Thursday, August 20, 2015

8-Bit Cinema

Stolen from Deviant Art. How's THAT for deviancy?
Ever wish you could see your favorite movie or TV series remade into an old school Nintendo-style video game? Well now you can with CineFix's 8-Bit Cinema series on YouTube.  A partial list of their remakes includes Jurassic Park, Big Lebowski, Terminator 2, Happy Gilmore, The Shining, Frozen (for the kiddies) and even The Walking Dead. While a more anally-retentive nit-picker would point out that some of their productions tend to lean closer to the 16/32-bit era art-style, I won't do that here.

Whoops, sorry.

So enjoy the videos and check out the links below for even more CineFix craziness. Sorry for the pre-roll ads, Google are greedy bastards.



CLICK HERE FOR MORE 8-BIT CINEMA

CLICK HERE TO VISIT CINEFIX

Monday, August 17, 2015

Camp Atari

Wet Hot American Summer
When I was a kid back in the 1980s, I remember being in the back seat of my parents' car, probably on our way back home from the mall, and listening to two guys on the radio prattling on with some "back in my day" rant -- kind of like this blog. At one point, during the laughter and comedy, one of the DJs says to the other "if your kid comes back from summer camp with a tan this year, it's because they moved Pac-Man outside." The idiot kid I was, I immediately sat up in my seat and inquired of my father as to just exactly where this awesome summer camp was where they play video games. "It's a joke, son, they were joking" was all I got back.


Well as it turns out, there actually was such a camp, sort of.

Back in 1982 our old pal, Atari, decided to throw their fortunes at a risky proposition (they were great at doing this) by investing in a series of computer camps across the U.S. called, of course, Atari Computer Camps. I never got to meet anyone that actually went to one, and at nearly $3,000 for a week's stay that's not a shocker. Keep in mind, $3,000 back in 1982, adjusted for inflation, would be about one kajillion dollars today. So you know, that one super-duper-rich kid in your school probably got to go. Along with the normal camp activities, swimming, baseball, volleyball, weaving, bonfires and sing-a-longs, kids got to learn how to program and operate Atari 8-bit computers, thereby positioning the next generation of kids to be well-informed future-consumers of all things gadgety and technical. I would have LOVED it! Legend has it that all of the remaining E.T. carts that weren't buried in that landfill in New Mexico were used to stuff mattresses at the camps while the instruction manuals were stacked high in the commodes for, ahem, personal use.

Want to know more? Then watch this historical document:



Oh, and there's a mini-documentary on the subject as well. Have a gander at this:



Still not enough? For even more info check out the links below:

CLICK HERE TO READ AN ARTICLE FROM ANTIC MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1982

CLICK HERE TO READ AN ARTICLE FROM ATARI CONNECTION, AUGUST 1982

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT OFFICIAL ATARI LITERATURE INCLUDING BROCHURES

CLICK HERE FOR THE PODCAST AND MORE LINKS FROM THE TEAM AT ANTIC

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The IBM WatchPad (2001)

Smartwatch, you say? Why, that's the buzzword of the day! You think Apple showed us the way? Better take a look at yesterday!

Not actual size




Monday, August 10, 2015

1970s Stereo Geek

These were called "speaker cabinets." They made noise.
Back before high-school geeks had computers to get all wet over, they fiddled about with what used to be called stereos or hifi sets. These were modular systems designed to play back music and other recorded audio in the comfort of one's home, without all that tedious trekking back and forth to the village bandstand just to catch the latest Sousa march.
So for the sake of historical record, vintage tech-head, Joe Roberts, decided to detail his personal epic-obsession with stereo gear, that began in the 1970s, on his homepage - which is an old fashioned word for "blog." Yup, his page has been up on the information superhighway since way back in 1998, you know, back before it sucked.
So click the link below to take a trip into the ancient world of patch-cord spaghetti and grey-backgrounded web pages and who knows, you might even learn something along the way! Knowledge is power!

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

BONUS VIDEO: A 1970s STEREO STORE COMMERCIAL

Saturday, August 8, 2015

A-Bit of Doctor Who

8-Bit musician Joe Jeremiah mixes it up with some Doctor Who. You can check out some of his original music here: https://soundcloud.com/joejeremiah. Enjoy!

Thursday, August 6, 2015