Sinclair Programs
A magazine that was mostly listings
ECC Publications' companion to Sinclair User ran 52 issues from June 1983 to September 1985, built around type-in programs rather than reviews — and its 1985 survey of the trade's birthdays is a source this Vault leans on.
Sinclair Programs ran 52 issues, June 1983 to September 1985, from ECC Publications — the company that had launched Sinclair User the previous year and that EMAP later absorbed.
Its premise was the opposite of the review magazines. Where CRASH told you what to buy, Sinclair Programs printed programs to type in — the practice covered at type-in listings.
Why this Vault cites it
Its May 1985 issue ran a feature organising the British software trade by how long each company had been going — a “fourth year”, “fifth year” listing — and that survey is one of the few contemporary sources that dates these companies at all rather than describing them.
Two entries here rest on it: Hewson Consultants, for the account of Andrew Hewson being talked round about the ZX80 over tea in a Wimpy in Stratford-upon-Avon, and the record companies’ move into software, for Creative Sparks as “Thorn EMI’s contender in the software publishing market. Started in April 1984.”
A listings magazine turns out to be a better business source than most of the review press, because it had a reason to ask companies how old they were.
See also
- Sinclair User — the ECC stablemate
- Type-in listings
- Hewson Consultants — dated from its 1985 survey
- ZX Spectrum