Here’s a toast to all those that didn’t make it.
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They just don’t make game ads like they used to. Say, did anybody have the Booster Grip accessory that came with Omega Race? I’d never even heard of it until I came across this ad. I’m guessing that it plugged into the 2nd player port to provide the extra controls — a really neat idea. The quantity and diversity of hardware accessories made for the Atari 2600 is astounding. Somebody should compile a list of them someday, if they haven’t already.
By the way, Happy 2007!
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The TRS-80 Color Computer (CoCo), as seen in this 1982 ad, has a special place in my heart because it was one of the first old computers I obtained when I started collecting them thirteen years ago. A family friend heard about my new hobby and donated the machine to me, complete with a disk drive and some cartridges. I had lots of fun learning the machine’s particular brand of BASIC (I still maintain that the BASIC manual for the TRS-80 CoCo 1 is one of the best computer manuals ever created).
I also had a blast playing with the CoCo’s Audio Spectrum Analyzer cartridge, which lets you graphically view an audio frequency spectrum through input from the machine’s cassette jack. It had a really neat kaleidescope mode that was a lot like “visualizers” on MP3 player software these days. I spent hours MUSHing (not on the CoCo, of course, but on a PC) while listening to classic rock on the radio, all while the kaleidescope effects from the music played out on a RGB monitor beside me. Good times.
Strangely enough, the distinctive chiclet keyboard on the CoCo 1 never bothered me at all — it is probably the most usable and comfortable chiclet keyboard out there. And knowing chiclet keyboards, that’s saying a lot. All in all, the CoCo was a great little machine. Did anybody else out there have one?
Oh, and Merry Christmas!
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So, how many products in this picture can you name?
Whomever names the most specific product models that appear in the picture above gets to be VC&G’s 2006 Game Elf of the Year!
Ok, so I just made that up. Still, give it your best shot in the comments below. Now, on to our next item:
I actually own the ancient LaserDisc player featured on this page (lower left). My unit was manufactured in April 1981 and its operational laser is as big as a large can of spray paint! It’s cool though; I’m planning on building a laser cannon out of it when I get the time. Funnily enough, the equivalent laser these days is probably about half the size of your (yes, I’m talking to you, Gordo!) thumb.
[ Special thanks to McPhail Hunt for donating this issue. ]
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Dear Santa,
I would like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, Phoenix, Vanguard, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Pole Position, Battlezone, and Moon Patrol for Christmas. I would also like the ATARI 5200 (TM) Super-System (The world’s most advanced video game system), the ATARI 2600 (TM) System (The world’s most popular video game system), the ATARI 5200 TRAK-BALL (TM) Controller (For the real arcade touch. Plays more TRAK-BALL (TM) compatible games than anyone else), the ATARI VCS (TM) Cartridge Adapter (Lets your 5200 play every game made for ATARI game systems), and the ATARI TRAK-BALL (TM) Controller (For real arcade action on the ATARI 2600 (TM) System, Sears Video Arcade System and all ATARI Home Computers).
That’s all.
Sincerely,
Tommy L. SpeddlemanP.S. Send me hardware and software, not underwear!
[ Scanned from Electronic Games, December 1983. Special thanks to McPhail Hunt for donating this issue. ]
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My question to you is: did anybody actually have an Action 52 cart (NES or Genesis) back in the day? If so, what are your memories of it? Did you like The Cheetahmen?
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This scan is from a May 1984 article in Personal Computing by Craig Zarley titled “The Pleasures and Perils of Computing at Home.” The article’s main angle focuses on the numerous computer advertisements of the day that pictured an excited, wide-eyed family huddled around a computer while collectively enthralled by whatever is happening on the screen. First-time computer buyers got a rude awakening, however, when they took their new machines home and instead found most of the family competing for personal time with the “new family member.”
Anyone who grew up with a sibling and not enough computers to go around can attest to this phenomenon, yet I find it funny that Personal Computing turned it into the cover article of a magazine. This means that either consumer-level personal computers were so new at the time (and they were) that issues like this seemed novel, or else the magazine was really desperate for material. Perhaps the correct answer lies somewhere between both extremes.
Still, I love those old “family” ads, even if they are unrealistic.
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A Bit of (Fictional) Trivia: The president of Skywriter, Larry Egler, was once famously quoted as saying, “There will be a Stick Station on every table in America by 1990.” Few people know that it was a misquote that has been erroneously reprinted in many books on video game history. In truth, Mr. Egler said, “There will be a table on every Stick Station in America by 1990,” a prediction that actually came true: all remaining Stick Stations in the continental United States are now being used to shore up wobbly table legs.
[ From Computer Games, June 1984. Special thanks to McPhail Hunt for donating the issue. ]
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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.
(Ok…the article says 35, but still.)
This scan came from the premiere (Winter 1982) issue of “Odyssey² Adventure Club Magazine,” Magnavox’s official monthly magazine / propaganda pamphlet for Odyssey² fans — sorta like Nintendo Power these days. Actually, “Odyssey² Adventure” is more a newsletter than a magazine, since all the issues I have are only about fifteen pages long. Nonetheless, this article is an amusing look into the world of Odyssey² game developers, straight from the horse’s mouth.
A quick compare-and-contrast of these guys with Atari’s “pot-smoking hippie” game programmer image of the late 1970s and even today’s “early twenties slacker” programmers makes the Odyssey folks look like a bunch of straight-laced leprechaun engineers. Ralph Baer, what hath thou wrought!
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