Hello, friends. It’s New Year’s time once again, and by this point, you’ve probably been bombarded by year-end reviews and retrospectives on dozens of other websites and blogs. While typically not one to follow the trend, I just couldn’t resist throwing another log on the fire of your journalistic discontent.

Ok, so I’m exaggerating as always! I’ve actually assembled this list because I thought you might enjoy looking over some of our past “hits,” especially in case you missed any. Also, I wanted to prove to myself that I actually did something with my life this year besides meticulously pick up an enormous scattered pile of foam packing peanuts from my back yard. The following is a list of the top ten most viewed articles that were published on VC&G in the year 2006. I hope you enjoy it.

Have a happy New Year — I’ll see you in 2007!

[ Continue reading The Top Ten Most Popular VC&G Articles of 2006 » ]

The TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo), as seen in this 1982 ad, has a special place in my heart because it was one of the first old computers I obtained when I started collecting them thirteen years ago. A family friend heard about my new hobby and donated the machine to me, complete with a disk drive and some cartridges. I had lots of fun learning the machine’s particular brand of BASIC (I still maintain that the BASIC manual for the TRS-80 CoCo 1 is one of the best computer manuals ever created).

I also had a blast playing with the CoCo’s Audio Spectrum Analyzer cartridge, which lets you graphically view an audio frequency spectrum through input from the machine’s cassette jack. It had a really neat kaleidescope mode that was a lot like “visualizers” on MP3 player software these days. I spent hours MUSHing (not on the CoCo, of course, but on a PC) while listening to classic rock on the radio, all while the kaleidescope effects from the music played out on a RGB monitor beside me. Good times.

Strangely enough, the distinctive chiclet keyboard on the CoCo 1 never bothered me at all — it is probably the most usable and comfortable chiclet keyboard out there. And knowing chiclet keyboards, that’s saying a lot. All in all, the CoCo was a great little machine. Did anybody else out there have one?

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

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Among those who celebrate it, Christmas is often remembered as a magical time full of joy, excitement, and anticipation. It all goes back to when we were kids and we begged our parents all year long to buy us something we wanted so badly, but they resisted because the item usually cost over $20. We typically lost all hope of ever getting the item until Christmas rolled around. That was the only time of year that you could ever get that one mythical item, usually courtesy of Santa Claus.

Let’s talk presents. Since this site is called Vintage Computing and Gaming, I’m limiting the discussion to those items relevant to the site. I’ll give you some examples of VC&G-related presents I received when I was younger, then I’d like to hear about some of your favorite VC&G-related Christmas memories.

Some of the greatest computer-related Christmas presents I’ve received throughout the years include a Prodigy sign-up kit and membership (Man, I wanted that so bad. It was in my early BBS days), a 14.4 kbps modem (which was bad-ass at the time), a SoundBlaster Pro (our first sound card ever), and our family’s first CD-ROM drive and some software on CD-ROM. Some of my favorite video game presents have been Mega Man 3 and Castlevania III (my brother and I received them in the same year, which was incredibly exciting at the time) and our first PlayStation with a copy of Twisted Metal 2. My brother typically received various PC games over the years, like Shogun, Planet’s Edge, Thexder, Wasteland, Silpheed, Bard’s Tale III, and more. I had a lot of fun watching him play them, of course, so they were like presents to me too.

So now it’s your turn. Post some of your favorite computing- or gaming-related Christmas memories. Tell us about some of the best Christmas presents you’ve ever received. Just leave a comment on this entry, and don’t be shy.

Thanks, and Merry Christmas from Vintage Computing and Gaming!

Can’t get enough pixels, can ya? Merry Christmas, my pixel-loving friends! This week I have a great challenge with a lot of diversity for you to chew on. Here’s a hint: The pixel blocks are from three different game machines — one of which is actually a computer. And yes, that is indeed pixelated cleavage. As always, post your guesses in the comments section of this entry, and don’t be bashful. Good luck!

    

The answers to last week’s challenge are after the break.

[ Continue reading Name Those Pixels: Challenge #5 » ]