$
• TIE ME IN, PLEASE DO
  Part Two of Robin Candy's tie-ins feature - games based on books, comics, cartoons and celebrities
• CRASH COURSE
  Revision software from Vision Software
• THE CRASH HISTORY - 1986 AND 1987
  24 covers, 24 months of change
• THE CRASH DIRECTORY
  That Spectrum software in full - and really in full this time, with a complete list of every game ever reviewed in CRASH
• LLOYD MANGRAM'S LOOKBACK
  That 1987 in full - and really in full this time, etc
• THE CRASH CHALLENGE
  Nick Roberts challenged in Dan Dare
• CRUNCH - THE CRASH FANZINE
  A mag within a mag

REGULARS

• EDITORIAL
  
• LLOYD MANGRAM'S FORUM
  CRASH reviews are too short, says a reader. Oh no they're not, says Lloyd.
• NICK ROBERTS'S PLAYING TIPS
  Yogi Bear and Mercenary mapped, plus Tai-Pan with some megatips
• DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL - IN 3-D
  Derek bows out in a glorious blaze of tips and letters
• BRENDON KAVANAGH'S PBM MAILBOX - IN 3-D
  Readers' game ratings
• ROBIN CANDY'S SCORES
  The new CRASH high-score section with a democratic difference
• PHILIPPA IRVING'S FRONTLINE - IN 3-D
  High Frontier and Pegasus Bridge reviewed
• CRASH READERS' CHARTS - IN 3-D
  Special this issue - an all-time Hotline Top 30
• LUNAR JETMAN
  
• TECH NICHE
  Simon N Goodwin brings exclusive news of a secretly-designed Spectrum superclone
• PREVIEWS
  Games of '88 - splinters of the crystal ball
• ET AL
  
• CRASH COMMS
  On the chatlines

DO IT YOURSELF

• GO TO LONDON AND VISIT THE QUEEN
  ... well, the arcades actually, in this Quicksilva Pac-Land comp
• EAT YOUR HEART OUT
  ... with Piranha and Yogi Bear
• GET INTO THE CINEMA WITHOUT PAYING
  ... with Gremlin Fraphics and Masters of the Universe
• HAVE A BALL
  ... with CRL and Ballbreaker
• VOTE IN THE CRASH READERS' AWARDS
  ... and not just for the power. There's software and T-shirts to go, too
• WIN A RECORD TOKEN
  ... just write words for Jon Bates's Spectrum Christmas carol
• GO DOWNHILL ALL THE WAY
  ... in a snazzy tracksuit from Digital Integration and Bobsleigh

There was a Soviet apparatchik, a Chinese People's Revolutionary revolutionary person and a Spectrum owner on this plane together, right? And the airline had been publishing all these self-congratulatory ads about adding seven new destinations to its schedules in the last year, in Sunday supplements, business magazines, The Independent, you know the sort of thing.

So the Russian laughs and drains another vodka and says: 'That's nothing, friends. Call that growth? In Mother Russia, we have a three-year scheme for improved industrial efficiency that will increase tractor production by 72%!'

The Chinese butts in: 'Sorry, Lloyd Lloydovovich, you're talking through your cossack. In Peking we're already halfway through our latest seven-year plan - not to mention a Cultural Revolution and a Great Leap Forward.' He sits back, smugly, and invites the capitalist home-computing running dog to beat that for long-range social planning.

The Spectrum-owner, who's been dozing over some minor magazine with 'Sinclair' in the title, has to pause to think.

Lloyd Lloydovovich calls for another vodka and, while the Spectrum-owner's still puzzling over the question, makes some silly joke about his ROM needing a bit of perestroika. The Chinese gent's given up on the whole conversation now and starts re-educating himself out of some little red book.

Suddenly the Spectrum-owner speaks, in a slow but confident sort of way. 'Well, chaps,' he says, 'I'm afraid my country doesn't have any plans in particular. But there is one objective we all work toward.'

'Exactly! Economic imperialism!' snorts the Chinese traveller, hardly looking up from his book.

'Well, actually, no,' says the Spectrum-owner almost apologetically. 'All it is is that we're all jolly certain to buy the next issue of CRASH as soon as it's in the newsagents on January 28.'

Lloyd Lloydovovich defected.

REVIEWS

• Ace 2 Cascade Games
• Agent X II Mastertronic
• Anarchy Rack-It
• Combat School Ocean
• Deviants Players
• Erik: Phantom of the Opera Cysys
• Grid Iron Top Ten Hits
• Implosion Cascade Games
• Jackal Konami
• Jack The Ripper CRL
• Mask II Gremlin Graphics
• Match Day II Ocean
• Nihilist Electric Dreams
• Phantom Club Ocean
• Rentakill Rita Mastertronic
• Ricochet Firebird Silver
• Riding the Rapids Players
• Rygar US Gold
• Saracen Americana
• Slaine Martech
• Sidewalk Infogrames
• Star Pilot Firebird Silver
• Star Wars Domark
• Xanthius Players

MANAGING EDITOR Barnaby Page
STAFF WRITERS Dominic Handy, Lloyd Mangram, Ian Phillipson
SUBEDITOR David Peters
PHOTOGRAPHERS Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson
OFFICE Frances Mable, Glenys Powell
TECHNICAL WRITERS Simon N Goodwin, Jon Bates
ADVENTURE WRITER Derek Brewster
PBM WRITER Brendon Kavanagh
STRATEGY WRITER Philippa Irving
EDUCATION WRITER Rosetta McLeod
CONTRIBUTORS Robin Candy, Mike Dunn, Paul Evans, Dave Hawkes, Nick Roberts, Ben Stone, Paul Sumner, Bym Welthy
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Roger Kean
PRODUCTION CONTROLLER David Western
ART DIRECTOR/ILLUSTRATOR Oliver Frey
ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Markie Kendrick
DESIGN Wayne Allen
PROCESS AND PLANNING Jonathan Rignall (SUPERVISOR), Matthew Uffindell, Nick Orchard
ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER Roger Bennett
ADVERTISEMENT EXECUTIVE Andrew Smales
SUBSCRIPTIONS Denise Roberts
MAIL ORDER Carol Kinsey
COVER BY Oliver Frey