This was the only stand I have ever seen which worked on the brain-washing principle. It consisted of a few rows of chairs sat pointing at a large Archimedes World banner. You then sat in the chairs and stared at the swollen logo until it had become so firmly imprinted on your mind that you stood up and bought a copy. Or at least I think that was the theory...
12 Across: Acorn magazine with brain-washing stand. Hmm... difficult
Oi! You're facing the wrong way! It won't work!
It was quite good fun, actually. I sat in the chairs for a minute and I almost started to believe that I might want to buy Archimedes World... but luckily I snapped out of it fairly quickly.
The other exciting attraction to the stand (apart from the ability to buy lots of back issues), was the chance to engage in conversation with the editor of the magazine, David Watkins (pictured right, trying out the old brain-washing bit, although I wouldn't like to suggest that this was an essential requirement for working on the magazine...).
You could go and chat with various regular contributors to the magazine, including Mike Cook, who was happy to talk about everything from his projects to his regular attendance at pop concerts:
Paul Wheatley, PD page editor and occasional poster to comp.sys.acorn.games, was also there: As, of course, was Steve Turnbull, editor of Acorn User:
Hello!
One of the main features of the Acorn User stand was a stack of IDG's "For Dummies" books, including a prominently placed copy of Sex for Dummies, which apparently was "a reference for the rest of us". Rest of who? In an exclusive interview with Steve Turnbull (well...) 32-bit Acorn Gaming uncovered that everyone had been too embarrassed to buy a copy of the book this year (or maybe they had better sense), but that when it was given away as a free prize in the charity draw last year lots of people had claimed copies.
How sad.
32-bit Acorn Gaming is sponsored by