/vr/ - Retro Games

Here's an earlier version of The Ultimate Gaming Rig. Check the filenames

>>6551383
I remember as a kid, I always wanted to win these prizes too. But the catch was that you had to pay to enter the contest.

No one ever won

>>6551393
yeah, it was a pretty steep when you were a little kid with no money. I wonder how much they made doing this.

Here's another iteration of The Ultimate Gaming Rig.

this article has a bunch of them
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2006/11/column_game_mag_weaseling_15_y_1.php

>>6551395
Exactly. I didn't have a job, I was underage and even my parents never gave me allowances.

No one ever won these things. The guy who ran the company was called Rick Lund, and he kept filing for bankruptcy and changing the name of the company to avoid ever paying out. Pandemonium Promotions Inc. became Puzzle Me Inc., which became Rattlebrain Inc., which became Baindramage Inc. First off, it asks for an entry fee, which is illegal here in the US for "giveaway" contests, since it legally makes it a form of Lotto. Then every time you "won" a round, you had to put in another entry fee for the next round. And if you won the final round? Automatic subscription to a magazine, followed by getting notice from the company that they were filing for bankruptcy.

Pic related is the first known ad for this scam. Notice the address is very different. Best way to keep a scam going is to keep moving location. Eventually after enough complaints from readers, gaming mags stopped accepting ads from the company around 2000 or so. Roughly a year after this first ad, the operation had already moved once. Somewhere around 97-98 they move again, to Gresham Oregon. Less than a year later, moves to Fairview Oregon, roughly around the time they changed their name again. Less than a year later, they move to Portland Oregon and eventually changed name to Baindramage, where the last ads came from.

What few people have claimed to won, have also claimed they never got the promised prizes. Instead they got a notice saying the company was filing for bankruptcy.

Had to remove image since already posted.

>>6551383
>ultimate computer contest
>packard bell
Uhhh... what?

>>6551383
What game is that because it looks sweet

>>6551383
UK games mags were full of premium rate phone competitions that no one ever won. I even tried one once, without my parents knowing (until the phone bill came in), to win a Simpsons arcade machine because I was Simpsons obsessed.

>>6551383
I remember these ads. Was it a scam?

They had these in a lot of gaming mags in the 80s/90s.

In 80s they had phone in dungeons you could play, designed by Steve Jackson and you could win prizes.

90s more garish "WOW WIN ALL THIS LOT!!!!!" type adverts, with photos of lots of sweets, wwf merch, quad bikes, scooters, consoles, bundles of games etc. Towards end of 90s it vanished in UK.

America mags has "Win this cool dude bedroom set up!" With a tv, 3 games consoles, games games games etc

>>6551691
>I can't be bothered to read a thread of less than 20 posts

>>6551434

>>6551383
Used to enter this sweepstakes too. Never won though. Nor did I completely understand the tax part...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syNIM7LOpDk

Whang video on the scam.

>>6551641
>no one ever won
Not true. A mate of a mate won a Golfing Greats arcade machine.

>>6551383
Fug I wanted this one so bad.

The first of these "contests" was from 1991 and they were continuing into the PS2 era. How this Rick Lund fellow got away with this for that long is anyone's guess, and there's no indication that he ever got investigated by the FTC for business fraud.

>>6552853
Easy. He'd pay out contest winners like $200 every once in a while or they'd get like one free game so he could claim he was delivering on his promises. So as a result, they couldn't do squat to him. As long as at least one contestant actually "won" something in the way of cash or a prize, then it's not considered a scam or pyramid scheme in the eyes of the law.

>>6551383
Lyl the funny part is that the SNES and MD games were the only stuff in those giveaways you'd want anyway. The 5th gen games were ass and those big CRTs really sucked if you look back on it.

>>6551383
Lyl the funny part is that the SNES and MD games were the only stuff in those giveaways you'd want anyway. The 5th and 6th gen games were ass and those big CRTs really sucked if you look back on it. PC gaming was also garbage back then.

>>6552864
But the entry fee made it a lottery/raffle and not a contest. There was no way to enter the contest free of charge like every other legit contest. Legally, a lottery is only available to those 18 or older in the US, and while three US states ban raffles outright, they are restricted in every other state as a form of gambling unless it's a non-profit. Oregon and Minnesota both restrict raffles, with Oregon being even stricter. He was never operating legally.

I'm sure you've probably heard of the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes from the commercials on TV back in the day. You don't need to sign up for any of their "offers" or order any of the magazines from them to enter and still stand a chance of winning. Buying stuff from them or signing up for "offers" doesn't improve your chances any either. And they are well known for giving the promised prizes to the winners. Check the fine print on contests, all the legit ones have a way of entering by sending them a letter or postcard or whatever with your info on it without paying an entry fee or buying the advertised product.

Nintendo Power is another good example of this. They say to send in that card(thus needing to buy/subscribe the mag), but if you read the fine print you can just send in the info on a sheet of paper. You could easily copy the address you need to send the paper to and whatever other info needed while in the local K-Mart or whatever back then, then go home and make an entry for the cost of a stamp.

>>6551541
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phUY3j01ROU

>>6551434
>Baindramage
Kek
>Good morning, ma'm. I'd like to register a new company. Name's "Hugefaggot".
>I'm sorry sir, you can't register a company with such an offensive name.
>"Fugehaggot" then?
>Sign here.

>>rear projecting tvs

Barf

>>6551434
I swear, you'd think that if someone running a company filed bankruptcy more than twice he would just be straight-up banned from running a business. Period.

>>6555007
In most countries you are banned from being a company director for X years after declaring bankruptcy, but that's when company 2 has the wife as a CEO, company 3 is out of state, company 4 is the new wife... etc....

>>6555007
There'd be zero businesses that way and you'd be without any tendies.