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

NOT SEEN FOR 25 YEARS: MORE CLASSIC DIGI UNEARTHED!

18/1/2018

14 Comments

 
Picture
It's possible that the first ever Digitiser has been widely seen in recent times. Though by "widely" I mean  "a couple of thousand people". Still, there's a video of it up on YouTube, if you've missed it.

It's fine for what it is.

Here, though, is second edition of Digi ever - a sacred relic which has not been seen for more than 25 years - once again unearthed by teletext archeologist Jason Robertson.

I'm assuming we had most of the first week or so of Digitiser written before we went to air - though I don't quite remember - but there's a sense here that we're still trying to fill pages. 

As before, it's something of a jarring read if you're familiar with the later, more anarchic, tone that we adopted; no Man Diary, no reveal-ohs, silliness kept to a minimum... not even the charts are in place. Furthermore, there are a few wince-inducing moments for myself and Mr Hairs. But anyhow. That's okay. Do your reading of this now. Just start, please.

Huge thanks on behalf of us and Jason to @amylrob1863 for supplying the tape upon which this important historical artefact was splayed.
Picture
Picture
As with the edition of Digitiser that we showcased last week - day 10 - this one is from a Sunday. Therefore, it features Digi's early weekend line-up, which rather differs from what was established later. The Hot Topic is absent, there's no Old Game: Here, and no round-up.

However, it does give us Digi's first ever feature - a report on our trip to the long-gone Legend Quest Virtual Reality centre in "Nottingham".
Picture
Weirdly, I would've assumed that Tim and I visited Legend Quest some time after Digi launched, but clearly we must've gone at the arse-end of 1992, before Teletext went to air. I do know that it was a full day out of the office, which was nice, and no doubt justified by having a juicy feature to run in Digi's first week.

VR was in its first bloom back then, though by no means universally understood, and I recall being excited to try it. I'd had turns on the Virtuality games in arcades, and been more confused than impressed, but the slower pace of Legend Quest worked well.

No idea what we were talking about by mentioning "sad pseudo-VR 3D console games" here - perhaps it's a reference to the Super NES Mode 7 effect. Also, how ironic that we should implore people to remove the cardboard boxes from their heads, given the ubiquity of Google Cardboard headsets in the modern VR market.
Picture
Legend Quest kindly gave us a VHS of our adventure, which sadly I no longer have. Also, Tim's car broke down on the way back from Nottingham, which was highly entertaining. 
Picture
£4 for 10 minutes? That was a LOT of money back then.
Picture
The bullet points are interesting. I believe that we were encouraged to use bullet points in the official Teletext style guide. As with most things we were told to do, it's a practice that we soon started ignoring.
Picture
Sorry, people who hate talking on the telephone: no websites back then.
Picture
So, Digi's first Game of the Week was a Motley Crue pinball sim. To be fair to us, having given ourselves the impossible task of finding a Game of the Week every week - something we swiftly dropped - there were slim pickings in January 1993. It's quite the claim that it was addictive as Tetris.

And £39.99?! For pinball?!
Picture
5/5 for gameplay there. I'm certain that was deserved...
Picture
Fact: Smash TV was the first import game I ever played on my Super NES. I picked it up at a games fair in Wembley, along with an NTSC-PAL converter. I bent the pins in my SNES plugging it in the first time, and had to send it off to Nintendo to be fixed. I think it took over a month to get back.
Picture
That last paragraph makes a clever joke, which suggests to me that - while the rest of the review was probably my handiwork - it was a Tim addition.
Picture
Picture
Just one letter on this weekend edition, and it's another made-up one, judging by the fact it's from a member of my own family. We were definitely receiving letters by this point, so I can only assume we'd prepared the letters pages in advance. 
Picture
This was definitely written by Tim. I know this because a) It's a PC review, and b) He makes a reference to Magpie presenter Susan Stranks. He's a few years older than me, and Magpie was just a little before my time....
Picture
Amusing that we're still at a point where we recommend a "sound card" as being essential to get the most out of a game. Anyhow. There you go. Digi Day 3. Let me know if you enjoy these peeks into the past as part of Digi's 25th anniversary year. A whole bunch more - from spanning the entirety of Digi's tenure - have recently been discovered...
If you have any old VHS tapes, from 1993-2003, please get in touch with Jason Robertson. They might contain old Digis, allowing us to "plug" the "gaps" in the oeuvre.
14 Comments
MENTALIST
18/1/2018 10:57:20 am

"If you've never heard of virtual reality, we would recommend you remove the *cardboard box* you've had over your head for the last year."

Of course I've heard of virtual reality, this cardboard box has a phone in it!

It's a big day for cardboard on here, isn't it?

Reply
MENTALIST
18/1/2018 10:58:51 am

Ah, shit, you did cover that gag, and I skimmed over it like an impatient fool.

Reply
RichardM
18/1/2018 11:24:46 am

Yeah, enjoying these. Interesting to see the proto-Digi style.

Reply
Glenn
18/1/2018 01:55:03 pm

Let me know if you enjoy these peeks into the past as part of Digi's 25th anniversary year?

I'm loving these walks down memory-lane

Reply
Starbuck
18/1/2018 10:07:52 pm

I agree with Len.

Reply
Paul
18/1/2018 02:17:51 pm

You could buy Revs 4 Tracks which gave you more tracks to "drive" around. How many? Well, 4 to be exact. I could never get around any of them at any decent speed. Revs was a bit poo, really.

Reply
Wiffo
18/1/2018 10:31:16 pm

Fantastic i love the commentary from yourself as well! Is this Digi day 2 or 3? The opening paragraph suggests day 2, contradicted by the final paragraph.

Reply
John Veness
19/1/2018 11:18:05 am

It's both day 2 *and* day 3, as it's the first weekend edition.

Reply
Grant Honey
18/1/2018 10:43:58 pm

Magnificent work and many kudos to Jason for

Reply
Grant Honey
18/1/2018 10:46:59 pm

...putting in the hours bringing it to us.

(Yeah I dropped my phone and accidentally fingered the submit button, what of it?)

Reply
John Veness
19/1/2018 11:22:12 am

Loving these articles, Biffo. I've long been wishing for a complete Digi archive, so interested by what else is unearthed, although I don't expect your commentary on every issue!

Fascinating how short the reviews were - just one and a half pages of text (one page of which, in the F1 review, wasn't even about that game!). How long did they get in the end - four or five pages?

Reply
John Legend
19/1/2018 07:18:26 pm

Yeah, I love reading these Mr B.

Just the look of the pages with the occasional word highlighted in green, and having the price given equal billing as the name of the game and platform it’s on, really takes me back to 1993.

Keep ‘em coming please.

Reply
Barrie Ellis link
13/2/2018 08:20:49 am

Love all this old stuff. That said "idiot mode" you would not get away with these days without a bollocking (hopefully).

Reply
Mathew H.
13/3/2018 12:54:34 am

Has the first instance of Mr T and his bins been archived?

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