The first issue of ZX Computing, dated Summer 1982, called itself “Britain’s Biggest Magazine For The Sinclair User” and promised over 100 pages of “information and programs”. There was a chess game that fitted in 1K, business routines, a survey of memory expansions, a do-it-yourself memory upgrade and “secrets revealed at last” about machine code. Its editor, Tim Hartnell, timed eight benchmark programs on a ZX81 with Henry Budgett, the editor of Argus’s Computing Today, and interviewed Nick Lambert of Quicksilva about the memory packs he had started making for the ZX80. The same issue carried Toni Baker’s “First steps in Machine Code”.
That was the magazine’s character for most of its five years: it treated the Sinclair machines as computers to program and expand, and reviewed games alongside the listings and the hardware. It changed as its readers did, from the ZX81 to the ZX Spectrum and the QL, and in March 1986 it went monthly, promising more for games players.
Fast facts
- Published: Summer 1982 to June 1987; quarterly at first, bi-monthly from late 1982, monthly as ZX Computing Monthly from 28 March 1986.
- Publisher: Argus Specialist Publications, of 145 Charing Cross Road and later 1 Golden Square, London, which also published Computing Today.
- Editors: Tim Hartnell (1982–83); Roger Munford (by late 1983); Ray Elder (from early 1984); Bryan Ralph (by 1986).
- Machines: the ZX80 and ZX81, then the ZX Spectrum and the QL.
- Price as a monthly: £1.50.
Quarterly, then bi-monthly
Argus planned ZX Computing as a quarterly, “published quarterly in April, July, October and January”, according to the first issue’s masthead. It did not stay one for long. By the third issue the subscription pages carried the line “Now bi-monthly!”, and later issues carried double dates such as June/July and Aug/Sept. It was one of a family of Argus computer titles: in 1983 Personal Computing Today, ZX Computing, Computing Today, Home Computing Weekly and Personal Software jointly sponsored a series of Home Computer Shows around Britain.
Hartnell was a prolific author of program books, and the magazine advertised them. In 1982 it described him as “the editor of ZX Computing” in an offer for his Getting Acquainted with your ZX81, “128 pages” with over 80 programs. His own articles taught structured programming, how to write a board game that could think, and later, in the December 1984 issue, how to build an expert system on the QL.
By the Christmas issue of 1983 the editor was Roger Munford. Ray Elder took over at the start of 1984, and in the December 1984/January 1985 issue he wrote that it marked “the end of a full year sitting in the editor’s chair”. Elder ran hardware projects of his own and stayed on after the editorship changed hands, answering readers’ technical problems in issues that called him “our technical wizard”.
Programs, projects and machine code
Listings were the core of every issue, and the magazine paid for them. Baker kept writing about machine code, and in early 1984 the magazine regretted that it had reached “the last part of Toni Baker’s superb series that takes the mystery out of Machine Code”. In 1986 Steve Turner, the author of Quazatron, wrote a series of advice for would-be games writers, and the magazine printed a dictionary look-up routine from the game. Even in 1987 the monthly was still sending readers who wanted to learn assembly language to Machine Code for Beginners.
How it scored games
ZX Computing gave marks, but not percentages. In the June/July 1983 issue a “Summary Chart” rated each tape out of five for qualities including addictiveness, use of graphics and value. By 1985 each review ended with stars for graphics, addictiveness and overall, up to five of each. In the August/September 1985 issue those stars were given to Beyond’s Shadowfire, an icon-driven game whose reviewer warned that “some time has to be spent learning to use the system”.
The verdicts in words could be blunt. Reviewing the Hotshots compilation in June 1986, the reviewer admitted finding Gyron, “a variation on the old 3D maze games”, “a bit dull”, while praising Shadowfire as “an exciting and challenging game”. In June 1987 a round-up of budget software judged that Thrust was “perhaps their best release for the Spectrum” from Firebird.
ZX Computing Monthly
In early 1986 the magazine announced: “On March 28 ZX Computing goes monthly”, at £1.50 an issue. From then on the running heads read ZX Computing Monthly, and the November 1986 cover described it as “for all Sinclair users”. Bryan Ralph was the editor; in the October 1986 issue he signed a readership survey asking which features readers enjoyed and which they would like “buried forever”.
The monthly lasted just over a year. In May 1987 the C16/Plus 4 Handbook reported that “Computer Gamer, and ZX Computing” would produce their last issues in June, “both in fact owned by Argus Press”. The June 1987 issue is the last.
Sources
- ZX Computing Vol. 1 No. 1, Summer 1982: cover; masthead (editor Tim Hartnell, Argus Specialist Publications, published quarterly); Henry Budgett and Tim Hartnell, “Testing your ZX81’s speed”; Tim Hartnell, “Quicksilva: the man behind it”; Toni Baker, “First steps in Machine Code”; advertisement for Argus’s Personal Software, “from the people who brought you Computing Today”.
- ZX Computing, third issue, 1982: “Now bi-monthly!” on the subscription page; Henry Budgett described as editor of Computing Today; advertisement for Hartnell’s Getting Acquainted with your ZX81; Hartnell’s editorial and articles on board games and structured programming.
- ZX Computing, April/May 1983: Home Computer Shows sponsored by Personal Computing Today, ZX Computing, Computing Today, Home Computing Weekly and Personal Software.
- ZX Computing, June/July 1983: software reviews with a summary chart of marks out of five.
- ZX Computing, December 1983/January 1984: masthead (editor Roger Munford, published bi-monthly by Argus).
- ZX Computing, February/March 1984: the last part of Toni Baker’s machine code series.
- ZX Computing, April/May 1984 and August/September 1984: mastheads (editor Ray Elder).
- ZX Computing, December 1984/January 1985: Ray Elder’s editorial (“the end of a full year sitting in the editor’s chair”); Tim Hartnell on expert systems on the QL.
- ZX Computing, June 1985: masthead (Argus Specialist Publications, 1 Golden Square).
- ZX Computing, August/September 1985: software reviews with star ratings, including Shadowfire.
- ZX Computing, February/March 1986: “ZX Computing goes monthly” from 28 March, £1.50.
- ZX Computing Monthly, April 1986 (Ray Elder, “our technical wizard”); June 1986 (Hotshots compilation review; Steve Turner’s Quazatron routine); July and August 1986 (Steve Turner’s series for games writers); October 1986 (readership survey signed by Bryan Ralph, editor); November 1986 (cover: “An Argus Specialist Publication”, £1.50, “for all Sinclair users”); March 1987 (Machine Code for Beginners); June 1987 (budget round-up, Thrust; £1.50).
- C16/Plus 4 Handbook issue 10, May 1987, editorial: Computer Gamer and ZX Computing to close after their June issues.