[Misc] Gotta love the Royal Mail

[Dick Swiveller]

This made me smile on a Monday morning. I ordered a set of the new video game stamps that are coming out as retro games is my thing. Had an email from them this morning telling me they had been despatched and to allow 10 days for delivery. 10 days to deliver some stamps.

 

[el punal]

This made me smile on a Monday morning. I ordered a set of the new video game stamps that are coming out as retro games is my thing. Had an email from them this morning telling me they had been despatched and to allow 10 days for delivery. 10 days to deliver some stamps.

I used to work for Royal Mail, I just hope you don’t get a card through your door informing you that there is insufficient postage and that you’ll have to collect said item at your delivery office - oh, and pay the surcharge.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

I used to work for Royal Mail, I just hope you don’t get a card through your door informing you that there is insufficient postage and that you’ll have to collect said item at your delivery office - oh, and pay the surcharge.

They probably imported them as well so customs charges on top.

Never been interested in stamps but these are quite cool if you like your old games. Managed to get a limited edition set for about 70p more.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

I used to work for Royal Mail, I just hope you don’t get a card through your door informing you that there is insufficient postage and that you’ll have to collect said item at your delivery office - oh, and pay the surcharge.

Actually just remembered - they better bloody not as they charged £2.95 postage for something that can't be bigger than large letter size.

 

[Notters]

They probably imported them as well so customs charges on top.

Never been interested in stamps but these are quite cool if you like your old games. Managed to get a limited edition set for about 70p more.

View attachment 119281

Like these! Dizzy, Worms and Lemmings are old favourites of mine. Didn't realise the first two were that popular though I guess there were about 20 different dizzy games (Amstrad 6128 and Commodore 64 here). Very much my era - stopped playing computer games when Doom came out due to motion sickness!

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Like these! Dizzy, Worms and Lemmings are old favourites of mine. Didn't realise the first two were that popular though I guess there were about 20 different dizzy games (Amstrad 6128 and Commodore 64 here). Very much my era - stopped playing computer games when Doom came out due to motion sickness!

Ah Dizzy - the game that divides the retro community. The Oliver Twins that wrote all of those games are weird men-children. They pop up at literally every retro event going telling the same stories time after time. Spectrum fans get annoyed when they feature in panels/films about the Spectrum as they used an Amstrad to program all of the Spectrum games and just transmitted the data. They have also run a few companies making modern games that have gone bust - and now run a Dragon's Den style - give us money and we will tell you how to make great games, deal. I met them at a film premiere up in Cambridge and half way through, they jumped up and announced they were giving away copies of their books for a donation to the museum. They couldn't wait for a natural break in the flow to announce this. One of them was later bragging to me about his car that "drove itself".

Really quite weird as they are just grown up bodies with the same 14 year old mentalities that wrote the games, inside. Harmless enough but have been living off of those average games for 30+ years. I believe if you go to the retro museum in Nottingham, they have recreated their teenage bedroom - including the curtains which apparently their mother kept.



And having had to play a lot of them recently to record footage for some films, I really, really hate Dizzy!

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Like these! Dizzy, Worms and Lemmings are old favourites of mine. Didn't realise the first two were that popular though I guess there were about 20 different dizzy games (Amstrad 6128 and Commodore 64 here). Very much my era - stopped playing computer games when Doom came out due to motion sickness!

Oh - and although this is probably too niche for most people, there was a series of videos on Youtube recently where one of the developers of Worms donated his old Amiga with loads of bits from the development of Worms.

 

[Wozza]

Royal Mail to become ‘Mail’ as it steps back from delivery duties

https://newsthump.com/2020/01/20/royal-mail-to-become-mail-as-it-steps-back-from-delivery-duties/

 

[pasty]

Can't believe they left Manic Miner out

 

[Klaas]

Ah Dizzy - the game that divides the retro community. The Oliver Twins that wrote all of those games are weird men-children. They pop up at literally every retro event going telling the same stories time after time. Spectrum fans get annoyed when they feature in panels/films about the Spectrum as they used an Amstrad to program all of the Spectrum games and just transmitted the data. They have also run a few companies making modern games that have gone bust - and now run a Dragon's Den style - give us money and we will tell you how to make great games, deal. I met them at a film premiere up in Cambridge and half way through, they jumped up and announced they were giving away copies of their books for a donation to the museum. They couldn't wait for a natural break in the flow to announce this. One of them was later bragging to me about his car that "drove itself".

Really quite weird as they are just grown up bodies with the same 14 year old mentalities that wrote the games, inside. Harmless enough but have been living off of those average games for 30+ years. I believe if you go to the retro museum in Nottingham, they have recreated their teenage bedroom - including the curtains which apparently their mother kept.

View attachment 119283

And having had to play a lot of them recently to record footage for some films, I really, really hate Dizzy!

That story kind of reminds me of going to the PC world show or something as a geeky 14 year old and walking past a not very popular stand where a guy with a beard was slumped in a chair looking very bored. Took me a while but then remembered it was Kevin Toms who weirdly had his face on the cover of the Football Manager games. That game was looking very, very dated even in it's latest, at the time, incarnation, and no one was interested.

 

[Klaas]

Bloody hell, just googled his blog and he is STILL dining out on/flogging the dead horse that is Football Manager!

 

[Wozza]

That story kind of reminds me of going to the PC world show or something as a geeky 14 year old and walking past a not very popular stand where a guy with a beard was slumped in a chair looking very bored. Took me a while but then remembered it was Kevin Toms who weirdly had his face on the cover of the Football Manager games. That game was looking very, very dated even in it's latest, at the time, incarnation, and no one was interested.

I was introduced to Bruce Foxton at a games trade show once. He'd done the music for a pinball game - quite a climbdown for a former star, I guess. Didn't help that I was completely non-plussed about meeting him. Oops.

 

[brakespear]

They probably imported them as well so customs charges on top.

Never been interested in stamps but these are quite cool if you like your old games. Managed to get a limited edition set for about 70p more.

View attachment 119281

blimey, is that what the BBC Model B version of Elite looked like? Luxurious compared to the sparse Acorn Electron version I had to put up with, with its five (I think) ship models and it's monochrome graphics. Still loved it though

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Bloody hell, just googled his blog and he is STILL dining out on/flogging the dead horse that is Football Manager!

Met him twice and he is a top bloke. Was a proper programmer for years but now remakes Football Manager over and over again. Still waiting for his book he has been working on for years.

 

[Vankleek Hill Seagull]

No Knightmare from Ultimate Play the Game either.

Bollocks to Royal Mail. I'm not buying any stamps from them now.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

No Knightmare from Ultimate Play the Game either.

Bollocks to Royal Mail. I'm not buying any stamps from them now.

I did see Tweets from the guy involved in creating them. Apparently tracking down the IP owner is the cause of a lot of missing games.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

I remember when you could send a birthday card with £10 in it to a relative and when they opened it the £10 was still in the card.

 

[Klaas]

I was introduced to Bruce Foxton at a games trade show once. He'd done the music for a pinball game - quite a climbdown for a former star, I guess. Didn't help that I was completely non-plussed about meeting him. Oops.

I played him at table football in a pub once. He's very good. Him and his mate wiped the floor with us.

 

[Klaas]

Met him twice and he is a top bloke. Was a proper programmer for years but now remakes Football Manager over and over again. Still waiting for his book he has been working on for years.

Is he a bit frustrated that his idea was taken on and run with by many many others, in some cases leading to great fortune?

 

[Dick Swiveller]

Is he a bit frustrated that his idea was taken on and run with by many many others, in some cases leading to great fortune?

Don't think so but I would imagine it would rankle a tiny bit. He only ever made 4 games (well loads of different FM sequels as well) which were all similar and then he went back to business programming. Splits his time between here, Canada and NZ so hasn't done too badly for himself. He did tell me that he made Football Manager for some obscure system that I think was the Oric and only ever sold a handful of copies.