Your Sinclair
The Spectrum monthly with the puns
Your Sinclair (YS) ran from January 1986 to September 1993 — the irreverent, joke-filled, sometimes outright surreal counter-magazine to CRASH and Sinclair User, beloved by readers for its writing as much as its coverage.
Overview
Your Sinclair — usually just YS — was the British monthly magazine that covered the ZX Spectrum from January 1986 to September 1993. It evolved from Sportscene Publications' earlier Your Spectrum (1984-85), inheriting that title's editorial team but pivoting toward a markedly more comedic, more reader-facing voice. Where CRASH was the magazine of reverent reviews and Oliver Frey covers, and Sinclair User was the official-feeling competitor, YS was the magazine that took the piss — gently, fondly, and with an editorial energy that made it the platform's most-loved publication for many of its readers.
The magazine ran for 93 issues over almost eight years, outlasting CRASH by a year and a half. By the end, YS was effectively the last serious Spectrum-dedicated monthly. Its tone — sarcastic, self-aware, willing to mock its own subject matter — set a template for British games journalism that influenced PC Zone, PC Gamer, Edge, and pretty much every UK gaming publication that followed.
The voice
YS's writing voice was its central asset. Where CRASH reviewed games seriously, YS reviewed games like they were children's birthday party entertainment that could be heckled. Reviewers had nicknames (Stuart "Phil South" Campbell, "Marcus Berkmann," "Linda Barker"). Running gags continued for years (the imaginary YS office, the fictional staffers, the perpetual deadlines). The letters page ("Linda Barker's Letters" or similar) blended real readers with fabricated personas in ways no-one bothered to clarify.
The tone meant readers felt close to the magazine. Bedroom programmers writing in with their Your Sinclair type-in submissions felt part of something. A bad joke in YS was funnier than a good joke elsewhere. A YS Megagame award (the magazine's equivalent of CRASH's Smash) carried genuine weight precisely because the magazine was so often joking about everything else.
Notable staff and contributors
The writing roster shifted over the years but consistently included:
- Phil South (Stuart Campbell) — Reviewer and feature writer with a comedy-heavy style.
- Teresa Maughan — Editor in the late 1980s; helped define the magazine's editorial identity.
- Marcus Berkmann — Recurring columnist with a particularly British humour.
- Jonathan Davies — Programming columnist; ran type-in listings.
- Andy Ide — Late-era editor, kept the magazine running through the Spectrum's decline.
Content mix
- Reviews — Full-page treatment for major releases; shorter blurbs for budget games and re-releases.
- YS Tipshop — POKE codes, hidden-feature reveals, multi-page playing guides. The platform's POKE culture was preserved largely through YS and CRASH.
- Type-in listings — Often quirky BASIC programs (YS Mega Boss-Generating Type-In, etc.) with elaborate write-ups.
- Cover tapes — From 1989, YS shipped with cassette demos and free games. The covertapes alone justified the price.
- Letters — Often the magazine's funniest pages; a mix of real reader queries, running-joke replies, and outright satire.
Place in Spectrum culture
For many readers in the late 1980s, YS was the magazine. Where CRASH was respected, YS was beloved. Where CRASH covers were dramatic, YS covers were often goofy. The platform's late-period mood — Spectrum-as-comfortable-old-thing rather than Spectrum-as-cutting-edge-platform — was substantially set by YS's editorial voice.
The magazine's closure in September 1993 marked the effective end of Spectrum-specific monthly print coverage in the UK. Retro Gamer picked up the lineage years later, but the moment-to-moment magazine relationship with an active Spectrum scene ended with YS.
Influence on Code Like It's 198x
The Project's voice draws from both CRASH (the seriousness, the technical detail, the willingness to engage with the games as objects of design) and Your Sinclair (the warmth, the willingness to make a joke, the refusal to be pompous). When a Shadowkeep unit's prose mixes "the ULA blocks the CPU during contended scanlines" with "the keep finally reading as a built place," it's borrowing both magazines' modes.