Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 213

One of the great unsung heroes of the 1960s has died, 38 years after his silent protest sent a message like a clap of thunder across the world.

Not many people know the name Peter Norman, but he was the Australian 200 metres silver medallist who stood in the middle of the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics and showed his solidarity with fellow medallists Tommie Smith and John Carlos by wearing a human rights badge.

So in a world where an Australian TV presenter, who dangled his child over a crocodile to show how clever he was with animals, is offered a state funeral after he was bitten by a fish, it is time to doff our caps and pay homage to Peter Norman, a real Australian hero.

This brings us nicely to the unsung heroes of Vodafone Global who have moved off into the sunset to ‘different challenges’ and uncertain futures after being fundamental to the growth of mobile gaming in the UK.

While operator representatives sometimes deserve the opprobrium heaped upon them and the rounds of drinks they NEVER bought, Lee Fenton, Graeme Ferguson and Tim Harrison weren't that bad and left behind significant legacies. Not as important as Peter Norman's legacy maybe, but important nonetheless.

Finally this week in an abridged newsletter due to my incipient influenza, a big shout goes out to Telcogames' Australian Mark Ollila who may have saved my life, and several others, this week.

Long story, but think Marseille, the International Mobile Games Awards, an ex-operator banging on about mobile chipsets, a taxi driver who fell asleep while listening, a steering wheel being grabbed and you have the story. Blimey, talk about living by mobile and dying by it.

Again, the good Doctor Ollila may not as big an Australian hero as Peter Norman, but imagine if I'd died? No more Friday newsletters, no more ironic editorial, it would have been awful, wouldn't it?... Wouldn't it?...