Oolite Bulletins

I'd like you to take a trip with me down amnesia lane...

In mid-1984, I gave some 'Matchbox' and 'Corgi' cars to a family friend who needed them for an educational project that he was working on. Knowing that I was about to buy my first home computer (I can still remember the smell of that rubber keyboard), this family friend bought me a computer magazine and a couple of C-15 cassettes as a 'thank you'. The magazine was issue number 2 of a title called 'Big K'.



I liked it and I continued to buy the monthly magazine until it folded a year after its first issue. The 11 copies that I'd bought were eventually pushed into the loft and forgotten about. I don't know what eventually happened to them. I moved out, and my father moved house, and I would guess that they were disposed of.

Then, a couple of years ago, I remembered those old magazines and wondered if there were any old copies floating around on eBay for a pound or two. Didn't find any. Kept Googling, and discovered that they were considered rather rare and valuable. In fact, they were changing hands for about £50 per magazine.

The 3 stages of my face as I discovered this:

Anyway, I wasn't looking for them to see how much they would have been worth if I'd kept them. I just wanted a nostalgic flick through to see all the stuff that I used to pore over.

For some unknown reason, I tried googling "Big K" again the other night, and guess what? Some wonderful soul has slapped their own collection of Big K magazines onto the scanner and uploaded the jpegs onto the information super-traffic-jam! Yipee!!! So if you also remember Big K, or just want to travel back to 1984, here's the links...

Issue 1:
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... igk&page=1

Issue 2:
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... igk&page=1

Issue 3:
http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... igk&page=1

(You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out what to change in the URL to get each issue and page number...)

Honestly don't remember it! I had Zzap 64 from issue 3 onwards and the first ever Commodore User is in my parent's loft somewhere...

Will have a look! Thanks for the links.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Honestly don't remember it! I had Zzap 64 from issue 3 onwards and the first ever Commodore User is in my parent's loft somewhere...

Don't worry DH, not many do! Like I say, it only lasted for 12 issues before folding. I liked it because it wasn't machine-specific, which 25 years later is great because it gives a fantastic overview of the whole "scene" back then.

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Will have a look! Thanks for the links.

You're welcome, DH!

As I was looking through some of the scanned pages, the name "Tony Tyler" kept popping up. Tony Tyler, Tony Tyler.... sounded strangely familiar.... so I checked Wikipedia. Of course it sounds familiar. Tony Tyler was a regular contributor to MacUser before his death in 2006. Never knew that he was the guy behind Big K though. We live and learn.

Okay, I just want to show you guys one leeetle page that brought a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye...

In the days before aggressive marketing and PC World, a computer shop looked like this...

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... azine=bigk

JohnnyBoy wrote:

Okay, I just want to show you guys one leeetle page that brought a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye...

In the days before aggressive marketing and PC World, a computer shop looked like this...

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... azine=bigk

Great picture. Those were the days.

I remember having lots of fun going into high street stores, strolling up to some computer on display and typing:

10 print “this shop is rubbish”
20 goto 10
run

Then I’d run away giggling thinking I’m a comic(and computer) genius.

JohnnyBoy wrote:

Okay, I just want to show you guys one leeetle page that brought a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye...

In the days before aggressive marketing and PC World, a computer shop looked like this...

http://www.zzap64.co.uk/cgi-bin/display ... azine=bigk

Cool - even my local Boots looked like that at one point in the early 1980s! Oh, happy days.

I remember big K! well i think i do, is there a fashion feature or something in issue 1, with crazy black & white clothes?
Incidently, i think that website with the scans on is run by a chap called 'mort' who posts here sometimes, a while back i bought their Computer & Videogames dvd, still haven't got around to reading it all but there're something mad like 200 issues on it or something - wonder how long that took to scan!

Azathoth wrote:

I remember having lots of fun going into high street stores, strolling up to some computer on display and typing:

10 print “this shop is rubbish”
20 goto 10
run

Then I’d run away giggling thinking I’m a comic(and computer) genius.

Yep, me too -- although it was usually something like "John is cool". Then, just as I was leaving the shop, I'd see a spotty teenage shop assistant go up to the machine, hit the 'break' key and clear the screen, probably for the umpteenth time that Saturday morning...

DaddyHoggy wrote:

Cool - even my local Boots looked like that at one point in the early 1980s! Oh, happy days.

Oh, Boots had the whole range -- Speccy, C64, CPC464, Electron, Oric Atmos -- and a good selection of horrendously overpriced printers.

Griff wrote:

I remember big K! well i think i do, is there a fashion feature or something in issue 1, with crazy black & white clothes?

Hmmm, not sure about that one, Griff. I think you may be getting confused with some publication aimed at "new romantics"....

Griff wrote:

...but there're something mad like 200 issues on it or something - wonder how long that took to scan!

Indeed. The guy's a star!

Azathoth wrote:

I remember having lots of fun going into high street stores, strolling up to some computer on display and typing:

10 print “this shop is rubbish”
20 goto 10
run

Then I’d run away giggling thinking I’m a comic(and computer) genius.

I used to do the same with

10 Print "Hughesy was here ";
20 Goto 10
RUN

on all the computers in Dixons. Then, 10 years later I got a job with the Dixons call centre and the thought did go through my head "Ooh, I wonder if they will remember..."

The fact that the two locations are 300 miles apart didn't occur to me...

Selezen wrote:

I used to do the same with

10 Print "Hughesy was here ";

Selezen, that little semi-colon at the end would have made much better use of a VDU's screen...

JohnnyBoy wrote:

Selezen wrote:

I used to do the same with

10 Print "Hughesy was here ";

Selezen, that little semi-colon at the end would have made much better use of a VDU's screen...

Yeh, I forgot about that. That’s really needed for onscreen chaos. Funny how my programming skills haven’t progressed one bit since those days. Perhaps we were the original computer spammers?

Azathoth wrote:

Perhaps we were the original computer spammers?

<quietly reaches for Barrett Light .50 sniping rifle, ammunition and keys to the clock tower>

Captain Hesperus

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Azathoth wrote:

Perhaps we were the original computer spammers?

<quietly reaches for Barrett Light .50 sniping rifle, ammunition and keys to the clock tower>

Captain Hesperus

Ssssooooo hungry <Eats brain>. This post was absolutely nessary!

FSOneblin