________________________________________________ / \ | _________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | DOS & Don'ts | | | | | | | | A Modern Newsletter | | | | for Vintage-minded Folks | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | C:\>Issue #6 April 2024)_ | | | |_________________________________________| | | | \_________________________________________________/ \___________________________________/ ___________________________________________ _-' .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. --- `-_ _-'.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--. .-.-.`-_ _-'.-.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-`__`. .-.-.-.`-_ :---------------------------------------------------------------: `---._.---------------------------------------------------._.---' ------------------ In this Issue... ------------------ Your Letters! Features ---------- Ikegami & Iwasaki: The Original Shadow Devs, BlueMSX The Golden Age of Wrestling, Grizzly Adam A Retro Tandy Restore - Part I, Joe Collett The 1990s Wrestling Boom: A New Generation of Attitude, Yousef The Sears Catalog, Joe Collett Columns --------- The Latent Image, Jon Mullin Retro Living in a Modern World, Grizzly Adam Bits & Bytes -------------- Our Readers' Retro Memories Unclassified Ads ------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __ __ __ __ \ \/ /___ __ _______ / / ___ / /_/ /____ __________ \ / __ \/ / / / ___/ / / / _ \/ __/ __/ _ \/ ___/ ___/ / / /_/ / /_/ / / / /___/ __/ /_/ /_/ __/ / (__ ) /_/\____/\__,_/_/ /_____/\___/\__/\__/\___/_/ /____/ In response to BlueMSX's Before Stella article (Issue #5): I found some of these systems at various resale stores in the '90s. I had Pinball and three different pong consoles. One of the pong consoles, a Pong Sports IV, was missing the paddles. I modified the console with a DB-9 connector that could accept input from the standard Atari paddles used for the 2600. I was surpised at the time to find that this worked-- I guess I expected to have to adjust the resistor values at least. In reality, I think Atari had already come up with standardized values for many of their components, even if they didn't appear that similar on the outside. Grizzly Adam Iowa ------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________ _________________________ | | | | | IKEGAMI TSUSHINKI | | IWASAKI | |_________________________| |_________________________| | ___________________ | | ___________________ | | / ||(=)|| \ | | /__|______|______|__\ | | | ----------o____ | | | |___| |____| |_____| | | | || | | IKEGAMI & IWASAKI | | | | | | ___o_-----''''' | | | | o | | | | || || | | THE ORIGINAL | | / | | | | '''''-----__||_ | | SHADOW DEVS | | \ / | | | | || | | | | \/ | | | | _____-----''''' | | | | ==== | | | \__________________/ | | \__________________/ | |____()___________________| |_________________________| \ || (_) (_) \ BY / (_) (_) (_) (_) / |\ (__) (_) \ BLUEMSX / (_) (___) (_) /| | \__________________________\ /__________________________/ | During the 1980s, there were countless breakout successes in the arcades. Some early stand outs were Pac-Man, Galaga, Frogger, and Space Invaders. One that is well known to many is of course Nintendo's first big breakout, Donkey Kong. What you may not know, is that it and many other early video game titles by Nintendo weren't developed by Nintendo alone. Nintendo first began as Nintendo Kopai in 1889 and was primarily a manufacturer of playing cards-- one of the largest and most successful in Japan at the time. When demand for playing cards and legal crackdowns on gambling by the Japanese government began to hinder the selling of playing cards and other gambling items, Nintendo Kopai reacted by shortening their name to just Nintendo and diversifying into a variety of other ventures. These include but are not limited to taxi services, hotels, tobacco products, and-- most prominently-- toys and games. Having seen the success of Taito's Space Invaders, Nintendo would opt to enter the emerging arcade market. However, due to a lack of experience with electronic games of this type, Nintendo would once more reach out to another company to develop these new arcade games. This company was called Ikegami Tsushinki, who at the time was primarily known for developing video cameras and other high end audio video electronics. A deal was struck for Nintendo and Ikegami to work together to develop these new arcade games, in which Nintendo would come up with the concepts and gameplay mechanics, while Ikegami would develop the hardware and write the code. The terms of this deal also meant that Ikegami would not be putting their name on the products, with Nintendo marketing these games as their own creations. This made Ikegami one of the earliest examples of a shadow developer, or shadow dev. It is thought that Ikegami helped to develop the final two Color TV Game consoles for Nintendo, as Block Kuzushi and the Computer Game TV were the only Color TV Game systems that bore Nintendo's name. The first arcade game developed by this collaboration was Computer Othello, which played a version of the game Othello. A home version of this game, the aforementioned Computer Game TV, was also released which contained identical hardware to the arcade version inside a newly designed enclosure. It came with a beefy power supply and a price tag to match. Block Fever, likely based on Block Kuzushi, would be released alongside other games such as Space Fever, Monkey Magic, Space Demon, Space Firebird, Heli Fire, Space Launcher, and Sheriff. Radar Scope, the next release, featured vastly improved graphics over the prior co-developed games and was a decent space shooter in its own right. However, when Nintendo would try to bring the game overseas as they had done with their prior releases, it was a massive failure due in part to a large-scale oversaturation of the space shooter genre. The somewhat harsh sounds it made during gameplay didn't help its popularity. Nintendo was left with warehouses full of unsold Radar Scope cabinets, boards, and related materials. They and Ikegami would search for a way to turn things around. A young designer at Nintendo called Shigeru Miyamoto would come up with a concept for a new game that would run on the same hardware and use similar controls as the existing Radar Scope cabinets to allow for easy conversion of the unsold machines. At first this was meant to be a Popeye game that featured Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto as the main stars. The game would feature Popeye scaling an unfinished structure to rescue Olive Oyl. He would ascend using ladders while Bluto, holding Olive Oyl captive atop the structure, would throw barrels and other hazards. Next to Olive Oyl was a lit bomb with a rapidly disappearing fuse that served as a visual timer. Nintendo was unable to secure the rights to use Popeye, so Shigeru would rework the game to use original characters. These characters would come to be known as Mario, Pauline, and the star of the show-- Donkey Kong. The concept of the game was simplified to its most basic form and it became the Donkey Kong game we all know today. Ikegami and Nintendo would continue to work together through Donkey Kong's release, along with developing a new game (Sky Skipper) on the side. Sadly, Sky Skipper did not pass its location tests. Donkey Kong would become such a smash hit that Nintendo would have trouble keeping up with the demand. Feeling that Ikegami was taking too long producing the PCBs for the game, Nintendo would go behind Ikegami's back to another company who'd been doing similar shadow development, Iwasaki Electronics. Iwasaki, unlike Ikegami, primarily focused on software development and had previously done outsource work for Yachiyo on their Space Stranger game-- a near direct copy of Taito's Space Invaders. The game bore Iwasaki's name in Kanji on the side of the PCB. Nintendo could manufacture Donkey Kong boards easily enough, but since Ikegami held the source code for Donkey Kong, it would make producing boards, revising the game, and creating sequels difficult. Thus Nintendo would hire Iwasaki to reverse engineer Ikegami's program for Donkey Kong, which in turn allowed Nintendo to manufacture enough Donkey Kong boards to meet demand. This also paved the way for Nintendo to develop a brand new sequel to Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. Ikegami soon caught wind of this and would end their relationship with Nintendo. While the outside of the cabinets and the title screen made no mention of Ikegami, they would cleverly hide their name and logo within Donkey Kong's program and graphics code. In most versions of Donkey Kong on the CPU board the following message was present: "CONGRATULATION !IF YOU ANALYSE DIFFICULT THIS PROGRAM,WE WOULD TEACH YOU. *****TEL.TOKYO-JAPAN 044(244)2151 EXTENSION 304 SYSTEM DESIGN IKEGAMI CO. LIM." As mentioned prior, Ikegami's logo was present in the graphics data along- side the other sprites. The logo sprite would also appear in Junior's graphics, due to Iwasaki and Nintendo copying the entire graphics set for the original Donkey Kong when making Junior. This evidence would lead to Ikegami suing Nintendo for illegally reverse engineering their code with Iwasaki. Due to there being no precedent for how copyright law applies to software, it wouldn't be until the turn of the decade when the two parties would end up settling out of court. After cutting ties with Ikegami, /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Nintendo would continue to work with \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Iwasaki to develop programs for their /\/\ TOO BUSY TO READ? /\/\ new arcade games and for their latest \/\/ (or don't know how?) \/\/ project, the Family Computer-- later /\/\ Try our YouTube Channel /\/\ known as the Famicom. Iwasakiare said to \/\/ @DOSandDontsNewsletter \/\/ have helped to create several of the /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ early games for the Famicom such as \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Devil World, Donkey Kong 3, Duck Hunt, Soccer, Tennis, and many others. Due to the legal issues with the Ikegami controlled arcade version of Donkey Kong, the Famicom version of the game (likely based on Iwasaki's reverse engineered code) would be the most commonly re-released. The agreement with Iwasaki was much more lenient and let Nintendo hold onto the legal rights to the programs that they co-developed. Similarly to Ikegami, Iwasaki would also not put their names on the games they worked with Nintendo on. While Nintendo would work with Iwasaki during the 80s, Ikegami would get their own form of payback. Service Games were one of Nintendo's biggest rivals in the arcades, and were looking for new partners to develop games. The company, who would later shorten its name to Sega, would seek out a partnership with Ikegami Tsushinki. While working with Sega, Ikegami would program two games-- Congo Bongo (also known as Tip Top) and the mega hit Zaxxon. In the years after a deal was seemingly worked out between Ikegami and Nintendo which allowed the original arcade versions of Donkey Kong and Sky Skipper to be re-released on the Nintendo Switch as part of the Arcade Archives series. While most of the companies mentioned here do still exist, Iwasaki sadly does not, having shut down in the year 2000. While they are unknown to most, the work done by these companies and people cannot be understated. Without them, we wouldn't have games like Donkey Kong, Zaxxon, and Pengo. These games and toys hold a special place in the hearts of the people who have used them and continue to inspire creativity all around the world. 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." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________ / ================= THE GOLDEN AGE OF ================= \ / __ ______ _____ ____ _____ _ ___ _ _ ____ \ / \ \ / | _ \| ____/ ___|_ _| | |_ _| \ | |/ ___| \ | \ \ /\ / /| |_) | _| \___ \ | | | | | || \| | | _ | | \ V V / | _ <| |___ ___) || | | |___ | || |\ | |_| | | | \_/\_/ |_| \_|_____|____/ |_| |_____|___|_| \_|\____| | |______________________________________________________________| BY GRIZZLY ADAM I was just five years old when I saw my first wrestling match, and Grandma wasted no time with her warning: "It's fake, you know." I didn't know, but I didn't care either. I was hooked on professional wrestling and there was no turning back! I would later learn that the wrestling industry was under- going a major boom. People all over the world were tuning into wrestling to see Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and the ongoing feud between the Von Erichs and the Freebirds. While some fans may have only tuned into a single promotion, the boom occurred across the industry as a whole. For decades all wrestling promotions had been regional, operating in what was called the territory system as part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA was run by a committee of promoters that would cast votes to crown its own Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight champions. It was a great honor to be chosen as champion and travel from territory to territory defending the belt against the best each promotion had to offer. In 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) left the NWA and began to pursue syndication deals to get their product to a national audience. In December 1983, The Incredible Hulk Hogan left the Minneapolis based American Wrestling Association (AWA) for the WWF and New York. Hogan had been AWA's top babyface (good guy), regularly battling champion Nick Bockwinkle. Hogan even managed to win the AWA title a couple times, only to later have it revert to Bockwinkle on a technicality. With his undeniable charisma, towering physique, and a gift for gab, Hogan would skyrocket into pop-culture. Soon Hogan and other WWF superstars Roddy Piper, Junkyard Dog, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and Hillbilly Jim would become household names. This success didn't help just the WWF, though. By 1986, in addition to the WWF's programming on The USA Network, World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) and AWA were both airing on ESPN, and TBS's World Championship Wrestling program would air the Georgia-based promotion that would eventually become known as WCW. A chance meeting on a flight would lead to manager Captain Lou Albano appearing in the video for Cyndi Lauper's 1983 hit "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." Much like the peanut butter and chocolate in Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, the combination of rock and wrestling was a big hit! Dallas based WCCW began using genuine rock songs during wrestler entrances to amp-up the crowd. Hometown favourite Kerry Von Erich's entrance to Rush's "Tom Sawyer" was particularly electric. The WWF would embrace the trend with a few MTV specials and their 1985 Saturday morning cartoon "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling." "Body Slam," a wrestling comedy starring Roddy Piper and The Tonga Kid would give the concept a twist, portraying a rock 'n' roll manager that hires a tag team and takes the band and the wrestlers out on the road together. The film, despite being a flop, was notable for its many wrestling cameos. The biggest success of the rock and wrestling connection, as it was called, was the injection of Lauper into the WWF women's title feud as the manager of Wendy Richter while she battled the dastardly heel known as the Fabulous Moolah. Even the more conservative World Championship Wrestling program would get into the rock 'n' wrestling act, with its new stars Sting and The Road Warriors looking like they just walked in from a music video shoot. The Atlanta-based outfit was what was called a "heel" promotion and booked according to the philosophy that putting a bad guy as champion would make the fans hungry to see him eventually lose to the current hot babyface. The babyface title runs were typically short or overturned on a technicality (as with Hogan in the AWA, another heel promotion). In Atlanta you had to beat the man to be the man, and the man you had to beat was "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Unlike the high-flyers in hipper promotions like the WWF and WCCW, Atlanta focused on a realistic presentation with more technical wrestling, a ban on the piledriver, and an unpopular rule that would see wrestlers disqualified for throwing their opponent over the top rope to the bare concrete below. Another thing World Championship Wrestling had going for it was the son of a plumber himself, Dusty Rhodes. Despite his wild fashion choices, Rhodes was portrayed as a common man in pursuit of the American Dream. The Dream, as he was often called, would have legendary battles with Flair, Superstar Billy Graham, and Harley Race, among others. Few knew at the time that Rhodes was also the head booker in the Atlanta promotion. It was here where he would innovate several match types including the spectacle known as War Games. Also named after him is the "Dusty Finish," where the babyface gets the win only to have the decision reversed. The Hogan v. Bockwinkle matches in AWA that I mentioned earlier had Dusty finishes. Down in Dallas, Fritz Von Erich made his sons into stars by placing them at the top of the family run WCCW. The battles between Kevin, David, and Kerry Von Erich and the Fabulous Freebirds were the stuff of legends. Led by the eloquent Michael P.S. Hayes, the Freebirds hailed from the very last house on Bad Street-- and as we all know the further down Bad Street you go, the worse it gets. This feud was popular enough that WCCW soon after created the Six-Man Tag Team Championship. Unfortunately, the Von Erich family curse would also loom large over the promotion during this time with the tragic loss of brother after brother. By February of 1993, only Kevin would remain of the six Von Erich brothers. On Thanksgiving of 1983, .-------------------------------------------. the Atlanta promotion would | .---------------------------------------. | air the first Starrcade | | | | supershow on closed-circuit | | SEND US LETTERS | | television. The card for the | | | | event was highlighted by Ric | | We want your interactions! | | Flair recapturing the heavy- | | Respond to any of our articles | | weight title from Harley Race | | with your own thoughts and | | and a bloody dog collar match | | we will publish them in | | between Roddy Piper and Greg | | our next issue! | | "The Hammer" Valentine. In | | | | New York, the WWF was cooking | | Letters can be submitted at | | up their own closed-circuit | | http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org | | event called the "Colossal | |_______________________________________| | Tussle." The event would be |___________________________________________| renamed Wrestlemania at the suggestion of ring announcer Howard Finkel. The show proved to be a major crossover event, featuring pop-culture stars like Muhammad Ali, Liberace, the Rockettes, and a returning Cyndi Lauper. The main event featured Hulk Hogan and actor Mr. T doing battle with arch-rivals Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorf. The wrestling boom would continue for several more years, highlighted by the Wrestlemania III showdown between Hogan and Andre the Giant, and by a trilogy of matchups between Flair and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat in Atlanta. Perhaps the biggest matchup, Hulk Hogan v. The Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VI would also mark the beginning of the end of the golden era. A match of this caliber between two babyfaces was unprecedented. Voted 1990s match of the year, the match was full of emotional storytelling and ultimately ended with Hogan passing the torch to his apparent successor. However, in the year that followed it would become apparent that the Warrior was not up to the task and the title would soon be dropped to a newly-turned heel Sgt. Slaughter, only to have Hogan win it again at the following year's Wrestlemania. The exact moment may be impossible to pinpoint, but the golden age of wrestling died sometime in 1990. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, programming, computers, electronics, telephone systems, pyromania, and lawn care. Grizz's Website: grizz.atwebpages.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____________________________________________________________ / \ | ________________________________________________ | | | | | | | A RETRO | | | | _______ ___ ______ ______ _ _ | | | | (__ __| / \ | ___ \| ___ \| | | | | | | | | | / /_\ \| | | | | \ | |___| | | | | | | | | ___ | | | | | | |_____ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |__/ / _____| | | | | | |_| |_| |_|_| |_|_____/ (_______| | | | | RESTORE - PART I | | | | | | | | BY JOE COLLETT | | | |________________________________________________| | | TANDY | | _________________________________________________________ | | ______ ______ | |___| |_______________________________________| |___| ___| | ________________ | | |___ | | | - [ ] |==[]============ | | | | |______|____________________|__________________|______| | This will be a multi part series in the coming months about my quest to restore a Tandy 1400 HD. This will hopefully give an insight to people who are thinking of doing their own retro computer restoration. Good or bad, I will let you know how everything goes. I hope that it will be successful, but if it's not you will know that too. With that out of the way, let's get started! A few weeks ago a friend from a nearby city sent me some sweet pictures of a Tandy 1400 HD laptop. Me being the retro computer guy I am, and as a Tandy fan, my first thought was "Wow that is awesome". I asked my friend if it powers on. He said it had no power supply and asked if I wanted it. "How much?," I asked. "Free, if you want it," he replied. Now this was a big decision that I had to think long and hard for about .1 milliseconds. "YES!" I said. While I was setting up a day and time to get the laptop from him, I dug through the internet looking for any information pertaining to the 1400 HD. There are 2 distinct models in the Tandy 1400 series. The more prevalent of the two is the 1400 LT, which has two 720k 3.5" floppy drives. The other model was sold as either the 1400 FD or HD. The FD also had the 2 floppy drives, and the HD model swapped one of the floppies for a 20MB hard drive. The machines are identical otherwise. Both the LT and the FD/HD models were manufactured in Japan by a 3rd party. The FD/HD model was manufactured by Sanyo, and I believe the LT was made by Panasonic. Both models have a NEC V20 processor and a slot for a math co-processor (more on those later). Information on the FD/HD is harder to come by. I can find a ton of info on the LT, even a detailed service manual. However, little information about the FD/HD is available online. I can try to infer information from the LT service manual and try to apply it to the HD, but I have to be cautious as there are some significant differences. For example, the power supply for the LT and FH/HD models actually use different voltages! Less drastically, the screw to adjust the speaker volume is moved for the FD/HD model. I met up with my friend at a restaurant just off the interstate that week- end. We had some drinks and caught up with what was going on in each other's lives. I haven't talked to him much in a few years, so it was an awesome time. After an hour we parted ways, and I went home with my new prize in tow. Having no idea where this thing has been for the past 35 years, I decided a quick sanitary wipe with rubbing alcohol was first on my list. My kids were watching as I wiped it down. My youngest asked if it could play Minecraft. "Nope, too old." I said. Next, I took out the screws and the laptop came apart into two pieces. The top half housed the screen and the bottom half the motherboard. I unplugged the internal cables to fully separate the two halves and took a long look at this beauty of 1989 technology. It was already obsolete when it was produced to save power and cost, but I didn't care-- it was wonderful. I removed the drive cages and unplugged the drive cables to reveal the motherboard. I remove the internal power supply and set it aside. Next, I checked the capacitors on the motherboard for leakage. Capacitors contain an electrolytic fluid that, if released, will eat away the electronics and cause massive damage over time. They all checked out. Next, I checked the clock battery. Unlike today's socketed coin cell batteries that will not leak, older systems used ones directly soldered to the board, and are prone to failure and leakage. I noticed some leakage but no apparent damage. Next, I took a look at the internal power supply and instantly saw some corrosion on the metal casing. I looked around and found a "fuzzy" capacitor. It had leaked so much there was an ooze of crystallized electro- lytes atop it. It looks like the ooze has not yet damaged the PCB. Even if I had a power cord for this unit, I wouldn't try to power this on. I knew this power supply needed a complete re-cap. I need to replace all the capacitors. And that is where I am going to leave you today. Next month we will talk about the power supply. Did I ever get it going? What's so Special about the NEC V20 processor? Am I going to do any upgrades? Will we ever find out who is the father of Mary's baby? Tune in next time to find out! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- _ __ __ _ | |-=(__)===================================================(__)=-| | | | | | | | __ THE 1990s WRESTLING BOOM __ | | | |-=(__)===================================================(__)=-| | | | | | | | __ A NEW GENERATION OF ATTITUDE __ | | | |-=(__)===================================================(__)=-| | _| |_______________________________________________________________| |_ | BY YOUSEF | The 1980s and ‘90s were when two of wrestling's biggest booms took place, a feat that hasn't been replicated since. Despite being the two most influential eras in wrestling, there was actually a small period of drought between the two eras. In spite of this, many of the seeds that will grow to define the upcoming era would be planted within this period as well as other significant events that would go to shape the industry for decades to come. The 90s boom was so significant that it likely will never be matched. The RAW Netflix deal that was signed not too long ago might be a sign of things to come, but we won't know for sure until many years from now. Who knows, maybe that Superbowl commercial for Wrestlemania XL will pay off in the long run. Our own Grizzly Adam's piece "The Golden Age of Wrestling" covers the 1980s boom, so read that to set the stage for mine. We begin our timeline here with one of the most significant events for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, or The Federation) that could've ended in calamity: the steroids trial. While the aftermath is very clear now, back then that trial could've spelled the end for the WWF. There was next to no real evidence to dispute the claims that the mega stars of the Federation weren't taking performance enhancement drugs. In fact, one of the doctors would casually admit that he would give injections to Hulk Hogan before his matches. He'd give him injections in his back, shoulders, triceps, and even his butt. But silly steroid shenanigans aside, the WWF has very much survived what should've been a catastrophic event. They didn't do it entirely unscathed, as they now understood they have eyes on them everywhere. They realized they needed to stop promoting big, suspiciously muscly men and begin pushing smaller and more athletic guys. They say in wrestling there's always a silver lining and it's no different here, as this move would eventually give rise to hall of fame legends like Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero, The 1-2-3 Kid and, of course, the technical wizard Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Indeed, this brief yet crucial period (lasting from 1993-1997) would go on to define wrestling as we know it today. What's also fascinating about this time is that many of the seeds of the Attitude Era would not be planted solely within the federation. In fact other promotions like World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) were starting to resemble modern wrestling way ahead of the Fed itself, which is pretty wild to think about. A lot of WWF's own gigastars would actually blossom in competing promotions first, such as Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio and the Big Show. And if you're familiar with these names, then you know that WCW's star power back in the mid ‘90s was nothing to scoff at. Heck, the first episode of Monday Nitro featured the likes of Jushin Thunder Liger, a legend in his own right. The new generation would also be a place for younger stars from the golden age to start truly thriving, no better example than the Undertaker, who would begin his own wrestlemania streak of victories just two years ahead of this era in 1991's Wrestlemania VII defeating Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Now if one were to point out the most crucial year of this period, it would be either 1995 for featuring the birth of the Monday Night Wars or 1996 for 1996 for the debut of The Rock and the Austin 3:16 speech. Although there were many industry-shaping events occurring on the other side of the competition, such as Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Razor Ramon forming the now iconic nWo back in 1996. While business was booming for WCW in 1995, the WWF was arguably having one of its worst years. The New York promotion was beginning to lose steam and this was no more obvious than when one of the biggest matches of the year was Diesel vs King Mable for the world title in 1995. In fact, the entire Diesel run as champion was universally seen as a sour spot even leading to jokes that the WWF was running on Diesel power. This isn't meant to dunk on Kevin Nash as a performer, but it was clear as crystal the fed didn't know how to book their top talent, leading to a product that was growing stale by the end of the new generation and the company slowly falling out of touch with the fans. A pivotal point in this period was The Rock's very own debut, which inspired the crowds to finally voice their distaste, with poor Rocky as the target of the now infamous, "Die, Rocky, Die!" chants. As is always said in wrestling, there's a silver lining. The Rocky'S heel turn, the Austin 3:16 speech, and the formation of the nWo all lead to the Attitude Era, considered the most successful period in wrestling. It is also important to truly understand the magnitude of the boom. See, while it may seem impressive when a Netflix TV show pulls a few millions of views nowadays, back in 1994 when Star Trek: The New Generation aired its finale, at least 31 million viewers tuned in to watch it live. Not impressed yet? The Finale of Friends grabbed the attention of 52.5 million viewers live. Still not big enough of a number? Seinfeld had 76.3M viewers live. To say that live viewership was important would be an understate- ment-- and a gigantic one at that! With most homes having the same national channels available, ratings and viewer buyership was so more important than it is today. There really were more eyes on the product during the mid-to- late ‘90s. While things were looking up for the Fed, especially with the rise of juggernaut names like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H, things were starting to turn kinda gloomy for WCW. Sure, Goldberg and nWo were practically printing money, but poor booking decisions were slowly beginning to catch up to the promotion. If you're curious where Bret Hart was during all of this, well... he was falling victim to the Montreal Screwjob, an earth shattering event with heaps of context that would make this article too long. For the sake of brevity, the one crucial detail relevant to this discussion is that the Screwjob put so much heat on Vince McMahon that it alone gave birth to the now infamous "Mr. McMahon" character. This in turn gave birth to the most successful rivalry in wrestling history, the seemingly never ending feud between the evil authoritarian Vince McMahon and the rebellious anti-hero Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin smashed his personal glass ceiling that day-- and adding a symbolic shattering glass sound to his entrance music only further boosted his popularity. Listing every mega star that rose during the Attitude Era would take weeks alone, it was so easy to get over due to insane viewership. By this time, WCW stars were beginning to make the jump to the Fed. One massive star in-the-making felt that he had hit his own glass ceiling in WCW due to his smaller stature. The star in question would be none other than the man who would defeat The Rock and Austin in the same night to become the first ever undisputed WWF champion, the man of a million catchphrases himself, Chris Jericho. Now Jericho may have had made his decision to switch companies at the heat of the moment, but it's worth reiterating the problems WCW was facing during the tail end of the Attitude Era due to the strange booking style of Vince Russo and his weird obsession with pool stick matches, swerving the fans at every turn, and unmasking luchadores (which is seen as borderline sacrilegious in Lucha Libre). 1998 would mark the end of Goldberg's 173-0 win streak, and barely a year after that Goldberg would deliver a stiff kick to Bret Hart that would end the Hitman's career. Not a single one of those would come close to the disaster that was WCW 2000's booking. An era of so much unhinged chaos, fans still to this day struggle to find cohesion in the nonsensical booking of that year. World Championship Wrestling would go defunct by April //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ of 2001. Select assets // \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\ would be purchased by //\\ //\\ the WWF. This was the \\// LIKE WHAT YOU ARE READING? \\// end of an era, but also // \\ the start of another. //\\ Let us know by submitting //\\ Notlong after, Vince \\// feedback to us at \\// would take advantage of \\ // the new toys at his //\\ http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org //\\ disposal to create one \\// \\// of the biggest wrestling \\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ //\\ // angles in history-- the \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// \\// Invasion. The angle would see wrestlers from ECW and WCW invade the WWF locker rooms, backstage areas and hijack the show. Obviously, it was all entertainment, but the Invasion angle was like printing money. In spite of the success, the storyline itself was fundamentally flawed. The invading forces were given little star power, there were numerous out-of-nowhere betrayals that didn't make sense, and the WCW/ECW was composed primarily of long-time WWF guys. Eventually the entire storyline devolved into little more than a McMahon family feud. It was strange for sure, but it still pulled a lot of money and the federation was still doing great. Despite several sour spots, in the long run the Attitude era was a huge success for the WWF. However, all good things come to an end and while the "real" end of the era is hotly debated, a commonly agreed stopping point would be when Stone Cold turned heel and shook the hand of his arch enemy, Vince McMahon. This catastrophic event would blow wrestling fans' minds and shake the entire foundation of the company as we know it. Back then, it felt like the world was ending, and that may as well have been. That point would mark the end of the WWF dominating television screens as TV ratings would drastically go down even more so than Samoa Joe's victory chances at Sacrifice. 2002 would see the World Wrestling Federation rebranded as World Wrestling Entertainment as the result of a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Fund, thus driving the final nail into the coffin of the Attitude era. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________ __________________ .-/| \ / .--. |\-. |||| | A. /`._ `. |||| |||| THE | | /. .` \ |||| |||| SEARS | / ) _ ( / |||| |||| CATALOG | | /.`-' \-. |||| |||| | / )`. ( \ |||| |||| BY | | . \^ \ | |||| |||| | | |`. \`-| | |||| |||| JOE COLLETT | // ' \`\ | |||| |||| | .' .\ .| | |||| |||| | / ``-._`.`-. |||| ||||__________________ | __________________|||| ||/===================\|/===================\|| `--------------------~___~-------------------'' Today, if we are looking for items to buy on the internet, odds are you are going to Amazon. If your desired item or thing is not there you can search a plethora of web stores and e-commerce websites and find what you need. But what if I told you this is not a new idea? Oh, sure it's great going and seeing multiple pictures of an item and having a description to let you know if this is the item you are wanting. But still, we had this before. It was a bit slower, but we still had these options in ordering things we needed and things we didn't. But how, you ask? Through the Sears catalog of course! Our local Sears was around 30 minutes away and did not have much of a selection, but the Sears in bigger towns a few hours away from us were full blown department stores. I didn't get to these bigger stores much, but they were amazing to see when I did. Like most department stores at the time, Sears had a mail order catalog. But, unlike other stores, the Sears catalog grew to encompass everything from tools and hardware to clothes, electronics and even entire homes. Before we go further, let's get a little background on Sears. Sears department store was founded in 1892 and from the beginning they sent out mail order catalogs. The business grew when they began to focus more on the mail order products in 1925. From the beginning they were selling cars and other goods you couldn't get locally. You didn't have to haggle with the store owner because the prices were published and consistent. I remember hearing stories of people who bought homes from the sears catalog. Being able to get uncommon items in the mail made them more common in rural areas like where I grew up. As long as you can afford it that is. I would look through the holiday edition of the catalog, called The Wish Book. My siblings and I would show our parents the toys we wanted or liked. I remember seeing Transformers, science kits, telescopes, BB guns, game systems, and computers in the Wish Book. Of course, there were a lot of clothes my mom would want to order for us for Christmas too. I was not excited about those! The regular catalog was always fun to look at too. When I was a kid, I would look at the toys, and when I got older I would look at the toys, computers, games consoles, and other electronics. I also like to look at musical instruments. They had a wide variety, but I never got any of them. Like a lot of people of my generation and before, I also liked to look at the women's underwear and swimsuit sections. Now before you say anything, I just want to also say my sister and her friends would ogle the dudes in the men's underwear and swimsuit sections too. One great thing about the Sears catalog is that you could order and have it shipped either directly to your house, or to the store if you wanted to save money on shipping costs. We usually shipped to the store to save a few bucks, which meant we could get more and better things for our home. This was the case for my original NES (Editor's note: For more on Joe's first NES, see his article "My First NES" in issue #5). In the 1990s, the company made some questionable business decisions and the catalog was one casualty. I remember how upset people were about no longer being able to get the Wish Book or the big catalog. Thankfully, the internet was spinning up and we were able to enjoy the e-commerce revolution. To be honest, there is not much difference between the old catalogs and modern e-commerce sites. The biggest thing is that shipping costs were higher back then. Today with Amazon shipping is free on most items. Also, you don't have to talk to anyone like back in the old days. You used to have to call someone up on the phone and give a check info, or mail in a order form with a check or credit card info to get your items. Today you just go online and point and click your way to an easy sale from your phone, tablet or computer. I still miss that catalog and would enjoy looking at it again if one still existed. If I ever see one in the wild at a thrift store, I will take a look and feel the waves of nostalgia flow over me. I might even sneak a peek at the women's underwear! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Latent Image - with Jon Mullin | | | | Minolta | | The Sheep in Wolf's Clothing | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Minolta is a camera brand that you probably know little about unless you are over the age of 30. This company, founded in 1928, got its start producing a folding medium format film camera a year after its founding. Slowly Minolta started expanding to TLR (Twin Lens Reflex), rangefinders, and SLR (Single Lens Reflex). So where did this company go, and what made Minolta so special? Minolta was one of many camera companies to experience increased popularity after World War II by selling "Leica clone" cameras to U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan. Minolta used that boom to help them invest and grow their business to become a major competitor to the likes of Canon, Nikon, Olympus, and the other big Japanese camera brands. Unlike most of these brands though, Minolta was focused on heavily developing both their cameras and lenses, unlike Olympus and Nikon who focused primarily on lenses before the war. Now Minolta was a pioneer and quite revolutionary on many fronts. They developed many industry firsts, including the first automatically exposing camera that metered through the lens, the first camera with autofocus, and even one of the first commercially available DSLRs for the masses. The problem is they innovated even when the innovations weren't really needed, or ready. That first autofocus system was mediocre at best, and that early DSLR, the RD-175 released in the mid 90s, really struggled to gain traction despite its unique design. Even if the first design wasn't great, subsequent designs generally fared better. Minolta was always willing to improve and grow, and that helped keep them relevant as well as keep customers loyal. By the time SLRs were falling out of ______________________________ favor for DSLRs, Minolta still didn't / \ \ have a dedicated DSLR camera lineup. | | The DOS & Don'ts | Their first major entry, using their \_ | Newsletter | current A-Mount lenses, didn't appear | is | until 2004, and in 2006 they struck a | Looking for Authors | deal with Sony to help with development | to write articles on | of their camera and lens divisions. | retro subjects that they | Remember the title at the top of the | are passionate about. | page? A sheep in wolf's clothing? Well, | | Minolta decided to release their camera | Sound like you? | division to partner Sony and swiftly exit | Contact Grizz at | the market. Sony continued to develop and | grizzsoft@gmail.com | design SLR cameras using Minoltas tech- | _________________________|___ nology under the Alpha branding Minolta | / / used in Japan. So the Sheep stayed alive \_/____________________________/ by dressing up as the wolf. Minolta was gone, but their legacy could continue. No store today sells an actual Minolta camera. The cameras you see today labeled Minolta are cheap, generic, point and shoots licensed and sold under the Minolta name. But if you really have to have a Minolta in today's world, then there is always the current Sony Alpha line up that might just keep that spark alive. They are one of the biggest innovators and players in the camera market, and Sony did it all on the backbone of Minolta. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Shopping! | | | |_________________________________________________| | |_____________________________________________________| One of my favourite aspects of maintaining a retro room is the constant search for the next piece. We set the date in the room to be perpetually 1989, which is 35 years before I am writing this. Decorations, books, toys, VHS, and other retro solutions for retro living are becoming harder and harder to find the more removed we get from their original production dates. Because of this, we use several methods for obtaining desired items. Often on the weekends my spouse and I like to day trip to one of the bigger cities in our area. Besides our typical grocery and household shopping, we frequent several thrift and charity shops in each of four nearby cities. It may sound boring to some, but for us it is a literal treasure hunt for items that we remember and/or have a fondness for. Some- times something entirely unexpected finds its way home with us. One unexpected piece was a bowling trophy that my spouse found at a Many Hands charity shop. We enjoy bowling-- we each have our own balls and I have my own shoes. Since the placard is missing, I cannot say what year the trophy was from but it looks like it belongs in the collection. After finding a place of honor for it in the retro room, I had an idea. So now there is, hanging by the trophy, a black and white photo of my spouse and myself at our local bowling alley holding the trophy proudly. I smile every time I see it. We are trying to build our media collection as well. We are always on the lookout for VHS tapes that we might enjoy. I enjoy the ritual of loading a tape into the VCR, setting the tracking, and having to rewind the tape. I don't know that there is a modern equivalent to this, but maybe it is when you browse through Netflix for 45 minutes before actually choosing some- thing. We are now far enough past the age of the VCR that charity shops are beginning to throw the tapes out. Soon VHS tapes will become quite rare. Even worse, they could haunt some shops like records currently do, with the only titles remaining being exactly the opposite of what anyone would consider purchasing. Retro items can also be purchased from strangers online, though sites like eBay and SHOPGOODWILL.com. If you are looking for something specific, this route will be more likely to produce results than shopping locally. An interesting piece I found on eBay is a set of wood letters that spell out the word "LOVE," with a heart for the O. The letters are connected by a thin chain and each letter contains a round frame into which our family photos have been inserted. This decoration is identical to one that hung in my childhood home. I have also sourced some awesome retro handhelds from eBay including a Radio Shack LCD Computerized 2 Player Golf game that I am rubbish at. SHOPGOODWILL.com is also a surprisingly good source of many things that you may have trouble finding elsewhere. I picked up a really nice cassette deck for creating and backing up Teddy Ruxpin tapes (more on that in June). I couldn't be happier with how it has performed. I also snagged our VCR from this site. I swear that it is good for more than electronics, though. Lots of collectibles are available and the prices are often better than eBay. One last tip, make sure that you talk about your hobby. I find that people are generally fascinated with the concept of a walk-in time capsule and have even had some people offer me items to add to the collection. For instance, when telling my dad about the project he offered me a black and white bakelite TV and an old AM radio that he restored a few years back. He later called back and told me that Grandma was wanting to get rid of her console TV, and that is the gem of my collection! Next month we will be taking a look at some old niche cookbooks, retro recipes, and the Snackmaster sandwich maker (the one from the infomercial). Until then, stay retro! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, programming, computers, electronics, telephone systems, pyromania, and lawn care. Grizz's Website: grizz.atwebpages.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ,------------------. ( Our Readers' ) > Retro < ( Memories ) `-----------(_)----' 0 o Our own Grizzly Adam writes: Picture it: Clear Lake, Iowa in January of 1994. It had been a particular- ly cold and stormy winter and so Dad, my uncle Roger, and I decided to go ice fishing (as idiots in the north do regularly). Roger had just purchased a new rubbermaid-like ice house that collapses down to a sled for easy transport across the ice. We walk a good long ways onto the ice, dragging the ice house/sled behind us. Finally it is decided that we are far enough out and we begin to convert the sled into it's ice house form. As Roger and I are preparing to get the ice house staked down, Dad begins to carry our poles, tackle, and beverages inside. This is when the fates decide that it is a great time to screw with us! Suddenly the wind comes up and take the icehouse into the air-- Dad still inside! The ice house spinn- ing in the air like a T.A.R.D.I.S was one of the craziest things I had even seen. Each rotation I could see Dad's terrified face through the doorway. Roger and I gave chase but there was no way that we could keep up and, even worse, the ice house was headed for the aerated open water on the south side of the lake. Luckily, the wind soon let up and the icehouse touched down gently about 50 yards from the open water. Dad later stated that he felt like Dorothy on her way to Oz, but he did not see any witches on bikes while he was up there. All in all, he flew close to 3/4 of a mile. We pull the ice house back towards the north end of the lake and finally set up about halfway between the north and south shores. The fact that we didn't immediately head home was impressive, as it meant that Dad's drawers were still clean. With the ice house secured down this time, we all sheltered within-- only to find that Dad's ancient ice auger was so dull that there was no way we were making a hole in the ice. And that was the one time I ever tried ice fishing. .-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-. Yousef from Kuwait writes: I'm really grateful I grew up with so many older games. Retro gaming connects with me in a way that games of my own generation do not. While Max Payne, GTA III, and Bully are three of my favorite games ever made, even as I am turning 25 I'm getting increasingly burned out from longer gaming experiences. It's quite comforting knowing I have the likes of Megaman, Ducktales, and Contra (just to name a few) to go back to whenever I need something shorter and simpler. I am also fond of the early Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem games since even RPGs back in the early days of gaming could be beaten in just a couple gaming sessions. .-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-. To submit your own memory, visit our homepage (dosanddonts.mywebcommunity. org) and look for the link! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================== | UNCLASSIFIED ADS | ================== _________________________________________________________________________ | There's just one place to go for all your spatula needs: | | SPATULA CITY | | Home of the Spatula! | | Shop any of our 7 locations! | |=========================================================================| | We have a giant warehouse of spatulas for any occasion with thousands | | to choose from in every shape, size and color. 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