“8 Ways You Can Play Frogger at Your Pad.”

These days, big name games usually come out on a couple different platforms: Xbox 360 and PS3, and sometimes PC or Nintendo DS. But imagine a time when a standard multi-platform game release included eight computers and video game systems: Atari 5200, TI-99/4A, Atari 400/800/600XL, Intellivision, Commodore VIC-20, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and Colecovision.

That time was 1983, as seen in the ad for Frogger above. Thanks to the lack of a common standard in home computers at the time, there were actually far more than eight computer platforms available in the early 1980s, but some of the most major are listed above (along with the main video game consoles of the day). I bet it was an enormous effort to coordinate the development and release of all those different versions within a short window of time.

Discussion topic of the week: For those who were there: How many computers/consoles did you own simultaneously around 1983?

“Do You Believe in Magic?”

Discussion topic of the week: Commodore 64 fans — what’s your vote for the best C64 disk drive ever made?

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Discussion topic of the week: What’s your favorite classic (say, pre-1996) Konami game of all time?

“It’s as easy as a floppy.”

The Sony Digital Mavica FD-7 seemed so exciting back when it was new, and I wanted one. Its attractiveness stemmed from the cheap and familiar media it used for image storage: standard 3.5″ floppy disks. Most digital cameras of the day required expensive, obscure flash cards for storage and proprietary software to extract photos from the camera (through a painfully slow serial cable). With the FD-7, one needed only to insert the image disk into one’s computer floppy drive and copy the pictures off. But the technological price of this convenience was high: the camera’s maximum image resolution was 640×480 — anything bigger, and you’d only be able to fit a couple photos on a single 1.4 megabyte disk.

Funny enough, I recall ghost enthusiasts on the Internet circa 1998 picking the FD-7 as their camera of choice for its uncanny ability to capture vast flurries of out-of-focus dust (aka “ghost orbs”). That endorsement alone speaks volumes about the camera’s lackluster optical qualities. Also, this new breed of digital ghost hunters didn’t have to feel guilty about taking endless rolls of 35mm dust photos, which can get quite expensive to develop.

Discussion topic of the week: Tell us about the first digital camera you ever used. What brand was it, and what image resolution could it capture?

Rambo you are not.

Here’s another rare Atari 7800 video game ad from 1990, this time for Ikari Warriors. Previously, we’ve seen one for Alien Brigade. I’ve heard that the 7800 version of Ikari Warriors is pretty good, but I’ve never played it myself (well, maybe once on an emulator). Can anyone out there tell us what it’s like?

Trivia Alert: According to Wikipedia, Ikari Warriors’ theme and name were inspired by the film Rambo: First Blood Part II. The Japanese title of that movie contained the word “ikari,” which means “anger” in Japanese.

Discussion topic of the week: What’s your pick for the best movie in the Rambo series: First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III, or Rambo (the 2008 movie)?

Up now on Harry McCracken’s Technologizer is my latest VC&G-related freelance work: “15 Classic PC Design Mistakes,” a non-exhaustive analysis of various hardware and software design goofs in vintage computers. In it, I discuss the Apple III, Coleco Adam, TI-99/4A, Macintosh, and more. Feel free to take a look.

Through science, we’ve discovered ways of levitating our floppy diskettes.

Discussion topic of the week: Have you ever spilled a drink or any other liquid on your computer? How did you clean it up?

You could eat off of this logo.

This week, I present to you the TurboGrafx-16 logo in relatively high resolution lossless PNG format for all to use and enjoy (click on the image above for the big version). Nice and clean. I’ve always considered this logo to be an exceptional example of good graphic design.

Discussion topic of the week: What’s your favorite game system logo of all time?

You’ve probably heard of Epic Games by now — you know, the company behind Gears of War and the Unreal Engine. We read a lot about those blockbuster products these days, but Epic’s story stretches back much farther than that. For example, did you know that the very same Epic was once one of the world’s foremost shareware game publishers?

In January of this year, I had the immense honor of exploring Epic’s rich history in a sit-down interview with Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic. Over lunch at a local restaurant, we discussed his early programming years, the genesis of ZZT (Epic’s first game), Jill of the Jungle, Apogee Software, the shareware wars, his thoughts on id Software’s early work, the future of game graphics, and much more.

After some time on the back burner, this long, in-depth interview has finally seen the light of day over at Gamasutra. Shareware fans and general history computer buffs shouldn’t miss it. Heck, I did the interview and I’m reading it again. I hope you enjoy it.

The Un-Mouse (click for full advertisement)

Discussion topic of the week: This ad compares Macintosh and Windows environments circa 1990. So here we go: Which, in your opinion, was the superior computing experience: MS-DOS + Windows 3.0 or Mac System 6?