Crash was launched in 1983 in Ludlow, Shropshire by Roger Kean, Oliver Frey and Franco Frey. The trio had met the previous year when they were working for newspaper publisher Alan Purnell, learning how to write and produce a magazine from scratch. Franco Frey had worked for an electronics company, and had been asked by one of his business contacts if could get hold of video games. Kean remembers that "The High Street was ignorant of computer games" and they wanted to source titles and sell them. They set up a mail order catalogue called Crash Micro Games Action and advertised in contemporary computer magazines such as Computer and Video Games. It was immediately successful, so by late 1983, they decided to launch a dedicated magazine, forming the company Newsfield to do so. Kean and Oliver Frey wanted a catchy title for the magazine, choosing "Crash" after J. G. Ballard's novel of the same name.
