________________________________________________ / \ | _________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | DOS & Don'ts | | | | | | | | A Modern Newsletter | | | | for Vintage-minded Folks | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | C:\>Issue #3 January 2024)_ | | | |_________________________________________| | | | \_________________________________________________/ \___________________________________/ ___________________________________________ _-' .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. --- `-_ _-'.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--. .-.-.`-_ _-'.-.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-`__`. .-.-.-.`-_ :---------------------------------------------------------------: `---._.---------------------------------------------------._.---' ------------------ In this Issue... ------------------ Features ---------- Bushnell, Baer, Brock and Fechter: Pioneers of Entertainment, BlueMSX Showbiz Pizza Place, Grizzly Adam The Advantages of Cartridges for Computers and Game Systems, Joe Collett Die Hard: Still A Christmas Classic, Yousef Gaming and Robotics - Part Two, BlueMSX Tandy 1000/SL - My First PC, Joe Collett Guest Pieces -------------- Invincible, Brandon Cobb Columns --------- The Latent Image, Jon Mullin Retro Living in a Modern World, Grizzly Adam Bits & Bytes -------------- Our Readers' Retro Memories Classifieds Ads ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o) (o) (o) (o) (\,/) Bushnell, Baer, Brock and Fechter: .-===-. (o) (o) oo '''//, _ Pioneers of Entertainment // o o\\ (o) (o) ,/_;~, \, / ' || o o o || (o) (o) "' \ ( \ ! by \\ o o // (o) (o) ',| \ |__.' BlueMSX `-===-' (o) (o) '~ '~----'' (o) (o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o) Nolan Bushnell's association with Atari is common knowledge, but you prob- ably haven't heard of his other projects over the years that vary from one another as much as the wind, the sun, and the rain. After getting his degree in electrical engineering and learning about business at the University of Utah, Bushnell was one of the lucky few to have tried the groundbreaking new game called Spacewar! on his school's mainframe. Using his education and building on experience he gained by working at Lagoon Amusement Park, Bushnell decided to enter the field of coin-operated arcade games. He had a desire to bring electronic games like Spacewar! to a larger audience. Bushnell formed Syzygy with his friend Ted Dabney and in conjunction with Nutting Associates (not to be confused with Dave Nutting Associates) would release a clone of Spacewar! called Computer Space. This was the first coin-operated electronic arcade game of its type. While the game was a commercial failure, it did help Bushnell to learn the market. Following a trademark dispute the name Syzygy would be dropped, which would lead to the company being properly incorporated as Atari. At this time I need to mention Ralph Baer. Baer was an electronics engineer who, like Bushnell, had been wanting to make a device that could play games on a television set as far back as the 1950s. The company he was working for, Loral, had little interest in his idea. It wasn't until the prices of television sets dropped in the late 1960s that his supervisor at Sanders Associates allowed him to proceed. With $2,500 and the help of his fellow Engineers Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch, Bear would create a prototype game system. Dubbed the brown box for its wood grain finish, the prototype would be completed and Patented on April 17th, 1973. After seeing a demonstration of Ralph Baer's brown box, Nolan Bushnell would create PONG. While similar to the tennis game demo that Bushnell had just seen, with PONG he would simplify the control scheme and introduce what would become known as the paddle controller. Pong would become Atari's first big success. Magnavox, who was now working with Baer and selling his brown box as the Odyssey, would successfully sue Atari for patent infringement. Through Pong's Success, Atari would go on to make many Famous Arcade Games such as Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, and Break Out. Atari would soon enter the home market with stand-alone systems that would connect to television sets. This would pave the way for the eventual release of the popular Atari Video Computer System (VCS), which would later be known as the Atari 2600. Around the same time, Bushnell would spearhead a new pro- ject that combined a restaurant with an arcade and audio animatronics. Pioneered by Disney, audio animatronics are motor driven robots whose move- ments are controlled by the unheard audio on the show tapes. A show tape contained not only the show audio, but also the programming used to control the performers. Bushnell has a great affinity for Disney's Country Bear Jamboree and had previously hoped to work for them. Bushnell, impressed by their work at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Amusement Expo, brought in Fantasy Forest to create the costumes for what would become Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater. He adored their Coyote Costume, which he felt would be perfect for his new restaurant. When the costume arrived at Atari, with its pink worm-like tail it became clear that it was a rat! He would come to be known as "Chuck E. Cheese." Warner Communications, Atari's current parent company, would soon lose interest in the project and Bushnell would buy Pizza Time Theater to spin it off into its own company under his direction. It's here where our story takes a turn. Aaron Fechter's company, Creative Engineering, was founded to create a small car called the Jutta that was capable of driving 90 miles on a single tank of Gas. The company had pivoted to robotics and were showing off their animated creations at the IAAPA expo. Friendly Freddy, one of their earlier models, would catch Bushnell's attention. Freddy was an animatronic Bear that mimicked the Country Bear Jamboree. Bushnell introduced Fechter to his concept of a pizza restaurant with animated characters and asked him to come onboard. Other companies Fetcher had worked with in the past would reverse engineer his designs, wasting his time and stealing his work. He turned down Bushnell's offer for fear of history repeating itself. At the following year's IAAPA expo. Creative Engineering had not one but two Animatronic Shows in the form of the Hard Luck Bears and the Wolf Pack Five. Having been impressed by what he'd seen, Bushnell would approach Fechter once more, reportedly offering to buy his company outright this time. The details of this meeting remain shrouded in mystery, as we only have Fechter's side of the story. Fechter claims Bushnell attempted to use Atari stock to complete the purchase. With his prior worries he turned the deal down. Bushnell seems to have never commented on the potential buy-out, but prior history would suggest that it was unlikely that it happened as Fechter stated. Bushnell was no longer with Atari, having recently parted ways with his former employer, purchasing the rights to Pizza Time Theater on his way out. With the Creative deal lost, Bushnell would tell the others to not bother with Fechter and hired Fantasy Forest to create the animatronics. With Bushnell's purchase of Pizza Time Theater, he would soon begin look- ing for potential franchisees. One interested party was Bob Brock whose company Topeka Inn Management was the largest franchise holder of Holiday Inn Hotels in the United States. It was agreed that Brock would open 200 new Pizza Time Theater franchise locations in 16 states, with 86 more to further franchise. However, the deal would not last long. Upon a visit to the IAAPA .-------------------------------------------. Expo, Brock would see | .---------------------------------------. | first-hand how quickly | | | | animatronic technology was | | SEND US LETTERS | | advancing. Creative was | | | | showing off The Hard | | We want your interactions! | | Luck Bears and Wolf Pack | | Respond to any of our articles | | 5, which made the Pizza | | with your own thoughts and | | Time Theater Robots seem | | we will publish them in | | primitive by comparison. | | our next issue! | | To make matters worse, | | | | other company's shows such | | Letters can be submitted at | | as The Hot Fudge and | | http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org | | Family Album had been | |_______________________________________| | installed at locations due |___________________________________________| to production issues with Pizza Time Theater's robots. Brock hastily decided that he did not want to compete against Creative and would terminate his contract with Bushnell. The partnership between Brock and Creative would create ShowBiz Pizza Place. The restaurant's home band, The Rock-afire Explosion, would be created using aspects of Creative's previous shows and with writing geared towards an older audience. Rapid expansion and the video game crash of 1983 would hurt both companies, but Bushnell's company would take the worst of it. Ultimately Pizza Time Theater would end up declaring bankruptcy and have all of their assets purchased by ShowBiz. The two companies would then be merged into a single corporation called ShowBiz Pizza Time. Massive efforts would take place over the next few years to merge the two rival companies into one consolidated and profitable business. Despite this, both would remain separate restaurant chains. The names of the restaurants were simplified to ShowBiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza. Creative Engineering's involvement would begin to wane around this time as the new terms of their partnership meant that ShowBiz Pizza no longer had exclusive rights to the Rock-afire Explosion. This meant Creative could sell the Rocka-fire shows and related materials to Showbiz's competitors. Soon ShowBiz was creating their own show tapes and experimenting with the Rock-afire shows-- all without Creative's or Fechter's involvement. This would ultimately lead to ShowBiz Pizza Time attempting to purchase the character rights to the Rock-afire Explosion from Creative to no success. Ultimately "Concept Unification" would occur, in which all the ShowBiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese restaurants would be unified under the Chuck E. Cheese's banner. This would lead to the alterations of both restaurants in an effort to give a consistent customer experience. All Rock-afire Explosion and any remaining Pizza Time Theater era shows were retrofitted into the all-new Munch's Make Believe Band. With that Creative and The Rock-afire Explosion would effectively be removed from the picture. Brock would soon spin off Chuck E Cheese as its own business before leaving the company for new horizons. Creative would in the years after attempt to recapture their initial success with a number of other animatronic shows and projects such as the Moonrockers, the New Rock-afire Explosion/Mijins Show, and even a Wizard of Oz themed show. With the waning popularity of audio animatronic shows at the time however, none matched the level of success they'd had before. Ultimately Fechter would lay off his entire staff. Ralph Baer, on the other hand, would capture new success by doing to Atari nearly exactly what they had done to him with his brown box. In 1974 Atari would release a new arcade Game called Touch Me. It consisted of a pedestal with four large red illuminated buttons fixed atop. The buttons would flash in random sequences and the player would repeat back those patterns. The difficulty would gradually increase over time. The game was unpopular with arcade operators due to its larger size and the shrill noises it made. Baer would look at the Concept of the game to make his own version of it. He made it much smaller, made the buttons different colors, and made the sounds harmonic. He called it Simon, and to this day it's fondly remembered as one of the best-selling toys of its time. Baer himself would live comfortably until his passing in 2014, having left an incredible legacy. Bob Brock would continue in the restaurant business for many years after cutting ties with Chuck E. Cheese until his passing in 1998. Fetcher and Creative have, in comparison to the others, done little in the years since aside from a few arcade games and some Rock-afire Explosion related projects. Creative would briefly venture into alternative fuel with "Hydrillium" which didn't rock the world in the manner expected. It's now best known for causing an explosion in their warehouse. Bushnell would go on to create a number of things in the years after Pizza Time Theater that are still in use today. His company Etak created the first digitized maps for an automotive navigation system. These very same maps would be the basis for Google Maps, used by millions of People all over the world! Each of these pioneers made amazing contributions to gaming and entertain- ment, blazing the trail for so many things still used and loved today. From Pong to Simon, Chuck E. Cheese to ShowBiz Pizza, the memories of their creations are held onto and fondly remembered by those who enjoyed them and from the stories they tell. Life is not measured by its ups and downs-- both are as impermanent as a sandcastle is to the tides. What truly matters is having the strength to keep moving forward and to, with any luck, leave a positive impact that will be remembered for decades to come. Inspiration can come at any time, at any place, and for any reason. Sometimes all it takes is that one missing piece. Happy gaming! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About BlueMSX: BlueMSX, Blue for short, enjoys retro technologies, history, and learning for the sake of learning. She has been interested in retro electronics and media for nearly as long as she can remember. This fascination means that she has a lot of great stories to recount. Blue's philosophy can be summed up by the quote, "History is like a puzzle-- the more pieces you have the more sense it makes." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [o][o][o] [o] _____ [o] [o] / ___ \ [o] [o][o] __/ / \ \__ [o][o] [o] / / \ \ [o] [o][o][o][o] / /\ \ / /\ \ [o][o][o][o] [o] ________________/ / \ \ / / \ \________________ [o] [o] / ________________/____\ \_/ /____\_______________ \ [o] [o] / /| _____ _ _____ _ |\ \ [o] [o] /( ( | | __| |_ ___ _ _ _| __ |_|___ | ) )\ [o] [o] / /\ \| |__ | | . | | | | __ -| |- _| |/ /\ \ [o] [o] ( ( | | |_____|_|_|___|_____|_____|_|___| | | ) ) [o] [o] \ \/ /| _____ _ _____ _ |\ \/ / [o] [o] \( ( | | _ |_|___ ___ ___ | _ | |___ ___ ___ | ) )/ [o] [o] \ \| | __| |--_|--_| .'| | __| | .'| _| -_| |/ / [o] [o] \ |_ |__| |_|___|___|__,| |__| |_|__,|___|___| _| / [o] [o] \___ | _____/ [o] [o] | |__________by Grizzly Adam___________| | [o] [o] |________________________________________| [o] [o] [o] [o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o][o] I grew up in seedy bars playing pool, darts, and video games while listen- ing to live music. My Dad was in a traveling band that took us all over the midwest. I've often heard that bars are no place for kids, but I never fully understood that sentiment. My favourite place in the world when I was a kid certainly felt like it was a bar. It had the same type of games, live music, and served beer to the adults-- but it was billed as the place "where a kid can be a kid." These are my recollections of ShowBiz Pizza Place. The first time that I experienced ShowBiz Pizza I was very young. I do not remember it clearly, but it was probably 1984. My parents and I were traveling and we had my cousin Susie with us, which means it was likely that we were on our way back from one of the band's gigs. Susie's mother played lap steel and sang in the band, and her stepfather would soon join as the drummer. It was just my parents, my grandparents, Susie and me-- my brother was probably riding with Susie's parents and brother. Susie and I were the same age, and so were our brothers. When we arrived at the restaurant, _______________________________ we were seated in a round booth and | A Brief History of Pizza Time | ordered a couple pizzas and some | Theatre, Chuck E. Cheese and | drinks. The waitstaff said that a |_______ShowBiz_Pizza_Place_____| show would be starting shortly. "What kind of show?" I wondered as I drank The year is 1978. Nolan Bushnell orange soda out of my plastic ShowBiz had just left Atari and purchased cup. Dad pointed towards the stage Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time and explained that there was going to Theatre, a combination restaurant be something special when the cur- and arcade, from Atari's parent tains opened. I munched happily on my company Warner Communications. The pizza as I imagined what could be be- restaurant had been a pet project hind that curtain. Nothing that I of Bushnell's at Atari, but the thought of could hold a candle to company as a whole had given up on what I saw that day: the Rock-afire it. Arcades as a stand-alone Explosion! business were not common yet and video games were often found in When the curtains opened and the bars, bowling alleys, and some band began to play, I was enamored. other less than kid-friendly A keyboard playing gorilla named Fatz spaces. was dripping with charm and charisma. There was a drumming dog named Dook It was Busnhell's mission to that, with his shiny silver space bring arcades to the youth. In the suit, looked like he was from another process, he added animatronic per- planet. Beach Bear had a shiny silver formers in the vein of Disney's guitar that I was convinced he got Country Bear Jamboree. Bushnell from Dook. The head stock was modeled soon found himself working with after a Fender and reminded me of the hotel mogul Robert Brock. Brock, guitar that Dad played. The dude however, would soon meet Aaron couldn't be even bothered to stand Fechter of Creative Engineering, up, that's how serious he took his Inc. (CEI), recognize the superior- commitment to "beach." There was also ity of CEI's animatronics and would a female rodent cheerleader named form ShowBiz Pizza Place with them Mitzi; to me she seemed a little out in 1979. Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza of place with the rest of the band. Time Theatre would file for bank- Other strange wonders included a ruptcy and be acquired by ShowBiz dancing bear cub named Choo-choo and in 1984. a birthday spider named Antioch. Beside the main show stage, there Although under the same umbrella, were two additional stages. On one the two restaurants would function stage, a witty wolf named Rolfe per- independently for the next five formed an insult-comedy show. Rolfe years. The company, now called was accompanied by his comedy partner ShowBiz Pizza Time, would begin (and ventriloquist puppet) Earl. trading shares on the stock market Rolfe tended to rub Fatz the wrong in 1989. At the same time, the com- way, with Fatz often threatening pany began their infamous Concept physical violence. The other stage Unification-- merging the two rest- was decorated to look like a run-down aurants into one. Controversially, petrol station and featured a hill- they decided to go with the less billy bear wearing red and yellow popular Chuck E. Cheese characters striped overalls named Billy Bob. He to avoid paying royalties to CEI had a square, homemade looking in- and Aaron Fechter. According to strument with four strings-- probably Fechter, the company attempted to a banjo or bass guitar of some sort. acquire the rights for CEI's ani- The yellow Birthday Bird sat on the matronics and stage shows with neck of Billy Bob's instrument. Stage nothing in exchange. This claim right of Billy Bob sat a blue barrel seems fishy, and Fechter's apparent of discarded oil where Looney Bird bitterness makes one question his lived. He would serve as comic account of the story. relief. The final ShowBiz Pizza Place The band performed a wide variety of locations were converted to Chuck songs, with each member taking the E. Cheese in 1994. It was announced spotlight from time to time. Billy in 2017 that all remaining anima- Bob even performed with the other tronics would be removed and re- musicians from time to time. Rolfe placed with DVD/multimedia shows. broke up the show with his comedy In 2023 the company opted to con- stylings. All in all, it was a magic- tinue using animatronics in its al and memorable event that I still Northridge, California location-- think about to this day. I don't know making it the only Chuck E. Cheese that I knew what animatronics were at restaurant that will be retaining the time, and *spoiler alert* that is its animatronic stage. what the band was-- some of the most sophisticated animatronics on the planet, designed by Creative Engineering, Inc (CEI). For me, the arcade, tokens, tickets, and prizes never held a candle to the animatronics. I was lucky enough to visit ShowBiz three more times in my life. The next time was with my cousin Katie, from the other side of the family. That would be the last time that I saw the stage show. The final two visits were one after the other, for my 10th birthday party and then back to the other side of the family for another cousin's birthday party six months later. My final memories of ShowBiz Pizza place revolve around the birthday cake. It was a chocolate sheet cake with ice cream between the layers and frosting on the outside. This was, hands down, the best cake that I ever had! A couple of years later, we moved from the area and I never made it back again before the doors were forever closed. Oh bother. ___________________________________________ | | | Editor's note: Write in and tell us | | YOUR ShowBiz and Chuck E. Cheese memories | |___________________________________________| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Grizzly Adam: Grizz is one of those eccentrics that you read about. The type that people say marches to the beat of their own drum. His hobbies include writing, computers, electronics, telephone systems, pyromania, and lawn care. Grizz's Website: grizz.atwebpages.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.- .-.-. / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ /-' `-`-' / `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' /`-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-\ | / / / / _____________ | | / The Advantages of Cartridges / / _ /| | | / for Computers and Game Systems / / o o o > ) / | | | / A Quick Overview / /____________/ / | | / /by Joe Collett / | pacman | / | | / / / / |____________|/ | | .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.-. .-.- .-.-. | | / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ / / \ \ | `-' `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-`-' `-` Cartridges were once one of the most common distribution formats for com- puter software and for video games. Plugging a Space Invaders cartridge into a 2600 would convert it into a dedicated Space Invaders machine upon power up. Similarly, installing an Instawriter cart into a Commodore 64 would boot the computer straight into the Instawriter software. A cartridge is a small circuit board containing data and other items enclosed with a protective plastic shell. The cartridges are inserted into the computer or console and automatically execute the code contained within on bootup. One reason cartridges were used so often is because they are not easily damaged or destroyed. A cassette tape or disk can be damaged by dust, moderate heat, moisture, or by getting too close to a magnetic field. Cart- ridges were less sensitive to these issues, and the plastic shell added extra armor. The Atari 2600's game cartridges even self-sealed after being taken out of the console, keeping out things that could damage it. If some- one were to accidentally spill a small amount of water on one of these carts, it would be fine. A cassette or disk… nope. Cartridges could also add functionality to a device. They can add more RAM, patch or bypass the system ROM, or otherwise expand the hardware. Star Fox, for example, added an extra graphics processing unit to the system to generate 3D graphics. The Legend of Zelda would allow you to save game data instead of using a password system. Some cartridges for the Atari 2600 and for the NES included expanded sound capabilities. The list goes on and on! These hardware cartridges could improve a system's longevity by expanding the base system. With all of these advantages, why did cartridges fall out of favor? There were several factors. As manufacturing of magnetic media got better, the newer disks were not as easily damaged. Disks were also being manufactured in higher capacities, and eventually CD-ROMs came along with an amount of storage only heard of on hard drives. To put a game with full motion video clips and a CD quality sound track on a cartridge was suddenly more expens- ive compared to the CD-ROM disc. Even though cartridges have not been the standard for quite some time now, they are still with us. They have long been popular in the handheld market, and are used by The Switch, Nintendo's current console. Due to the vulner- abilities of the cassette and disks, older software stored on these mediums is degrading and being lost daily as time goes on. CD-ROMs are suffering the same fate if not stored properly. Cartridges, however, are holding up much better, allowing for the archiving of many older games and software that could have otherwise been lost or forgotten. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Joe Collett: Joe has been working with retro machines since he was a kid and the computers were new. He never lost his love of those early machines. His day job as a desktop support tech allows him to work with the newest machines, but he will always have a soft spot for the old machines and software that made the modern world possible. Joe's Website: comfortablynumb.atwebpages.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______ _____ __ _____ __ __ ___ _____ _____ ||^^^^^|| AHH! || ) || ||== ||==|| ||=|| ||_// || )) ||.:::.|| | ||_// || ||___ || || || || || \\ ||_// //.:::::.\\ o>-< ||:::::::|| ---------Still A Christmas Classic------- __||_ ::: _||__ by |.::|.:::.|::.| Yousef _|:::|:::::|:::|_ |"""""|"""""|"""""| --..,___.--,--'`,---..-.--+--.,,-,,..._.--..-._.-_:`--.--..,___.--,--'`,--- I recently had the privilege of attending a screening of a 35 year old film as part of a classic movies program. The screening was at the 1954 Film House, a theater with a museum-like ambiance located in the Al Kout Mall (in Ahmadi, another Kuwaiti governorate situated south of Kuwait and bordering Saudi Arabia). The latest inclusion in these contemporary screen -ings of timeless films is the perennial holiday favorite, "Die Hard." There are arguably few Christmas films that can rival its legacy and uniqueness. The film takes place during Christmas Eve and opens up with John McClane (played by the charismatic Bruce Willis), an NYPD detective arriving in LA to meet his wife. So far it's all standard stuff and there seems to be some tension between John and his spouse, hinting at a past conflict. Not long after the tower they're in, Nakatomi Plaza, is captured and everyone is held hostage by a group of German terrorists. The baddies are led by the movie's antagonist Hans Gruber (portrayed by the late Alan Rickman). Unbeknownst to them however, Officer McClane is on the floor above. ______________________________ / \ \ This gives McClane a moment to | | The DOS & Don'ts | call emergency services. Unfort- \_ | Newsletter | unately, his call is mistaken for | is | a prank. This hilariously leads to | Looking for Authors | the iconic line, "Do I sound like | to write articles on | I'm ordering pizza?" To keep his | retro subjects that they | presence undetected, he also | are passionate about. | removes his shoes. Lucky for | | McClane, LAPD Sergeant Al Powell | Sound like you? | (played by Reginald VelJohnson, | Contact Grizz at | best known as Officer Carl Winslow | grizzsoft@gmail.com | on TV's Family Matters) arrives on | _________________________|___ scene outside Nakatomi Plaza and | / / slowly learns of the dire situation \_/____________________________/ within. Not long after he forms an unexpected friendship with McClane via the walkie-talkie, giving strong buddy-cop film vibes a la Lethal Weapon, another iconic '80s hit which came out the year before. Fun fact! Everything slowly builds towards a climax as the terrorists become aware of McClane's presence within the Tower. The NYPD detective soon receives a threatening message via walkie-talkie from Gruber asking, "do you really think you stand a chance?" McClane responds only with the incredible line "Yippie-ki-yay, motherf—er!". Soon McClane is confronted by one of the Germans, which leads to one of this film's most iconic scenes wherein McClane throws C4 (plastic explosive) down an elevator shaft. One of the most talked about moments in this film is when McClane, still barefoot, must walk across shattered glass. At the movie's conclusion (spoiler alert) McClane overcomes Hans Gruber in a battle of wits. Gruber poses as a hostage in his first face to face meet- ing with McClane. Seeming to fall for the ruse, McClane hands Gruber one of his machine guns. The gun given to Gruber proves to be empty, leading to Gruber plummeting from the top of Nakatomi Plaza. Die Hard is said to be responsible for revitalizing the action genre and it's not difficult to see why. It's always cited as one of the greatest films of all time and it's a fantastic Christmas film on top of everything. With the holiday season still hanging on by a thread, this is not a bad time to revisit this film. It was an honor being able to attend a re- screening of it here in Kuwait and I look forward to future screenings of other classics. Happy holidays! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Yousef: Yousef is an avid game completionist, languages nerd, and an all-around cuisine-nut. He is passionate about cooking, traveling, languages, and learning about other cultures. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 101 i{AH!}i Gaming and Robotics: ,--. 010 010 \["] [*] An Obscure Connection |** | 101 101 [X]\ -[~]\_ * * * * * * * Part Two * * * * * * * * |@ \\| 010 010 \ \ OoO)) By BlueMSX |__|o\ 101 101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010 010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010102 Atari, while best known for classic games like Asteroids, Tempest,and Centipede, also dabbled in many experimental technologies. Kermit was a robot made by Ron Milner under the direction of Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell wanted a robot made who could navigate rooms using barcodes. Kermit was made primarily from off the shelf parts available at the time, such as ultrasonic range detectors for his eyes, burglar tape from a security system to prevent him from hitting walls, DC motors for locomotion, and a clear salad bowl acting as a head cover. Kermit came complete with a wig, a speaker for R2D2 style beeps, and a MOS KIM-1 single board computer to tie everything together. Later on the barcode system that Bushnell wanted was added using similar technology to that used in Nintendo's ROB the robot, but with components that allowed him to read the barcodes from nearly 20 feet away! Eventually Kermit was demonstrated in front of Bushnell who was greatly impressed by the concept in action, even giving Kermit an Atari employee ID badge. Sadly, the Kermit would end up being decommissioned after sustaining heavy damage from a fall down a flight of stairs. Miller did state a while back that he hopes to restore him to an operational state at some point. Like many other projects at Atari at the time, the Kermit project would end up being dropped due to corporate restructuring. But Kermit's legacy did not end with him. Around 1983 another robot using similar technology to Kermit would be created by another Nolan Bushnell company called Androbot. Complete Infor- mation on Androbot and their products is difficult to come across, thus the information presented here may not be 100% accurate. Their first robot was named TOPO, who stood roughly three feet tall. They were similar to Kermit in a number of ways. Using DC Motors for locomotion and being able to be directed to perform tasks, TOPO was initially intended to be a type of servant bot like Star Wars' C3PO. However, TOPO was largely hindered from performing this function due to a peculiar design. The head and body were attached to a pair of wheels for movement, with no proper arms to speak of. TOPO was one of the first robots that could balance and move on only two wheels. Lacking the sensors and barcode system that Kermit used, TOPO would instead be manually directed to perform tasks using an Apple II Computer, as TOPO was not capable of autonomous operation. The primary reason for many design decisions was to keep costs low and make maintenance simpler. Robotic arms in particular largely contributed to the high cost of many robots at the time. Instead, different attachments such as the AndroWagon and AndroFridge would be attached onto TOPO to enable them to carry objects. TOPO would first be sold commercially in 1983 with successive models adding Speech Synthesis capabilities. Other models such ANDY and FRED would be made soon after, both only one foot tall and with functionality much closer to Atari's Kermit. ANDY was meant to be connected to either a Commodore or Atari computer via a joystick port and would perform similar tasks to his larger brother TOPO. Added light, sound, and crash sensors would let ANDY know if he's hit a wall. Their other brother FRED whose name stood for Friendly Robotic Education Device was even more similar to Kermit. Operated by a remote control, FRED could be programmed to perform actions without the need for an external computer. While FRED could do everything ANDY could, he also featured the speech capabilities of the later TOPOs. FRED would greet his Users with "I'm FRED" upon powering-up. He would also verbally report issues with phrases such as "I'm Stuck." Additionionally FRED also featured a small arm assembly which allowed him to perform simple tasks and even Draw shapes with his included Pen. TOPO Mark III was the final model released, utilizing a system of swappable trays in place of the attachments used by the previous TOPO models. We believe that the Mark III is the same robot as Androbot's BOB, which stood for Brains On Board, referencing its entirely autonomous nature. BOB also had speech synthesis and recognition, but otherwise remained similar to previous Androbot models. A TOPO Mark IV was in development, but only its sensor system would be completed before the company was shut down in 1984 due to financial difficulties. There was one other Nolan Bushnell led robotics project in the form of Chuck E Cheese's Pizza Time Theater, but that is another article (seriously, check the table of contents). //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ Next up is a robot // \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\ that you may not //\\ //\\ have expected. If you \\// LIKE WHAT YOU ARE READING? \\// were a kid in the // \\ 2000s the name iDog //\\ Let us know by submitting //\\ may sound familiar, \\// feedback to us at \\// as it was one of the \\ // hottest electronic //\\ http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org //\\ toys of 2005. What \\// \\// does this have to do \\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ // with gaming you may \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// ask? Well it just so happens that the company responsible for its creation was Sega Toys. The very same Sega behind the Genesis, Master System, Dreamcast, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega Toys was originally known as Yonezawa Toys, one of the largest toy manu- facturers in Japan after the Second World War. In 1991, Sega would buy out Yonezawa and make them a wholly-owned subsidiary. Sega Toys, besides creating the iDog, were known for their partnership with Spinmaster on the Bakugan series, which combined transforming robot toys, trading cards, and a tie-in anime. The iDog, however, was their most popular offering. Meant to compliment the popular iPod players of the time, the iDog was designed with that same sleek, modern, and minimalist design aesthetic. The iDog's primary function was to act as a mix between a general purpose speaker and a virtual pet of sorts. Its face was made up of an array of 7 LEDs setup in a hexagon pattern. The LEDs would light up in different colors and patterns to represent different reactive states or moods. These were dependent on the music being played or by using iDog's other interactive features. The iDog also featured a mimicry mode which the user could say something to the iDog and the iDog would attempt to speak it back to them in iDog Language (which was essentially gibberish). The iDog would be brought over to the states by Hasbro and Tiger Elec- tronics with some notable changes to the design and electronics, both for ease of manufacturing and to help it better appeal to an American audience. For instance, changing some of the sounds from musical sounds to simple dog sounds like barking. The iDog was a huge hit which led to red, blue, pink, and yellow color variations, Spider Man tie-in models, and nonfunctional toys with simple play features sold with Burger King kids meals in 2007 and 2008. The 2008 releases came with small cardboard clothing/costume access- ories which could be slid into slots on the toys as part of a Halloween tie-in. Sega would soon release other iPets, such as the iCat, iFish, iTurle, and a penguin named i-Cy. The iCat added touch sensors to the face for additional interactivity. The other models offered different animations, but were otherwise functionally identical to the iDog. Variations on the original iDog design would soon follow, such as the iDog Clip, iDog Pup, iDog Amp'd, iDog Dance, iDog Soft Speaker, and iDog Plush Puppy. The Amp'd and Dance models are the most interesting, with the iDog Amp'd offering additional animations and stereo sound, and the larger iDog Dance getting the same touch sensors as the ICat and an additional animation for standing up. The iDog line came to an end in 2009 with the Plush Puppy being the final release. For our last batch of robots we must take a voyage across the seas to a Japanese company called Namco. While now they're known primarily for their games like mega-hits Pac-Man and Galaga, it did not start out that way. Originally known as Nakamora Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company, they began by making kiddie rides that went outside shops, and later kiddie train rides that went inside shops. In 1976 Namco collaborated with Atari to make an electro-mechanical racing arcade game called F1, which was a huge success and would later be the inspiration for Pole Position. Namco would forge an alliance with Atari that would last for many years after. Namco, like Atari, tried its hand at a variety of different robot designs that were usually meant to perform a single function, such as lifting a dumbbell. The robots had an atom punk look about them, blending in with many other bots from the time. It wasn't until the 1980s that designer Shigeki Toyama would standardize the designs for Namco robots, going for a friendlier than most robots of the time. Among these first robots was a micromouse named Nyamco, also known as Goro. For those who don't know, micromouse robots were simple robots meant to navigate a mouse maze autonomously. The following year, a partner robot for Nyamco would be made called Mappy. These two robots could navigate complex mazes at incredible speeds and had other animated features, such as Nyamco's wagging tail and Mappy's speech synthesis. If the names Nyamco and Mappy sound familiar that's because these two would later become the stars of Namco's 1983 video game classic Mappy. This would also be true of another Namco robot, called Wagan. In his arcade debut, Wagan was a cute little Godzilla-esque Kiju trapped within a cage. Once a coin was inserted, Wagan would make cutesy attempts to appear and sound scary. Like Mappy and Nyamco, Wagan would also get a variety of games of his own– most prominently Wagan Land on the Famicom. Toy Versions of Mappy and Wagyan would also be made with Mappy even having a customizable maze complete with Mewkey from the arcade game acting as the goal. Various other robots would be made by Namco in the following years, such as Cosmo Hoshimaru, who was made for a temporary amusement park setup for the technology and robotics expo, Expo '85. There was also Namco's receptionist robot, Reception Komachi, the tea server robot Kuji-Kun, Atoma who was made to interact with visitors of the Japanese Science Foundation Museum, and the robot band Pic Pac, who used similar technology to the animatronics Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza Place. Most people who know of these and other Namco robots were likely first introduced to them via the Namco Museum games on the original Playstation. In addition to having a small collection of Namco Arcade games on each disc, also lived up to the "museum" name by having various museum style exhibits to show off Namco's history. While these robots may not be as widely known as these companies' other toy and game offerings, they play an important part in each company's history and in the larger history of making robots more mainstream and accessible. Today robots are all around us, continuing to inspire and pave the way towards a (hopefully) brighter future. Happy gaming! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About BlueMSX: BlueMSX, Blue for short, enjoys retro technologies, history, and learning for the sake of learning. She has been interested in retro electronics and media for nearly as long as she can remember. This fascination means that she has a lot of great stories to recount. Blue's philosophy can be summed up by the quote, "History is like a puzzle-- the more pieces you have the more sense it makes." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O) (O) _____ _ _ ___ ___ ___ ______ _ (O) (O) |_ _|_ _ _ __ __| |_ _ / |/ _ \ / _ \ / _ \ / / ___|| | (O) (O) | |/ _` | '_ \ / _` | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |/ /\___ \| | (O) (O) | | (_| | | | | (_| | |_| | | | |_| | |_| | |_| / / ___) | |___ (O) (O) |_|\__,_|_| |_|\__,_|\__, | |_|\___/ \___/ \___/_/ |____/|_____| (O) (O) |___/ (O) (O)---------------------------------------------------------------------(O) (O)================= My First Computer by Joe Collett ==================(O) (O)---------------------------------------------------------------------(O) (O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O) As with a lot of people growing up in the '80s and early '90s, my first PC was not an IBM, but rather a Tandy. I remember getting a Radio Shack catalog and reading about the Tandy 1000/SL. I told my mom and dad that it was the one I wanted, and they said they would save up and get it for me. Every day on the school bus I would look at the catalog and read about the computer I was getting. I would pretend I was playing games on it and learning new cool computer skills. Then finally at Christmas I got it– a brand spanking new Tandy 1000/SL! The computer also had a CM5 color monitor, a deluxe joystick and a dot matrix printer– all Tandy branded. Mom and Dad had also gotten me a computer desk that I put together myself and put in my room. It was a classic '80s desk with a special nook for the monitor and cabinet with doors at both the top and bottom. It even had an extra printer shelf. After spending the time to open the boxes and read the manuals directions, I managed to put the computer together and finally powered it up. Tandy was unique in that it put MS-DOS on ROM, so when you turned on the device it instantly booted to a DOS prompt. Today's devices could never load that fast. After reading another manual, I loaded Deskmate. It was also on ROM and loaded extremely fast. Well, not all of it. I had to use disks for some functions, but it was still cool. Deskmate is like windows, but not as advanced. Not that Windows was advanced at that time either. It was a simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) with a few built-in programs. At one time it competed with Windows and MacOS, but was quickly overshadowed. I loved it! I would use the built in sound recorder to record myself and play it backwards. I even recorded and played the infamous Stairway to Heaven backwards. Deskmate came with a simple Hangman game that I would often play on snow days. It also had a paint program with sample clip art. Visually, it was this God awful combination of yellow and blue– but I could draw and it had this awesome clipart drawing of an ant that I loved. It also came with Microsoft BASIC on disk. Yep, I could program in BASIC on that machine. I found a few example "type-in" programs that I played around with. I even wrote a few simple programs of my own! I later got disks from other people that had BASIC games on them. I found that I could view and modify the code for these games. I kept this computer from the age of 8 until I was about 22. I was moving and didn't have room, so I threw it away. It was a very hard thing to do. I had so much fun, had such great memories, and learned so much from that machine. I did keep all of my disks and I still have them to this day, lying in wait for the day I can find one of these machines again. When I do finally get another Tandy 1000/SL, I will pimp it out with a solid state hard drive and max out the RAM. And, of course, I would still run Deskmate! I owe a lot to my Tandy. I work in IT, and this computer set me on that path when I was only 8 years old. I still use commands that I learned on that machine everyday at my work. When I get another Tandy 1000/SL, I will not let it go again! -Joe _________________________________________________________________________ | | | Tell us about your early computer memories, we may post them for others | | to read! Just click the SEND A LETTER FOR PUBLICATION link on the DOS & | | Dont's homepage. | |_________________________________________________________________________| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Joe Collett: Joe has been working with retro machines since he was a kid and the computers were new. He never lost his love of those early machines. His day job as a desktop support tech allows him to work with the newest machines, but he will always have a soft spot for the old machines and software that made the modern world possible. Joe's Website: comfortablynumb.atwebpages.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__) (__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__) (__)(__) __|___________|__ diskman.com(__)(__) (__)(__)_________________| |____________________(__)(__) (__)(__) | INVINCIBLE | (__)(__) (__)(__) | A Guest Column | (__)(__) (__)(__)_________________| by Brandon Cobb |____________________(__)(__) (__)(__) |_________________| (__)(__) (__)(__) __ __ __ __ __ |__ __ __ |__ __ __ __ __ __ (__)(__) (__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__) (__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__)(__) "Invincible" is an extremely generic title for a video game, even in Korean. So it didn't jar me in the least when countless unrelated hits came up in my search for information on a game thusly named. The next logical step would be to search for the company that produced the game. As bad luck would have it that company's name was Softry, which meant that, since the letters 'l' and 'r' are used interchangeably by Koreans, my searches yielded endless hits about the song "Killing me Softly." It should also be noted that information about video games produced in South Korea during the "golden age" of its software market -- the '80s and early '90s -- is extremely hard to come by, even within the country itself. Added to which the vast majority of Koreans have little to no interest in discussing titles they worked on "so long ago." This means that even if one is lucky enough to actually come across the contact information for a particular developer, the likelihood of actually having a discussion with that person about an "ancient" video game they no longer care about, is low. About this point most anyone would just say, "Screw it!" and move on. After all, Invincible isn't a particularly good game. In fact, it stinks. However a certain, stubborn young man wouldn't let a few search engine annoyances stop him from nabbing what he hoped would be at least a passively interesting story. No, sir! That's why, aided by my translator friend in Seoul, I set out to find someone actually willing to discuss this dreadful piece of software. BACKGROUND Softry started strong by producing Astonishia Story -- a successful RPG for the PC -- putting them in prime position to light up the South Korean software market. Sadly they wasted their chance by deciding to quickly slap together a completely unplayable Street Fighter II clone with ridiculous controls including very unorthodox button combinations to perform each character's special attacks. Heck, not even all of those attacks were listed in the manual! The author of said manual even mentions this, writing that the player, "will have more fun discovering them." He was wrong. By now you're probably wondering how such an abysmal product could have possibly interested me in the first place. The answer is simple: one of the fighters it features is a North Korean. Yes, you read that right. Invincible is the first, and so far only, fighting game to include a character from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the South's estranged neighbor. That uniqueness in itself was enough for me to not only take interest, it also piqued my curiousity about the possible motives behind such a shocking choice. DIGGING DEEPER As luck would have it I was able, with the help of my translator friend, to locate a former Softry employee named Donghyun Chung, and squeeze a bit of info out of him. Though he himself did not work on Invincible, he was employed by the company at the time the game was developed. According to Donghyun, Invincible was planned to be the first truly impressive fighting game for the PC. Trouble was, no one from the game's development team had ever had the chance to properly play a fighting game before, meaning there was a lot about the basic formula that they simply did not understand. This is what led to, for example the game's controls being completely different from those popularized by Street Fighter II, the standard at the time. In addition the game featured no option to continue after a loss, meaning the already ridiculously difficult game became virtually impossible to complete. All in all, said Donghyun, Invincible was "the worst game Softry came up with." The only things that stood out to gamers were the unique character concepts, the fighter from North Korea being especially appealing. Turns out that fighter, named Ri Seong Il, had been introduced as a hopeful boon to the marketing campaign, which he was. Among the other characters are a mob boss's daughter who fights with a whip, a fat Japanese man who cries like a baby when he loses, and a modern-day viking. TABLE SCRAPS Many games that are rushed through to completion contain pieces of unused material, and Invincible is no exception. The back of the game box includes photos of two background stages that never made it into the final product. Sadly a full decompilation of the game data revealed no trace of their graphics, leaving the photos as perhaps the only remnants of their existence. What I was able to fully uncover, however, were a rough set of graphics announcing the round numbers -- in the final game only a "Fight" message is displayed at the start of each round -- and a short animation of a young lady leaning in to deliver a kiss. Presumably, the amorous gal was originally meant to be delivering a smooch to a victorious Baron Balboa, as her graphics were contained in a data file related to this fighter's stage set. But we'll never know for sure. DEATH BECOMES THEM Though strong sales from Astonishia Story built up trust in Softry and helped create sales for Invincible, the mediocre fighter left a bitter taste in many gamers's mouths. To make matters worse, following the completion of the game its development team quit Softry complaining of receiving low wages. In the end Softry's reputation was ruined. Their future titles sold poorly by comparison, and even a 1996 name change could not absolve the company of its sins. Then perhaps it came as no surprise when, in 1998, the vincible Softry -- by then named FEW -- closed its doors for good. INSPIRATION But that's not the end of the story. One lasting effect Invincible and its North Korean character had on me was to help reignite my childhood interest in the DPRK, the fascinating "hermit kingdom" the rest of the world knows so little about. I began reading every book I could find on the country, delving into its history, culture, politics... any information I could get access to was eagerly digested. My curiosity finally overwhelmed me: it was time for me to visit this strange, isolated nation. After comparing companies I booked a trip to the DPRK through the China-based Young Pioneer Tours, who were highly recommended for their fun, engaging, and detailed itineraries. The fact that they provided Western guides to supplement the state appointed Korean minders made me feel comfortable that someone with a familiar perspective would be at my disposal any time. In June of 2014, I spent nearly ten days in North Korea, exploring several cities including Pyongyang, Hamhung and Wonsan. During my time in the country I hiked up beautiful mountains, visited stunning cultural sites and monuments, enjoyed a bonfire on the beach, experienced what may be the world's most impressive war history museum and so much more. But the moment that most closely tied in with Invincible was when I toured the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) guided by an officer in the Korean People's Army (KPA), the country's military service in which the game character Ri Seong Il serves. I also had the chance to give my Korean guides a demonstration of Sango Fighter 2 -- one of my all time favorites -- in their native language, thanks to the Korean script we at Super Fighter Team implemented into our updated version of the game which we'd released in 2013. Both Koreans stated that the translation was of good quality, and that they found the game's story interesting. When I founded Super Fighter Team back in 2004, I never imagined that one day, one of the video games I worked on would be on display in the DPRK. It was a surreal experience. My visit to the DPRK was an incredible adventure, my favorite overseas excursion to date. I learned a great many things about the country, making new friends along the way. It's possible that none of this would have happened at all were it not for a crappy old fighting game for the PC named Invincible: sure proof that a video game doesn't necessarily have to be any good in order to provide a great experience. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Brandon Cobb: Weaned on the iconic Apple IIc and eventually "grad- uating" to the IBM-PC, Brandon's primary retro obsessions are DOS games and FM sound cards. He is particularly fascinated by obscure titles from Taiwan and South Korea, and the stories behind their development. In his spare time, Brandon travels to exotic destinations around the world in search of wacky adventures and cultural exchange. His motto? "Never let dreams die!" Brandon's website: diskman.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Latent Image - with Jon Mullin | | | | From Film to Image: | | Developing Black and White Film | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In a previous installment we talked about one of my favorite film stocks. The thing is, black and white films are not as cheap to develop compared to their color counterparts. A roll of color film is usually three to five dollars cheaper to develop at a lab. One way to combat this increased cost is to develop the film yourself. Keep in mind, this article ONLY refers to black and white developing, so don't do this with color films! Color uses a specific developing process called C-41 which is specific to color films. There are many different processes that can be used to develop film. The least amount of chemicals you can get away with is one. In some cases, you may see as many as 5 chemicals used. Before single bath developers you used to need a minimum of 2 chemicals. Personally, I use 4, and the process we are exploring in this article mirrors this. Let me reiterate: there are many different methods of developing film, and they are all correct. This is just the way I learned and chose to develop. I find this process to be the most reliable for the cost. The chemicals you will absolutely need for my process are a black and white developer, stop bath, fixer, and a film rinsing agent. You will also need a developing tank with matching developing reels, a sink, scissors, a bottle opener or film canister opener, a thermometer, graduated cylinders, a stopwatch, and clips to hang the film afterwards. You will also need to look up the time-tables for your particular developer before you start. Each developer has a different developing time for different films. You can't mix and match films here, but you can develop multiple rolls of the exact same film stock at the same time. There is an app called Massive Dev Chart you can get that has most every developer and film in it, which is my go-to. You can also look up the film or developer's data sheet which may have your developer listed. Now for the fun of the show: Let's Develop! Set up in a pitch dark room, or if you don't have one get a light-proof changing bag. I can't stress enough how important it is that the room is dark as ANY light will ruin your film in the first steps. This includes the darkroom staple: "the amber safe light." Films are panchromatic which means they are sensitive to all wavelengths of light, including the amber in the safe light. If you open your film there, then you are bound to have an entirely ruined roll of film. Pop open the film with your bottle opener by prying off the bottom of the film canister. Pull the film out of the canister and snip off the leader of your film (the beginning of the roll with the curve on it). Make sure to save the leader you snipped off; it comes into play later. Spool the film onto the developing reel. Each reel is different; make sure to see how your reel needs to be spooled specifically. Place the developing reel inside of the developing tank, then place the cap on the developing tank and ensure the lid is on tight. Don't over tighten the lid as you can crack the tank if it's plastic or damage the seal, but make sure it's secure as any light that can leak in will, and the developer can leak out. If it's a plastic tank, then once your arm feels resistance while twisting it on it is tight enough. When the lid is on you are safe to take your developing tank into the light. Just remember, the film itself is still not light safe, so don't open your tank until you have finished the developing process. Next, we need to prepare the chemicals you need to develop with. I measure mine into graduated cylinders of water, developer, stop bath, fixer, and film rinse. If you are unsure how much you need, fill the developing tank with the reels in it with water until it goes just above the highest reel (before you load film of course); pour the water into a graduated cylinder and read its level. That is how much of each chemical you will need. Next make sure your chemicals are all at 68 degrees. If not, fill a container with hotter or colder water than your chemicals and place the chemical filled graduates in the water to get to temp. Once at temp, place the leader you had into the graduate that contains the fixer and time how long it takes to clear. Take a note of this time, you'll need it soon. Pour your graduate of water into the developing tank. Agitate the locked tank (with your film inside) for one minute and pour it down the drain. Agitation here can be one of two ways. Either invert the tank upside down and right-side up every second, or spin the agitator for the tank (if it has one) for one full clockwise and counterclockwise rotation per second. After you finish agitating, you always want to rap the tank. Rapping does not refer to spitting a sick rhyme. It is the process of tapping the tank on the surface. You can always rap while you rap if you want to though. Immediately after you pour out your water, pour the developer into your developing tank and start the stopwatch. You looked this up for your film and developer before we started. Agitate your film for the first minute of the developing time and for 15 seconds every minute after. Once you hit the end of your developing time pour out the developer into the sink and immed- iately pour your stop bath into the tank. Agitate your film for 30 seconds and return the stop bath to your graduate or back into its storage container as I do. Stop bath is reusable. Think back to the leader we fixed earlier. However long that took to fully clear, we need to fix for a minute longer than that. Pour the fixer into the developing tank and agitate for a minute, then for 15 seconds every minute after that. You may only need a minute or two if the fixer is very new. In that case I just agitate for the first minute and then for 10 seconds every 30 seconds. Once fixing is done return the fixer to its grad- uate as it is also reusable. Open the developing tank and turn on your faucet to be lukewarm. It should be about the same temp as your chemicals but doesn't need to be exact. Let the water flood the tank for at least 10 minutes, but I prefer 15. You can't over wash for this step so I say safer is better. After this first rinse I use a film rinse like Photo-Flo from Kodak, or distilled water, and give it a fill and dump twice. Now let's pull out the film and take a quick look. It shouldn't be cloudy– if it is then fix the film again for about 1 minute by dipping it fully in a tank of fixer and pulling it out repeated- ly. Once the cloudiness is gone, rinse the film again for 15 minutes and give it one last distilled water or Photo-Flo rinse. Once the film has been satisfactorily fixed, it can then be safely exposed to light. Now we just squeegee off the excess water with clean fingers or a film squeegee and hang the film up to dry. I like to use my bathroom with the exhaust fan on for this step as it tends to be the least dusty place in the house. Let the film dry for a couple hours until fully dry. Then just trim the frames and place them in sleeves until you are ready to enlarge or scan. Developing your own black and white film sounds like a lot of work at first, but honestly it's a very forgiving process. Take your time, and don't panic about making a mistake. Timings aren't super exact for devel- opers so an extra 20 seconds overdeveloping or a missed agitation in the middle probably won't harm anything. If you under fix you can always fix the film again. The only major critical step would be that you must load it in pure darkness. So get out there and try developing yourself! Black and white is a great way to explore the development process and really gives a personal connection to your images. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jon Mullin: Jon has been photographing professionally since 2008, but has been surrounded all his life by the small and quirky point and shoot Kodaks that his father collected. Now he photographs pets and people in unique and interesting ways. Jon's Website: jonmullin.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ,---. ,---. / /"`.\.--"""--./,'"\ \ \ \ _ _ / / `./ / __ __ \ \,' / /_O)_(_O\ \ | .-' ___ `-. | .--| \_/ |--. ,' \ \ | / / `. / `. `--^--' ,' \ .-"""""-. `--.___.--' .-"""""-. .-----/ \------------------/ \--------. | .---\ /----------------- \ /------. | | | `-`--`--' `--'--'-' | | | | Retro Living in a Modern World | | | | | | | | with Grizzly Adam | | | | | | | | This Installment: Watching the Tube | | | |_________________________________________________| | |_____________________________________________________| One of the things that ties any generation together is the television and movies that we enjoyed. Television events such as the advent of MTV, the mystery of who shot J.R. on Dallas, and the series finales of Cheers and Seinfeld have become cultural touchstones. Forrest Gump and Home Alone were so popular that it was hard to imagine that anyone hadn't seen them. The days of everyone watching the same handful of over-the-air TV stations are long gone and alternative methods must be used if we are to consume media without breaking the retro illusion. One of the easiest solutions is to use the most popular physical media of the time-- VHS. VHS stands for Video Home System and has been around since 1976. While the VHS format did have its share of competitors such as Betamax, LaserDisc, and CED, it was the undisputed king of home video for over 20 years. This means that for those years every major motion picture, TV special, and classic film were available in the format. These days these videos and their associated players are still very common in resale stores and charity shops. We have built a surprisingly large collection of VHS tapes over the course of the last four months. VHS, being a recordable format, also means that you can create your own tapes. The R in VCR stands for recording, after all. While blank VHS tapes are no longer common, any commercial tape can be recorded over by placing a piece of tape over the square hole on the left side of the VHS tape. I typically upload the media I want to record to my YouTube channel as a pri- vate video and then play it back through my Roku player. Making the video private means that no ads will be injected and I cannot be hit with a copy- right strike. Overall, this method works quite well. Of course, this means that I need a Roku or similar device connected to the VCR. There are a couple obstacles here, though. The big one is that the older televisions and VCRs do not have HDMI ports. While VCRs typically have the red, white, and yellow component inputs, only early Rokus used the older standard and they are too underpowered to run the more recent versions of most channel apps. The better solution is to use a new Roku with HDMI adapter that connects to one of either the component or coaxial inputs. I decided that a coaxial connection would be better for me, as I could then view the Roku even when the VCR is off. This is where the second issue becomes apparent. Older television sets had a 4:3 view ratio, while newer media is typically meant for 16:9 screens. This isn't a new problem, though. Do you remember the message you would sometimes see at the beginning of movies: "This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit your TV." Even back in the long ago, movies were typically made for a wide screen. Editors would crop the films, redo the titles and credits, and sometimes they would even have to mix formats if portions of the film could not be properly displayed when cropped. Widescreen video with black bars filling the top and bottom of the screen was not uncommon, especially during a film's opening sequences. It is important to ensure your HDMI adapter supports resizing the video output so this cropping can be simulated. I do occasionally need to edit a film before uploading to ensure that the opening titles and end credits will not be clipped on the left and right sides of the screen. With the Roku connected and the video converted to 4:3, I can now take advantage of the device as a cable replacement. There are several apps available on the platform that offer live streaming channels. The one I prefer is PlutoTV. This service is 100% free, has lots of good programming, and allows me to add favourites. I can use the up and down buttons on the Roku remote to flip through the channels, just like on a cable box. The final piece of the puzzle is the remote control. While there is nothing wrong with a Roku remote, I found that its modernity conflicted with the illusion I was trying to create. I purchased a vintage Realistic universal learning remote and programmed it button by button, mode by mode to control all of my devices. The TV, VCR, Roku, and even the HDMI to coax adapter can be controlled through the universal remote. All in all, despite the inclus- ion of a set-top streaming box, I am very pleased with the feel of the whole setup. The overall illusion does not feel compromised in the least by the modern tech used. Until next month! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Grizzly Adam: Grizz is one of those eccentrics that you read about. The type that people say marches to the beat of their own drum. His hobbies include writing, computers, electronics, telephone systems, pyromania, and lawn care. Grizz's Website: grizz.atwebpages.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ,------------------. ( Our Readers' ) > Retro < ( Memories ) `-----------(_)----' 0 o Grizzly Adam from the Newsletter you are reading writes: Back when the Transformers movie was in theatures, the USA Network was promoting the movie on their Cartoon Express program. They had a write-in drawing where you had to submit the name of the planet where the movie took place. I have no recolection of what the prize was. Two different commerc- ials would air with half of the letters of UNICRON shown. If you saw both commercials, you would have the answer. I convinced Mom to help me mail off for the contest. When Mom saw what I had written down, she tried to con- vince me to correct the spelling to UNICORN! .-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-. Jon Mullin, also from this Newsletter, writes: As a kid, my dad loved to collect old Kodak Cameras. He didn't have a lot of money so old things that were useful because a major part of his life. He used these camera all through our childhood and even still today. It is why I love retro photography so much. .-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-. To submit your own memory, visit our homepage (dosanddonts.mywebcommunity. org) and look for the link! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================== | CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS | =========================== ######################### ## DYNAMIC-TENSION ## ## BUILD MUSCLES FAST! ## ######################### Are you "Fed up" with seeing the huskies walk off with the best of everything? Sick and tired of being soft, frail, skinny, or flabby? Only HALF ALIVE and GETTING SAND KICKED IN YOUR FACE! I know just how you feel. Because I myself was once a puny 98-pound "runt." And I was so ashamed of my scrawny frame that I dreaded being seen in a swim suit. 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