[ Retro Scan of the Week ] CompuServe Borg Cube

March 2nd, 2009 by Benj Edwards

CompuServe Ad - 1988Resistance is futile. (click for full advertisement)

Long-time readers of VC&G may recall me talking about my adventures on CompuServe from time to time. Needless to say, they never looked like this. But I did have a few nightmares featuring enormous floating hive-mind spaceships hooked up to my computer when I was 12.

On second thought, maybe this thing is the machine God uses to create snow — if snow indeed exists.

[ From Compute’s Gazette for Commodore Users, December 1988 ]

Discussion topic of the week: Star Trek or Star Wars? Better yet: Han Solo vs. William T. Riker in a knife fight — who would win?

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15 Responses to “[ Retro Scan of the Week ] CompuServe Borg Cube”

  1. Chrisbones Says:

    STAR WARS. HAN SOLO. END OF DISCUSSION. 🙂

  2. JackSoar Says:

    Star Wars and that scruffy-lookin’ nerfherder by a country parsec.

    Oh, and snow definitely exists, because I’m up to my knees shoveling it today.

  3. Jason Scott Says:

    I was entranced enough by this image to scan it in some time ago:
    http://digitize.textfiles.com/items/1988-compuserve-higher-intelligence/

    There’s something about the thinking behind this image where you have to say “I don’t know if they thought the implications through.”

  4. Benj Edwards Says:

    Quick! Han Solo vs. Jason Scott in a blog fight: who would win?

  5. jdiwnab Says:

    Han Solo would win if he could cheat and use his blaster. Kirk is too honest to use anything but a knife. But Kirk would win if Han didn’t have his blaster for some reason.

    That borg cube doesn’t look like what brought snow to me. But it might have been hidden above that thick cloud layer.

  6. Esteban Says:

    I like Star Trek more than Star Wars, but in a battle between Han Solo and William Ryker, my money would be on Han.

    However, I think Kirk could kick Han’s butt, since Han’s blaster would hit Kirk just enough to tear his shirt open, then Kirk would beat him up mano a mano.

  7. Fessic Says:

    Star Wars. Unless you’re talking about pinball tables.

  8. Blake Patterson Says:

    Man, Ryker is a big girleyman. Han could easily take him. Hell, Wesley might be able to take him.

    And that ship looks more like a Borg shaft than a Borg cube. I remember the ad well, though, and have it in a few Creative Computing mags on my shelf. Good times.

  9. pinball22 Says:

    I’m a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek. But in the Han vs. Riker knife battle, Han clearly wins.

  10. Benj Edwards Says:

    You’re right, Blake. But “Borg shaft” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. 🙂

    Riker not a girlie-man, though: you guys have got to remember that he’s an expert at Anbo-jyutsu and Parrises squares — he could whup Solo in either of those semi-violent futuristic sports.

    But Riker’s probably not as familiar with knives in the 24th century as Solo might be, so I’d give Solo the edge in the knife fight. Then again, I seem to remember Riker holding his own against Worf in a few holodeck battles…hmm.

    This is fun. I think I’ll change the blog’s name to “Vintage Star Wars and Star Trek.” Forget the computer stuff.

  11. Fessic Says:

    Imagine if Sims 2 existed in 1988. That’s about the amount of storage space you’d need to run it using 1988 hard drive technology…

    …And it would take about 3 days to launch the game.

  12. Richard Says:

    Yeah, its not even a contest. Riker is such a wuss.

  13. Lancaster Says:

    Fantastic ad, like something out of Archigram or an architectural blog.

  14. james braselton Says:

    hi there the borg colective always win they would just asemalte the computition untile there was zero computition resitance is futile by the borg colective sayings you say that sims 2 existed in 1988 the storage capacity would have too be huge lucky for the borg colective the use a laser hard drives at 610 tb/s or 610 terabytes per second gaming in nano seconds

  15. RB Says:

    dont bring a knife to a gin fight… – Solo .. or was that indie?

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