Own up: Book club style mail order clubs for games

[005AGIMA]

Sorry if this has been discussed before.

Own up if you subscribed to one of those Book club style mail order games subscriptions. (originally thought it was Special Reserve but I have been corrected)

I recall this is where eventually much of my collection came from.

They'd usually suck you in with a small A5 booklet or page advert in a computer magazine, promising great discounts on games.

BUT you had to sign up to a minimum of 12 months or something, and were contractually obliged to buy AT LEAST one game a month.

But the introductory prices looked SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!

Of course once you did sign up, the discounts were still there, but not as attractive, even by half.

Not to knock them. That's business.

Games were often advertised before they hit retail which was great, but of course you had to wait 28 days for delivery so actual receipt was close to retail launch much of the time, but still sometimes a few days in advance.

If nothing else, it forced my collection to grow, even if some months were a struggle for a paperboy lol.

I recall 3D Construction Kit was one of the games I was most happy with. As was Shoot-em-up construction kit. As both were reasonably priced.

On the other hand, I believe I have that subscription to blame for Outrun and Chase HQ lol.

Anyone else?

[spacey]

heh i subscribed to Special Reserve from the very early days.. i don't remember having to buy a game a month or anything. i originally joined for their adventure game mag, Confidential, which may have given me SR membership for free.

speaking of which, i'm in the process of scanning the Confidential mags i have, if anyone is interested:
http://ziggurat.co.nz/confidential

[Amigajay]

Think you are getting mixed up with those book style clubs which normally had a loose leaflet in tnhe middle of many Amiga magazines, Special Reserve was a Bi-monthly A4 mag that cost £6 a year which included 6 magazines with zero obligation to buy any games.

I first joined when the mag was called NRG (Energy) must have been around 1988/89 didnt have my Amiga then, joined because their console game prices were so much cheaper than anyone else, and being young it was exciting to be part of a games club of sorts.

[005AGIMA]

Originally Posted by Amigajay

Think you are getting mixed up with those book style clubs which normally had a loose leaflet in tnhe middle of many Amiga magazines, Special Reserve was a Bi-monthly A4 mag that cost £6 a year which included 6 magazines with zero obligation to buy any games.

Ah yeah you may be right. It was a book club style so maybe not special reserve?

I'll do some digging and have the title changed by a mod when I know what to call it lol

(or just start a new thread and have this one closed)

[005AGIMA]

ok edited my first post.

Can a mod rename this thread to:
Own up: Book club style mail order clubs for games

[DamienD]

Done.

[sneeker]

It was the Home computer club. My first amigas owner was a member for maybe a year, as in one of the games boxes I found some of his reciepts from them. They basically sent you the game of the month every month unless you chose something else and charged you full price for it, but when you first joined you could choose 3 games for about half price.

[Phantasm]

I was a member of something like this back in the 8 bit days.

IF you didnt make a game selection each month they'd automatically send you the default option for that month and it was always something quite expensive.

[005AGIMA]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Done.

Cheers mate

Originally Posted by sneeker

It was the Home computer club. My first amigas owner was a member for maybe a year, as in one of the games boxes I found some of his reciepts from them. They basically sent you the game of the month every month unless you chose something else and charged you full price for it, but when you first joined you could choose 3 games for about half price.

Originally Posted by Phantasm

I was a member of something like this back in the 8 bit days.

IF you didnt make a game selection each month they'd automatically send you the default option for that month and it was always something quite expensive.

Yeah that's right! That's how it worked! They sent you a game anyway! lol

It was a bit of a scam really as the intro offers were awesome, and never repeated once you joined up, but usually there was something worth picking each month.

I got out after a year too.

Sneeker, you dont have MY Amiga do you? lol
Probs not as I was in Kent lol.

I tell you what, it would be the thing of dreams to one day buy back MY original.

OMG could you imagine?

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by 005AGIMA

It was a bit of a scam really

I don't know if you can go that far, that's pretty much how mail order stuff worked back in the day.

Although a monthly push is very aggressive, I'm more accustomed to a quarterly one. The people who ran that service were in it for the quick buck and not the long haul, that's for sure.

[005AGIMA]

Originally Posted by gimbal

I don't know if you can go that far, that's pretty much how mail order stuff worked back in the day.

Although a monthly push is very aggressive, I'm more accustomed to a quarterly one. The people who ran that service were in it for the quick buck and not the long haul, that's for sure.

Yes scam is a little harsh as you did at least receive something in return.

I'll come down to "misleading"

As said, if nothing else, it made for a great excuse to keep buying games, because you had to lol.

[deladrevoc]

Yes, I subscribed for the Commodore 64. Outrun was one of the games I bought too, I really enjoyed it on the C64.


I did end up with a pile of software I didn't want though, as often there weren't any titles I actually liked in a given month - I think you were restricted to making a choice each month from the current booklet.


I seem to recall that coincidentally, game of the month was also usually the most expensive too!

[Paul_s]

Originally Posted by sneeker

It was the Home computer club. My first amigas owner was a member for maybe a year, as in one of the games boxes I found some of his reciepts from them. They basically sent you the game of the month every month unless you chose something else and charged you full price for it, but when you first joined you could choose 3 games for about half price.

I was a member of the Home Computer Club too. I think I have one of their catalogues in my archives.

Used to love receiving 'game of the month' but can't for the life of me remember what they were. Bought a few lemons too!

Ah, it was good in a way as every game was sent factory sealed instead of being open boxed when bought from a shop.

[Marchie]

I remember thumbing eagerly through Special Reserve...good times.