Tim Ponting Reminisces....
Well...I did tell you that once I had permission, you could see a copy and paste of his email up here, and the kind fellow has granted permission:
Hi Andrew
Sorry, been mad busy and just answering urgent stuff. Feel free to publish ramblings on blogs and nice to speak to you about it!!
Good luck with the pitch...
T
So here it is....:
Ah, yes, the past... I remember it slightly.
Blimey, that site link took me back. I joined Dennis back in 1989, having freelanced for Theresa Maughan from before ZERO launched, doing interviews with musicians for them (like Betty Boo who I did drum programming for and Captain Sensible). Then she sacked the editor of ZERO and I became Editor just as they were putting issue 3 together. We won mag of the year in 1990 and 1991 Indins, and for a brief but bright moment overtook The One and Ace from EMAP.
So my team was 'Lord' Paul Lakin as Staffie, Dave Whistlin' Rick Wilson as Dep Ed, Amaya Lopez (now Dave's wife) on production with Jackie Ryan, and Sean something or other, who at the time went out with Jackie, he went on to work at Gremlin as a producer, we rather petulantly sacked him I remember. YS under Matt Bielby was in the office next door.
Based out of an office in Newman Street that Felix Dennis had registered as a flat, I think, to avoid business rates. Two rooms so small that you literally couldn't get out to go to the loo unless everyone closer to the door left before you did. And one hot Summer, we got burgled and the burglars crapped on the windowsill. Heh heh.
Lots of mad writers, Macca bless him was already writing for YS aged 14 or something stupid; we found Jonathan Davies around that time, similarly some precocious little 15 year old git; Daniel Pemberton, who went on to be a famous DJ and who has just finished doing all the music for the Activision game 'The Movies' (he used to drive us insane ringing us every night when he got home from school). Not forgetting Jane Goldman, who I fancied the pants off who is now married to Jonathan Ross. Great knockers. And who could forget Duncan and his nutter friend, known as 'Stuart Shape', aka Culky... Duncan was one of the world's only genuine eccentrics. I always had to persuade him to write anything; he was so unreliable (he disappeared for a year, and turned out to have been hiding from the tax man, only to get caught and jaunting off to the Pacific to escape again...)
I think we were all just good writers who fell into games because there was nowhere else exciting to go. I'd done music stuff and got bored (shit, there were NO good writers there in the late eighties, all stagnant) and we all gravitated together. Theresa deserves a lot of credit for being able to spot guys and girls in their early twenties who could just hit that sweet spot with 12-17 year olds, because basically we were all borderline kids/adults... We were so uncool back then, it was kind of beyond cool. If we wanted cool, we could have done other mags, but it was this weird vibe that really appealed. So funny to me now that gaming is considered cool now...
I have really fond memories of those days, making sure ZERO had the best writers and a cult feel. I left to earn proper money and launched Computer Buyer for Dennis, but came back to launch PC Zone in 1993 as Publisher, which I worked on full time or freelance until I finally joined Activision in 2002...
Well well, a nice trip down memory lane, I'm amazed anyone can remember those days...
Best
T