Why 146 simultaneous colors? Because it’s one more than 145!

I previously wrote about the Neo Geo Pocket Color in a Retro Scan of the Week from 2010, but I ran across this colorful 1999 ad for the console recently and couldn’t resist. I’ve always had a soft spot for this would-be Game Boy killer that never lived up to its true potential.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Why do you think the Neo Geo Pocket Color failed to achieve long-term success?

The Amaray Corporation DiskBank Media Mate

It’s not every day that I stop and think about floppy diskette storage boxes. I never had a favorite brand of them, but I did find fault with many of the designs I encountered over the years. My least favorite thing about the DiskBank-stye box is if you pick it up by its “handle” (as illustrated here) without locking or properly latching the lid, the lid flops open and you end up with a pile of floppies on the floor.

It would be interesting to catalog and put together a historical timeline of floppy disk box brands…but then again, I don’t see myself doing that any time soon.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What kind of containers do (or did) you use to store your floppy disks?

Three years before the Game Boy Color, Nintendo released color Game Boys.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Name every color of every Nintendo handheld console you’ve ever owned (any kind).

More color. More sound. More overwrought plastic and aluminum enclosures.

If you haven’t noticed by now, I love the Atari 800. It was my first computer platform. And the Atari 400, interestingly enough, was the first computer I ever “owned” — my father let me have a cast off 400 because my brother claimed the 800 as his domain. I couldn’t do much but play Galaxian on it — hooked up to a fuzzy 10″ black and white TV — but I cherished it anyway.

So I’ve written about Atari’s 8-bit computers a lot. I took an 800 apart for PC World a few years ago, and the platform has been the subject of numerous Retro Scans of the Week. But I just realized that I had never posted a scan of an original Atari 400 or Atari 800 advertisement. So here you go. This is an early ad that hails from the launch of the system in November 1979.

I thought an Atari scan would be appropriate since I am celebrating the 40th anniversary of Atari a little early.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever used an Atari 8-bit computer for anything other than games? Tell us about it.

When I grow up, I’d like to be a VMR (Valued MicroProse Retailer).

This week’s Retro Scan is another Sid Meier MicroProse classic (see my scan of Pirates! from last year) and one of history’s most famous combat flight simulator games. I remember trying F-15 Strike Eagle briefly years ago, but I soon gave up on it because I have never been much into flight simulators. What did you guys think about it?

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite combat flight simulator game of all time?

Compact Disc Protection

Here’s a computer artifact you don’t see very often these days: a CD caddy. Many early CD-ROM drives (released roughly 1985 – 1993) required the use of CD caddies, which were designed to protect CD-ROM discs from dust and rough handling. With a CD inside, they look a lot like a bigger version of a 3.5″ floppy disk, albeit with a clear window on one side.

When I ran across this caddy in my collection recently, it made me think a little deeper about why engineers invented them in the first place. Why were CD caddies so common at one point, I wondered, and why are they virtually extinct today?

I have decided that it all boils down to the price and preciousness of commercial CD-ROM discs.

[ Continue reading [ Retro Scan of the Week ] The CD-ROM Caddy » ]

I’d like one of each, please.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever bought a piece of Nintendo-licensed merchandise? Do tell!

A U.S. Airman types in coordinates while designing a weaponized golf course.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you served in the military (any country)? If so, did you use computers as part of your service?

Strange proportions courtesy of Blip’s comic book dimensions.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Quick! Favorite space shooter of the 1970s or ’80s?

The time Apple went AOL.

In the lost era between Jobs (1985-1996), Apple produced many strange and ill-fated products. Here we see an ad for eWorld, Apple’s subscription dial-up online service that launched in June 1994.

eWorld offered proprietary features like message forums, email, weather, news, and other information in a fashion similar to CompuServe, Prodigy, or AOL. It also provided an early consumer portal to the Internet.

Due to its high price ($8.95 per month plus $7.90 per hour from 6 AM to 6 PM on weekdays), poor marketing, and the fact that the World Wide Web was breathing down its neck, eWorld never really took off. Apple shut down the service in March 1996.

By the way, Happy New Year!

Discussion Topic of the Week: Did you ever use a subscription online service? Which one(s)?