It isn’t often I hear of a new zine that I think will resonate, but BreakSpace certainly fits the bill. This new ZX Spectrum mag features a ridiculous 34 reviews in its first issue, but the thing I really like is how old-school it is.
Well, that and the fact that it concerns a computer I had some connection with. Many of the current crop of retro zines tend to focus on console systems, none of which were hugely popular in the UK until the 1990s. As someone who teased ZX Spectrum owners throughout the late 1980s for their rubber keys and noisy loading, I feel wholly qualified to check this magazine out.
After all, it was a pretty decent computer, and kickstarted a British computing legacy that we still see today in the Raspberry Pi, not to mention Arm and RISC-V. Those systems were all developed by people who spent time on Sir Clive Sinclair’s rubber keyed wonder.
What’s in BreakSpace 1?
As mentioned, this new ZX Spectrum zine features 34 reviews. The most significant thing about this is that they are all new games. The introduction to the magazine states:
In 2024 , there were about 160 games released for the ZX Spectrum. This is a bizarrely high number for a platform that stopped being relevant to the world at large about 35 years ago, when it was supplanted by themselves-archaic 16-bit systems.
I can’t think of any better way to celebrate the ongoing releases for such a classic system that with a fanzine like this. And if that wasn’t reason enough, it’s a fun read, which I recommend you check out.
You can grab BreakSpace issue 1 from Itch.io completely free.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.
