Burning bridge extinguished
I came by a little snippet of games-magazine history this week – via an unlikely route that needn't concern us here – and I just thought I'd share it for the historical record.
Atari ST Review was a magazine published by EMAP in 1992 and 1993, when after just 12 issues it was suddenly sold to Europress, leading to this editorial column in a suspiciously large typeface:
But alert readers might have noticed (from the slightly off alignment of the red border) that the column actually took the form of a hastily-applied sticker. Because that wasn't the editor's original leader.
And while posterity appears to have no recollection of the event, an inquisitive WoSLand source had in fact very carefully peeled the sticker off, applied a layer of protective cellophane to the gooey residue, and kept the issue for 25 years so that we could reveal it to you now.
Yes, in the belief that the magazine was going down with all hands, editor Vic Lennard had penned a splendidly excoriating attack on Atari and the spectacular corporate incompetence that would soon doom the company to one of its many ruinations. (Amiga Power readers will find his inability to secure a Falcon somewhat reminiscent of our own gruelling struggles to get hold of a CD32 from Commodore before I eventually stole one in exasperation.)
When Europress stepped in at the eleventh hour, the mighty broadside suddenly became something of a PR liability, so it was crudely obliterated (as was the style of the time, like when Crash had to physically cut out the pages of its biting Sinclair User satire) and, as far as we know, was never seen by anyone except our intrepid source until now.
Atari ST Review, incidentally, limped on for another two years under the Europress helm, when it was sold to Future Publishing during its brief period as an offshoot of Pearson, and absorbed into ST Format. Vic Lennard was still there, but his second and final sign-off was somewhat more Zen.
It's a quarter of a century late, but we salute you, Vic.
The magazine had closed, hence the scathing editorial, and THEN got sold to Europress a week later. Too late to reprint, I was forced to write a different editorial which was then stuck onto the page. The joys of coated paper stock – it was pealable! The rest is history…
IIRC, the magazine was traded for Crash, much to the chagrin of the Crash crew, who were stopped just short of a hundred issues. Crash was incorporated into Sinclair User, which was pretty unlucky for them. They had to deal with the fallout from the ridiculous, self defeating April Fool trick that was printed in the final issue of Crash.