Official Feedback Issue 105

[Antiriad2097]

If you don't mind it being unboxed and minor cosmetic damage, BMX Flyer can be picked up reasonably cheap. I'm sure I was only a tenner or so a couple of years ago (or was it last year? I forget). As a 20+ year old kids toy, inevitably most have a few scuffs and scrapes so as long as you don't want it minty bargains are out there. Mine sits with pride of place at the front of my gaming shelves where its easy to grab for a quick game now and then.

I'm rubbish at it now, I've lost the knack.

[Rory Milne]

There was a BMX Flyer with a dodgy display (very dim) on eBay a while back going for £22. Other than that, unboxed ones with scuffs and scrapes have consistantly been going for £25 or over throughout the year. It may well have been a different story a year or two ago of course.

[Antiriad2097]

Still, £25 for a fully functional VFD game isn't bad. The real collectable ones go for way more than that.

[Rory Milne]

I totally agree, £25 is fair for a working colour LCD game (or a VFD game for that matter). It's just that neither type is cheap anymore, more's the pity. In terms of collectables, you don't have to look further than the aforementioned BMX Flyer. There's a boxed one on eBay going for £150 plus postage at the moment, and there was one going for £200 not so long ago.

[deadpan666]

I totally agree, £25 is fair for a working colour LCD game (or a VFD game for that matter). It's just that neither type is cheap anymore, more's the pity. In terms of collectables, you don't have to look further than the aforementioned BMX Flyer. There's a boxed one on eBay going for £150 plus postage at the moment, and there was one going for £200 not so long ago.

Yeah, have been keeping an eye on Ebay...there was loads going for about 10 - 15 quid a few months back, but that was when I was skint...now they've all gone back up to the £25 - £50 mark...or the really expensive boxed ones! Sod's law really...

Oh and thanks for the link...but I've already been playing it loads the last few weeks!

[Rory Milne]

I must have missed the ones sold for £10 - £15, I saw a few where bidding started at around the £12 mark, but those eventually went for £25 or more. Anyhow, glad you've been getting some use out of George Gardiner's excellent BMX Flyer simulator.

[knight_beat]

I'm intrigued by the appearance of CPC Power in the Back to the Nineties feature. I've never heard of this magazine and the only discussion I can find relates to the RG article. The CPC Wiki lists two fanzines of the same title distributed in the UK and Germany, but they look completely different. Can Richard or anyone else shed light on this magazine?

[DRS]

I know I'm stupidly late posting feedback for this issue (I always try and read anything I haven't before the next issue arrives... which is tomorrow :s) but I have smiled at Jamie's Xbox clones piece (loved the little interviews), Merman's Daley's article and did find Martyn's Mire Mare investigation gripping stuff. However, I am clearly verging on trainspotter territory when tonight I got round to reading Richard's Image Works look back and saw the snippet that says the Speccy version of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles sold 420,000 in 1990. Is that right Rich? You were there so if you say so, I'm nodding... but if that's true, Christ, the 8-bit market was doing alright at the start of the nineties.

Do tell me is it's a typo. If not, wow :0

[theantmeister]

I know I'm stupidly late posting feedback for this issue (I always try and read anything I haven't before the next issue arrives... which is tomorrow :s)

LOL, I haven't even finished the bloody issue yet! So far I'm really liking it though. The EA article was brilliant, the Mire Mare article was intriguing and the controversial games article was good fun.

On the Image Works article though... I always hate reading "From the archives", simply because it is always written from a very business like point of view. "In year 198X we hired Bob Starchybritches to run out sales department... " *snore* I mean the Beau Jolly article was dull, but this Image Works one features the words "internal focus group meetings". Good Christ, is this what it has come to? We're waxing nostalgic about how many meetings it took for someone to come up with a logo?

On the plus side the article did remind me of the terrible Back to the Future 2 PC game, which I had totally forgotten about. I remember playing that first hoverboard level for hours, it was so hard, only to get to the very end and sink in the bloody pond! The next few levels weren't any better...

I've just finished the ST article, which I thought was ok. I found parts of it to be a bit confrontational. I think the word "Amiga" might appear in the article more times than "ST" or "Atari". Also, the games selected didn't exactly make me want to go out and buy one. Almost all looked like fairly sloppy clones of other, more popular, games. Still, I knew nothing of the ST (other than the fact that it existed) before I read the article, so I learned a lot from it, which is cool.

[knight_beat]

Finally finished reading this issue and have to agree that it's a corker! I'd really like to find out more about the Jet Set Roland game and CPC Power magazine. Sadly, there seems to be a lack of information on the net about these items.

I notice there are a few errors in the magazine section of the ST article, however. Atari ST User got 106 issues under its belt before the magazine closed, rather than the 91 mentioned in the article. Admittedly, the first 12 or 13 were Atari User supplements, but the publishers still counted them in the issue numbering.

The ST Action numbering is also incorrect, although I can understand where the error has been made. 67 issues of ST Action were published as a standalone title. It was closed halfway through production of STA68 and a 32 page supplement containing finished material was given away with Atari ST User in Nov 93. It became a game section within the Atari ST User page count for the next 11 issues, which takes us up to 79 issues mentioned in the article. However, it's often forgotten that the ST Action logo/design was subsequently used by Atari ST Review for the remaining 2-3 or so issues (the final issue of STR is dated Jan 95). If we're counting supplements/sections as issues, this would take us up to 82.

Apart from these *ahem* minor errors, it was a great article and a great issue.