My sister dug out an old photo that she thought i’d might like… (Click for fullsize)

Frank, his brother and little nephew

This is me on the left, with my eldest brother (on visit from Cyprus where he was posted in the Army) and my nephew.  My sister knows how much i’m into my retro gaming, and of course she spotted me holding up some magazines, which are Commodore Format’s.  What is sad is that I can date the photo because of the magazines… I had issues 11 and 12, which means it was August/September 1991.

I always remember that it was around the time I first discovered Commodore Format magazine after being heavily into Dizzy and going to buy sweets with my old next door neighbours, spotting that Terminator 2 issue (11) and buying that instead (I remember I was 20p short and had to run home and beg for an extra 20p!).  It had a tape on the cover with 2 full games (Pitfall 2 and Lightforce) and 2 demos (Switchblade and Over the net), a map of Fantasy World Dizzy which was unlike anything i’d seen before and loads of new game reviews.

I fell in love with the mag and the idea of a monthly games mag, and ended up going down my local paper shop every month at around 7am to get the latest issue.  At only £2.20 roughly, it was a great affordable way of getting new games, news and bits on a budget (Hearing the music to Pitfall 2 always takes me back to 1991 too and that time).  Only recently Retro Gamer magazine has given me back a bit of that joy from my youth (Though minus being very excited and anticipating what was going to be on next issue’s covermount).

The days of walking through the old disused coal yard to the papershop when it was just getting light, and desperately trying to read the mag and look at the tape contents…. ahhhh… memories!….

It’s sometimes its the simplest things in life which make you happy you know!