Mclaneinc Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Thought I had and yes, that would be the one, ta muchly.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 yea I'm a different emkay, just an unfortunate coincidence with similar forum names whilst we are reminiscing about old times, as a kid I used to get dragged along to the to the Lee Valley Atari users group whilst the oldies swapped games good to see this thread still has some legs, I'll give it a shameless bump Pass, never heard of that one, where exactly was it based (Lee Valley is a big area) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilaskey Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 (edited) Just been reading about Monitor Magazine having its origins in Maplin Southend (sic) and it mentioned Keith Mayhew. I have a vague feeling the Saturday guy was a Keith. Possibly him? Edited January 27, 2017 by ilaskey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Just been reading about Monitor Magazine having its origins in Maplin Southend (sic) and it mentioned Keith Mayhew. I have a vague feeling the Saturday guy was a Keith. Possibly him? Yes Monitor was the Maplin page 6, I think it was started by Roy, one of the engineers we had and spread. Yes, Keith Mayhew does ring a bell and yes he could have been that sat lad, all the mag stuff was handled at Maplin HQ at Hadleigh and it would have been easy for Keith to pass on any stuff for printing. For some reason I'm seeing a curly haired young lad with glasses as being Keith, most likely just a general ideal of young lads who programmed who were to be called nerds, forgot the rampant acne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilaskey Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Hi Ian, says I do not have permission to see it bigger.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilaskey Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Hi Ian, says I do not have permission to see it bigger.. Any better? Not uploaded a pic before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yes thanks... What show was that? PCW? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilaskey Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Don't know sorry, it was on the Maplin twitter feed, turned up when I was googling for something but I just got the picture, not the actual tweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
em_kay Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 another shameless bump, found another interesting magazine whilst clearing out old stuff Adventure International Software Catalog featuring DISKEY by Sparky Starks with Scott Adams seal of approval 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+slx Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 It's interesting that the ads for Diskey even lists the command set, making it easier to use pirated copies. Remember those ads all too well. Just to imagine that as a teenager I had all the time in the world to carefully pore over ads like these, reading through everything, imagining how I could use this stuff, while I now I waste my time spending too much of it in retrocomputing forums 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywalkeriom Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 I bought this from Maplin, I assume Mapsoft is Maplin, bought it through a post order. Around mid to late 80's. Paul, I bought my 16k 400 and copy of Star Raiders from Hammersmith Maplins, 81 or 82 I think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarxx Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Are those catalogs/magazines scanned anywhere? They are now . Last one has an Atari 400/800 review at the back. Maplin - The Amazing Atari Personal Computer.pdf Maplin - Software for the Atari Personal Computer.pdf Maplin - News - August to November 1982.pdf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 ram224.jpg I bought this from Maplin, I assume Mapsoft is Maplin, bought it through a post order. Around mid to late 80's. Paul, I bought my 16k 400 and copy of Star Raiders from Hammersmith Maplins, 81 or 82 I think. Sorry I'm late in, yes Mapsoft our best idea to name a software / hardware side.. If it was a young very thin incredibly handsome young man then it was me, if it had ginger hair it was either Peter or Dave..If he looked like a Freddie Mercury clone it was Martin the then manager. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Yes, Mikes secret was that it was known a lot of what dropped out of Atari did so because of him. The version of Ms Pacman that was on the disk which said other guy got done for was directly from inside Atari as one of their carts which was dumped and then rather stupidly sold on Exchange and Mart by the pirate who shall remain nameless (just in case ) although I think I have said his name or part of it before but I personally knew the guy a loong time as a friend. he was also the legendary Captain Alcan who pirated stuffed for sale in the Maplin shop in Hammersmith. The name comes from his aluminium type Atari jacket and hold all he carried his Happy in. Not sure of the young lad on Saturdays as you only had the managers and deputy managers ever meeting other shop staff unless you were really sad and spent your day off from Maplin at another branch... As for my shop being the place to be, perhaps if you were in London, we were the only decent retailer at that time but Silica shop Sidcup was my favourite Atari centre, can't say I liked their later shops in Tottenham Court Road but the guys were ok, Noel Daniel of Sidewinder and the Uridium clone (something fox) worked there as did a guy called Erol who wrote Foundations Waste on the ST, another Silica guy ran a huge Amiga pirate BBS... Old stuff I've mentioned before but as I've said before, its amazing how so many of us knew one another in one way or another....Closer than most folk realise... Interesting... If the people you're speaking of are the ones that I think you are, their pirate copies were also making it into Ireland. We had someone in the Atari Users' Group of Ireland with a connection to people in the UK, and he used to bring back stacks of disks every couple of months that he'd copied from them. Never met any of the people he was dealing with, but he did mention Maplin's as being where he got everything. We just wrote that off as a joke at the time, but it now makes more sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronWorks Posted March 25, 2018 Share Posted March 25, 2018 Bit late seeing this, had a rummage in an old ring binder. Amazing they had no 48k machine at launch but then look at the price! Interesting comparing this newsletter to the previously posted one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted March 26, 2018 Share Posted March 26, 2018 Interesting... If the people you're speaking of are the ones that I think you are, their pirate copies were also making it into Ireland. We had someone in the Atari Users' Group of Ireland with a connection to people in the UK, and he used to bring back stacks of disks every couple of months that he'd copied from them. Never met any of the people he was dealing with, but he did mention Maplin's as being where he got everything. We just wrote that off as a joke at the time, but it now makes more sense. Hmm...Are you sure it was London? The Birmingham branch were pretty in to it... As for as I know under my time there the only direct from Hammersmith shop seller was the Captain Alcan person who was not a staff member, he lost the ability to do all this when we changed the shop around. As far as I know none of the other staff were as 'connected' as myself but I never swapped anything directly from the shop as it was my place of work, I was young but not daft I was more about getting stuff, the few I swapped with ended up making the same connections so I just picked up my pile of floppies in the end, as I've always said, in those days it was a small world, every one knew every one in some way. I don't really want to glorify it all, it wasn't like a brand of Mafia and mobsters, 99.9% of the folk I'm talking about were very ordinary people, some geeks and spotty beggars, there were the bad lads also but again they were very ordinary people, one guy sold insurance for a living, I only ever knew one guy who made a killing out of it and he was like that all his life, where ever he could make cash he did. For me I just loved being part of both sides, I got the software early and got to sell and advise on the machines while meeting some of my hero's, what's not to like.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+x=usr(1536) Posted March 27, 2018 Share Posted March 27, 2018 Hmm...Are you sure it was London? The Birmingham branch were pretty in to it... In all honesty, I don't remember. And, being perfectly frank about it, I'm not certain that I ever did know. But the statement about getting the disks from Maplin's stuck in my head because we didn't have Maplin's in Ireland at the time. As for as I know under my time there the only direct from Hammersmith shop seller was the Captain Alcan person who was not a staff member, he lost the ability to do all this when we changed the shop around. As far as I know none of the other staff were as 'connected' as myself but I never swapped anything directly from the shop as it was my place of work, I was young but not daft I was more about getting stuff, the few I swapped with ended up making the same connections so I just picked up my pile of floppies in the end, as I've always said, in those days it was a small world, every one knew every one in some way. I don't really want to glorify it all, it wasn't like a brand of Mafia and mobsters, 99.9% of the folk I'm talking about were very ordinary people, some geeks and spotty beggars, there were the bad lads also but again they were very ordinary people, one guy sold insurance for a living, I only ever knew one guy who made a killing out of it and he was like that all his life, where ever he could make cash he did. For me I just loved being part of both sides, I got the software early and got to sell and advise on the machines while meeting some of my hero's, what's not to like.. That about gels with my memories of the time. Receiving bricks of disks in the post at school from the Continent and UK, then copying the hell out of them and uploading like mad to the local BBSes... That was a fun time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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