Beginning with an April joke in Your Sinclair magazine, the annual crap games competition has been uniting Spectrum fans for more than a quarter century.
The Spectrum was one of Britain’s first home computers for the general public.
The ZX Spectrum computer, released in 1982, had eight primary colors, a rubber keyboard, and only 48 kilobytes of RAM.
The device adopted video games such as Manic Minor, Chucky Egg, and Odd Attack that were original and different from others, but some described them as a bit silly.
Worst Spectrum game ever
The Comp.Sys.Sinclair Crap (CGC) Coop tournament has been held every year since 1996.
The idea of the competition was to write the worst possible spectrum game, and this year’s edition was hosted by 44-year-old Jamie Bradbury from Hull, England.
“I got involved seven years ago, when I went back to my first computer as a kid,” Bradbury tells The Guardian.
“I’ve always wanted to make my own game, it was an unfulfilled childhood ambition. Now it’s back to me. It’s fun to come up with a potentially stupid idea and enjoy the misery of everyone who has to rehash this damn thing.”
Paul Collins, 43, who took part in the competition in 2000, explains that the “irony and self-mocking British humor” makes it so enjoyable.
It’s amazing that the competition has lasted more than a quarter of a century, but he believes it’s “definitely a collective enterprise of the spectrum community.”
About this year’s edition, he says: “I have some ideas for this year, but I’m too lazy so I don’t know if I’ll do them.”
The contest started with an April joke
The origins of the Idiot Games competition date back to April 1988, when the computer games magazine Your Sinclair celebrated an April Fool’s joke by reviewing a non-existent game called Advanced Lawnmower Simulator and giving it high praise.
The next month the full game appeared in magazine clippings, and the instructions were simple: press the M button, and the saw would cut along the correct lines. Often the mower breaks down and it’s game over. The idea was simple and fun.
The game was clearly a joke, and yet it was a hit with readers, who submitted their own versions and updates in hopes of appearing on future covers.
After that, the magazine created a special corner for readers to send in games called “The Stupid Game Corner”. The idea was to send in stupid copies of lawnmower or something else. Even today people compete to write the worst Spectrum game in the Idiot Games competition.
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