Program - The Magazine Of The Home Computer Club

deadpan666

I found an old issue of the Home Computer Club magazine hidden away in a box, so I stuck it up on my blog...

Link!



Anybody else remember the club? I'd love to hear other people's experiences with it and what they thought about it! As I say on the blog, I remember it being particularly tricky to get them to stop sending stuff when you wanted to quit, but it was a great way to add to my games collection when it was getting trickier to find Speccy software out in the wild.....

Luny

Nice. Can we have a link to your blog and not just the image :)

Stefan Drissen

http://deadpanflookandtheblogofstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/program-magazine-of-home-computer-club.html

Timmy

Wow, this looks great! Never been able to be in that club but I always saw a lot of those ads in the magazines back then.

Always thought it was a nice club to join, but back then I didn't know about those games club policies...

Did you also seen "the top ten sellers"? Beverly Hills Cop, Moonwalker and Heroes of the Lance??? People were actually buying those???

deadpan666

Doh...thanks Stefan....thought that was the link to the blog!

Timmy wrote: »

Did you also seen "the top ten sellers"? Beverly Hills Cop, Moonwalker and Heroes of the Lance??? People were actually buying those???

Probably not.. they probably made up their own "Top Ten" based on stuff they couldn't shift!
:))

Luny

These club were early examples of immoral marketing ploys ;) Bit like certain Gyms, where it is really hard to leave.

Mark_C

deadpan666 wrote: »

I found an old issue of the Home Computer Club magazine hidden away in a box, so I stuck it up on my blog...

Amazing share deadpan666! I have fond (but fading) memories of this from back in the day. What was their hook again... choose 2 games for free, and then over the next few months you'd have to buy a few games at full price?

I'd love to find a list of what games the Home Computer Club sent out each month - the ones which were forced upon you unawares. ;) I definitely remember the Loopz Collection from the scan you did. 3D Construction Kit was another, which I think came with a VHS instructional video.

grey key

I thought it was 5 games the first time, If I remember right you could copy them and send them back within 4 weeks and refuse to join, I must have some of the adverts knocking around somewhere. They were printed leaflets that were inserted into computer mags, so there must be plenty knocking around.

ASH-II

deadpan666

Yeah, you got 3 games or so to start with, and then you had to purchase something like 5 or 7 games over the next year.....

Thanks for those other pics Ash, love to see this old stuff, which is why I post it! :)

1024MAK

Those flyers were in every computer magazine, every month!

grey key

1024MAK wrote: »

Those flyers were in every computer magazine, every month!

Good job ASH-II had the foresight to save one or two, no-one else posted the pictures even though we must still all have piles of them. It must have been the bookclubs that let you order 5 items.

1024MAK

To be fair, I classed them as junk mail and stored them appropriately :))

Dunny

If you joined you got two games free. Then you had to purchase games over the coming months - if you didn't, then you were sent (and billed for) the "Editor's Pick" which would be about £5 more than the games were worth. That's where they made their money.

grey key

Even if you did buy they often sent you the editors pick, hoping you would be too lazy to send it back, it happened a lot with the book clubs as well. I failed to order any books in the two years I was a member, they told me I owed a ton of money and that I had to choose 3 books immediately, I refused saying that there were none in that months catalogue I wanted. They sent me a new member leaflet and told me to choose 3 from that, they were all on special offer and I had no trouble picking them, I then cancelled my membership.

Maroc's Other Projection

I remember seeing those ads a lot and was tempted to join, but never did. I wonder how many people choose Supersoft's Cash Book as one of their three introductory offers?

I did join one of those book clubs through school (where I got into FF through Caverns of the Snow Witch).

Antiriad2097

Can't say I ever had any issues. I was a member for a few years and bought many Speccy & C64 games, usually at good prices. There'd be the odd issue where there wasn't something really great, or the price wasn't much of a saving, but overall it worked out pretty well. Never had anything sent that I didn't want, except on the odd occasion where I'd post my order too late (or forget) and I'd get editor's choice. When I returned these it was never a problem as long as I ordered what I did want.

The only thing I got that I didn't like was a C64 art package. Couldn't get on with the rectangular pixels at all and the tools just weren't a patch on OCP Art Studio on Spectrum. Never really used it and stuck with Art Studio that I'd borrow.

Was a member of one of the book clubs too. Again, worked out well since I used to read loads and had been through pretty much everything of interest in my local library, having read some of their stuff more than once.

grey key

c64 are you imagining things ?