Atari memories (well, UK, anyway)

[ilaskey]

If anyone is remotely interested, I just stuck up an old article I wrote some years ago about my early experiences as an Atari owner. If you remember Maplins in Southend (and I know a few of you do from previous discussions here) it may ring a bell or two.

 

In The Beginning - Atari Memories

[adamb2k5]

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

[Mclaneinc]

Yes I know Maplins well, I worked for them

 

Not at Southend but I knew their staff well.

 

Yours is a similar story to mine, very similar in fact.

 

First machine was a ZX80, then an 81, and then a VIC20 but it was my brother who I have to thank for the Atari, he had left the family when we lived in Belfast to go to Uni in Manchester, he was the brainy one of the family. We lost contact for many many years then one night at the Empire Leicester Square watching Bladerunner with my girlfriend (to soon become wife) when I noticed the bloke next to me looked a bit familiar, I kept thinking and clearly he thought the same but we both watched the film but as it finished and we started leaving I went up to him and said "I know you, Martin?".

 

And so we were reunited as brothers, he was now living in East London as were we at the time so I arranged for him to come and see his mum after all these years, it was a fun time, I went around to his place and sat on the floor was an Atari 400 with Star Raiders on it, it was love at first sight, the Vic20 was relegated to the back room.

 

I had to have one and this is where our stories sort of meet, my Wife as she had now become worked for Barclays in a senior capacity and I wanted to get a credit card so I was packed off to meet her manager who after what I found out was a Masonic handshake fast tracked me a card, not just an ordinary Barclaycard, a staff card...

 

The world of credit was at my fingertips.

 

Off I went and got my Atari, I then discovered Maplin in Hammersmith as I had moved to West London by then, oh it was a shop of dreams, Atari's everywhere, software, hardware..I was in sheer heaven. It was around that time I visited my shrine of Atari-ness, Silica shop, the shop was simply a treasure trove, I'd come home from there almost floating, my wife however found computers boring so I don't think she had my same feelings

 

And from there I learned loads about the Atari, was offered a job at Maplins as tech sales for the Atari range and met loads of Atari legends.

 

Sadly Maplins were USELESS at buying and managing the stock, one guy was in charge of the computer side down in Rayleigh at the head office, he was clueless, we stocked machines that NO ONE brought like Sord M5's etc, they just got anything that resembled a computer and stocked it. The other problem was that Ron wasn't a gamer or even an Atari owner, he was just a piss poor sales manager, he brought dead stock in container loads, we had so many copies of Temple of Apshai on disc I eneded up taking 3 massive boxes of them home to use as blanks.

 

Sadly he had brought these stock 'bargains' long after they had been out and no one wanted them at his prices.

 

God the rows I had....

 

Eventually the bubble burst at Maplin with computers, god knows where the stock went but it was totally unsaleable rubbish, the bin most likely!

 

Maplins then returned to its initial beginnings regarding electronic components and the like, its what they were good at and they expanded (too quickly), they two blokes who set up Maplin in their bedroom had become multi shop millionaires. I remained with Maplin as a deputy Manager and then as a Manager for another 10 years before they became utterly unbearable to work for.

 

Damn near killed me....

 

But, I have a lot to thank them for, I met people via the Atari who would help me in life, I helped publish games, I became a reviewer, learnt some electronics, but most of all it was the people I met there that opened new doors for me, all based on that lovely little atari.

Edited December 6, 2012 by Mclaneinc

[ilaskey]

No idea if it's true but someone did tell me that a couple of guys from Maplins used to go to the US every few weeks and fill suitcases with software and bring it back for sale. It's a pity software was so expensive back then. They did have a huge range though including that pantograph thing for tracing pics. ISTR the Saturday boy (wish I knew his name!) did a really nice rendition of the Star Raiders logo using it.

[ilaskey]

And then there was the infamous 'Mike's Computer Store' just down the road...

[Mclaneinc]

No idea if it's true but someone did tell me that a couple of guys from Maplins used to go to the US every few weeks and fill suitcases with software and bring it back for sale. It's a pity software was so expensive back then. They did have a huge range though including that pantograph thing for tracing pics. ISTR the Saturday boy (wish I knew his name!) did a really nice rendition of the Star Raiders logo using it.

 

Not heard that story myself, it certainly wasn't Ron, the only two who would have done that would have been Doug and Roger, the owners. Although I can't imagine Roger doing it Doug on the other hand would certainly do it. Roger was the well spoken nerd while Doug was the car salesman type, when he went on buying trips to Thailand you just knew he had a good time if you know what I mean.

 

We were stocked by AtariUK but I doubt there were any 'import rules' that there are now with official stockists, the idea of Doug sneaking through customs with a bulging suitcase fits

 

Half Atari stuff, half porn mags

[Mclaneinc]

And then there was the infamous 'Mike's Computer Store' just down the road...

 

Ah yes, good old Mike Wilding...The man who took a friend of mine to court for selling Ms Pacman on floppy via Exchange and Mart, the UK's first computer piracy court case. The irony here is that many things fell out of Atari Slough and said Mr Wilding and Kevin the guy who was taken to court by Atari actually knew each other well.

 

Lost track of Mike after Atari shut up shop, I think the shop went up the swanny too..

Edited December 6, 2012 by Mclaneinc

[Mclaneinc]

Its amazing just how close the pirate side on the Atari were with the officials, every one knew every one, one second I would be selling Archer Mclean his first disk drive and that evening talking / downloading from a certain Mr Rob C via modem.

 

Kevin the court case guy knew Rob, Kevin was also on good chatting terms with Mr Happy Backup, sort of ironic Kevin would later be involved in sales of the Lazer drive

Edited December 6, 2012 by Mclaneinc

[Mclaneinc]

Maplin was a good place to meet the famous both Atarians and celebs.

 

Adam Michael Billyard of Elektra glide fame used to pop in and show me his new games, really nice guy, Archer Mclean was a one time customer, Paul Daniels and his son Martin again were keen Atarians although the little sod made me believe HE wrote the magic adventure

 

Some of the Atari User guys would pop in for reference books, long way from Stockport but I got a reviewers job based on the reference book.

 

Others who crossed the maplin doors were

 

Tim Simenon aka Bomb the Bass, whose tune Megablast was sampled for use on the game Xenon 2: Megablast on the ST and Amiga. Tim used to come in and show us the latest music tech, again really nice guy.

 

Fergal Sharkey, a fellow country man of mine, Fergal was ultra cool and down to earth for a popstar, used to bring in his girlfriends who to say the least were HOT. Even me the geek dribbled..Really nice guy.

 

Nigel Havers, the smooth sod, bit of a snob in real life but ok,

 

Ralph Bates, English actor from many Hammer Horror films and most known at that time for Dear John, a comedy show. Nice bloke but walked around with Tee shirts with "I'm Ralph Bates" on them ?

 

Barry Morse, played the grey haired Prof. Victor Bergman on Space : 1999, really nice bloke.

 

Linford Christie, sportsman supreme, used to buy stuff for his nephew....Again, nice easy to chat to guy.

 

Lots of special effects people including the guy who did Highlanders effects, offered me a job as a trainee as I was so enthusiastic about film and effects, was just married so had to say no..(Too much travelling)

 

And the one bloke who didn't come in but fell head over heels just outside the shop: Christopher Reeve, I chased him down the road for an autograph but didn't catch up. I would have loved to have a chat with him, he was / is the comic book fans (guilty as charged) perfect Superman, chance casting but excellent.

 

So now you know why I liked my early days at Maplin, good times..

[carmel_andrews]

Sillica, just as good as maplins, unfortunately back in the day maplins were only based in hammersmith and i weren't gonna trek down that way when sillica were only 1/2 hours walk away in TCR (which was to consumer electronics what hamleys was to toys and games)

 

I also used to pop into pilot software (rathbone place, just by the w/e sorting office, now a CEX shop) and for those that remember, THE GAMES CENTRE. they had various branches in central london (i only remember the ones either end of oxford street) they were the ones with a green sign and black writing, also Virgin games centre which was previously called Palace games(run by the same company that owned palace software) in the middle of the eastern end of oxford street now called game, and it seems someone forgot to mention Dillons and Claude Gill bookshops, they had a fairly big computer games department (i think they also sold hardware as well)

 

Damn, i almost forgot...Laskey's in TCR and also near kensington high street and also Shekana (TCR) they did some Atari, lots of commodore but mostly import japanese and asian games systems like sega nintendo, nec before the official pal versions even existed

Edited December 6, 2012 by carmel_andrews

[atarigungfu]

If anyone is remotely interested, I just stuck up an old article I wrote some years ago about my early experiences as an Atari owner. If you remember Maplins in Southend (and I know a few of you do from previous discussions here) it may ring a bell or two.

 

In The Beginning - Atari Memories

 

Great stuff! Check out my tale of Atari terrorism ;o)

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/206193-laskys-atari-hack-grafton-centre-cambridge/

[Mclaneinc]

LOL...Nice story

 

The Kevin I mention in my posts was a sod for pranks and gadgetry, when we both worked for a company called Computerworld at their Walthamstow branch in East London Kevin had brought himself one of those funky new watches that worked as a remote control. Now Walthamstow Street Market is the longest market route in Europe so one night Kev decided to take his watch and find every shop that had a TV in that was on and change its channel and put it on full blast volume, he did this to every TV he could see down the whole high street.....LOTS of TV's

 

He also did it the next night....They learned to turn them off at the mains after that.

 

Nearly got him killed tho, he decided to keep turning the TV off in the pub where they were watching football.

 

He laughed a little too much and people started looking at him, it was time to go..

[Mclaneinc]

Bah, the TCR (Tottenham Court Road so people understand) Silica was rubbish compared to the Sidcup, they were desperate to try the business look so it was all suits and ties. It was like a hospital operating theatre, all clean and shiny but bland.

 

Noel was a good laugh, Eroll was a complete tool who had delusions of grandeur.

 

Splat or whatever he was called was an even bigger tool, running one of the UK's biggest pay to download BBS's and nicking the stock while stoned out of his skull. He thought he was like mafia yet was a geek..

 

Give me Sidcup every time..

 

As you see, everyone knew every one else on either side of the scene..

Edited December 6, 2012 by Mclaneinc

[carmel_andrews]

Only problem with sidcup was, they didn't really like you playing on the machines, the shop in TCR though didn't care much, noel and co were a good egg, i even challenged noel to a round of the very first game he programmed (sidewinder, disk version)

 

I think sillica went downhill after they moved out of lion house and when they started stocking commodore 64's and japanese games systems

Edited December 6, 2012 by carmel_andrews

[Mclaneinc]

Sidewinder is how I met Noel, John and co..

 

Was sent it by Atari User to review (it got a great score)

 

And I even did a hack of it called Raid over Libya with new levels..

 

The trouble with Silica TCR was that ind the end they were in competition with 99% of the shops all on the same road, everywhere did PC's, everywhere did Jap consoles, they were just barely lasting in one of the month expensive shopping roads in london, the rent must have been massive.

 

It also didn't help in the end that just as much was being sold out of the back door (literally) than the front. I heard from numerous people that you could ring up, place and order for your knock off stuff and go to the back of the shop and pick it up.

 

Very stupid...

[mimo]

Really enjoying the stories, keep them coming

[Mclaneinc]

Really enjoying the stories, keep them coming

 

I'd love to hear others stories, no matter how big or small they are all interesting..

[mimo]

I remember seeing my first Atari 800 computer in Mays of Leicester. At the time we had a zx81, so to see preppie! In glorious colour with the pokey music playing, well, I was hooked. Fortunately so was my mum, and that Christmas my 2 younger brothers received an Atari 400 and 410 , and my grandparents bought us a 14" Hitachi colour tv . We also got scram on cassette, preppie! Atari invaders and missile command.

 

I think that the whole of Leicestershire must have disliked the Mays brothers. You were only allowed a couple of minutes play time on any of the computers that were on display before you were told to buy something or leave the shop.

Funny that the employees hated them even more, and bootleg copies of games were pretty easy to come by.

 

Another source of backup software was one of my dads mates. He worked at Marconi Radar, on secret defence stuff. Marconi had a "computer club" which was basically a group of Atari owners dialing up the us bbs on company phone lines in their lunch hour and distributing the results I got a lot of US releases way before they were available in the UK, which used to really p off my mates. The computer club also did a nice line in memory upgrades and happy/ US doubler /lazer knockoffs. As well as making their own carts.

 

To bring things full circle, Mays had a clearout last year when they were downsizing, I bought a 130xe and the original 800 demonstrater that I had played on and been kicked off all those years ago. Mays shut down this year, god only knows how they kept open with what must have been the worlds worst customer service ever, the leopard never changed his spots

[sooty]

Nice thread, made me think about my first Atari that I got in October 1985 which was a 800xl and data recorder. It was one of the packs that Atari had on offer, I think to ship old stock, at 149GBP or something like that. Would have liked a 1050 but the pack was just to much money at that time. Got it from a place called Ladbrooke computers in Perston (UK) just up by the bus station, Guy who ran it was a real character but he had a lot of stock and was a good place to hang out.

Before getting the Atari I had one of the the first Dragon 32's which was a good if basic machine, but the 800xl was on a different plant and I never looked back as they say. Still have that orginal 800XL together with a few others now.

Edited December 7, 2012 by sooty

[TMR]

The Kevin I mention in my posts was a sod for pranks and gadgetry, when we both worked for a company called Computerworld at their Walthamstow branch in East London...

 

Slightly off-topic since it's not directly about Atari, but i remember coming to visit you two (for everyone else's benefit, i worked at the Canterbury branch of the same company) and, as i left to head off into London, the two of you stuck your heads around the door and shouted something like "and don't come back you thief" after me - in the middle of Walthamstow bloody market!

 

Atari stories... i got an 800XL at what i remember to be Christmas 1984 (it was £79.99 with a 1010 from Dixons so whichever year that stock dump happened'll be the right one - i had to take it back because it didn't work and get a swap out) after seeing one at a friend's house where two of the four brothers had saved up together for it. i think it was four shops in Canterbury had software on sale, but between them there was usually only twenty unique titles for the A8 and the majority were held by the two dedicated computer shops so that's where i went. There was absolutely nothing in the way of support after games software, so i had nobody to sell me a disk drive, nowhere locally selling dedicated Atari magazines and the odds of getting an assembler were close to zero so the machine code i'd learnt on the VIC 20 before getting the Atari sat idle for a year until i got a second hand C64 for £50.

 

One thing i remember from that time was winning a phone in competition; one of the dedicated shops had Bulletin 1000 (basically just rolling adverts for games with terrible voice overs that was shipped to subscribing stores on VHS) running on loop through a bracket-mounted telly in the corner of the software section and there was a "name the game" contest with three C64 games. i won second prize which was a tenner in software vouchers and used them to buy Hacker for my 800XL. That was probably my second favourite game after Elektraglide at the time. =-)

[Mclaneinc]

Lol...Yes, the "don't steal from here again" actually evolved at Maplins by myself, it was done to friends (including my much annoyed wife) at the 5pm mark as outside Maplins was the 206 bus stop and it was always crowded so guaranteed the maximum embarrassment to the victim.

 

Kevin who I worked with used to go to Maplins on a Saturday during the Atari early days and setup his Happy drive and run copies off for people, this was before i worked there as was stopped the second I did. He had a silver Atari jacket with a silver Atari sports bag and was known as Captain Alcan for some reason at the times.

 

Kev was what you would call and East End entrepreneur, if he could find something to make money off he was at it day and night.

 

He got a job with a certain well known arcade firm as an engineer, he got friendly with the tech staff and within a week had the running off 100's of Archiver chips on eproms from their stocks. Needless to say it was noticed and he was sacked but in that short period he had made a small fortune.

 

Me, I was never into the making money from software, and I say that truthfully, its not in my nature to steal or get into shady deals, if I wanted games I had them any time I wanted for free, ok I got some stuff long before it was out but working at Maplin meant I got to sample all the new releases anyway so either way I was sorted.

 

All the shops like Silica had their Captain Alcan copy supplier, in Silica in Sidcup it was a guy called Reg, he went there every Saturday and would wander up to people saying if they saw something they liked he could run it off for them for a price. Reg seemed a nice bloke, he would often ask to swap titles but underneath the nice bloke who laughed a lot was the fact he was an ex armed robber, a fact I discovered later and our paths stopped crossing at that point.

 

Carmel mentioned Software City which is now a Computer Exchange shop still going (I think, not been to the West End in many years), software city was their own worst enemy, it acted as a swapping club for the C64 scene and some Atari stuff, the shop would fill up on Saturdays and out came the drives with Fast Hackem and the same happened behind the counter.

 

They sold only a small portion of their stock while trading pirate copies openly in the shop, from a financial point it was suicide, naturally it folded in he end but they only had themselves to blame. I knew of another person later on at the time of the PSX's etc who used to sell copies from under the counter despite stocking the software themselves, it was open knowledge, even the Centresoft contacts knew what was going on but as far as I know they are still trading at the top of Walthamstow market to this day?

 

Sorry for straying off topic but its just the only way to relate just how related all the computer scenes were over the years, from the Atari to the C64 right up to the consoles there's always been group activity with many of the same names still in there from day one. And its still amazing just how so many knew of each other and how rumours spread like wild fire depending on your association with people.

 

I apparently was making a mint off of selling archivers and had a hand in the development of the Lazer boards, the fact that its all total nonsense that I can swear on my daughters life about meant nothing. As said I never got in to the whole thing financially EVER, I was more of a wannabe programmer and hacker who never quite had the brains for it, I more enjoyed being part of the industry, meeting the software devs, one or two I had got jobs at Domark, that was more my kick, I used to have peeps from Psygnosis and Travellers Tales at my house being naughty and breaking their NDA's telling me and showing me their stuff they were working on. No, they didn't give me the stuff it was a pure show only, they were friends.

 

Oh well, another little snippet on the old days, I'll never forget the Atari buzz, I was so into it in every way legally possible and really enjoyed the gaming and learning, the buzz of going of to Detail Dynamics and having them build me a custom multi switched OS for my XL, Dave from their was one of the guys who made the Computerhouse board for the Atari that Jon from there never paid them a penny for, him and Mike were Atari guru's, Mike was the most gifted programmer I'd seen and known as The Mole on the Atari, he cracked EA titles etc, just for fun, his main trade was as a Doctor, Dave was the electronics man and a nicer pair of people you could not meet.

 

I miss all that, I really really enjoyed my Atari days, it was new and super exciting..

 

 

EDIT: Just thought I should say that I'm not trying to make the shady side of the whole scene seem sort of romantic, theft is theft, simple as but in those days it was brand new, there was No F.A.C.T, Kevin was the UK's first ever pirate to be taken to court, no one knew what would happen, this was all down at the High Court in Central London, eventually it would end up with small fines, costs and a written agreement he would never copy of sell Atari software again.

 

To be honest the financial side of the coping side ie where people were making money via BBS systems etc seemed to more come in with the Atari ST and Amiga & PC, I don't even remember it being big on the C64, it was more copy parties where people met at a place and just swapped stuff, I don't think there was a selling side in a big way, I never saw one.

 

For the people I knew it was all just swapping, one of my friends was a BT engineer, he had a job one day at ZZapp Towers, (TMR will know who I mean straight away), it was the headquarters of Newsfields ZZapp 64 magazine which was HUGE on the C64, anyway Cos is there and he's a keen C64 bloke so they were showing him new titles they had in for review, Cos was a likeable BIG fit guy, most people were keen to get on with him because of his size so just as he's leaving a certain ULTRA well known C64 editor gives Cos a disk and says along the lines of enjoy.

 

When he gets home its a file called FishEggs, when he runs it, it turns out to be Delta on the C64 LONG before it was out in the shops, already cracked and crunched.

 

That is how matter a fact it all was then, not about cash, just spreading the goodness.

 

And I swear that is 100% true re ZZapp, I saw the disk and Cos was anything but a liar.

 

So, for those who feel otherwise re the chatter about piracy I apologise, its not my intention to make it sound ok, it wasn't ok then and is way out of control now, this was more of saying how the whole Atari thing started, not just the piracy the whole shebang, it was new and unique and I'd not have missed it for the world...

 

All I've said here and in previous posts is 100% true, there's no glossing or additions tacked on to make it sound more 'sexy' if you will, everything I've written happened as said, for better or worse.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Mclaneinc

[mimo]

"I miss all that, I really really enjoyed my Attari days, it was new and super exciting.. "

 

 

I think that is the reason a lot of us are here. Happy, simpler times.

[Mclaneinc]

"I miss all that, I really really enjoyed my Attari days, it was new and super exciting.. "

 

 

I think that is the reason a lot of us are here. Happy, simpler times.

 

Yes indeed, and we can say that we were there when it really all started....Very very happy times indeed..

[flashjazzcat]

Really enjoying these stories, and the general good-spiritedness of this thread. I wish I could say I'd been milling around these big computer stores back in the Eighties, but my first 65XE was a Christmas present bought from Dixons, circa 1987. I wanted one because my best mate had just got one, although it took him three or four tries to get something that worked. He'd been upgrading from an Atari 2600 (black plastic version), and his mother had ordered an XEGS (then just released) from the catalogue, and it was DOA. So they sent that back (not sure if there was another dead XEGS at this point), and his dad took him down to Currys or Dixons for a 65XE, which was also DOA. When his dad complained to the staff member in the shop upon returning that machine, the guy apparently said to him "Well, what do you expect for £100?" (or whatever the price was).

 

My 65XE and data recorder worked first time, fortunately, and I could finally type in some of those listings from my mate's Atari User magazines. I borrowed some cassette games, but it soon became apparent that games didn't really hold my attention much: it was programming that appealed. The newly released XF551 was on the shopping list for the following Christmas, along with SpartaDOS X soon after, at which point the 65XE died (probably because of the ingot PSU), and was replaced by another 65XE. There then followed a 128KB RAM upgrade, ICD Printer connection, and Star LC-10 printer. Happy times... Having struggled at school to reconcile the differences between Atari BASIC and BBC BASIC, I ended up (legitimately) doing my A-Level Computing Science project on the Atari, unsighted by the tutor but marked favourably on the basis of the development write-up and TBXL source listing. I did all my Eng. Lit. Uni assignments on the Atari, and it was still my main computer until my dad brought some battered old Win 3.1 286 PC into the house in 1999.

 

I remember a wonderful old store in South Shields called Gough's Electronics, which was the one-stop-shop for computer bits, joysticks, etc. It closed down a few years ago, and is sorely missed... really the last of its kind around here. There were bargain bins full of resistor kits (which I then had no need for), old ST/Amiga mice (I bought one which I'm now using with the GUI), etc, etc. Certainly the Internet killed that shop and many like it. I still order electronic parts from a guy in Shields when I can, and he once dropped them off at the house by hand when he was on his way to visit his mother.

Edited December 7, 2012 by flashjazzcat

[carmel_andrews]

Thats why i ain't really into all the modern gaming lark, it just isn't the same

 

point being is that the current crop of 'retailers' (or games shops as we knew them) just want to sell product x and get you out of the place (as quickly as you came in) so as to moving onto the next customer (so called 'production line selling/retailing')

 

That is the problem with the present crop of shops etc, they don't believe in retaining customers and they dont fully understand what they're selling

 

Whereas back in the day, whether it was maplins, sillica, ladbroke computing, mays or whatever, you knew you were going be looked after since you were a regular and they the people dealing with you were already users of that hardware or whatever, which basically meant 'they spoke your language and you spoke their language' and that basically made the sale or transaction that much easier and quicker and thats why we kept going back to those places, simply because they understood the customer and what they were wanting...the chances of them acting like the current crop of shops....not in my lifetime, perhaps the current crop of maplins, sillica, ladbroke computing, mays lookie likees might want to take a leaf out of that point in time