The Feature Cover-mount Politics

The Feature Cover-mount Politics

I was a bit upset when the last High street Speccy mag was shelved. It's clear that magazines can and do exist on less than YS's readership figures, but with no major advertiser behind the title, Future obviously just cut their losses and ran. Apart from Linda Barker's smile, I do miss those covertapes. There is no such thing as a 'free' covermount. The cost of materials and royalty fees to programmers (however nominal) all cost hard cash—added of course to the cover price. At first, cassettes came sello-taped to the mags with no library box or printed inlay. You'll be hard pressed to find these early tapes second-hand without bloody great rips across the label. And then things started getting serious; circulation war time! All three mags started packing the cassettes in a more pro manner (apart from SU's awful designs!). More and more software was packed onto each tape; classic games, naff games, demo versions of new releases and some ropey 'bedroom' generated games. I tried to ignore the Poke sections; were we really interested in the Pokers' social lives? Software pigs ELSPA stepped in to limit the amount of games per tape and then things started getting interesting! This in fact turned out to be a very positive move, we were offered more in the way of utilities, PD demos from the continent and yet more readers programs. A. Remic thrilled us all with his 'use the same code and graphics' lark for each title, Peking had us all hooked and SC's very own J. Cauldwell delivered several slabs of slick addictive fun. Egghead rules! With just the cassettes at hand acquired from boot fairs, it's been fun to play the games, wonder what keys do what and then lose badly—usually in that order. Good value for money though! Four to seven-ish programs on one tape for about 50p. Terribly collectable too seeing as they come with all those lovely dates and numbers on the spines - a dweeby gap fillers dream! (Yes, I am one). I was lucky enough to be able to afford all three mags every month but due to a lay-off in Speccy life-style I don't have much in the way of pre 1991. Anyone got a mag collection taking up valuable space in the attic? Crash went out in a blaze of glory, full colour mag on plush paper until it was swallowed up by SU (surely it would have been better the other way round). SU itself went out with a whine, cassettes returning to coverless stuck-ons (they must have searched for ages to find the cheapest naffest blanks). The last YS didn't have one at all but that's life I guess - a poke in the eye with a shitty stick. And didn't Linda look ill..