intended to be published in November 1983, in time for the pre-Christmas trade but owing to a conflict with retailers WH Smith it was published in February the following year. The magazine maintained focus squarely on Spectrum gaming. It was an instant hit thanks to Oliver Frey's artwork and Kean's writing, assisted by Uffindel. Kean and the Frey brothers would continue to be involved with the magazine throughout its lifetime. Reviewers would give their direct opinions on whether a game was good or not, regardless of advertising or any pressure from software houses. Though publishers sometimes tried to bribe the magazine editors to give games good reviews, the children would not do that, and once gave a game a low score of 9%. This honesty gave Crash a good reputation and made it highly influential in the games industry. If a game was awarded a "Crash Smash" (an overall rating of 90% or above), the industry believed it was genuinely good and it would sell well. Notable Crash Smashes included Jet Set Willy, Sabre Wulf and Head over Heels. A games compilation "Four Crash Smashes" was produced, capitalising on the award's importance. In October 1986, Crash reported sales of over 100,000 copies. Its ABC figure of 101,483 copies a month for the period of January to June were claimed by the magazine to be higher than any other British computer magazine. By 1989, rival Spectrum magazine Your Sinclair regularly came with a free cassette attached to the cover that contained a complete game and various demos. Crash had occasionally featured cassettes on the cover, but began to lag in circulation. It was relaunched that June with a free cover-mounted cassette with a number of complete games, which continued as a regular feature. This came at the expense of page count and editorial content, both of which were reduced. Kean was annoyed by having to put tapes on the cover to keep up with the competition, as it increased costs and obscured Frey's cover artwork. Newsfield was suffering increasing financial difficulties by the early 1990s. The last edition of Crash published by the company was in September 1991. Following the company's liquidation, the magazine was relaunched by Europress that December, continuing until the final issue in April 1992. After this, Crash was bought by EMAP, publisher of Sinclair User, who merged the two magazines. In practice, this meant little more than