CRASH

MORE NEW FACES

Having announced that I was returning to the editor’s chair in last month’s issue, and that Richard Eddy had moved over to CRASH from AMTIX! to help with reviews, there are still further new faces to introduce this month.

Who are the two dashing, debonaire blades in the picture, you may well ask? Along with Lloyd Mangram, they have the distinction of being a touch more mature than most on the CRASH reviewing team. Ian Phillipson lives in Ledbury, a town in Herefordshire almost as beautiful as sleepy Ludlow (he disagrees, considering it to be the other way round). Ian’s fairly new to computer gaming, and was pressganged from his happy life as a freelance journalist because it was assumed that if he had survived life this long by selling words, he must be able to write. He’s a rural man but fair, and decided to give joystick bashing a go — it makes a change (of sorts) from wielding bat and ball for Herefordshire County Cricket team.

Ian’s main function on CRASH is to write the ‘introductory’ parts of game reviews — you know, the bits that start with a large capital letter to tell you where to start reading.

The other one in the picture, looking a bit like he could be violent any second (probably because he forgot to take his slippers off before coming in to work), is the CRASH Sub-Editor, Ciarán Brennan. As you can tell, he’s Irish, and hails from fair Dublin. A sub’s lob is to make sure everything is proof-read and appears in correct English (don’t ask what an Irishman knows about English, as Ciarán is likely to reply with the fact that the Irish are the most literate and educated populace in the EEC).

Ciarán rewrites anything that needs it and is otherwise gainfully employed bashing reviewers around the head to make sure they actually do the writing in the first place, so he’s got something to correct. Ciarán’s hobbies include drinking (‘just the occasional drop’) and rubbing his shoe heels on the office nylon carpet and then delivering mighty static shocks to recalcitrant reviewers. If you’re interested, the funny little accent over the A in his first name is called a ‘fodder’ (or something like that), and ‘broadens’ the letter to make it sound like an O.

Gareth Adams

Another Ludlovian joins the team this month. Gareth Adams has been a CRASH reader since Issue One, and a Spectrum owner for longer. His attachment to CRASH up until now has largely been through serving alcoholic refreshment to team members in the Bull Inn, around the corner from CRASH Towers, but recently he decided the money was easier here. Aged 19, he’s studying for a Diploma in Electronics and Communications. Favourite game is still Elite, unless you count Rugby, which he says he likes because it allows him to release the pent up aggressions of an afternoon spent avoiding mighty static shocks and being told to rewrite things. Gareth’s name will be now appearing at the top of several review columns along with those of Paul Sumner, Mike (Skippy) Dunn, Ben Stone and Richard (Ricky — the full name was too long!) Eddy.

NEW REVIEW LAYOUT

You will also notice that the layout of CRASH reviews has changed slightly. There are now, in effect, three types; Smashes, games of 50 percent and above and games below 50 percent. The change is more one of length than style really. We’re making them all a bit snappier so we can get more in (in those months when there are a lot), and allow more room for the increased number of colour screen shots.

An omission from the Regulars list is Lloyd Mangram’s Hall of Slime. It hasn’t died — it’s just taking a holiday while Lloyd does a spot of rethinking about how it should be presented in the future. So watch out next month for — well, something a bit different!

Roger Kean