Occasionally me (Dr. Jekyll) takes a trip into the more saner world than he normally lives in himself, and he decides to get a bit soppy. This is just one of those times, boring it might be for some of you, but nevertheless a small article I feel as though I needed to write.
It centres around the actual CRYPT staff, no, I'm not being bias towards them, and in fact most of the times they're a bunch of old tarts, me included, but this time I need to say thanks for their moral support.
This article is more or less a "BIG THANK YOU" to Ferret, Ian Urie, Steve Evans (Web Master) and of course this biggest old slapper of THE CRYPT team Ray Hawkins aka Dungeon Master.
At the time of doing what I'm about to tell you I done (if that makes sense) I thought that out of the 6 Crypt staff members I was the only one who wasn't on the internet/email etc., but have since found out that our own Craig Daines is also very much in the same boat as me, although he has access to the net by way of his mates PC. So basically I'm not on the net period, so with this in mind it was a few days or so ago that I suddenly got this weird feeling (yes, my case comes up next month, no, joking apart), I suddenly got this stupid idea that with me not being on "The Net" I was missing out on the Staff email chats, and I also felt as though I wasn't putting enough into THE CRYPT. so I did the best thing that I thought could be done for my own piece of mind, and also in the hope on the other lads not carrying a dead weight, well at about 15-stone I'm a bloody dead-weight.
I decided a few days ago to "Resign", no, don't worry, it's all been sorted out now, so I wrote to The Dungeon Master and enclosed my official letter of Resignation, but unbeknown to me he was just about to shoot off on his hols to Tenerife, so a reply from him then was impossible. However, the following Monday morning I had a great letter from Ian Urie, who I won't embarrass by telling you the content of his letter because he likes to give you non-Crypt members the impression he's a Hard Scotsman", but upon reading his letter I found him the opposite. He's a nice bloke, in fact, he's a very very nice bloke, or a Ver.....(shut up DJ, and get on with it, ok mate).
Without going into all the content of his letter he for one wasn't going to accept my resignation, and as he more or less said that I was a much needed part of THE CRYPT than any of us. What I was really missing with me not being on line with THE CRYPT was the fact I couldn't chat with the other lads, and I couldn't see the completed version of THE CRYPT "On-Line". Now, with a letter from our web master Steve Evans, he was more than prepared to solve that problem for me, he too gave me moral support.
His letter arrived on the Tuesday morning, then bloody hell, on Wednesday morning our own Ferret sends me a letter just as supportive as the other two. Now, with The Dungeon Master and myself being part of the original creators of THE CRYPT and then The Dungeon Master and myself going over to The Ripper, then both The Dungeon Master and myself being part of the new line up for the resurrected CRYPT magazine I've always given The Dungeon Master my best moral support whenever possible, and he has done the same for me.
With a new project as the new resurrected version of THE CRYPT old ideas go out, and new ones come in. Apart from The Dungeon Master, Craig Daines, Ferret and myself, us 4 I think are the only ones left from the old Crypt/Ripper days, and we more or less know each other pretty well. The Dungeon Master and Craig who live close to one another do meet but The Ferret I have never met. I wish we had though, in fact I wish that I had or can one day meet all the lads.
Anyway, with new additions to the old team has come new ideas and new motivation. In the older CRYPT days we ( that is THE CRYPT) had been promised on numerous occasions to be put on either or both the BBS's or the web, of course those promises never saw the light of day, and with about 4 actual main writers for THE CRYPT in those days the amount and quality of articles was pretty limited as opposed to THE CRYPT now. The "New Blood>" of Steve Evans, Ian Urie and Francis Loch and the added bonus of most of the lads now being on "The Net" has done for THE CRYPT what should have been done ages ago. It's given us a whole new zest for survival, and if possible with the continued support for our magazine I hope that our success continues for quite a long time to come. Writing a magazine in more or less just pure ASCII text as THE CRYPT used to be written in was very limiting.
But with THE CRYPT now being on the net in HTML format and going out to parts of the world that us older CRYPT members never dreamed about is one hell of an output media, and sounding like the 50 year old fart that the lads jokingly think I am, I have to say that even with all the talent that the team has got now, we still need "YOUR" full support if we all want the magazine to continue to grow.
In the older days of THE CRYPT even with the 4 or 5 team members then, there was only really 3 decent regular writers, and blowing my own trumpet I'll say that I think I was one of the main three, the other 2 where part-timers. In the new-look CRYPT there are 6 members, and after receiving the above mentioned letters from the lads I personally think that of the 6 members, there are 6 times the amount of full support from us all to the overall completion of each and every issue of our magazine. With the added support our sponsors and massive readers network I personally think that this time we have finally found a great combination of people and talent in order to keep the magazine going for ages to come hopefully.
With the Amiga gaining more support from newcomers and from old Amigaites who left the scene for whatever reason and returned the Amiga has justifiably earned more support moreso over the past year or so, and with it we (THE CRYPT) has been riding on its back of success to grow from a magazine of a few readers months ago to literally hundreds now. This is due partly to probably one of the best bunch of lads that is our team at present, but moreso to you the public for taking the time to read our magazine. We'll all try to do our very best in bringing you the same quality of articles in future issue's that we've manage to bring you up till now.
Once again, many many thanks to the team lads for their moral support when I needed it....