The Mountain Computer MusicSystem. Not a scene from Hee Haw.

In an age when the vast majority of commercial music is recorded or produced using computers, it’s interesting to look back to a time with computer-based music tools were in their infancy. In this case we’re turning back the clock 30 years to examine an ad for the Mountain Computer MusicSystem, a musical synthesizer and sequencer add-on for the Apple II (horse not included).

Admittedly, I know nothing about this system beyond what you read in the ad above (and some Googled info found here and here). But I wouldn’t be surprised if the original creators of the MusicSystem are lurking somewhere out there on the Internet — just waiting for this subject to come up so they can post a comment about it on a blog like this one. If that’s the case, please do!

Discussion Topic of the Week: When was the first time you used a computer as a tool in music production?

Two days ago, I flew up to New Hampshire to visit Ralph H. Baer, the Father of Video Games, at his home in Manchester.

During my brief stay, Baer was a gracious host and a gentleman to the highest degree. We discussed life, philosophy, WWII, video games, and more. Best of all, he showed me an archive of his inventions that he keeps in his basement.

I made the trip because Baer, along with two associates, invented home video games in 1967. That work culminated in the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first commercial video game console, in 1972.

Baer, who turned 90 in March, has also been a freelance toy and game developer since the late 1970s. His biggest hit in that field is no doubt Simon, a toy which you might know by its iconic saucer shape and playful electronic melodies.

After examining some of his creations, I challenged him to a game of Ping Pong on a replica of the Brown Box (the 1968 video game prototype that inspired the Odyssey). We didn’t keep score, but his hands are surprisingly nimble. By the way, he’s a very good driver too. Even at 90, his mind seems twice as sharp as someone one third his age.

Yesterday morning, just before I left to fly home, I took the following panoramic shots around Ralph’s house with my Sony camera. He gave me permission to publish these images, so I thought you might enjoy them.

The geometry in each photo is warped because the camera flattens about 180 degrees of perspective into a rectangular image. Still, I love the effect. Here they are:

—

Ralph’s office, where he writes and checks his email. He likes Macs.
Ralph’s basement lab, where he has worked on his inventions for over 50 years.
Ralph’s main basement. To the right sits his shelved display of toy inventions.

—

Overall, it was an amazing trip. I am not the first journalist, nor will I be the last, to visit him. But I still feel lucky that I had a chance to explore the world of a renowned inventor up close.

Some time in the future, I will write about the visit in more detail. But for now, I thought you might enjoy checking out these photos.

The Excitement of a Game. The Mind of a Computer. The Soul of an Edsel.

The Odyssey 2, released in 1978, ranks among the most misunderstood video game consoles. It boasted more CPU intelligence than the Atari 2600, but it lacked the licensed arcade titles and third-party developers to make it competitive over the long run. While its games were mostly clones of popular games on other systems, the console played host to a few interesting curiosities like The Voice, a speech synthesis module, and The Quest for the Rings, a beautiful board game that tied into the Odyssey 2 console.

The Odyssey 2 also included a built-in keyboard (a very poor membrane model), which I believe might be the only time such a thing has happened — unless you count certain home PCs as video game consoles.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What’s your favorite Odyssey 2 game? If you have one, that is.

—
If you liked this, check out these related Retro Scans:

• The Voice — Odyssey 2 Speech Synthesizer (2007)
• 46 Odyssey² Games (2007)
• “So You Want to Be a Video Games Inventor” (2006)

HERE THEY ARE! Your HOT Game Genie CODES for MORTAL KOMBAT!

I picked up this 5-inch by 2-inch Game Genie flyer/note at a local store (probably Toys’R’Us or K-Mart) in the early 1990s. Back then, Galoob printed up pads of these miniature flyers that would then be attached to retailer shelves near new games for sale. The pads looked much like office note blocks; a hard dry layer of glue covered the top side of the stack, allowing people to pull the flyers off one at a time.

I presume that Galoob distributed these flyers to stores as marketing tools. Since newly released games did not appear in Game Genie code books printed years before (such was the case with Mortal Kombat, seen here), these flyers provided an opportunity to both prove that the Game Genie was still relevant and to also to suggest the benefits of owning a Game Genie (“wow, infinite lives!”) to people buying the game.

While I owned a Game Genie when I acquired this historical morsel, I’m pretty sure I didn’t own Mortal Kombat at the time. I grabbed the flyer because I saved anything and everything video game related that I could get my hands on, which is why I still have it today.

Discussion Topic of the Week: Do you remember seeing flyers like this in stores? Tell us about your experience.

The Visual 102 Graphics Terminal

Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever used a serial terminal with graphics capabilities (and actually used it with graphics)? Tell us about it.

Ouch. Get off my hand, you tiny mounted knight.

Few magazine covers represent the playful optimism of the early Internet craze years like this cover of PopSci for Kids from 1995. Before the public understood what the Internet really meant, it was up to journalists (who usually didn’t know either) to tell them. This resulted in lots of visual hyperbole (see children happily trapped inside a computer above) and colorful metaphors like “surfin’ the net” to convey the energy and potential of something that, in reality, looked rather mundane on the screen.

Did these whimsical and exaggerated media tactics succeed? I think so, because that little thing called The Internet became much more popular than even journalists in 1995 could imagine. There is no doubt that the media played a large part in popularizing the global computer network in its early public years.

Discussion Topic of the Week: When was the first time you surfed the ‘Net? Did you feel like you were actually surfing on a digital surf board made of ones and zeros?

1980s breakthroughs in workplace ergonomics led to this optimal seating position.

Long before the gaming public considered Electronic Arts the worst company in America, EA made its name as a creative haven that valued its talent.

No, really.

EA went out of its way to convey a developer-friendly image in its early years, prominently featuring designers’ names in the company’s box art and marketing materials. Gamers bought into it, in large part, because EA developed and published some of the most advanced and highly regarded early home computer games of their time (think Archon, M.U.L.E., The Seven Cities of Gold, etc.). EA must have been doing something right.

Of course, things changed over the years. From a personal standpoint, I remember when public sentiment seemed to turn against Electronic Arts in the mid-1990s after it acquired legendary development house Origin (most famous for the Ultima series) and proceeded to drive it directly into the ground. Origin would not be the last highly regarded game development firm to suffer this fate at the hands of EA.

[ Continue reading [ Retro Scan of the Week ] When EA Wasn’t Evil » ]

In Memoriam: Jack Tramiel (1928-2012)
Founder of Commodore, ex-CEO of Atari Corp.

Twenty years ago this month, Microsoft released version 3.1 of its famous Windows operating system. At the time, however, Windows could not stand alone as a true OS by itself. Instead, it served as a sophisticated graphical shell that ran on top of command line MS-DOS.

Windows 3.1 introduced many innovations to the Windows product line, including TrueType fonts, baked-in multimedia support, and even the first appearance of the dreaded Windows Registry (really!).

In celebration of this anniversary, I produced a slideshow outlining some of Windows 3.1’s most important improvements and features for PC World. If nothing else, the custom screenshots should serve as a trip down memory lane for many folks. I hope you enjoy it.

This makes me want to watch Top Gun for some reason.

This magazine ad for Accolade’s Grand Prix Circuit (1988) reminds us of a time when folks were less kind to their hair — and when sunglasses engulfed half of your face.

It also reminds me of how wonderful it was when racing games switched to polygon-based graphics. If any video game genre benefited most from the shift from sprites to 3D polygons, it was racing. I mourned the loss of 2D pixel art in just about every game style except racing games, where the freedom of movement afforded by 3D environments heralded a new dawn for the genre.

Discussion Topic of the Week: What did your hair look like in the 1980s? Bonus points if you can link to a 1980s photo of yourself!