ZX Computing
The Spectrum magazine that came from the electronics press
Launched in 1982 out of the Computing Today stable, ZX Computing covered Sinclair machines with a listings-and-hardware bent rather than a games one — and still supplied 345 scored Spectrum reviews.
ZX Computing covered the ZX81 and Spectrum from 1982, and its character comes from where it came from rather than what it covered. It emerged from the same publishing stable as Computing Today — a general electronics and computing title — and it reads like it: listings, hardware projects, technique articles, with games reviewed alongside rather than as the point.
That makes it a useful corrective. Read only the games press and the Spectrum looks like a games machine. ZX Computing treated it as a computer that also played games, which is closer to how it was sold.
Fast facts
- First issue: 1982 — by August that year it was already referring back to “the first issue of ZX Computing”.
- Publisher: Argus Specialist Publications — the Computing Today stable.
- Covered: ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.
- In this library: 37 issues, June 1982 to June 1987 — roughly bi-monthly.
- Spectrum reviews: 345 scored reviews recorded in ZXDB — more than ACE or The Games Machine managed.
Its scoring
ZX Computing frequently declined to give a number. Where the games press ran percentages, ZX Computing often filed a verdict in words — Rebelstar is rated just “Good”; Thrust likewise. Elsewhere it used five-point ratings, giving Shadowfire 5/5 in August 1985 and Heavy on the Magick’s stablemates similar marks.
A magazine that will print “Good” as a review score is one that does not think the score is the review, which is worth remembering when this Vault tabulates its marks alongside percentages.