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So whatever happened to...

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:06 pm
by Nightfaery
I've noticed there isn't much mention on Steve Shields, what happened to him? I used to like him as a six year old and admit I kinda fancied him... lol! But after playing Rockstar Ate My Hamster recently I kinda realised the younger dude looked like Steve, is that where he went? 8-bit? Lol, or did his move to Amiga Force make him vanish? And what about the dude who methinks used to be editor and was always miserable? I remember he looked a wee bit like Rodney from Only Fools and Horses. He only smiled once or twice. Sorry this is vague but I am remembering things from the early nineties. And why does no one else remember Steve bursting out of Phil because he ate something bad and became editor? I know it's not a figment of me imagination! *^_^* \m/

Re: So whatever happened to...

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:43 pm
by Ian Osborne
Well, let's start at the top...
Folkie Faery wrote:I've noticed there isn't much mention on Steve Shields, what happened to him? I used to like him as a six year old and admit I kinda fancied him... lol! But after playing Rockstar Ate My Hamster recently I kinda realised the younger dude looked like Steve, is that where he went? 8-bit? Lol, or did his move to Amiga Force make him vanish?
He moved to the Sega section of the company to launch Mega Machines, with James Price left to run Commodore Force and Phil King given Amiga Force. Phil left the company for Paragon, and Amiga Force was published out of house at Computer Facts, the company which became Rapide Publishing. They screwed it up so badly it was brought back into house, under the editorship of Nick Roberts. At the time, I was floating around doing bits and pieces for several magazines, as well as Impact Editions, our book publishing arm. This was more or less the state of play when Impact went down the tubes.
And what about the dude who methinks used to be editor and was always miserable? I remember he looked a wee bit like Rodney from Only Fools and Horses. He only smiled once or twice. Sorry this is vague but I am remembering things from the early nineties.
James Price? He was the only editor after Steve Shields, but he didn't look that much like Rodney. He certainly didn't work as hard either...
And why does no one else remember Steve bursting out of Phil because he ate something bad and became editor? I know it's not a figment of me imagination! *^_^* \m/
Hey, I remember. :) For the record, it was Phil King who wrote that piece, which was certainly brave of him.

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:01 am
by Professor Brian Strain
Last I knew, Steve Shields was editing Mayfair magazines...

Re: So whatever happened to...

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:39 am
by Nightfaery
Ian Osborne wrote:Hey, I remember. :) For the record, it was Phil King who wrote that piece, which was certainly brave of him.
Nice to see he's lost weight and has a great sense of humour! And there was something else as well, didn't Miles and someone else do a parody of Smashie and Nicey (Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse), Smiles and something...

And the only reason I said James Price looked like Rodney is because I accidentally drew him like that.

And do you really have a goldfish in your eye? Can I have one? *^_^* \m/

Rockstar Ate my Hamster DL

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:35 pm
by mikesukat
Hello, If you want to download this cool game, I´ve solution for ya!

LINK REMOVED!!!

[Iain]No links to downloads please! Even more so when the link was to the Amiga version of the game!![/Iain]

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:09 pm
by Azhrei
And what about the dude who methinks used to be editor and was always miserable? I remember he looked a wee bit like Rodney from Only Fools and Horses. He only smiled once or twice.
I'm pretty sure you're tallking about Chris Hayward, not James Price (the "Fraggle look-alike").
James Price? He was the only editor after Steve Shields, but he didn't look that much like Rodney. He certainly didn't work as hard either...
It's 2007 (2006 when that was written) and the mud-slinging continues... look, I was in my teens and had just discovered the world of C64 gaming and the joys of Zzap! 64/Commodore Force. I loved Force very much, probably as much as people similar to my age loved Zzap! when it appeared on the news-stands back in '85. Other than the inferior Commodore Format, I had no yardstick with which to measure Force's quality. It still stings a little when people sling insults at it, or when people blame it's declining quality as it came closer to issue sixteen on James Price alone.

Undoubtedly the quality slid, but so did the number of staff members, and Price, who had the responsibility as editor placed on him at quite a young age, was likely overwhelmed. Yeah, there were too many features and sure, there was no coverage of the still-active European scene, but as he himself said on this forum a while back, nobody on the magazine knew anything about it. Neither did Commodore Format until some time after Force had gone.

Still, at the time I appreciated Commodore Force for what it was and now, as a much older and wiser person, I appreciate it all the more as I understand now the pressures the "team", as it was, must have been under to fill the magazine with anything relevant. People who read Zzap! 64 in the glory days (back in '86, '87) were surely disgusted with how it had degenerated with the oncoming of Hickman and how bad Commodore Force must have appeared against those older magazines. But people my age loved it - we knew nothing else. There was only 'Format as competition, and it's design was much blander to look at in comparison, with it's faded colour pages. I also don't read any magazine that uses the word "super" in an attempt to be hip.

So, we knew nothing else. We must have seemed deprived to people who read the magazine in earlier times, but we were happy. The magazine was funny, it was intelligent, and it was great to look at, with Oli Frey covers with every issue. It was our only way of getting any news - it was our bible! So you can understand when I still get a little irritated today when people insult it and it's at the time very young editor. Even those who were contributors :P