| Gremlin |
GOD-EMPEROR of Ocean David Ward is relaunching the Imagine label under the name Imagine 84, to distinguish it from the other 83 versions which were current when the company folded, depending on which director you talked to.
In the complete absence of any gossip about St Bruce, here's a pic of the Holy One. Software houses with vacancies to fill, beware ... |
Guess who balding ex-hippy Ward hired to head the new venture? None other than Colin Stokes, who was drummed out of the old company following unsavoury allegations of treason. Colin joined the gaggle of businessmen at Software Projects who pander to the grossly decadent tastes of Matthew Smith, but for some reason became dissatisfied.
"I always wanted to join Ocean when I left Imagine," burbles Colin, "but it was not to be." He then waxed lyrically about the nostalgia of it all, until a peculiar buzzing sound rendered him inaudible. Probably a Gremlin on the line ...
But you shouldn't believe everything you hear about Ocean. Why, the other day it was suggested the whole caboodle, Ocean, US Gold and all was 96 percent owned by a shadowy intergalactic finance group run from Aldebaran. Is Ward a puppet of alien beings, or does he have green blood in his veins? Or is the whole thing a figment of a disgruntled distributor's imagination ... ?
The poor distributors may have a right to feel disgruntled, after the way they were conned over The Great Space Race. Legend's awful game was hyped into the stratosphere pre-Christmas, and the trade took a dive when it flopped. Most of the blame is laid at the door of Legend supremo John Peel. He it was who hired a country mansion last summer for several months and filled it up with Legend programmers. TGSR - written in glorious Basic - was the result ...
One man who can hardly be accused of hype is Paul 'hermit' Duffy of GOSH. Paul took over the general secretaryship from jovial, rotund Mike Johnston. At least Mike used to let people know what the Guild of Software Houses was up to, even when the answer was frequently 'nothing at all'. Duffy, one of the rats who left sinking ship Prism (who? ... Ed.) appears to have taken a vow of silence. In the four months of Duffy's tenure nary a single press release has winged our way. Mind you, if the Guild has any sense it probably made it a condition of Duffy's employment that he didn't open his mouth ...
That is not the case with Mike Howard of Buffer Micro, who has been boasting of his prowess at ejecting women from his shop. Howard claims to have thrown out one who complained about the porno pix stuck on the back wall of his Streatham emporium, saying, 'I bet she has hairy armpits.'
Caveman Howard should watch it. Quite apart from what his wife might have to say about it all, his comments are a bit rich coming from a man who used to prance about in public wearing a leotard, silk pantaloons and makeup. Or perhaps he wants to put his circus days behind him ...
Chunky Rod Evans of New Generation gives a lesson to squash star Jonah Barrington. The resulting confrontation led to Rod slipping a disc. Better stick to rubbish in future, Rod ... |
On then to Sir Clive, and his miserable little do at the London Hilton to launch the QL. Pressed on the small matter of Atari threatening to match his baby with its own 16-bit machine, he said "Jack Tramiel is a great guy, but he does have a habit of launching machines well before they are ready." Gasps of amazement from the assembled hacks, followed by furtive chuckles. "... as do we all, I suppose," continued Slugger, unperturbed ...
The show started at 5.00pm, but before we were all kicked out at seven there was just time to meet the lads from GST, who were showing off their new C-Compiler for the QL.
So paranoid are they that they insisted any journalists who wanted a copy for review should sign a form swearing they would be fair in what they wrote. Failure to comply meant paying the full whack for the software. "GST has the most outrageous combination of arrogance and incompetence of any company in Cambridge," confided a nameless source ...
Brazen Backslappers of the Month Award goes to Activision, producers of Ghostbusters. The publicity conscious yanks called round the Sinclair User offices to present editor Bill Scolding with a framed gold cassette, "in appreciation of your contribution to sales in excess of 250,000 units in the UK." The incorruptible Bill accepted in good grace, ignoring hoots of 'Bribe!' and staring modestly at his grubby corduroys. Considering Sinclair User only published a review in the March issue, it's hard to see what contribution it could have made to sales. Unless, of course it was the small matter of the December front cover ...
Congratulations to all involved with Soft-Aid for their great success in raising money for Ethiopia. Thanks too to Lee Guinty at Microdealer UK for a titbit about the package. It appears Commodore 64 owners have been experiencing problems trying to load the Band-Aid music track into their machines. Spectrum owners, according to Guinty, are not afflicted with the desire to digitise Bob Geldof's hit single. More confirmation that C64 lovers are the undisputed Sun readers of the microworld ...
Finally, thanks to Mikro-Gen for once again demonstrating excellent taste by sending us a promotional gift for the new game, Herbert's Dummy Run. It's a disposable nappy, with 'There's a Big One coming your way' printed on it in blue. The product is the message, as some wise adman once said ...
Chunky Rod Evans of New Generation gives a lesson to squash star Jonah Barrington. The resulting confrontation led to Rod slipping a disc. Better stick to rubbish in future, Rod ...
In the complete absence of any gossip about St Bruce, here's a pic of the Holy One. Software houses with vacancies to fill beware.
