Computer Shopper - UK (2020-04)

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RETRO

IISSSUUEE 338866 |COMPUTER SHOPPER|AAPRRIILL 2200220

Again,thatbynomeansisadealbreaker,
andyetmorecouldhavebeendoneto
produceamoreperfectpackage,especially
givenTHEC64costs£110. An extrajoystick
wouldhaveallowedforinstanttwo-player
fun(theycost anextra£20)and aserial
port toconnectup afloppydrivewould
have beenalovely addition, although again
perhhaps appealling mainllytohharddcoreffans.

Thebundledgames couldbebetter,too,

especiallysincesomeoftheclassicsfrom

THEC64Minihavebeendropped,presumably

becauseRetroGames struggledtosecurea

licencethistimearound.

Witheffort, however,thismachine has

arguablythe greatestpotentialofthe

recent cropofreincarnated technology.

Thheffact youcancoddeinBasic usingthhe

keyboardisthekillerfeatureandtheone

thatwillhaveagoodnumberofpeople

reachingintotheirwallet.Youcanvisit

tinyurl.com/386retro1togetstartedon

programming.Itmayleadtomorenew

softwarebeingwritten,andeven help to

kickstart interest incoding among anew

generation,and that’s always goingtobe

agooddthhing.

Arcade Club Blackpool will
operateonthe same lines as the
existing two locations, offering
access to hundreds of gaming
cabinets forasingle-entry fee.
It means you don’t need to go
armed with apocketful of
10-pence pieces in order to
playclassics such as Pong
from 1972 and others from
Namco,Segaand Atari. Modern
games will also be available.
The arcade will
occupyaformer
casino next to
Blackpool
Football Club’s
stadium,
Bloomfield Road.
Keep an eyeon
arcadeclub.co.ukfor
the latest news, and watch out
toofor PlayExpo Blackpool
(www.playexpoblackpool.com),
which is bound to make areturn
to the Norcalympia Exhibition
Centre this year.

ROYALMAIL’S

GOTGAMING

HISTORY LICKED

Acouple of years ago (and
somewhat bizarrely), Nintendo
Switch owners were complaining

that the console’s cartridges

tasted terrible.The advice was

obviously not to lick them, and

the same can be said forthe

RoyalMail’s latest release: aset

of 12 stamps celebrating British

videogame history,which most

gamers will want to buy to keep.

Drawing inspiration from the

1980s and 1990s, the stamps

include screenshots of

Lemmings, Elite, Dizzy,Populous,

Sensible Soccer,Wipeout,

Worms and Micro Machines,

each chosen with the help of

the gaming trade body Ukie.

Afurther four are dedicated to

Tomb Raider,the game that

originated in Derbyand made

adigital star of Lara Croft.

Indeed, the city’s inner ring road

is called Lara CroftWay.

As always with such issues,

the RoyalMailhas many

different ways forpeople to

buy the sets, including a

presentation pack for£14.25

and aframed collection for£30.

Theycan be bought online (see

tinyurl.com/386retro2)orby

popping intoaPost Office.

“Video games are akey part

of our cultural footprint and

we’re pleased to see their

contribution recognised in such

memorable style,” says Ukie

chiefexecutive Dr Jo Twist.

JOBS-SIGNEDFLOPPY

DISKSELLS FOR

THOUSANDS

A3.5in floppydisk containing

Macintosh Systems Tools 6.0

software doesn’t sound like

the most exciting item around.

But with SteveJobs’ signature

emblazoned across the front

label in black felt-tip pen, it was

valued at $7,500 when it was put

up forbidding at RR Auction.

In the end, it fetched a

staggering $84,000, mainly

because Jobs didn’t sign that

many autographs. “He was

known as areluctant signer,” the

description reads. “He often

declined to comply with the

requests of collectors.”

The sale was hot on the heels

of an original Apple

Macintosh –one

of the only

two surviving

prototypes –which

sold for$150,075.

This particular

machine had a

5.25in Twiggy double-sided

disk drive found in the doomed

Lisa, atype that proved so

unreliable that Jobs had the

fledgling machine’sdestroyed.

⬆Atool lets you view and load compatible files saved on to aUSB stick

⬆ThemachineletsyouchoosebetweentheC64andVIC20,andthere’san
optiontobootintoeitheronebydefault