Most liked posts in thread: The Retro Cards of Christmas

Ack, my pissed spider handwriting on show

As I said to you Andy, I'm not a card person but made the exception for your good selves as I would anyone on here..

Merry Xmas or Happy Holidays folks...

 

Something retrospectively EuphORIC came sliding through the Baz n Bev biome earlier, folks...





MANY THANKS, DAVE and VIRGINIA.

I categORICally deny that I am in any way addicted to ZAPs, PINGs etc from a certain little underdog machine.

I refute these allegations(!!)

 

David, andy can only read the word Oric, he won't notice

 

I'm making an effort this year to look at some independent local shops for Christmas presents. It's nice going in for a browse and the owners have been very helpful. I think they really appreciate any support just now.

 

Spectrum plus? Bah, you soft southerners. Up here we couldn't even afford a rubber key Spectrum. One year all me and my entire family had to eat for Christmas dinner was the membrane kebyoard from a ZX81 and even then it was in kit form.

 

We were so poor we had to beg Tesla to warm a wire up for us...

 

Yep, I wanted to send something to a pal in the Blue Ridge mountains as he sent us some sweatshirts but the postage as said by Andy was horrendous, the slightest bit of weight in anything doe to America and its an arm and a leg, and my kidneys...

I also expect big delays on parcels and post soon, the new variant makes it easier to spread and I suspect it also stays active on surfaces for longer as well. Who wants to handle parcels and post that is now very likely to have covid on.

 

Bev and Cindy sound similar

Cindy is like Sybil in Fawlty Towers when Basil has an interest, she totally ignores what he's getting excited about, carries on reading and just says a sarcastic "that's nice Basil".

Cindy just has zero interest in all this and has never liked computers especially the huge teletype ones they had in Barclays at first. She does not dislike my gear but its more in the way than it is loved with her

I have got her using a Kindle Firewire tablet which she uses for recipes but she's hardly a surfer and content with that.

But to be fair, she has supported me over the years if I've wanted something so she's a good sort all around.

 

A retro-card from the country of cheese, chocolate and... banks! is on its way to your HQ, Baz, I hope you will appreciate our effort. We have no familiarity with that English tradition of sending wishes for xmas holidays, but we surely did our best. I don't have other members' addresses, at the mo, so I cannot include you in my list. Even though it's still the beginning of December I wish you all a lot of good time with your dears and families, and with your beloved retro gear too!

 

Banks, I distantly remember those places from when I had money

 

Lots of overpriced coffee shops opening around my area. Look lovely but you need to take out a loan for a small latte!
My work base is in a 'nice respectable area' and even that has lost 3 charity shops from the small high street this year. You know something is up when charity shops start to go....

Bring back Tandy's and independent computer shops I say!

 

I agree with @nysavant. Little shops and small retail stores would save many jobs and favour distributed economy. For more than twenty years (more or less since the Internet invaded our lives) we have been witnessing a slow but inexorable concentration of economic power in the hands of multinationals and individual owners with large capital. And this is happening in every economic sector of our western society, including banks.

 

I know what you mean nysavant. Ann and I needed a small chest freezer, so of course looked at Currys and Argos, big mistake. Nothing in Argos to suit, and Currys, although advertising what we needed in our local branch had no stock. The girl assistant was very unhelpful, telling us to go to the branch in Grantham if we wanted it, so we left.

We then went to an independent on the high street and they were so helpful, they had just what we needed without all the hassle from Currys. I'll certainly be going there when we need to replace other white goods again.

 

Love that prose Andy, good read..

Oddly my daughter and I were chatting about the high street mess over Whatsapp this morning, we were chatting about the NEED to have those niche shops and the family ran shops, they make our high street the fun place it should be. I remember going in to PC World with Bob to get him a media player and not one member of staff had the time of day for us, Bob being Bob demanded the manager and suitably bollocked him before leaving. We went down the high street and he got one for 85.00 from a smaller shop but people who wanted to help.

Me and Serena were just saying how ghost town like some of the high streets had become, nothing sadder than a few grouped shops but boarded up for the rest of the high street. And yes, those blooming Latte shops, the cost is horrendous and for soo bloody little!!

I'm old school, I want a butchers, a bakers, a Woolworth, some independent TV / Hifi shops, a shop that sell curtains, a furniture place and yes, a charity shop or three, oh and a good old sweet shop, and chemist..

Basically i want my old high street back, with the merry bustle and the family atmosphere, its good for the head, good for the heart and just works...

The days when you walked in to the butchers, got a couple of chops and you called each other by your first names..

 

Lovely card David & Virginia, baz always appreciates anything Oric although there's a C64 in every pic from him now, perhaps he's heading to the dark side..

Baz you are my son!!

 

Hi, Al.
Richie put me in touch with some guys who do lots of those Zzap 64 and special Speccy Crash digi pdf type publications and to be honest, I've barely scratched the surface, so like you say - there must be heaps of good reading (and gaming) out there for me to catch up with.
I recall Robofruit Al being a major Sega Saturn fan so he might be able to chew the fat with you on that console (I once accompanied him to a retro fair in Leeds and he cut loose and snapped a bargain boxed Saturn up with accessories for approx £30-40).
As Paul mentioned a few weeks back, we will have to get another virtual meet online arranged and show off what tasty titbits we've been keeping busy with on the retro front and once more, wind back the years and recall Christmases past - when talk of Pandemic would be the title of a new game for the Commodore 64!
Have a giggle at this, if you haven't seen it yet, and all the best with that 6128 when it arrives.
Cheers, fella.

 

Dare not show my monster, Felix. Me and Serena have to give him a bath as he normally is black and white but the underside of him because he's long hair is yellow. He's too scruffy looking for a pic

As for puss in front of fire, that's the spirit, he / she is getting a bit long in the tooth, you can see like with mine all the greys on the back legs. Laid out flat is the order of the day in a nice warm place, that's what felix is doing as I type..And tonight he gets to see his mum, well Serena ...

 

Hey, just got this Chrimbo card in the post today - good old Alan Robofruit Robinson created this, fellas:





I've never seen that Atari Christmas Club retro art before but maybe you fellas have?

Anyway, that inverse Oric could be printed out and stuck on your neighbour's door, Paul - that would unnerve em!

 

Christmas day is almost upon us, so I thought I'd leave a card for all of you and your families here.



Merry Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year to all of you

 

The same to all from us lot but to almost wrap up this miserable year something strange happened, no not the just announced trade deal but KFC are releasing a games console, and its got a bit at the bottom to keep your food warm...

Late April fool, sadly no, its real....Seems quite powerful too...

 

It cost just under £40 to send presents to my other half in West Virginia. That was with UPS though and they did arrive within 3 days. She said it would have cost her double that to send mine using the same method :-o

Don't even get me started on the price of a 1st class stamp these days.....

 

I like the sign, might need to pick up something similar for the cave

 

By the way, here are some photos. I still have last year's card around too, I was going to show them together, but decided I was too lazy to bother searching for it now, it's stashed with some Atari manuals and stuff.

 

Did you give Bev a Telestrat history lesson?
Glad you enjoyed the card and thank you for ours as well mate

 

You're very welcome, mate.

Yeah, Bev is very good at retro micro model recognition and can now accurately identify "another heap of dust" from 20 yards!!

Her eyes kinda roll, a weary grimace appears and GAME OVER signs appear on her pupils - she lurves em, bud.

Keep em coming!!