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Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2014 2:29 pm
by Capt_Skunkbeard
September 1986: As an 11yr old lad, making the long trip from West Lothian with my Dad, guests of Electric Dreams (remember the pyramid?) I was super excited. To this day though, I don't know what happened but when Dave and Reuben from ED went to fetch Clare Hirsch for an introduction I completely fell to pieces, bottled it, ran away. I often look back on that strange, strange decision and quote it as my biggest regret. :D

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 12:15 am
by Iain
:-D

Ah the infamous Clare Hirsch, not too surprising of a reaction I guess, but you weren't even a teenager, so she shouldn't have scared you that much! :-)

Funny looking back at pictures of her now (in Zzap) she looks like a 14 year old playing dress up ;-)

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 5:51 pm
by Professor Brian Strain
Great first post!

I remember a letter to Lloyd asking how someone could meet Claire, and Lloyd suggesting they write a hit game, send it to Activision and then it would lead to a wonderful life together...

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 10:59 am
by Iain
:)

There's a picture of her in the middle of the photos on this page in case anybody is wondering what we're going on about.

And while we're going into sad git territory ;-) here's some photos of "Software Cuties" according to The Shadow.

There is a better one of Claire somewhere in Zzap, but I think I've spent enough time on this already! :-D

I hope she never searches for her name with zzap because there's quite a few results of people wondering about her. :-D

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 6:45 pm
by andy vaisey
Haha, great story! Welcome here!

And what a surprise... all the 'nerdy geeks' know exactly who you're talking about, including myself... ;)

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 12:57 pm
by Mayhem
Didn't she marry Rod Cousens, or am I remembering that wrongly?

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2014 5:04 pm
by Iain

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2016 7:52 pm
by Fiery Phoenix
Actually going through all my old mags at the mo - leaving Zzap's until last (currently on to The One - then it's Zzap time)

Looking forward to seeing the old Shadow columns again - I think she was a looker back in the day. Defo married well too - wonder if still together?

He is on Linkedin - impressive CV, been in the business since 1985 and recently left Codemasters as CEO. Now President of Jagex (who are behind Runescape)

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 10:28 am
by Iain
Fiery Phoenix wrote:Actually going through all my old mags at the mo - leaving Zzap's until last (currently on to The One - then it's Zzap time)

Looking forward to seeing the old Shadow columns again - I think she was a looker back in the day. Defo married well too - wonder if still together?
The Shadow columns were interesting, doubt you'd get away with that type of stuff these days :(

I was reading trough all the Big Ks over the past while and was surprised to see the Shadow started off in that magazine!

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 4:22 pm
by PaulEMoz
And Gary Liddon was in Big K before ZZAP... hmmmm...

*scratches chin*

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:04 pm
by Iain
Indeed, although I'm pretty sure the Shadow was in issues before there was any mention of Gary and I only came across a handful of reviews by him, they didn't even mention him when doing a bio of the reviewers! :-o

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 12:22 pm
by Mayhem
Gary L joined Zzap!64 in issue... 6 or 7 I think?

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:59 pm
by Professor Brian Strain
Iain wrote:Indeed, although I'm pretty sure the Shadow was in issues before there was any mention of Gary and I only came across a handful of reviews by him, they didn't even mention him when doing a bio of the reviewers! :-o
But then it's not always a good indication. For example Robin Hogg wrote for ZZAP nearly a year before he formally joined. The body of the Mean City review in issue 31 was his, but he "joined" from issue 51...

Re: Lifes biggest regret: 1986 PCW show, Olympia

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 10:07 pm
by robin hogg
Professor Brian Strain wrote:
Iain wrote:Indeed, although I'm pretty sure the Shadow was in issues before there was any mention of Gary and I only came across a handful of reviews by him, they didn't even mention him when doing a bio of the reviewers! :-o
But then it's not always a good indication. For example Robin Hogg wrote for ZZAP nearly a year before he formally joined. The body of the Mean City review in issue 31 was his, but he "joined" from issue 51...
Apologies for resurrecting the thread. Mean City was my test review when I came to zzap for an interview for The Games Machine Steve and Julian were there and Ciaran. Jezza asked me to write a review of the game. They must have liked it as I got a job on The Games Machine. I think they liked me writing lots as it was easier for editors to remove words than add them.

I moved to Zzap with Stuart and Phil but was on TGM for a year or so as mentioned.