The Futuragate tape¢-------------------¢¢A letter and cassette tape arrived at TGR HQ last month from a Mr.Rogers in Aberdeen. Mr.Rogers tells me "I was settling down to watch Bullseye on TV a few months ago when suddenly the rather nice tones of Jim Bowen disappeared and before I knew it, I was listening in on a private conversation. I happened to have a tape recorder next to the TV so I thought I'd record the conversation and add it to my tape collection. There were two people talking but I really couldn't understand what they were going on about and I thought maybe you'd help me."¢¢ED: Well, I'm not too sure about that Mr.Rogers because, like you say, it is hard to fathom out what is being said most of the time. Anyway, I'll publish a written transcript of the recording and if any TGR readers notice anything familiar will they please get in touch and I'll pass your notes onto Mr.Rogers.¢ Because the identity of each person is unknown I have decided to use 'SJM' for one of the people and 'NIK' for the other.¢*¢SJM: It's not fair! Three issues old and still nowhere near as good as The Grim Reaper. What can I do?¢NIK: There's not much you can do.¢SJM: What about a smear campaign? That should be good. Discredit the editor of TGR and put Futura where it deserves - at the top.¢NIK: I don't think you'll ever topple TGR from its perch as best disk-fanzine in the world. It's totally brill! I especially liked...¢(There then followed a sharp noise. A little like a fist hitting a chin)¢SJM: Shut up you fool. I'm having a great idea. Tell me what you think. Let's say I put a program on the next Futura that is obviously not PD and then a few months later I'll claim that it's all the pirates fault and nothing to do with me. I'll even write a letter to Page 6 telling them the name of this dirty pirate. HA! That won't fail.¢NIK: Won't people be a bit suspicous if you put a cracked file on Futura. I mean you can hardly miss the cracked message on John's hacks. He makes sure of that.¢SJM: You've got a point. Anyway I'm sure people will be too caught up in the euphoria of a witch-hunt to bother about that.¢NIK: I've got another brill idea. Why not put two commercially released pirated titles into your PD Library. Wait for a complaint then come out blaming everything on anyone but yourself. This'll create even more damning evidence to prove that TGR is crap.¢SJM: Great idea! I'll put them in then wait for the backlash and then claim 'Oh sorry, I didn't notice it... but it's not my fault. It's that TGR editors fault, etc etc'. I can't lose!¢NIK: Yes, but won't people be a bit suspicous again.¢SJM: About what?¢NIK: Well, if the files have a 'de-protected' message on them then people will ask why you never noticed it.¢SJM: Nah they won't. I'll come out against piracy and go on listing a number of companies that are no longer supporting the Atari. I'll pretend I know what I'm talking about.¢NIK: Wow! That'll be a first.¢SJM: I can see it all now. The fame, the glory. They'll go around saying 'What a guy' about me.¢NIK: I still think people will be suspicous.¢SJM: Nah! The letter to Page 6 will be final nail in TGR's coffin.¢NIK: What if, for some bizarre reason, Page 6 edit your letter and don't tell people the name of this pirate scum.¢SJM: Well, I'll go on to wrongly quote the text from another game!¢NIK: I've got another idea. Why don't you, in a future editorial, go on to mention the many disk-mags available on the Atari 8-bit and purposely miss out TGR!¢SJM: Good idea. I'll mention obscure ones like MAGIC, Aladdin, Start and Pokey and I won't give TGR a sniff! We wouldn't want to give it any free publicity now would we? Hee! Hee! I'll even throw in the joke about Davros' rejects.¢NIK: You've said that to lots of people and nobody's found it funny yet.¢SJM: Hmm. Maybe I'll save it for a later day then. As long as we discredit TGR and all it stands for, we'll be home and dry!¢NIK: Wow, you're great. Let's go to your house for a wee game of Miecze Valdgira.¢SJM: What about Kult? That's good too.¢NIK: We'll decide when we get there. There's so much to choose from. It's very nice of all your contacts to send you their original games, isn't it?¢SJM: (whistle, whistle).¢*¢And so ends the tape. If any of our readers can shed light on this then contact us and help Mr.Rogers out.¢
