CRASH Annual 2024 (2023) Review

11 May, 2024 timchuma 0 Comments 1 category

Another one from the Kickstarter which is really more of a pre-order guarantee for the publishers Fusion Retro Books these days. As I said before I was surprised they only did the four annuals this year and was told that they have taken the Amiga stuff more into ZZAP and there wasn’t really the interest for an Amstrad one, even though it is popular in Europe the readers seem to be more from the UK or places who used to get the magazines in the 1980s or 1990s still.

These are the only retro magazines I get every year so it is good to see the stuff ongoing live the CRASH Live event and the sequels to games that have been reviewed previously. As I live too far away I cannot get to any of the events or get the more regular magazines but have gotten into other people’s kickstarters as they were also interacting on social media or it was suggested from following this one.

I have found the perfect way to read these annuals was when I was working I would read part of my book and then a few pages of this at the end or just alternate what I was reading every day. I tried doing 2 books and this and it was too much. It wouldn’t be called an annual if it did not take you all year to read would it? The glasses have helped a lot reading it thank you very much.

After all this time I would not think they still would be able to get more stories from “back in the day” but they managed it for this one. You do need to move on eventually and I like they are covering new development on the system and not just doing retro titles. If you just want that there are other publications you can read.

With the newer programming tools it is easier to make games for the Spectrum Next system and people often team up via the internet to work on them. Most of them still seem to be hobbyists and like the challenge of working on an older system. I do like seeing people redoing the ports to the system and making them better than they used to be without the time and commercial pressures that ruined a lot of them.

There does seem to be a lot of indie games that do the retro style thing these days but actually running it on the original system does present a whole new challenge and gives it a unique look for the system.

As usual this one would be recommended for fans of the system or even if you have heard of this magazine from back in the day and want to look at the titles people are still playing on it.

Rating: 4/5

Book details:

Editor-in-Chief: Chris Wilkins

Playing Tips Editor: Nick Roberts

Staff Writer: Lloyd Mangram

Design & Layout: David Perkins

Additional Design: Chris Wilkins, Ben Honebone, Nick Roberts, Colin Bell, Isch (bugs & bits)

Proofing: Paul Morrison

Contributing Writers: Gordon King, Paul Davies, Graeme Mason, Martyn Carroll, Simon Butler, Ian Osborne

Publisher: Fusion Retro Books

Year Published: 2023

Country: UK