I just noticed recently that the volume of reader comments on this blog has gone way down in the past year or so.

Does anybody have any theories about why that is? (Ironically, you'll have to comment to tell me.)

It's unfortunate, because reader feedback is the currency that makes this site run. I like hearing from readers; it encourages me to keep updating this blog, as I have been doing since 2005 — almost 8 years now.

Traffic seems to be just about as strong as it has ever been. Is there some change in modern reader behavior that is discouraging people from commenting on this old style blog? Are people are moving away from RSS feed readers? Do I need a Twitter feed that tweets every new post onto there? Do people just hate filling out forms with email addresses, etc. every time they comment?

Maybe I'm just not posting stuff that people are interested in commenting on. Perhaps it's time to retire the 'ole beast. If I only get 2 responses to this, I think I will.

In 2006, I wrote about a version of the classic Prodigy game MadMaze that had been adapted for the web by Russell D. Brown, an electronics engineer based in Rome, New York.

Just today, a commenter on that original post (thanks Joshua) let me know that Russell Brown passed away last year on July 1st. That means his implementation of MadMaze-II is now offline.

(Please note that the original author of MadMaze, Greg Costikyan, is still alive and kicking as far as I know.)

Luckily for all of us, I asked Russel Brown back in 2011 to share his MadMaze-II code with me in case his version of the game ever went down. He complied, and I have just now set up a fresh copy of his adaptation on this web server at the following address: http://www.vintagecomputing.com/madmaze/.

The game still requires Internet Explorer 5 or up, and it seems to work in IE 9 for me. Brown programmed the game in such a way that obfuscated its function to prevent cheating (he even incorporated a copy protection scheme), so at the moment I have no idea how to successfully modify it if players find any bugs. But if you encounter any problems, please feel free to let me know, and I'll have a look.

Have fun in the maze. And may Russell Brown rest in peace.

As a small administrative note, I'd like to mention that the scanner I've used for our Retro Scan of the Week column since its inception in 2006 crapped out on October 15th, 2012.

It up and died. The scanning head got stuck a few times, then the scans started returning blank white images. It's the digital equivalent to coughing up blood.

I've used the scanner, an Epson Perfection 2480 Photo, to scan thousands upon thousands of images, so it's amazing it has lasted this long. It would be amusing to see how many miles the scanning mechanism has traveled since I first received the scanner as a gift from my dad in 2004 or 2005.

I might be able to fix the unit, but I thought of a better solution. My father happened to have the exact same scanner model, which he hasn't used in many years. I picked it up on Sunday, dropped it in place of the old scanner, and it's like nothing has changed. So Retro Scan of the Week is saved.

Of course, new flatbed scanners cost about $50 these days, so it may be time for an upgrade. I'll think about it, but for now, the Epson Perfection 2480 Photo rides again!

Believe it or not, it's been almost two years since I did my last tech teardown slideshow for PC World. After 11 visual disassemblies with my haggard workbench as a backdrop, I figured I'd give the series a rest until an interesting new venue came along.

Fast forward to April 2012 — it was a beautiful spring day outside, and I had decided to take apart a 1972 Magnavox Odyssey (the first commercial video game console) in honor of its 40th anniversary. I walked out to my back yard, sat down on the moss, and the result is now up on PCWorld.com.

I hope you enjoy it.

—

Here are my previous tech teardowns: Nintendo NES, Atari 1040STf, Atari 800, Commodore Amiga 1000, Commodore 64, Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Famicom, Apple IIc, IBM Model M Keyboard, TRS-80 Model 100, and Macintosh Portable.

Ouch. Get off my hand, you tiny mounted knight.

Few magazine covers represent the playful optimism of the early Internet craze years like this cover of PopSci for Kids from 1995. Before the public understood what the Internet really meant, it was up to journalists (who usually didn't know either) to tell them. This resulted in lots of visual hyperbole (see children happily trapped inside a computer above) and colorful metaphors like "surfin' the net" to convey the energy and potential of something that, in reality, looked rather mundane on the screen.

Did these whimsical and exaggerated media tactics succeed? I think so, because that little thing called The Internet became much more popular than even journalists in 1995 could imagine. There is no doubt that the media played a large part in popularizing the global computer network in its early public years.

Discussion Topic of the Week: When was the first time you surfed the 'Net? Did you feel like you were actually surfing on a digital surf board made of ones and zeros?

Fans of my old VC&G column Hacksterpiece Theatre will enjoy my new slideshow on PCMag.com that profiles 10 amazing classic video game ROM hacks. Not surprisingly, the piece is titled, 10 Classic Video Game Hacks Everyone Should Play.

I'm sure you can suggest some great hacks too, so I'd like to know — what are your favorite ROM hacks?

Yesterday I made a live appearance on Word of Mouth, a show on New Hampshire Public Radio, talking about my recent piece, "Why History Needs Software Piracy." You can listen to the audio of the interview online. The interview appeared at the top of the show and lasted about 9 minutes.

It was my first live radio interview, so I'm not sure if I made any sense. Even if I didn't, you can check out the dulcet tones of my telephone speaking voice.

This video may be old news to many of you, but the stakes are too high not to post this for those who might not have seen it already. I honestly wasn't too worried about SOPA when I first heard about it because I figured the US Senate wouldn't take something so ridiculously anti-Internet seriously. But I was mistaken — they seem to like it quite a bit, and SOPA may very well be passed into law soon.

Everything we know and love about the Internet today will change if SOPA is signed into law. I will have to take down my articles on ROM hacking and suppress discussion of emulation, for example, or face the possibility that VC&G will forced off the web. Heck, I might even end up in jail. With SOPA, freedom of speech will be suppressed and the Web will become one giant glazed-over commercial for McDonalds.

We can't let one misguided law castrate one of humanity's greatest inventions in the name of preventing the unauthorized copying of entertainment media. If you like reading VC&G, tell your local representatives today that you do not support SOPA and will hold them accountable if they support it themselves.

Vintage Computing and Gaming has retained the same general site design, albeit with a few aesthetic changes, since it started in 2005. Do you think it's time to change the layout of the site? Do you think I should add any features to the site to make it like more modern blogs?

For VC&G, my philosophy has long been, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And I defintely don't think the site is broken. But perhaps it is time to modernize a few elements of the blog. The thing I'd like to add most is a tag-based post system. I think that would work better than post categories as they now stand.

The commenting system works pretty well for the number of comments we get, so I don't think we need a complex comment rating or moderation system at the moment.

As for the current design, I like the fact that, because I haven't added complex bells and whistles to the site's software, VC&G is easy to view on older computers with slightly older browsers. It's simple and it does the trick.

Let's put it this way: do you think if I redesigned the site that more people would read VC&G? (Although statistically speaking, we have more readers than ever.) Is the design out of touch with a "modern" web audience? Your thoughts count, so let me know in the comments.

It's just, you know, one a them computers. One a them things. Don't work.

Discussion Topic of the Week: In your words, what is a computer?