Flying is not just for birds anymore. This week’s theme is “flying creatures.” Each of these three pixel blocks are from 8-bit games. Can you guess which ones? The first block is to the right, the other two are below. As always, post your guesses in the comments section of this entry, and don’t be bashful.
The answers to the last challenge are after the break.
Keyboards, keyboards everywhere, but not a drop to drink. How many different computer keyboards have you used in your lifetime? Do you remember the good ones? The bad ones? By golly, I’ve known quite a few.
See if you can recognize which vintage computer system each of these keyboards comes from. Feel free to post comments about them and share your memories about keyboards of yore. Answers to the quiz will be posted next week as an update to this entry.
Answers after the break.
It’s sad to think that some people might have still been using punch cards for data input in 1979, but with the speed at which universities and other institutions updated their equipment, it would be no big surprise. Still, I think this terminal was mainly designed for legacy applications.
Let the punch card memories commence!
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Did/does anybody have one of these and wish to share their thoughts on it?
[ From Personal Computing magazine, December, 1983. ]
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.
Now we move from crowds to Kongs. This week’s theme is “Donkey Kong.” Each of these three pixel blocks is from a version of Donkey Kong. Can you guess which system or computer each is from? The first block is to the right, the other two are below. As always, post your guesses in the comments section of this entry, and don’t be bashful.
The answers to the last challenge are after the break.
The two most popular news agencies have published no less than two articles in the last two days about vintage computers. Are the planets in alignment, or does there now exist a vast conspiracy (the conspiracy of “twos” perhaps?) to cover vintage computers in the national media? Either way, it’s been a great week for our hobby.
The first article (Reuters via Yahoo) focuses on the ever-popular Sellam Ismail, organizer of the Vintage Computer Festival, and his lovable buddies (Bruce Damer, Evan Koblentz) from the festival scene. Poor Sellam has been covered so many times that he’s probably getting tired of it by now. The second article (AP via Yahoo) “unearths” a relative newcomer to media publicity, Jeremy Mehrle, whose Basement Mac Museum I covered back in February (along with a short interview with the Mehrleman himself). It’s true that many news outlets get some of their news by culling blogs these days. But with cool topics like these, can you blame them? And obviously, the door swings both ways.
[ From Personal Computing magazine, December, 1983. ]
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.
Let’s see. Texas-Instruments had Bill Cosby, Commodore had William Shatner, and Atari had Alan Alda. But did you know that Tandy-Radio Shack’s computer spokesperson in the early 1980s was science fiction author Isaac Asimov? I’ve seen a number of TRS-80 ads featuring him, and he always looks way too happy. But that was his job. And I’ve always loved Asimov’s sideburns. It’s like I’ve always said: nothing sells a home computer like a hairy man with a joystick. Take that, Commodore.
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.
Sure, the heroes get all the attention, but what about the loyal fans cheering in the background? This week’s theme and hint is “NES Crowds.” Think of background crowds in games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. That should help you narrow it down a bit. The first block is to the right, the other two are below. As always, post your guesses in the comments section of this entry, and don’t be bashful. Good luck!
The answers to the last challenge are after the break.
[ Continue reading Name Those Pixels: And the Crowd Goes Wild » ]
[ ‘Tales From the Benjside’ is a column where Benj writes silly things about computers, video games, and tangentially-related stuff in a blog-like fashion. ]
It’s Christmas time once again in the Land of Benj, and you know what that means: more presents! So get out your stockings and you elf caps and follow me once again into another…
What? It’s March, you say? Egads, man! Seems that I’m a bit late on the festivities (or early?). But then again, the Land of Benj does not observe normal rules of space and time. Only the Rules of Christmas. And the Rules of Christmas clearly spell out (Section 8c, Paragraph 4, Line 3) that it’s time for another Tales From the Benjside. Let it commence.
[ Continue reading Tales From the Benjside: BABY DRAGON IS SLEPT » ]
