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MY STORY |
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Back in 1983 after seeing my friends Atari VCS 2600 I knew it was time for me
to move into the world of computer consoles. This is when I saw the Philips G7000 in the local Argos priced up at the
grand sum of £99.99 easily a full weeks wages for my dad and I had no income
whatsoever as I would have been around the age of thirteen. The keyboard and Programmer cartridge no9 would be my means of convincing them this was a wise buy as I had just started studying computers at school on the commodore pet machines. Now of course I didn't get the no9 Cartridge straight away, I'm not exactly sure which my first PAC was, it was either 34 Satellite Attack, 22 Space Monster or 44 Crazy Chase. I suspect 34. The above photo shows me wearing my Bruce Lee style all black ghetup, a pair of RE-ACTOLITE RAPIDE prescription glasses, 2 volumes of my UNEXPLAINED weekly in the background, yes I was that 80s Child. My console actually broke after about three months, I didn't actually get it from Argos in the long run, it was bought from my local Toymaster as a Christmas gift. It broke because I discovered a neat trick with PAC no 1. Race/Spinout (did anyone ever actually play cryptogram ???), by starting the game, removing the cart and re-inserting it, the walls disappeared and you could wiz around in a wraparound world. Head down in shame we took it back to the shop denying any abuse of the system, and after about 2 weeks they replaced it. Anyway as time went by, my collection grew including, 9 Programmer, Those listed above, Turtles and Quest for the Rings. A must have as I was a huge Dungeons and Dragons fan, and Tolkien fiend.
Now Please someone put me out of my misery on this question of "QFTR".. when I got it, it (i am sure) came in a sleeve that slid over the outer box, yet I have never since seen it with this outer cover despite years of search on EBAY etc... does anyone else remember this ??? Question has now been answered, yes there were some sleeves that went over the QFTR So getting back to my story... time passed and I moved away from the G7000 when I then proved (to my means) that it was no good for education and that I really needed a Commodore VC-20.. My console... god knows went where, my cartridges, I leant them to friends who never returned.. and the G7000 was lost in the mists of time.. THREE YEARS LATER Until about 1989 now a 21 year old stud and fond of my car boot sales I came across two copies of ATLANTIS by Imagic, nostalgia filled my proboscis, and I bought them for the hell of it at £1 each as I remembered back when I was younger looking at adverts in my magazines proclaiming that these games from manufacturers such as parker and imagic were going to start a release of G7000 compatible games. with adverts to tempt like Tutankham & Spiderman I moved away from the G7000 in about 1986 before they ever did, and knowing that I could probably pick an old console up for under a tenner, I decided to buy them. Of course they sat on shelves and never did get opened, then I moved house and left them behind, but always I had a soft spot for the G7000. (damn two factory sealed rares frittered away) MOVE ON ANOTHER 14 YEARS 2003 I start dabbling in dealing retro stuff on EBAY, as I am still an avid car boot'r, and while browsing I decide to see if the old console holds much value today as I knew the VCS and others did as I had sold a couple, and I was disappointed to find that generally they didn't, but the odd cartridge held a few pound, then when I delved more into it I found that the VIDEOPAC range of items could be the most perfect thing in the world to collect as prices ranged from a couple of quid, to silly money, it was quantifiable in that there was a fixed amount of cartridges to be gained, but there was always the items that you may stumble upon that would be classed as "holy grail". more so my interest in the console as a child meant I knew the subject and what to look for.. My hobby began.
Chopper Pic... Just wanted to include that icon of the time. |
