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Capital letters
A typographical device imbuing a sense of importance, urgency or indignation.

Example: "We were RIGHT."
Secret origin: Traditional. Brought to AP by Mark Ramshaw and Stuart.
First used: AP06.
Note: Intended for infrequent, throwaway use it found favour with writers and readers and loomed large like a scary monster with eyes and some hands.

Alphabet

CapitalLettersInTheMiddleOfWords
A typographical device indicating (1) technology, (2) the internet, (3) absurd trademarks.

Example 1: "Let AP's DisseminatoryKarvolKapsules dissolve on your TruthPillow."
Example 2: "Our LaserShireHorses drag AP's ElectronicPresence along the SuperInformationCanalPath."
Example 3: "Perhaps called rENDerWizARD-pLUS!.^TM"
Secret origin 1: Coined by Cam. (Unconfirmed.)
Secret origin 2: Unknown.
Secret origin 3: Coined by Jonathan Davies.

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X of Champions
Emphasising supreme quality in a field. An unofficial AP seal of approval.

Example: "Guardian is the Game of Champions."
Secret origin: From a cereal advertisement of the 1950s. ("The breakfast of champions.")* Introduced by Jonathan Nash.
Note 1: The "of" may be capitalised if desired.
Note 2: There were plans for the Jonathan Davies-edited PC Gamer to bear on its stationery the title"The Magazine Of Champions" but JD moved to N64 instead.

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Clangers
See And those Clangers, eh?

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Clever wording, I know. Cheers
Acknowledging keeness of phrase employed.

Example: "Elite was pretty fronty, but Elite 2 - is Frontier! Clever wording, I know. Cheers."
Secret origin: Coined by Alan Parker, Urban Warrior for his early 1990s NME column. Confident in its obscurity, Dave Green appropriated it for the mag .
Note: The "cheers" can be omitted for speed.

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X! Count 'em!
Inviting admiration of a quantity.

Example: "3 amazing disks! Count 'em!"
Secret origin: Traditional. (Possibly coined by Smash Hits.) Introduced by Colin The Publisher to promote AP33's third disk. Adapted ironically to introduce any number.
First used: AP33.
Note: "1! Count it!" was, regrettably, never used.

Alphabet

Crap
Not good.

Example: "A crap game."
Secret origin: M.E. crappe, chaff - M.Du. krappe, prob. from krappen, to tear off. (It says here.)
Note 1: Made famous by Your Sinclair. (T-shirts proclaimed of the mag, "It's crap! In a funky skillo sort of way.") Possibly the single most evocative adjective ever in the history of all things - and it's also a noun!
Note 2: Though its literally thousands of appearances in YS diffused any of its original offensiveness (crap is, technically, a swear-word), AP's (relatively) conservative usage prompted a surprising number of letters of complaint.
Note 3: AP26 brought the last word: "Sorry, but 'crap' stays until the day that there are no more games deserving the description."

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Curly muffin
(Of platform games.) To reverse direction in mid-leap.

Example: "The guy in Turrican curly muffins on a regular basis."
Secret origin: Analogous to the shape described by the pastry treat.
First used: AP32.

Alphabet

Cutsie
Legendary misspelling of "cutesy."

Example: "Not another cutsie platform game! Yikes!"
Secret origin: Coined by Matt Bielby.
Note 1: Despite the clearest possible semantic evidence to the contrary, Matt insisted his spelling was correct.
Note 2: See also truely.
First used: AP-Zero.

Alphabet