In honor of The Legend of Zelda’s 25th anniversary, I dug through the historical record and came out with a dozen Zelda oddities for you to enjoy. The result is over at Technologizer with an intro slide designed by Harry McCracken.
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Previous entries in Benj’s “Oddities” series:
Super Mario Oddities
Nintendo Entertainment System Oddities
Game Boy Oddities
Windows Oddities
Click above for double page scan.
The Legend of Zelda turns 25 today, having been released on the Famicom Disk System in Japan way back on February 21st, 1986.
Here’s a page (two if you click above) from the lengthy “Tips & Tactics” instruction manual that shipped with every copy of Nintendo’s famous adventure game (at least in the early days). This booklet contained maps and hints to help players navigate through a wholly new gaming experience in the video game console realm at the time.
It is hard to relate today — to those who did not experience it first hand — the feeling when we first encountered The Legend of Zelda upon its release in 1987 (over here in the ‘States). It was epic. Magical. Awe-inspiring. Zelda continued a trend of groundbreaking NES gameplay that started for many with Super Mario Bros. a year or two before.
Those first gaming experiences on the NES — rounded out by titles like Metroid and Kid Icarus — are what won Nintendo’s first console a place in the hearts of an entire generation of kids around the world.
For more on the anniversary, check out my The Legend of Zelda Oddities slideshow over at Technologizer.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Tell us about the first time you played The Legend of Zelda. What was the experience like? How old were you at the time?
Lovers or Strangers: A relationship compatibility program for the Apple II.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever played a romantic or risque computer game? Tell us about it (anonymously if you have to).
In Memoriam: Ken Olsen (1926-2011), co-founder and ex-CEO of DEC.
You can now buy a $5 pregnancy test that casually wields more CPU power than an Apple II. The Xbox S controller — by itself — packs more raw processing muscle than a SNES.
Those are merely two of the fascinating things you’ll learn if you check out my latest feature for PCmag.com, “The Secret World of Embedded Computers.” It’s a dee-luxe slideshow that reveals computers at the heart of surprising consumer gadgets.
There are also a couple shout-outs for vintage technology in there (not quite as surprising), so the slideshow is at least somewhat VC&G-relevant. Hope you enjoy it.
A Cybiko ad spoofing stereotypical Japanese zaniness.
The Cybiko was a bizarre handheld device of mixed lineage: I’d call it 1/3 game console and 2/3 handheld PC. It sought to be a PDA for kids, so it incorporated both gaming and organizer software. It also included a very novel feature at the time: wireless connectivity. Cybiko units could send each other text-based messages, share software, and play games via a built-in radio transmitter.
Owners could hook up the Cybiko to their PC to download new software from the Internet. Cybiko, Inc. encouraged homebrew development for the machine in either C or CyBasic (a BASIC variant), which helped maintain popular interest in Cybiko for a few years longer than it would have otherwise.
Despite those efforts, Cybiko was never particularly successful. The company tried again with the Cybiko Xtreme in 2001. No such luck there either.
I picked up one of the original “Classic” models on clearance back in the day. Its biggest drawbacks were the dreadfully sluggish speed of the software interface, the heavily-ghosting greyscale LCD screen, and the bizarre layout of the buttons and directional pad on the unit. Oddly, the Cybiko included a pull-out stylus to help you press its tiny QWERTY keyboard buttons. Also, I remember it being very tricky to hook the Cybiko to your PC to get new software.
I later picked up a revision 2 Cybiko Classic with the MP3 Player add-on at a Hamfest. I never did much with the gadgets, though. Cybikos included a rechargable battery — I remember seeing one leaking already a few years ago. So if you have one, take out the battery before it ruins your unit.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Have you ever owned or used a Cybiko? What did you think about it?
Last night, PC World posted my latest history-flavored slideshow on their site. It’s a visual survey of dial-up modem history that they titled “Modems: 60 Years of Hooking Up.”
I wanted to go into more detail, but it was hard to find good quality pictures of old modems. That’s unsurprising because modems not devices that folks celebrate as often as, say, computers themselves. My personal book collection on modems came in handy, but the muddy black and white photos printed there are as clear as molasses.
(By the way, if anyone out there has photos of a Racal-Vadic VA3400 or a Bell 212A data set, please let me know. Those would come in handy for a more complete history of modems in the future.)
I didn’t go into more detail about non-dial-up modems (i.e. ISDN, DSL, Cable, wireless, or satellite) because you could fill a whole slideshow on the history of each of those separately, and I was already running a bit behind from trying to find photos of dial-up modems. But hey, the result should still be entertaining and informative.
I hope you enjoy it.
As of today, I have posted a Retro Scan of the Week every Monday for five years. That’s 263 entries total — each post containing at least one scan of something deliciously vintage for you and yours to enjoy.
But wait a minute. Let’s back up a bit to the “every Monday for five years” part. I can’t quite believe that. Have I really been doing these scans for five years? Every single week? Dear God. As crazy as it sounds, the answer is yes.
I hear some of you chanting “speech,” (or maybe that’s just the audience of one inside by head) so I will say a few words of reflection.
Weight of moon > weight of world? Termina must be a small place.
(click image above to see full ad)
Despite what you see above, the game featured in this double page advertisement is not set in New York City. It’s set in Termina, a weird place where kids wear lots of masks to get things done. And like Groundhog Day, time keeps looping until you do everything just so. The perpetual déjà vu can be frustrating — nay, maddening. But it may also be genius, and a small subset of loyal Zelda fans call The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask one of the best titles in the series.
It also turned ten years old last November. Happy birthday!
P.S. This scan marks five years of Retro Scan of the Week. Read more about it here.
Discussion Topic of the Week: How do you feel Majora’s Mask ranks in the pantheon of Zelda games? Near the top? Near the bottom?
I Am Not Luke Skywalker
Back in the mid-1990s, Mark Hamill hosted a show called “.com” on CNBC. Few people remember it. I don’t think I’d heard of it until I stumbled across the ad scanned above a few months ago.
You may be able to eke out a few more details by digging through the show’s official website on the Internet Archive. That’s where I found this bio of Mark Hamill himself:
Mark Hamill is the host of the “.com” television series.
He also stars as Col. Christopher Blair in ORIGIN System’s award-winning interactive computer action series Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom. Mark is best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in one of the most popular and successful movie trilogy of all time, the Star Wars saga. Most recently, Hamill has been heard as the voice of the Joker in both the Batman animated television series and the theatrical animated feature Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
The Internet Archive is also where I found this photo of Mark Hamill hosting a show called “My Kids,” which was produced by the same company. I honestly don’t know any more than that.
This looks like a good job for the VC&G reader-sleuths to put together a more complete history of this long-forgotten TV show. Anyone up for the task?
Discussion Topic of the Week: Did you ever see the “.com” TV show while it was on the air? Tell us your memories of it.
