Archive for November, 2014

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Family Quizagon Night

Monday, November 24th, 2014

Quizagon family Apple II IBM PC Commodore 64 VIC-20 computer game advertisement - 1983“Whoa…what’s in these brownies, Grandma?”

Thanksgiving is almost upon us again, so it’s time to gather around your home PC for a game of…Quizagon?

Yes, Quizagon. A game I’ve never played, nor will I for the foreseeable future. It looks like a hexagon-themed family trivia game, which is not my bag, man. But what a great photo.

Instead, I’m going to host a The Seven Cities of Gold marathon on an Atari 800XL with my brother. We plan on exploring a completely new continent while interacting vigorously with the natives. Meanwhile, my brothers- and sisters-in-law will be playing Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on my dedicated gaming PC that is hooked to the flat-screen living room TV. It’s a great kart game to play on Steam with four Xbox 360 controllers that’s easy to set up and jump into. Fun times shall be had by all.

By the way, I first used this amusing scan in a 2009 Thanksgiving-related slideshow I did for Technologizer (hoping I’m not repeating it on VC&G). If you’re in the mood, here’s some other Thanksgiving-related material from the VC&G archives.

[ From Compute! – November 1983, p.15]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Do you have any family video gaming planned for this Thanksgiving? If so, what are you going to play?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Fujitsu Micro 16s

Monday, November 17th, 2014

Fujitsu Micro 16s computer advertisement - 1997The shotgun approach: z80 and 8086 in one box

[ From Personal Computing – November 1983, p.14]

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever owned a computer with two different primary CPUs in it?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Fighters MegaMix

Monday, November 10th, 2014

Sega Saturn Fighters MegaMix advertisement - 1997Even polygons get mad sometimes

[ From GamePro – August 1997, rear cover]

Discussion Topic of the Week: If you’re old enough to remember it in the arcade, what did you think of Virtua Fighter the first time you saw it?

[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Memotech ZX81 Modules

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

Memotech Sinclair ZX81 Timex-Sinclair 1000 expansion modules advertisement - 1983Extend your ZX81 a full ten inches

The Sinclair ZX81 (marketed in non-kit form as the Timex-Sinclair 1000 in the US) was a tiny computer with a tiny price and tiny capabilities.

It was possible, however, to make up for some of those shortcomings with a wide array of plug-in peripheral modules from Memotech, seen here in this ad from 1983. Furthermore, by piggybacking one module onto the next, it was possible to create an even more capable — and far longer — ZX81.

I wish I had some of these Memotech modules to mess around with. All I have is the bulbous Timex-Sinclair 16K RAM Module. Time to check eBay.

[ From Personal Computing – November 1983, p.18]

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s the smallest non-portable computer you’ve ever used? (e.g. Timex-Sinclair 1000)