The Def Guide to Zzap!64

I saw this memories section and thought I'd just write my worst memory of the C64 - it'll be interesting to see if anyone else has had the same experience.

I was looking through some computer magazines to buy some games (mail order always being the cheapest) and found one whose name I forget. I phoned up to place an order with my Dad's VISA card, but the phone was engaged all the time. So I used the other form of payment as a cheque in the post.

I sent off £35 cheque, which was cashed.

Weeks went by, nothing.

Then I received a letter in the post that my money had been cashed but that the company would not send me the games I paid for.

I forget the exact details, but I received letters explaining that there was a meeting, and if they could fund the money I would get my games, or some such nonsense. I received letters like this from the company for what seemed like a few years after.

I phoned up the computer magazine and complained, they removed the advert. This advert had the cheapest games I could find around, so it may have been a con from the start.

By the sounds of it, the company liquidated. I worked for a company that did that well over two years back, and I still get letters from the liquidator.

My worst memory: Silver Wing Software, owned by a certain David Dewar. This was my first experience with PD disks, and I ordered (IIRC) five from them, three of which didn't work. My mum rang them and they more or less said 'tough' and that PD wasn't always expected to work, and blamed my hardware. Eventually they agreed to replace them, and they sent the _same_ disks back... They were all floppy, like bad 5.25 disks went, so I said to mum that they should send them with protection - the envelope had had _none_. The idiots then sent the same disks back again, this time with bits of tape covering the erase notches... Idiots.

Needless to say that I never shopped from SWS ever again, and luckily found Kenz's BZPD shortly afterwards, which had rather better service, to say the least.

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http://www.craiggrannell.com | http://www.projectnoise.co.uk

Liquidation in fact sounds like it was the case. Still not very nice to cash my cheque when they knew it was happening.

Speaking of dodgy discs. There's another bad memory I have, but from my Amiga days.

I went to buy some blank discs from my local computer store and when I got them home they were really poorly made. The plastic was a bright blue and looked really cheap. When I tried to format them my suspicions were correct the discs were crap.

I took them back a few days later, there was a round ginger headed man in the shop. I explained that I tried to format them and that they did not work, came up with errors. He asked how I had formatted them ... using Workbench 1.3 I say. He says no what I mean is low level format or dos format.

I don't think what he was asking me was possible. Still I had my refund, and on leaving the shop - the aforementioned man shouted

"These discs have been damaged because you tried to Pirate games"

I'm not sure I heard him correctly it didn't make sense... still I had my money, went to Argos and picked up a pack of 10 good quality 3.5" discs.


Hurray for Argos!

Was that mail order firm Castle Software? they took lots of orders and ran with the money IIRC

If you are referring to my post Iain, Castle Software sounds familiar, but the most prominent thing that stands out is that the advert was mostly yellow.

This ring any bells??

Don't think it was yellow, it was just a page full of text really, with high discounts on games. I remember either before or after it, another company advertising with a very similar looking ad... :-I

There was a small highstreet chain/mail order firm called Castle Computers based near me that wound up - although that was the early nineties Amiga Days so maybe too late?

I once sent a cheque for about 15 pounds to somewhere called 'Byte Back' I think. It was for SEUCK and after about 3 months got a letter saying it wasn't in stock and that I could wait or have my money back, I asked for my money back then after another two months called them and the tel no was disconnected so I guess they'd gone (never heard from the liquidators though).
You'd think even if you company was going down the pan you wouldn't have to resort to just stealing money from kids. Bunch of shit ringers

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http://www.mastertronic.net

A lot of those mail-oder companies from the 80's went bust - Probbaly due to
a) Over-ordering of stock
b) Trying to undercut the competiton
c) Software houses failing to meet release dates

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Contributor to Def Tribute to ZZAP!
Compilation64 - http://compilation64.zzap64.co.uk/
Crazy about the C64? - www.lemon64.com
Amiga Anguish? - www.lemonamiga.com

speaking of worst memories:
My worst memorie of the c64 era was definitely the tapedeck!
Troubles, troubles, troubles...
The frustration of those 'load errors', aargh!
My brother and I were always busy tweeking the head with these little screwdrivers or even putting the tapedeck upside down to get the games to load...
...until we got our 1571 naturally Oh boy, was I happy!

edit:
Oh, I see I'm horribly off-topic. I thought I was in the general c64 part, duh!

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Once again I emerge from beneath a massive pile of paper which makes my desk groan to bring you the world’s most amazing posts.

my worst memory of c64 was when my friends dad bought him a new game.. we excitedly waited for it to lode<< i cant remember what the game was called ( black tiger mabey? NOT BLACK KNIGHT ) anyway as soon as the game started and we all breathed in in amasement at the new game it crashed... the disks would never load again.. ruind... why,.,.. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY> NOOoooooooo

one of my worst memories was that once i read an article in commodore user in 1988 on methods of soft reseting the c64. i tried the simplest one which is the good old untrusty paperclip method. it involved bending the paperclip and putting one end on pin 1 and the other end on pin 3 in the user port (or was it pin 3 and 5).
well it worked until one day curiosity got the better of me and like a total numbskull i thought to myself 'duhhh, what will happen if i touch other pins with this paperclip?', like as if it could suddenly crank it up to emulate the c128 or something lol.
obviously the next thing i heard & saw was a loud bang and a big puff of smoke. it costed me about £30 in repair bills. i wrote to commodore user admitting my foolishness and it got printed in the letters page with the reply that 'it'll teach you and after all we did tell you'.
DOH! the humiliation.
baz

another memory was that i eventually sold my c64, diskdrive, printer, 500 odd games, all my zzaps & other mags etc etc to an undesirable for about £80, i was desperate for the cash as i recently moved. he was my flatmates dad so i let him pay it off gradually, i only recieved around £25 of it and never got the rest, he made out it wasn't working (i knew it was), i never saw him nor the c64 again.
dang i was far too trusting and naive back then but we live and learn.
baz

well my coolest memory just happened to me as I finally got my X1541cable up and running!
yeaaaaaaaaah! more than 1000 disks waiting to get transfered to pc! at last!

(well just wanted to share that with ya'll )

cheers and g'night!

No chance of you tracking him down and 'buying' it back for £25?

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http://www.mastertronic.net

i have as much chance of that now than zzap making it to issue 109, let alone 108.
baz