Last night, the incomparable Harry McCracken spotted Steve Wozniak and Jack Tramiel chatting right before they took part in a group panel on the 25th anniversary of the Commodore 64 at the Comptuer History Museum. Thinking quickly, McCracken snapped this photo — and what a photo it is.

For those of you who don’t know, Jack Tramiel founded and ran Commodore until about 1984, after which he bought Atari’s consumer division from Warner Communications, stewarding Atari in new directions. And Woz…well, Woz is Woz.

You can read more about the Commodore event on McCracken’s Techlog at PCWorld.com. Wish I could have been there, but alas, I live on the east coast.

Atari’s venerable VCS (2600) turned 30 this year, and 1UP asked me to write a feature about the console’s influence and impact on the industry. I finished the piece in October, but it didn’t go up until a few weeks ago. I haven’t checked to see if 1UP changed much from my original version, but if it’s anything like it, the article should be worth the read for all video game fans.

The piece contains some original analysis of the 2600’s impact that you won’t likely find anywhere else. For example, did you know that the first video game based on licensed non-video game IP was Superman for the Atari VCS in 1979? If that comes as a surprise to you, you’ll want to read the rest of the article. Even diehard Atari fiends might learn something new.

R2D2 he is not. But at least he can become a vacuum cleaner.

If you use this image on your site, please support “Retro Scan of the Week” by giving us obvious credit for the original scan and entry. Thanks.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, jackboots kicking at your nose…

If you use this image on your site, please support “Retro Scan of the Week” by giving us obvious credit for the original scan and entry. Thanks.

Wayne A. Lee, a VC&G reader, recently wrote me about an odd game title that has been haunting him for years.

It was [your Retro Scan of the Week column] that brought to mind an ad I saw way back in the 80s in Compute! magazine for a Commodore 64 game called “Babies of the Dirt.” I’d never seen the game itself, but the game’s bizarre title has remained stuck in my head for decades. As far as I’ve been able to tell, the game was never released, but a few years ago I found the ad, and I scanned it (it’s from the December 1983 issue of Compute!).

Do you know anything about Entech, or this game? I wonder if any of your readers would. Googling the exact phrase “Babies of the Dirt” turns up nothing, and no one I’ve ever asked has ever heard of it.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about either Entech or the mysterious Babies of the Dirt for the Commodore 64, but the game sure sounds dramatic. Here’s the description from the ad:

An earthquake sucks you to the center of the earth. To escape you must battle the BABIES OF THE DIRT. But, don’t miss or its doomsday! Watch out for their mother.

[ Continue reading Babies of the Dirt: Entech’s Dirty Secret? » ]

On behalf of the entire Vintage Computing and Gaming staff (me), I’d like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. If, by chance, you’re hungry to read something Thanksgiving-related, you can check out a rambling piece I wrote last year called “What Computer Nerds Should Be Thankful For.”

Now go, be with your family. Eat some turkey. Have fun and play a few games. I’ll be back next week with more interesting vintage material to chew on. In the mean time, everybody’s favorite writer, Ulaf, will keep an eye on the place.

Hmm. I wonder what game this is a copy of?

If you use this image on your site, please support “Retro Scan of the Week” by giving us obvious credit for the original scan and entry. Thanks.

Last month I received the spiffy Apple IIe system you see above as part of a sizable donation to my computer collection (thanks Tom!). This particular IIe configuration hails from a high school in Ohio where it was used primarily as an AppleWorks machine in the mid-late 1980s.

After carefully peeling away decades of nasty, nasty sticky dirt and grime from the hardware, I naturally set it all up on my kitchen table (hence the ceramic duck, a must in every modern kitchen). Instead of splitting up the set for parts, I decided that it would be fun to keep it all together and preserve it as it was used in the school.

Much to the mixed delight/chagrin of my wife, I doodled on Deluxe Paint with the mouse and tried various games on disk every day for about three weeks while eating breakfast. Alas, after about a month in the culinary limelight, the Kitchen IIe’s novelty has finally begun to wear thin. It will soon move on to another table, but I plan to keep this “school system” together with all its original parts so it will remain a functional example of 1980s educational computing.