GamesMaster - The Oral History by Dominik Diamond and Jack Templeton - Book Review

It's hard to imagine now (or indeed remember), but there was a time where news, reviews and commentary on video games were not instantly available. Leaving aside the benefits and pitfalls of the capability to have instant information 24 hours a day (Cthulhu, that makes me sound old), let us journey back to the early 1990's and a time when, if you wanted to learn about the latest in videogames, magazines were your lot. Until television got involved. 

GamesMaster was the quintessential television programme about videogames. Over the course of seven series, it informed, educated and entertained viewers, as well as providing its own share of drama too. Beat that, Lord Reith! There were other shows: ITV's Bad Influence was one that I remember watching, and although it took a different approach to GM, there was more than enough room for both to exist. Much like the excellent Bits, which Channel 4 broadcast around the turn of the century (never has a turn of phrase aged so many so quickly), GamesMaster never took the audience for fools (and unlike Bad Influence, it wasn't limited by its time slot - 6.30pm was very much not seen as children's TV time despite being quite early in the evening), and was all the better for it. But what was the story behind it? Dominik Diamond and Jack Templeton will tell you. 

As an oral history, this tome has a wonderful collection of contributions, from production staff to hosts to contestants, all wrapped up in a framework that takes the reader series by series (and, it has to be said, the 1990's), with added commentary and content from Dominik himself. In the wrong hands, this could have been a disaster, as ego and fading memories could combine to rake over the coals, but here there is an over-riding sense of fairness, that each voice and point of view is heard, leaving the reader to make their own mind up about contentious events during the show's long run. 

It's a funny tale, and very much destroys/enhances (depending on your point of view) the sheen of what you might have remembered watching on the TV, but therein lies the draw. You get the warts and all details from the key players, and this book comprehensively demonstrates the concept of the past being a different country. Having said that, as someone who worked in mobile phone retail in the early to mid-noughties, there are some distinct... similarities to the work hard/play hard attitude evidenced here. More than once whilst reading the book, I asked myself "how did they get away with that?" before realising that, yes, it was the '90's. Much like there is a slowly greying generation out there who are probably wistfully saying "Ah, but it was the 00's."

Anyway, I digress. 

There are plenty of photographs, including many from behind the scenes, adding proof, if proof were needed, of some of the more "WTF" stories - looking at you, Bill Gates' car! And as for seeing what they put Dominik through at times, it's amazing he managed to walk away at all at the end. 

The back of the book has a couple of cool appendices - a list of all of the challenges (who competed, what they had to do and whether they did it or not), every review score (starting at Sensible Soccer at 97%, all the way down to Garfield Labyrinth at 28%), and finally a rather tongue in cheek Consolation Zone.  

I was always a fan of GamesMaster, even that difficult third series with Dexter. This volume is an excellent memoir for those who spent their early evenings watching a Scottish bloke fit in as many risqué gags as possible into a pre-watershed show. Oh, and also talk about games. An honest and frank account about the first truly great video games TV show, GamesMaster: The Oral History is worth your time and money, as well as being a snapshot of a decade long gone. 

You can pick up a copy of GamesMaster: The Oral History directly from the publisher here, as well as the usual online and physical book stores.

From Vultures to Vampires Volume Two by David John Pleasance and Trevor Dickinson - Book Review

Three years since the original Kickstarter for a singular book under the name of From Vultures to Vampires was successfully funded to the tune of £42,813 from 1005 backers (number 317 myself) on 19th July 2020, and two and half years since the need for a second book was announced, volume two has finally started to arrive in the hands of backers of the extended project. After such a long period of time, it was a relief to finally get this book, as well as have hopes raised about the third volume. When that one arrives, there will be a review and a "Notes on a Kickstarter" piece with thoughts and comments about the project as a whole. That one is going to be... interesting... In the meantime, was this one worth the wait?

A 24x16x2-ish cm hardback, first impressions are positive, and there is a quality feel to the cover and paper stock within. Total page count is 288, but there is some filler in there too. 

Following on from volume one's coverage of the post Commodore years of 1995 to 2004, we kick off straight away with 2005, each of the following chapters taking the journey on a year at a time until the conclusion in June 2010 and the Vintage Computer Fair at Bletchley. A final section provides an explanation of what happened to the Commodore name, as well as the C64/A500 Mini projects. 

It's mostly well written, with only a couple of occasions where another light editing pass might have removed the odd instance of repetition. The narrative does, however, take a tangent at times - the page and a bit used to talk about the son of Pentti Kouri (with a photo of him) has nothing to do with the actual story and shouldn't have been included at all. 

There are plenty of photographs too, and I think too many, considering this volume was described as necessary due to sheer amount of content (as was the upcoming third volume when it was announced). Do we really need a mugshot of every almost every person mentioned in the text, especially when they're a one line mention? Do we really need a picture of a CDi? Or Trevor's multiple (and in one case, Frankenstein-like) computer collection? And the logos? They're also on the back cover!

This building is of only passing interest, and we really don't need a picture of it.

It feels like padding, what with 275 pages of actual content, and that's down from the 360 total/336 actual content split of volume one. It'll be interesting to see where volume three comes in at, but the inclusion of the ads at the back of this one, including two pages for the ill-fated Amiga Global Alliance project, adds to the impression that, with better planning, two volumes could have been more than enough. 

Anyway, for the price I paid - £17.50 plus £7 p&p (with actual postage only costing £2.99 so a raised eyebrow there too (I didn't realise I was paying e-Bay postage prices...) - I'm reasonably happy with what I received. Not with the timescale (that's for the later post), but they got copies out there in the end. Here's hoping for volume 3.

Not really need in this book - no slight to CDi fans either

David Pleasance has a website where you can buy both the first and second volumes. Not wanting to appear too waspish (moi, darling?), but the actual front page hasn't been updated since mid-2022, as he only talks about two volumes and a possible July 2022 shipping date for the book I'm looking at here. Click on volume 2 in the shop and it has an estimated July 2021 availability(!). As of KS update #42 (12th May 2023), David would happily take your money via Paypal Friends and Family (it's the fee, you know), for a direct order. Uh-huh... Both currently available volumes are priced at £35 for the physical copies, £15 for the e-books. It is up to you, gentle reader, to decide if that represents good value. If I were approaching as an interested potential buyer now, I'd baulk at the idea of dropping £42 per physical copy (including postage). As for £15 per e-book, not for me, and there is a whole cannery to open when it comes to e-book pricing anyway. 

So, a good read? Mostly. Would I recommend? If you can get a copy cheap enough, maybe. The travails of the campaign have soured more than a few backers (as evidenced in the comments section on Kickstarter), and my thoughts on the project will follow after reviewing volume three. For now, it's a qualified recommendation at best. You will learn stuff, it compliments the first volume very well, and they have delivered a decent read. How they have delivered that, dear hearts, is a question for another time. 

Magazines of Yesteryear - Computer Shopper Issue 80 - October 1994

It's another magazine of yesteryear and this time we're travelling to October 1994 (by issue date, the publication date was early September) and issue 80 Computer Shopper.

The magazine has grown, now coming in at 670 pages, and you have to feel for the posties of the 90's and how their poor backs faired when lugging multiple copies of this around. As for contents, we have a Pentium 90 group test (for a bargain price, but we'll see about that), graphics cards, a decent rage of software being rated, as well as the good old machine reference guide, still in place even if the pickings were increasingly slim for the non-DOS formats. That was to be expected considering Atari had abandoned the computer scene for one last crack of the whip at consoles, and Commodore had imploded earlier in the year. Acorn was still kicking out (the Risc PC (swoon) had arrived in April), and Apple was still Apple - although resellers such as Crown Computer Products Direct were offloading older stock at frankly silly prices - an original Mac LC 2/40 for £199 ex VAT!

Contents - some interesting stuff here.

The format specific list - and check out that circulation figure bottom right - 134k plus! 

In the news was Apple's announcement of licensing its System 7 OS to other hardware manufacturers. This they certainly did, and in my best (imaginary) Morgan Freeman voice, it did not end up being a good idea. Microsoft settled a four year anti-trust investigation (the what if's abound if Gates hadn't folded), Compaq pushes into retail (Dixons, Currys, John Lewis and PC World), and London's underground would soon be getting fifty multimedia information kiosks to supply up to date travel information to travellers. This truly was the future, or so it seemed at the time. 

From the group test, and interestingly, a section at the bottom about the actual company.

Now that's a group test specification table!

The big group test is for Pentium 90-powered machines at a budget price. This, gentle reader, depends on your definition of "budget" - and when it came to the then hot new processor, you started at £1,895 ex VAT and went upwards. These were high spec machines for the time, most coming with 16MB of RAM and a 15 or 17" monitor. Except for Lowland (£2,897 ex) and Dotlink (£2,085 ex), who cheaped out with a 14" screen. Tight basta...

These machines were also supplied with PCI or VLB (VESA Local Bus) graphics cards, and a round up of some of the latest models reveals a) they were varied in pricing - £110 to £599 ex, b) these were serious productivity tools - the 3D graphics cards race was still a while off, and c) they were pretty much maxed out at a resolution of 1,280x1,024, although a couple could handle virtual desktops of up to 2,048x1,536 at 256 colours. The key thing here was that getting a monitor to ably handle such resolutions was probably going to cost you as much, if not more, as the card. Taxan Ergovision monitors were being handled by dealers for around £339 and £669 ex for 15 and 17" varieties respectively. 

Don't be tempted. Not for one minute!

For the format specific stuff, Amiga Shopper is still going, as is Atari Shopper. Jim Nagel hosts the Archimedes Shopper column, while the legendary MacBiter keeps an eye on Macintosh Shopper. His column was one of the main reasons to buy Shopper, and his look at System 7.5 will have you chuckling away even after nearly thirty years. 

Elonex were another decent manufacturer lost to the mists of time.

To the adverts now and this was a time when the PC market was in rude health prior to the consolidation and mass market changes that were to come as the decade progressed. Manufacturers offered machines directly and via dealers, so let's have a look at what you could have bought back in 1994.

Discounted Apples - and no, not worth it either.

First thing you realise is that anything less than a 25MHz 486 SX is dead in the water. Aside from a couple of really cheap laptops (and laptops were coming to the fore even then), there isn't a 386 to be found outside of a Morgan Computers or (in this issue) Crown Direct ad - the latter had a monitor-less Amstrad PC4386 for £299 ex. If you were in the market for a current spec PC, the 486 was your starting point.

The Gateway 2000 opener...

MJN's in return

Gateway 2000's price list compared to...

... MJN's - totally different, obviously.

Naturally, competition was fierce, and this led to some unfortunate coincidences. Take Gateway 2000, once seen as a true competitor to Dell, it leads with a fold out insert featuring Sherlock Holmes. Their ads were often high quality narrative productions, having the machines front and centre of course. Prices aren't too bad either, and a 486 DX2-66 Family PC could be had for £1,299 ex. Pentiums were much more pricey. But what is this? MJN have also gone for a Holmes run (not apologising for that at all), and theirs is laid out in a very "similar" way, albeit with cheaper pricing. Hmmm. Other then-famous names in the market included Elonex, Viglen, Watford Electronics and Byte Direct, the latter of which was eventually purchased by PC World. 

A cracking little laptop, that Contra Aero.

As for laptops, Toshiba and Compaq were the dealer's favourites, although the pair of Olivetti machines looked pretty tasty, and I still love the colour of that Echos model (see below). What is really noticeable is that technology has advanced, and while these machines still have a weight issue (and that's mostly a battery thing), their prices are now, certainly at the lower end of the market, commensurate with their desktop cousins. Check out the Toshiba TC1900S - 486 SX at 25MHz, 4MB RAM, 120MB hard drive, 9.5" screen, internal floppy, DOS 6.22 and weighing under 6.5lbs - all for £829 ex. Now the Viglen Contender desktop - 486 SX at 25MHz, 4MB RAM, 240MB hard drive, DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11, plus a 14" monitor - £799 ex. Admittedly, there were cheaper manufacturers - Time could do the same spec with a Mitac branded machine for £699 - but that's not my point. What had changed was that laptops could now get very close to desktop pricing within the limits of the form factor. Colour screens and faster chips added much more, but on one level, the laptop was getting there. 

Laptop progression - that T1900S is pretty tasty for the price. 

The Viglen Contender range - could have been's...

This was the high point of the Win/DOS combination before the might of Windows 95 changed the perception of the PC for the general consumer. That and putting the Pentium processor front and centre when it came to sales. It also wouldn't be long before 3D graphics cards started to show up. This is about the time in the PC's history that I feel most nostalgic about - and yes, I am aware that nostalgia can tint those glasses in a spectacular way, but PC's at this point were both cool, moderately accessible but also still requiring some technical knowledge to get things to work. Old man shouting at clouds here, but I sometimes do miss playing about with interrupts and HIMEM.SYS.

Anyway, that's two for Shopper, so next time, I'll have a look at a more "scholarly" title. Well, Personal Computer World, but since it described itself as a journal, it's the posh one compared to Shopper. I will leave you with the advert of the Olivetti Echos. Still a looker after all these years...