DIGITISER
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ

ME AND DAVE PERRY; A TALE OF TWO GAMING VETERANS - by Mr Biffo

22/5/2017

23 Comments

 
Picture
I was meant to be at the 2016 Retro Revival, but you may recall that some days beforehand I got punched in the face by a random lunatic, and went blind in one eye for a month or so. When I was asked to attend the 2017 Revival, I was determined not to let the punching happen again. Mainly because it really, really hurt, and it was a massive inconvenience, and that.

Until I was invited to give a talk at Manchester's Play Expo a couple of years ago, I hadn't been to a games expo in decades. Working for Digi, I'd been to a bunch of European Computer Trade Shows, a few arcade industry conventions, but nothing as a bona-fide punter.

The last one I'd attended was held at Wembley Conference Centre in the early 90s. I remember that I bought a converter which allowed me to play NTSC games on my PAL Super NES, along with a copy of Smash TV (and then bent the pins in my SNES cartridge slot putting it in - and had to send it off for repair...).

What's weird, is that I probably could've done the same this past Saturday. As well as buy a Vectrex, a Neo Geo, an Amstrad CPC... But what was really odd for me, was picking up games packaging that - in some cases - I hadn't held in my hands for almost 30 years. It was weird because it wasn't weird; when it came to something like Revenge of Shinobi, I could've been plucking it off a shelf in my bedroom, having just played it the night before.

Well, I could've done had I ever actually put my games away on a shelf, rather than just scatter them across the floor like I always did...

​As well as the dealer stalls, Retro Revival, like other retro games events, was full of games that were free to play; arcade games (including a bunch I'd never seen before - hello, Fire Truck!?) and pinball machines (I can confirm that a Johnny Mnemonic pinball table exists), as well mouldering classic consoles and computers. Alas, despite some of my best lingering near one on Saturday, I've still never had a go on a Virtual Boy.

Arriving at Revival, almost the first face I saw was Dave Perry's... somebody I never thought I'd meet again...
Picture
DAAAAAVE
Dave Perry was being interviewed on camera as I walked into Banks's Stadium, Walsall. It was quite the coup for the organisers to get him there; he's been away from the world of gaming for some 18 years, having since carved - quite literally - a career as a tattoo artist. 

I never really knew Dave. Our paths crossed from time to time; we'd be at the same events, and he spent a while working as a PR person for THQ. And, of course, it was a Fat Sow story about him which led directly to Mr Hairs being asked to leave Digitiser.

Certainly, like most of you, I knew him more through his TV and magazine work. With his iconic bandana, he was one of the faces of 90s gaming in the UK, along with the likes of Dominik Diamond, Big Boy Barry, and my very good friend Violet Berlin.

A controversial figure, his bandana, his apparent confidence and arrogance - I never worked out whether it was real or a front - and his clever brand-building, brought Dave as much scorn as it did success.

It's probably fair to say that a lot of this stemmed from jealousy - here was one of us claiming, overtly cockily, to be the greatest gamer in the UK, dating celebrities and models, and being written about in magazines as one of the country's most eligible bachelors. Frankly, gamers are rarely less than snide, and here was somebody who seemed to almost enjoy being a target.

I can't remember specific instances, but given Digi's generally disrespectful tone, I'm sure we joined in the snideness. I kind of regret how some of Digitiser's popularity was built on that sort of cynicism.

ARTICLE OF FAITH
Weirdly, while trying - for the purposes of this piece - to find which magazine listed Dave as one of the country's most eligible bachelors (Company, if you're interested), I stumbled across an interview with him from 2007, in which I'm mentioned. Apparently, I'd taken exception in my old Edge column to an article he wrote for MCV - the games industry trade paper - about the representation of gaming on TV through celebrities and other "media icons".

I don't remember either piece, but Dave correctly stated that I was wrong. While I totally get why he once had a tendency to rub people up the wrong way, gaming needs people like Dave Perry. It benefits from those public faces.

Even if we do have to suffer them saying stuff like "I have always been way better looking than your average journo" and "I have found that just having an enormous knob has always been my greatest asset with the fairer sex..."

​We've got YouTubers, of course, but we've lost those go-to people and mouthpieces that the mainstream can access. It's something I could never have been back then - I'd always be too self-conscious, feeling too exposed if I displayed a need to be in the spotlight, too worried it might make me unlikeable... while secretly being a bit envious of those who simply didn't care about the grief that would inevitably bring them.

I mean, I don't give two flaps what anyone thinks of me now - you've got Found Footage as very clear evidence of that - but in the 90s, when having that sort of status and spotlight might've meant something to me, I wasn't equipped to pursue it.

Gaming has never had celebrities in the way that, say, TV and movies do. We don't have our stars. We need the Dave Perrys back, as Marmite as he might've been. The need for those gaming icons was very apparent on Saturday, when Dave donned his bandana and hosted a Golden Joystick games competition between members of the public. The crowd clearly loved it.

Having seen him as I entered the building on Saturday without the headgear - and then a short while afterwards walking past him in the gents - he was only tangentially recognisable. It made me realise how clever that bandana was, in terms of it being part of his public persona, and building his brand. It was notable, back in the day, that whenever I saw Dave in real life he wasn't wearing it.

Fair play to him that he kept it on for the remainder of the day, happily posing for pictures and chatting to people. He seemed to be in his element.
Picture
PANEL BEATING
​My panel went fine I think. It's hard to tell; being on a microphone, behind the speakers, can be a bit disorientating. The Found Footage clips seemed to go down okay. I don't think I said anything too iffy.

I'd been shunted to the end of the day, when most show attendees had already left, and given a 45 minute slot, compared to the hour everyone else got (though I'm sure we overran). Consequently, the audience was pretty sparse compared to the ones at Digifest and Play Expo, but I know my place. I'm not Rare, or Gremlin Graphics, or making a new ZX Spectrum. And I'm certainly not Dave "Gamesanimal" Perry.

I mean, I thought it was a bit strange in the first place that originally I'd been scheduled to be part of the same panel as him. Having never been the "face" of TV shows, nor one of the UK's most eligible bachelors, I've also been knocking around again for a couple of years now. I'm old news. Dave, I'm sure, has more to talk about than could fit into an hour-long panel - especially if he was sharing the microphone with a rambling gobshite like me. 

So when we got split up, and I was given my slot time... I wasn't enormously surprised. My main disappointment was that I thought it would've been interesting to do a panel with Dave because I've talked about the story of Digitiser so often now that I'm sure people are sick of it. I thought it might've given me something fresh to talk about.

Fortunately, my host - the excellent Paul Davies from the Retro Asylum podcast - knows this, and kept the Digi-related side of the proceedings fairly brisk... before segueing into talk of Found Footage.  
Picture
There's at least one enormous knob in this photo.
HEAD OFF
The official reason for Dave not being able to do a panel with me was because he needed to head off early. Suffice to say, when I turned around at the end of my panel to answer some questions from the audience, I nearly vomited up my own sternum when I saw Dave sat at the front, grinning.

I lost my thread, and suddenly worried that I might've already said something indelicate, or that - upon seeing him - my mouth might run away with itself; as I explained to the audience on Saturday, I have a terrible troll living inside me who has a tendency to go out of its way to get me into trouble. 

Afterwards, I made a point of saying hello to Dave. I figured, we're two old journos (though he's probably aged better than I have, and doubtless shares none of my profound phobia of gyms) who had taken our knocks in the games industry, had some time away to let those bruises fade, before returning and remembering why we were there in the first place. I wasn't letting him get away without a handshake.

I'd gotten the sense that getting to be the Gamesanimal again - if only for one day - meant a lot to him, in much the same way it did to me when you were all so nice about the return of Digi a couple of years back.

As it turned out, there was no catching up. We didn't really get to do more than pose for a couple of photos. He still has the slick polish of somebody who spent a long time in the media, whereas I - not least because I'm self-conscious of how much weight I've put on in the last couple of years (an irritating side-effect of being sickeningly happy and contented) - am as shambolic as I've always been. Shove a camera or microphone in my face and I act like a clown, whereas Dave, pro that he still is, knows how to pose and be composed.

I'm glad he came out of gaming retirement, if only for one day. I hope - for his sake - that he enjoyed himself enough to do more. Certainly, I think it'd be interesting to sit down for a beer with him and compare battle scars.

Being Mr Biffo again has been beyond rewarding for me. As I'm sure I've said many times, I'm hugely appreciative of your kindness, what it has led to for me, and how it has contributed to a stability and happiness (and waistline, cheers) I never really had in the years after I stopped writing Digitiser.

I feel I owe you all a massive debt of gratitude - whether you backed me on Patreon or Kickstarter, or just read this site regularly - and I hope some of that gratitude came across on Saturday.

​Also, it's directly your fault that this has happened:
23 Comments
Biscuits the oaf
22/5/2017 12:02:26 pm

Man, Dave 'not that one' Perry, and the Biffelator, all under one roof! I'm gutted I couldn't make it. Looking forward to Gamingmill's video review later

I take it Paul Davies refereed to himself as the 'Pez(zer) dispenser' before wheeling out the Pezmonster himself?

Reply
Mr Biffo
22/5/2017 12:20:18 pm

Alas, that didn't happen.

Reply
Clive Peppard
22/5/2017 12:14:15 pm

That pic of you and the gamesanimal looks like the beginning of the TV show we all know the world needs.

Slot Violet Berlin in the middle and we are go. (no offence to Paul(?) but diversity is a must and I like Violet, unless Emily Booth is available of course, she had an "impact" on me as a teenager)

I say this as i watched Go 8bit for the first time this week - it has possibility but it needs more personality and questions like "what happens when you do MarioKart in real life?" just think of that feature, every week a new game played in reality.

With Daves Bandana, your "specialness" and someone like Violets credibility its the magazine show we all need and want!

Also you're welcome ;)

Reply
Mr Biffo
22/5/2017 12:19:07 pm

Hah! No - the poor chap in the middle there was Tom, who was a member of the audience, and who kindly let me use his pic. I think a show with me, "Gamesanimal" and Violet would be highly entertaining car-crash TV.

Reply
David W
22/5/2017 01:12:24 pm

Do it in Found Footage.

Include the Xenoxxx mascot and you could call it "Bum Influence."

Tomston
22/5/2017 06:10:17 pm

I can only assume that Dave has some sort of soft spot for you (?) as he came to listen to the last 10 minutes of your talk. Was great to meet you and made all the more surreal by Dave turning up out of the blue.

Graham
22/5/2017 12:17:13 pm

Well i thoroughly enjoyed your talk. You have a splendidly irreverent and unassuming tone. And you burp a lot.

Reply
Mr Biffo
22/5/2017 12:19:58 pm

Cheers, Graham. Yeah, what is it with that burping? As I think I said, it happens on podcasts too. I think it's drinking and talking, and gulping down air what does it.

Reply
lilock3
22/5/2017 12:29:48 pm

I think it's safe to say a good time was head by all. Interesting that I've only ever back two projects on Kickstarter - Yooka-Laylee and Found Footage - and I got to see people involved in both of them giving talks back-to-back in the same room.

Hopefully next year you'll be giving a talk about how incredibly successful Found Footage was...

Reply
Super Bad Advice
22/5/2017 01:48:27 pm

Funnily enough, as I was leaving I saw Dave Perry taking off his bandana as he walked across the car park. On removing it he immediately withered and aged considerably, before retreating inside his pyramid.

Oh no hang on, that last bit was Mumm-Ra. He just went behind a building and I lost sight of him.

Reply
Pablo Watsoni
22/5/2017 04:28:45 pm

Haha. Good work!

Reply
DEAN
22/5/2017 02:20:36 pm

Gamin' 'as 'ad the likes of Julius 'Caesar' Rigmoral, Gary 'Pieces of Eight' Cutlass and Paulette 'Flowers' Primrose to name but a few (3).
Charlie Booker was once...

My pinot noir is that gamesiverse has had some pretty big names for itself. It's like sports personalities like Brian Bag or Sally Scrotes... I have no fucking idea who they are.... you know, like spacepeople like Chris Planetariumariumoh or Mandy Continuumumah.

Think about it and you'll see I missed your point almost entirely but it's too late now for that.

Reply
mrak
22/5/2017 03:09:18 pm

Say, what was your favourite Digi character again? It made me choke on my Oyster laughing but my brain seems to have farted it out again.

Reply
Mr Biffo
22/5/2017 03:16:21 pm

I think I settled on The Man - specifically referencing one of his adventures that I was asked to remove, in which he visited an ice cream factory and learned that ice cream was made by the workers pulling down their pants, sitting on a tray of fat, and farting...

Reply
mrak
22/5/2017 08:21:33 pm

Gihh, the memory cheats. I *meant* the character you mentioned that no-one else remembers. Can't... remember...

McDonalds genuinely does use that method to make its chocolate thickshakes though.

Mr Biffo
22/5/2017 08:23:56 pm

Oh! Puckles the Cuckold? Balls For Eyes? Onion Owl? One of them...

Phil
22/5/2017 08:17:18 pm

Unfortunately I missed your talk and Daves, I took my 10 year old son and he managed two minutes at the rare panel before he ran out past the games animal, riffling through £1 ps2 games was more appealing apparently?!? Clearly I've done something wrong.
We did walk past yourself at one point and I thought about saying hello and all that jazz but you seemed deep in an interesting conversation about houses so I thought I'd spare us both the awkward fan type gushing thing. Had a good time though, even beat an little girl in a king of the monsters tournament, on points by running away till the time ran out. Skills!

Reply
Mr Biffo
22/5/2017 08:24:44 pm

Awww, maaaaan. You should've lingered and said hello. It was nice getting to chat to people I know from here and on Twitter.

Reply
ASSMAN
22/5/2017 08:27:00 pm

Imagen Gamesmaster was modarn.

Dev Parry get ipad

Reply
King of Duckhenrys
22/5/2017 11:21:49 pm

Somehow, after reading such a good article full of self-reflection and deep insight, my main thought is how weird it is when people write "knob" with a k as a slang for penis.

"Knob" is a twisty control for opening a door or adjusting the volume of the MiniDIsc you are listening to.

"Nob" a synonym for a willy, and the correct term to describe people who's only topics of conversation is stuff that they own and where they have been on holiday.

Reply
DEAN
23/5/2017 01:02:30 am

That's interesting because I'd say with the K was right; I always cringe when I see it written without one.

Which of these is correct -
Nintendos Kyoto H.Q.
Nintendo's Kyoto H.Q.

Am I right in thinking that there would be no belonging apostrophe...
I think that's right but I hate the way it looks written down.

Reply
Jenii Tastic
23/5/2017 10:59:09 am

I really enjoyed your talk, even the windypops. Glad to hear you made a full recovery after last year!

Reply
Frank Chickens
23/5/2017 12:02:35 pm

It was good seeing you again on Saturday and enjoyed your talk later that afternoon. Seeing the latest batch of clips from Found Footage was a pleasant surprise - looking forward to seeing Manorak and the latest adventures of Sting on the completed series!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    This section will not be visible in live published website. Below are your current settings:


    Current Number Of Columns are = 2

    Expand Posts Area =

    Gap/Space Between Posts = 12px

    Blog Post Style = card

    Use of custom card colors instead of default colors = 1

    Blog Post Card Background Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Shadow Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Border Color = current color

    Publish the website and visit your blog page to see the results

    Picture
    Support Me on Ko-fi
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    RSS Feed Widget
    Picture

    Picture
    Tweets by @mrbiffo
    Picture
    Follow us on The Facebook

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ