Advanced Lawnmower Simulator was originally just a joke game reviewed in an April Fools edition of Your Sinclair Magazine, which received a 9 out of 10 and teased several other humorously mundane hygiene-based games by "Gardensoft" such as a launderette game. Over time, this game would be mentioned more beyond the April issue, with fake letters in the Letters section detailing a humorous fictional story about the game being stolen, until it culminated with the game's release on a cover disc in Issue 45, released a year and a half after the game was first mentioned.