Ad of the Day #19

Remember when the big choice for printing was letter quality (daisy wheel) vs. dot matrix?

Here is a daisy wheel printer ad that struck me because Gutenberg is making gang symbols.

The Guten-Gangsta. Yo.

Ad of the Day #18

Although a number of ground breaking and classic games debuted on the Apple ][ and then were ported, one of my all time favorites debuted on the Atari in 1981 and was then ported to Apple and Commodore 64.

Ali-Baba and the 40 Thieves by Stuart Smith is just so spectacular for a number of reasons.

This role playing game had decent graphics and excellent sound (complete with middle eastern themes). Wonderful multi-player ability. Hilarious descriptions of combat and death.


You could venture out just as Ali-Baba or have a whole crew of people (up to 17!) to whoop ass on monsters and find treasure and the Princess.

I also love the random encounters with people and monsters - with names like Roy G. Biv (in case you've forgotten the acronym for rainbow colors) and an owl, aptly named as Dr. Who.

Wrapping Tolkien characters and monsters and modern pop culture into a role playing game in the milieu of the Arabian Nights? I'm sooo there.



Don't just take my word for it - take a look here:

http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?MENU=8&VERSION_ID=173

My sons, and their best friend, grew up together playing this game as a team. I always wanted Haroud el Large. I don't know why it's so much fun because the graphics suck, it takes forevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvverf to make each move, and did I say, "The graphics suck!" Yet, the guys always wanted to get together for a round of Ali. - Jim Kuchera

This was probably my favorite computer game of all time because it was best enjoyed in a large group. You didn't need to know anything about computers. You just needed to know how to have fun with other people. We always played with 6 or more people and the fact that you could attack other players made it all the more enjoyable. - Dragos

Ad of the Day #17

Much More. Roger. Moore. For the Spectravideo SV 318. Standard Q Branch Issue.

Ad of the Day #16

Would you believe, Don Adams of Get Smart fame, for Esprit terminals?

Ad of the Day #15

Moving on from comedians to a celebrity that makes sense for computer endorsement - in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Moon landing...Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut Walter Schira.

Ad of the Day #14

Bill Cosby for the TI 99. Jello Pudding not included.

Ad of the Day #13

The Twitterspace has requested, nay, demanded Alan Alda for celebrities week.


I've got more Alan Alada than you can shake a stethoscope at.







Nothing says "instant computer spokesperson creditibility" like a Korean War medical sitcom, so IBM went out and got everyone from M*A*S*H but Alan Alda:

Ad of the Day #12

It's celebrities week here at MacTV Industries - and our first celebrity spokesperson - Ladies & Gentlemen...William Shatner!

Ad of the Day #11 - Software Automated Mouth

For the Winter Warm Up 2008 Retrochallenge (which I, cough, cough, won for best hardware project) I coaxed the Talking Moose out of retirement at the half way point to wish fellow retrochallengers good luck. (inspired by Wgoodf's earlier use of a frickin cool spark printer.)

This time, I am bringing out an even older talking friend from 1982 - S.A.M. - short for Software Automatic Mouth - the first all software speech synthesizer. This really cool program could add speech to your Applesoft or Atari Basic programs.

8 bit speech isn't exactly crystal clear, but hey it's still a blast to get these old machines to talk. Sorry if it butchers your screen names...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZB_aS5RzJA

Ad of the Day #10

Little known fact of the day: Canadians have four arms. (Insert joke about carrying beer and/or fighting moose here, eh?)

Ad of the Day #9 - Pinhead

Sorry for the delay - a little drive across 9 states, and then 2 flights to get back home can cut into the retro time.

I'm back and ready to rock though.

This ad scared the crap out of me. 1983. Atari. Evil Clown. Yikes.

Ad of the Day #8 - E.M.S.

Back in the early 80s, as a student with no income, I would request the demo disks of all kinds of products/services I could never afford - just to get the floppy disk, which I would then initialize and put my own stuff on. I definitely recall General Motors' Buick doing a demo disk that was fairly interesting. The packaging was very nice as well, and my parents wondered what on earth I had "ordered" from Buick when it came in the mail.

When I did scrape together enough money to buy a box of 5 1/4" disks, the media of choice was Elephant Memory Systems.


According to the Wikipedia, it was a low end brand that eventually marketed itself as a high end brand. The article also points out that they used bright colors that really contrasted them from their boring competitors, who mostly used black, red, and blue for their disk media branding, and now that I think back, that is very true.

I do recall they also included a logo sticker or two with their disks, which most people would then stick on their disk caddys. I can't recall any of the other companies like Nashua, Verbatim, BASF, etc. doing anything similar.

Here is an excellent tribute site to EMS: http://home.comcast.net/~kevin_d_clark/ems/ - lots of great scans, including the memory pamphlet by " A. Wiley Pachyderm" :-)

So Retrochallengers - anybody else have a fond recollection of a media company?

Ad of the Day #7 - Alien Hell

I never played this one - but I love the name. For Atari.

Ad of the Day #6 - RIP Compuserve

I was surprised to hear that Compuserve was ending its dialup service after 30 years of service. The corporation itself began 4o years ago, in 1969.

I never had the service, I did have AOL briefly, and even used Apple's dialup/internet service E-World for a while, before switching to an ISP that I still use for dial up when broadband isn't available.

In locating these ads - I really remember the double page spread - it really showed the possibilities and made me want to get the service back when I was younger. I didn't have a modem, it would have tied up our family phone line and it was expensive - so I never subscribed.


I had forgotten that it was once a subsidiary of financial services company H&R Block. I was going to use this ad for the alcohol related theme from day 3 before I found the better ad with the Sierra On-Line folks.




With this 3rd one - I can see why Jennie needed a travel agent - she wanted to get away from her dork husband "Ralph" and her even dorkier son "Herbie".



I love the final paragraph from this UK story about Compuserve's demise:

It's important to note that CompuServe users will be able to convert their ridiculous classic 9 and 10-digit email addresses to the CompuServe 2000 service in order to retain their well-earned sense of superiority over youngster internet users everywhere. Nothing says stay off my lawn like 76453.1032@compuserve.com

Ad of the Day #5 - Our Computers

Looking over the 23 member Retrochallenge Roster, the platform breakdown is:

Apple II - 7
Apple Macintosh - 7
TRS-80 Model 100 - 2
Commodore 64 - 2
IBM Compatible - 2
Atari - 1
Vaxstation - 1
ZX80 - 1

I realize that all of us are using multiple computers - I categorized the above based on the major project the challenger was working on. I'm not trying to start a platform debate - just curious to see - because I wanted to look for ads for each of our major projects. I've tried to use the earliest ad for each platform I could find.

Apple II - notice the woman cutting apples and the apple poster in the kitchen.



Macintosh


TRS 80 Model 100


Commodore 64



IBM


Atari



Vaxstation - all I could find was a Swiss Brochure:




ZX80

Ad of the Day #4 - Marauder

I love Marauder the way fat kids love cake.

The initial part of the game - using your ship to destroy the enemy defenses - lasers, missles, smart bombs come at you while you try to blast away the shield.

Secondary level: The ship lands and you disembark to blow up the facility - robots try to prevent you from doing so:

Looking for the power station to blow up the place:

Ad of the Day #3 - Beer Run!

Continuing the alcohol theme. Beer Run, a Donkey Kong-esque game, where you try to collect beer while climbing up ladders and avoiding buzz killers and the Beer Baron.

I apologize for the crappily composited double page spread - no Photoshop on this particular machine. Beer Run is advertised in the lower left - notice that the blimp's gondola is actually a can opener!

Boot Screen:



Early Level - taking an elevator to the next set of platforms:



Falling after being hit by a buzz kill:

Ad of the Day #2

Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio

This is one of the first games I ever played on the Apple II. My brother had played it and told me about it.

Apparently it was one of the first "god" games, where you controlled a region and by building things and setting taxation rates, people either moved in or moved out (or died because you weren't feeding them). The goal was to lure serfs, merchants, noblemen and clergy so you could build an empire and become king.

This begat the whole Sim City/Sims genre.

One thing I never understood - why you couldn't find or breed cats to kill all the rats eating your grain! Starting Off:

Check out the Cathedral, Palace, Markets, and Wollen Mills:

Resource list screen after winning the game:

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Paravia_en_Fiumaccio

Play it now: http://www.virtualapple.org/santaparaviaandfiumacciodisk.html

Ad of the Day #1

Guitar Hero for the Apple II!