Letters, Lloyd and conspiracies

Talk about the staff who used to work on the mag
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RohypnolSlag
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Letters, Lloyd and conspiracies

Post by RohypnolSlag »

Firstly, I'd just like to say that I've only just found this forum, and it's brought back all sorts of happy memories of getting all excited about computer games that took ten minutes to load and were for the most part completely shit.

When Zzap! was given a semi-facelift and filled with jokes that even I, as an eleven-year-old found rather tiresomely childish, Lloyd Mangram disappeared and was replaced with a ludicrous cartoon dominatrix.

When Commodore Force launched, the magazine claimed that Lloyd was back. I did not believe this, partly because the writing style was completely different to old Lloyd, and also because for the first few issues he was not credited in the front of the magazine. After I had written various indignant letters to the magazine his name did start appearing in the credits.

Am I barking up the wrong tree, or were we being lied to?
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Professor Brian Strain
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Post by Professor Brian Strain »

Don't ask me, I was locked in the cellars of ZZAP! Towers, never saw Lloyd. There was one time when a hand popped around the corner of my door and passed in some letters that had got into his in tray by mistake.



I am of course being sarcastic.
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Ian Osborne
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Post by Ian Osborne »

I'll let you into a secret. There never was a Lloyd Mangram - that's why he always had a bag over his head in photos. In the early days he was Roger Kean's alter ego, but several writers filled his non-existent shoes over the years. He was got rid of when Lucy Hickman took over the mag and filled it with innuendo, sending sales through the floor. This trend was reversed when Steve Shields became editor, and Lloyd was brought back, with Ms Whiplash marginalised and eventually killed off. If memory serves, LM returned before Zzap! became Commodore Force, though.

On the subject of tiresomely childish jokes, is your nickname supposed to be funny? :(
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Lloyd Mangram
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Post by Lloyd Mangram »

A secret? Hehe.
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.
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Iain
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Post by Iain »

Ian Osborne wrote:He was got rid of when Lucy Hickman took over the mag and filled it with innuendo, sending sales through the floor.
How badly did the sales fall? It's not suprising though, with a shrinking market and the mag turning into rubbish for a while. :(

A "dead dog" as the marketing term goes. A shrinking share of a shrinking market! :(
Ian Osborne wrote: If memory serves, LM returned before Zzap! became Commodore Force, though.
Nope, He definitely only returned in the first issue of C= Force. I remember the return being mentioned in the last issue of "Zzap"

Here's the proof! :)

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... azine=zzap
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Mort
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Post by Mort »

Also check out the Pilgrimage to Ludlow, this also has evidence that Lloyd did exist!

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/ludlow/index.html

:lol:
Where`s my screwdriver, need to replace another 6581 Sniff
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Ian Osborne
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Post by Ian Osborne »

Iain wrote:How badly did the sales fall? It's not suprising though, with a shrinking market and the mag turning into rubbish for a while. :(

A "dead dog" as the marketing term goes. A shrinking share of a shrinking market! :(
I can't remember exactly, but it was a pretty dramatic fall. Letters of complaint about the constant innuendo were coming in at a rate of one a day. Closing Zzap! and relaunching as Commodore Force was a direct result of this, and for a while, it worked - sales went up, until another change of editorial policy caused it to be filled with nostalgia, retrospectives and articles ripped off from previous issues.
Iain wrote:Nope, He definitely only returned in the first issue of C= Force. I remember the return being mentioned in the last issue of "Zzap"

Here's the proof! :)

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... azine=zzap
I stand corrected. :)
RohypnolSlag
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Post by RohypnolSlag »

Ian Osborne wrote: On the subject of tiresomely childish jokes, is your nickname supposed to be funny? :(
I came up with it once while I was drunk, and now it's stuck.

Cheers for the info Ian, I always enjoyed reading your articles and reviews.
knight_beat
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Post by knight_beat »

You can buy a Lloyd Mangram action figure. I don't know why he has a chain saw. I guess he needs it to cut his way through the mountain of letters.
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Ian Osborne
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Post by Ian Osborne »

RohypnolSlag wrote:
Ian Osborne wrote: On the subject of tiresomely childish jokes, is your nickname supposed to be funny? :(
I came up with it once while I was drunk, and now it's stuck.

Cheers for the info Ian, I always enjoyed reading your articles and reviews.
If you ask one of the moderators, they can change your nickname for you.

Cheers for the kind thoughts about my work :)
RohypnolSlag
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Post by RohypnolSlag »

Ian Osborne wrote:
RohypnolSlag wrote:
Ian Osborne wrote: On the subject of tiresomely childish jokes, is your nickname supposed to be funny? :(
I came up with it once while I was drunk, and now it's stuck.

Cheers for the info Ian, I always enjoyed reading your articles and reviews.
If you ask one of the moderators, they can change your nickname for you.

Cheers for the kind thoughts about my work :)
Oh no, I don't mean it's stuck on here. I mean that that is now the name that I use on all internet forums and so on. It is childish, but it still makes me laugh.

Remember, you're never alone with Rohypnol.
Nightfaery
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Post by Nightfaery »

Heh, I kinda guessed he wasn't real. But I remember when someone wrote in demanding why the tapes wouldn't work and would only produce this crackling sound. Lloyd was so flabbergasted Steve had to reply for him and explain you did not put the tapes in a stereo. It was very funny to read, them Red Herrings. *^_^* \m/
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Ian Osborne
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Post by Ian Osborne »

Folkie Faery wrote:Heh, I kinda guessed he wasn't real. But I remember when someone wrote in demanding why the tapes wouldn't work and would only produce this crackling sound. Lloyd was so flabbergasted Steve had to reply for him and explain you did not put the tapes in a stereo. It was very funny to read, them Red Herrings. *^_^* \m/
I remember it well - I wrote the reply as Lloyd for that one, with Steve adding his comments afterwards at the editing stage.

We once had a megatape returned to us as it contained hymns instead of games. We thought it was a fake at first, and that the reader had recorded the hymns himself, but when we compared the tape with a 'proper' megatape from that issue, they were different lengths. Perhaps it was a genuine reproduction error after all...
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