________________________________________________ / \ | _________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | DOS & Don'ts | | | | | | | | A Modern Newsletter | | | | for Vintage-minded Folks | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | C:\>Issue #7 May 2024)_ | | | |_________________________________________| | | | \_________________________________________________/ \___________________________________/ ___________________________________________ _-' .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. --- `-_ _-'.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--. .-.-.`-_ _-'.-.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-`__`. .-.-.-.`-_ :---------------------------------------------------------------: `---._.---------------------------------------------------._.---' ------------------ In this Issue... ------------------ Your Letters! Features ---------- Games, Grills & Grass, Grizzly Adam A Retro Tandy Restore, Joe Collett Puck to Pac: The Secret Origin of Pac-Man, BlueMSX Columns --------- The Latent Image, Jon Mullin The Big Six: Best Team for Pokemon Red, Blue & Yellow Retro Living in a Modern World, Grizzly Adam Bits & Bytes -------------- Unclassifieds Ads ------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __ __ __ __ \ \/ /___ __ _______ / / ___ / /_/ /____ __________ \ / __ \/ / / / ___/ / / / _ \/ __/ __/ _ \/ ___/ ___/ / / /_/ / /_/ / / / /___/ __/ /_/ /_/ __/ / (__ ) /_/\____/\__,_/_/ /_____/\___/\__/\__/\___/_/ /____/ Tony Jones from Macon, GA writes: Hey guys, I just finished reading the April issue and great stuff that never fails to bring back my own fond memories of those days. I cab espec- ially relate to Joe and his memories. My family also shopped at our local Sears store and even more from the Sears catalog. I can remember looking through that thing four hours at all the toys, electronics, sports stuff and ummm, yeah, even the women's ummm, unmentionables.as a kid! LOL! We ordered lots of clothes for school including an awesome Pittsburgh Steelers hooded jacket when I was in 5th or 6th grade! I also remember buying a 2nd hand Tandy 1400 laptop from a UseNet newsgroup (remember newsreaders?). I'm pretty certain it was the HD model. It was definitely my first laptop and I was proud of it! Wish I still had it. Anyway, keep up the amazing work with the newsletter. Best wishes, Tony. Our own BlueMSX writes in response to Joe Collett's Sears Catalog article from (Issue #6): I am too young to have experienced the Sears Catalog, but I remember going through catalogs from Target, Walmart, and best of all Toys R Us! Out of all of them, Toys R Us easily had the coolest stuff. I still remember getting the catalog early in December looking at all the cool new toys, games, and electronics while circling all the ones I wanted. Usually, I'd get at least one thing I circled for Christmas that year. Good old Toys R Us, those were the days. I really miss that place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________ | __ | | \ \ | | \_\ GAMES, GRILLS & GRASS | | \ \ ____ BY GRIZZLY ADAM | | \ (_|____|_ | | '.|.-._.-._] /////////////////////////////////////////// | | ^^^^^^^'-' '-'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | |________________________________________________________________| With spring officially here and Memorial Day on the horizon, it is time once again to enjoy the great outdoors. I personally enjoy taking the time to care for my lawn. I enjoy mowing, treating to prevent weeds, and giving my lawn what it needs to thrive. This means that I have a great place where my friends and family can gather, play games, enjoy cookouts, campfires, and just generally have a great time. Even if you aren't a lawn nut like me, your own lawn is still a great place for a wide assortment of activities. It also happens to be conveniently located just outside your door! Guests are typically treated to some sort of lawn-based activity upon arrival at such an event. While some of the old standards are becoming more obscure, classics like croquet, horseshoes and badminton still remain quite popular. Other games, like lawn bowling and its Italian cousin bocce, have all but fallen out of favor and are typically only encountered in high school physical education courses and within the pages of Obscure Sports Quarterly. It's best if we don't talk about Jarts (if you know, you know). Newer favourites like ladderball and the juggernaut known as cornhole have found great success in the recent decades. In addition to the fun game play, there are also the great double-entendres that come with the territory, such as teaming up with your cousin's wife to give your aunt and uncle a good, hard round of cornholing. A ring of elders can often be found gathered around a grill, campfire, or other means of rendering food safe for consumption. Chief among them is the grill master, who can be easily spotted giving the tongs two quick squeezes to ensure they are properly calibrated prior to use. The grilled faire often features burgers, ribs, brisket, or barbeque chicken-- and, of course, hot dogs for the kids. Some grill masters have also heard of fruits and vegetables and may even cook them for you. Corn on the cob, vegetables in foil "hobo" pouches, peaches, pineapple, and even watermelon sometimes find their way on the menu of an adventurous grill master. Some non-grilled side dishes are also usually available, as are non-grilled drinks. One type of side called a "salad" usually consists of fruits or vegetables in a heavy, calorie rich sauce. Calling it a salad makes everyone feel better about consuming the dish. After everyone has stuffed themselves, /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ we all continue to snack as we ingest \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ cold beverages. If a fire pit is on /\/\ TOO BUSY TO READ? /\/\ premises, a second course of hotdogs and \/\/ (or don't know how?) \/\/ flaming marshmallows is offered under /\/\ Try our YouTube Channel /\/\ the starlight. This is a self-service \/\/ @DOSandDontsNewsletter \/\/ course where the consumer is responsible /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ for cooking their ownby shoving a long, \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ sharp stick through it and roasting over the open fire. Fun fact: marshmallows are super combustible! When the elders finally begin to tire and the children have had enough of catching fireflies, we begin the goodbye ritual. "Welp," someone says and everyone begins to shake hands or hug. Attempting both simultaneously, however, is frowned upon. A scant ninety minutes later, the first guests finally depart with their complementary doggy bag. When the final guest departs, the hosts breathe a sigh of relief. "That was fun, but I am glad it's over." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 II | | | | | | | | BY JOE COLLETT | | | |________________________________________________| | | TANDY | | _________________________________________________________ | | ______ ______ | |___| |_______________________________________| |___| ___| | ________________ | | |___ | | | - [ ] |==[]============ | | | | |______|____________________|__________________|______| | Welcome to part 2 of my Tandy 1400 HD restore series. If you have not read part 1, please go back and read it first. Or read this one first, I'm not the boss of you. I just thought it would help if you read part 1 first... Last month I told you how I got an old Tandy laptop and my plans for getting it going. In this edition I am going to detail the further progress I have made on the device since then. Remember, if it's good or bad I will be letting you guys know because that's how it is working on old machines. You can't save them all, but dang it you can try. On with the show! I found a list of all the capacitor values on the internal power supply board and ordered replacements on Amazon. I also picked up some solder wick, which is used to remove old solder, a necessary step in replacing components. My friend who gave me the old unit contacted me and said he had found an old power cord with the right specs for the laptop and that he would mail it to me. The weekend after everything arrived, I set up a work area at my kitchen table to work on the power supply board. I couldn't find my handy helper, a cool tool with poseable alligator clip arms and a magnifying glass, that I was planning to use to hold the board in place and see the components better. Sucks. Next, I looked for my soldering station-- it's a nice soldering iron. Nope no luck there either. I did find an old soldering iron that I got from a buddy who found it when he was clearing his stuff out of his mom's house. This was 20 years ago. I really wanted to work on this thing so I started to heat it up. To be honest I had never done this before. I have seen it many times in videos so I can do it, right? Removing the first capacitor took a while, but not as long as I thought it would. After I removed each capacitor, I cleaned the front and back with alcohol to remove any of the electrolytic fluid that may have leaked out. I got 13 caps replaced on Saturday, I would have done more but I couldn't see well. My eyes needed more light, and I can't see up-close like I used to. Getting old sucks. On Sunday after Church, lunch, and household chores I got everything back out and finished swapping the last 5 capacitors. I plugged everything back in and the light on the monitor came on. I heard 2 beeps (which is normal for this computer) and then it sat there. I could activate the scroll lock, num lock, and caps lock, I just can't see anything on screen. Progress! I went from nothing to something. The fan wasn't spinning either. I compared my work against pictures of other people's power supplies online and noticed that I had a cable routed wrong, physically blocking the fan. So I took the power supply apart again and routed the cable correctly. Next I checked for cold solder joints. Everything looked good, but after hooking everything up the backlight didn't come back on and the fan still didn't spin. I checked my voltages and I had lost the 22v that powers the backlight. Some of the other voltages were also missing, or low. Now I feel like I am back to square one. As I said at the beginning of this series, I am going to tell everything whether it is good or bad. This is where we are going to leave it for now, but as I promised last month, here is some info about the NEC V20 processor. Back in the day chip makers like Intel would cross license their products to other manufacturers to keep supplies of their chips up and available. It was common to see specific chips that were made by multiple manufacturers. For instance, 8088 chips that powered the first PCs were made by Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, and NEC, among others. With the V20, NEC took the 8088 codeset and combined it with code from the 8080 and 8086 and put it in one chip. They also doubled the transistors and widened the data bus. This chip can run not only DOS, but can run CP/M 80, and some early 286 code. It was also faster than other 8088 chips, up to 20% faster in some cases. Intel sued NEC for using their code on a new class of processors, but not before NEC could release the V30, V40 and V50. The NEC V20 is sought after by early computer collectors to give their old computer a period appropriate upgrade and that improves performance. Tune in Next month when we will talk about more math co-processors, the ongoing power supply issues, and whether pineapple really does belong on pizza (editor's note: It does). I would also like to throw out a thank you to the readers who have taken time to send feedback on my articles. I really do appreciate it and it keeps me motivated to write more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================. .-. .-. .--. | .-. | OO| | OO| / _.-' .-. .-. .-. .''. | '-' | | | | \ '-. '-' '-' '-' '..' | '^^^' '^^^' '--' | ===. .===============. .-. .================. .-. | | | Puck | |OO | | The Secret | '-' | | | to | | | | Origin | | | | Pac: | '^^^' | of Pac-Man | .-. | | | | .-. | | '-' | ===' '===============' '-' '================' | .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. | '-' '-' '-' '-' '-' '-' '-' '-' '-' | ===. .========================================. | | | by | .-. | | | BlueMSX | '-' | ===. .========================================. | Pac-Man was among the greatest successes in the arcade industry during the 1980s, but it didn't happen overnight. Our story begins with Nakamura Manufacturing, which had recently changed its name to Nakamura Amusement Machine Manufacturing Company, or Namco for short. They were primarily known for producing kiddie rides that went outside shops, and would also develop miniature train track styled rides that would go inside the shops. Using the capital raised from these early endeavors, Namco would soon collaborate with another company that was hoping to expand into the Japanese market: Atari. Working together, an electronic game called F-1 would be created. Rather than using expensive TTL logic or other systems, F-1 made use of projectors and mechanisms to create an impressive simulation of a high speed race track-- complete with a crash effect during in-game collisions. After the partnership, Atari would attempt to move fully into the Japanese market, which ended quite badly. This was due in large part to a lack of understanding on Atari's part, on how best to appeal to the Japanese market. This, combined with corporate corruption and a waning interest in Atari Japan's parent company, Atari Inc., would lead to Namco acquiring Atari Japan from Atari Corporation. This not only let Namco distribute Atari's games in Japan, but also provided Namco the resources needed to shift into the video game industry themselves. The first game developed by Namco alone was known as Gee Bee. It was designed by a man named Toru Iwatani, who was expecting to be working on pinball machines. The game itself was similar to Atari's breakout with elements of pinball styled games. Namco would soon create other games using similar hardware to Gee Bee and F-1, such as S.O.S, Navarone, Batting Chance, Tank Battalion, Warp and Warp, and two sequels to Gee Bee. These sequels, Bomb Bee and Cutie Q, were also designed by Iwatani. Interestingly, Cutie Q featured ghosts that would become just a pair of eyes once defeated by the main character, a ball with a face. This would set the stage for Iwatani's next game. Iwatani wanted to break the current mold of Space Invaders style games, while attempting to appeal to both nonviolent and female audiences. While not confirmed, it's likely that Iwatani drew inspiration from Sega's arcade hit Head On when coming up with the general concept for his new game. Head On was also a maze chase game in which you would collect dots while avoiding enemies. However unlike the game Iwatani would create, in Head On the player was constantly moving forward only being able to change direction on turns or within the open areas near the maze's center. With extra freedom of movement, Iwatani was able to give each of the four colored ghosts their own unique behavior. The player character would take more time to refine. Its earliest form was said to be a simple circle that moved unanimated around the maze. Some say Iwatani took the Japanese symbol for mouth and rounded out its shape to create the player character's final design. Others say that it was during a visit to a local pizzeria that Iwatani, upon removing the first slice from his pizza, formed the idea. Or it could have just been the natural evolution of Cutie Q's ball character. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. .-------------------------------------------. With the design for his | .---------------------------------------. | character completed, Iwatani | | | | would dub his creation Puck- | | SEND US LETTERS | | Man, due to his hockey puck | | | | shaped design. Popeye inspir- | | We want your interactions! | | ed powerups enabled Puck-Man | | Respond to any of our articles | | to turn the tables on the | | with your own thoughts and | | ghosts, allowing the player | | we will publish them in | | to chase and eat them, along | | our next issue! | | with bonus items that would | | | | give extra points. The game | | Letters can be submitted at | | would also feature cutscenes | | http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org | | during gameplay, a first for | |_______________________________________| | the arcades. It was thanks to |___________________________________________| these inclusions that Puck- Man would not only pass its location tests, but would become Namco's most lucrative success up to that point. Namco would soon begin developing a number of hit video games, such as Rally X, King and Balloon, and Galaxian. This would coincide with Namco looking for new business partners in the west and beyond. While Namco previously had done business with Taito, Gremlin, and Rock-Ola, they were interested in finding new businesses to work with. The two most interested were Game Plan Inc (GPI) and Bally Midway, which would lead to an interest- ing scenario. It was said that Namco, wanting to keep a relationship with both GPI and Bally Midway, would arrange a coin toss for which company would get which game to release in the United States. GPI would wind up with King and Balloon, while Bally Midway would get Puck-Man and later Galaga. However, an issue would soon become apparent with the name of the game. Midway was concerned that players would vandalize the machines to make the name say something slightly different. After some back and forth between the two companies, a new name would be settled upon for all territories going forward: Pac-Man. With incredibly high demand, Midway would ramp out Pac-Man machines as fast as they could be made, splitting the profits with Namco. The game was so popular, in fact, that arcade operators would often order multiple machines just to keep up with the high player demand. The game would ultimately break the cycle of space-shooter games that had been the norm prior, as well as bringing women into the arcades-- just as Iwatani had hoped. With Pac-Man's huge success Midway, Namco, and others would look into ways to build on this success, but that's a story for another time. Sadly Mr. Iwatani is no longer with us, having passed away on January 30th, 2017, leaving an incredible legacy. He created many successful and well remembered games for Namco such as Super Pac-Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Pac-Land, Pac-Mania, Ridge Racer, Time Crisis, and Pac-Man Championship Edition. It's important to remember that one's success does not come from following the crowd alone, nor does it come from where you originate. Inspiration and innovation can come from any place, and from any person. 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 Latent Image - with Jon Mullin | | | | Digicams! | | A Satirical Look at These Maybe Retro Cameras | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, so we are pushing retro here... I'm calling this retro as every major brand has announced they no longer produce compact digital cameras for consumers. Digicams refer to "old" point and shoot digital cameras. These old cameras usually used CCD sensors (Charged Couple Device) as opposed to the more modern CMOS sensors (Complementary Metal Oxide Sensor) used in 98% of all cameras produced today. What's the difference? I'm going to be honest, I don't know. Digicams have mediocre at best zoom ranges, rear screens that can only be described as "turds," designs that were funky in a not so cool way, and being all around great at taking the plurality out of megapixels. Plurality of Megapixels you say? Yes, plurality because you may not even get a full megapixel. So why a digicam? We all have smartphones these days right? Is Jon hipster trash now? The answers: why not, get off your phone, and absolutely not. Digicams were great because we hadn't pushed the technology to its limits when they were released. To push technology requires some drawbacks in one way or another. One of the biggest ways these cameras best their more modern counterparts is in resolution. The higher the resolution a digital camera, the less light each individual pixel can receive. Digicams often have better low light performance, as well as better overall image quality because of this. Despite their inherent mediocrity, they produce timeless and beautiful photos. They often surpass what a modern point and shoot can produce. Now digicams have been around for a long time. For every solid digicam option there is going to be a depressing counter option that will make you regret all your life choices. Early digicams tended to have poor image quality as the technology was emerging. Digicams from the past 5-10 years also tend to be pushed past their limits producing grainy, dull, and soft photos despite their higher resolution sensors. The sweet spot for digicams is between 2000-2015. These absolute units are where compact cameras really shined. My Canon Powershot Elph SD880 (stupid name) beats the pants off the image quality of Canon's latest compact: the Powershot SX740 (boring name). Sure the SX740 has 20 megapixels over 8 megapixels, a 40 times zoom over a 3 times zoom, and can take any size SD card. Sadly, the SX740 produces boring images for boring people. That Elph SD880 though, if someone takes a picture of you on that, then your tinder matches are going to go through the roof! As for the, "is 8 Megapixels enough" question-- yes, it's enough, stop being greedy! Is your 4K TV crap because it's only 8 Megapixels? Absolutely not! What is a megapixel you ask? It's a measurement of how many million pixels are in a given area! 1 megapixel is one million pixels. 8.3 mega- pixels is 8,300,000 pixels. That's more than enough. You couldn't count that high on your little tootsies if you tried. How big is this sensor, well it's name won't tell you, that's for sure. That wasn't a joke. The most common size of a sensor is called a 1/2.3 sensor. It measures .3 inches diagonally or .24 inches by 1.8 inches. Now math class would have taught us that 1/2.3 should translate to .43 inches... I don't write the rules so don't come after me about terrible math. There were other sizes, but few and far between, so they are irrelevant for any major brand of digicam. Lenses are another reason why these stupid cheap point and shoots are seeing a resurgence. The lower resolution sensors don't need nearly as much sharpness through their lenses to get a solid image. They also have smaller zoom ranges which makes it easy to create a crisp image across the whole zoom range. Sure, lens technology has improved but we can't upgrade physics to make light do what it physically can't... we ain't wizards. (Editor's note: Speak for yourself, mortal!) So go buy a digicam! They're fairly cheap, take timeless and beautiful photos, and will probably die on you in a year. It's better than it becom- ing e-waste sooner rather than later, and with the way film prices have increased you will soon have to sell both your kidneys to get a roll. Plus you need a break from your phone, so why not carry a digicam along on your next adventure instead? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______ __ __ ______ ______ __ ______ ______ __ __ __ /\__ _\/\ \_\ \ /\ ___\ /\ == \ /\ \ /\ = \ /\ ___\ /\ \ /\_\_\_\ \/_/\ \/\ \ __ \\ \ __\ \ \ __< \ \ \\ \___\ \ \ \___ \\ \ \\/_/\_\/_ \ \_\ \ \_\ \_\\ \_____\ \ \_____\\ \_\\/\_____\ \/\_____\\ \_\ /\_\/\_\ \/_/ \/_/\/_/ \/_____/ \/_____/ \/_/ \/_____/ \/_____/ \/_/ \/_/\/_/ ##### ########### BEST TEAM FOR POKEMON ####.---.#### BY RED, BLUE, AND YELLOW =======o======= YOUSEF : '---' : : : - _ - Welcome to the beginning of this author's very own Pokemon column, a column which aims to cover various aspects of the older Pokemon games such as Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, Ruby/Sapphire and what have you. Multiple topics are on the table here may include playthrough guides, competitive play, glitches and spin-offs as well. What distinguishes these articles from my usual main articles are the months of research poured into them as some topics here have many nuances to them that it would be a disservice to rush them out of the door for cheap clicks like some so-called "Poke-tubers" tend to do. But also due to the subjectivity of some of these topics, I will drop my self-imposed restriction of never addressing myself in first- person singular pronouns. I avoid those in my other articles to maintain a professional look and keep my articles as relatable as can be but due to the nature of this column, it would be dishonest to act as if I speak for everyone.That said, onto today's topic. ______________________________ Team building in Pokemon is an / \ \ addicting process, and while the | | The DOS & Don'ts | plethora of suspiciously similar \_ | Newsletter | Pokemon (looking at you, Clefable | is | and Wigglytuff) may lead some to believe | Looking for Authors | there's not much variety, the deeper you | to write articles on | dig, the quicker you find that this | retro subjects that they | couldn't be farther from the truth. This | are passionate about. | is no small thanks to Gen 1 having many | | odd or interesting quirks that give a lot | Sound like you? | of mons some interesting uses. For | Contact Grizz at | example, did you know critical hits are | grizzsoft@gmail.com | based on your speed? Get a fast Pokemon | _________________________|___ like Jolteon. How about the fact that | / / normal attacks are some of the most \_/____________________________/ common attacks in the game? In that case you may wanna get an Onix, who's rock-typing enables it to resist normal- type attacks. Or maybe you want a decent set-up mon? Well, there's a glitch famously known as "the badge-boost glitch" that re-applies stat boosts from previously obtained badges any time you use any stat enhancing move like Sword Dance, Harden, Agility and Growth just to name a few. And these moves are incredibly common! These articles will be somewhat tailored towards people with some level of familiarity with Pokemon, as such in order to avoid bloat, many Pokemon- centric concepts and terms mentioned here will likely only be given a brief explanation. With that said, onto the team-building. Now it is crucial to address that the use of "RBY" here is only for brevity and is not meant to indicate that Pokemon Yellow will be accounted for during the team-building process. But despite that, there's not many significant alterations made to Gen 1 in Yellow version, and one of the criterias for this team building is to almost disregard version exclusives entirely. So even if you were to be stuck with Yellow, you're not exactly out of luck. Matter of fact, you could arguably have room for a more flexible team composition; however, you will miss out on the infamous "Old Man Trick", which is great to ease up a lot of RB playthroughs. But now you may be wondering what other criterias are picked for this guide? Well, we're gonna be avoiding most stationary Pokemon with one exception. Stationary Pokemon are those Pokemon you don't encounter in the wild but rather spot in the overworld in a stationary position, hence the name. Examples include Snorlax, the legendary birds, Groudon in Pokemon Ruby, Dialga in Pokemon Diamond and so on. There's actually nothing wrong with them, in fact they're pretty great but can carry an element of inconvenience and we aim to minimize that here. Another thing we're gonna be avoiding is reliance on TMs (Technical Machines), which are single-use items that are used to teach Pokemon moves they can't otherwise learn. These lack descriptions, so be wise about giving them to the right Pokemon that truly need them. They seem like a fun mechanic to engage with at first however if you're familiar with newer gens I got harrowing news for you as Gen 1 has no move-tutor. If a Pokemon forgets a move, it has permanently lost that move without means of re- obtaining it besides buyable TMs which there isn't a great selection for. There's also HMs (Hidden Machines), which are their own can of worms I might discuss in a later paragraph. For now I just need to establish the importance of removing a potential cause for decision fatigue from this guide to comfort newcomers and returning veterans alike. Now we got all that out of the way, Onto some team composition. Unsurpris- ingly we need to start with, well, the starters! Let's not kid ourselves, Charmander should be your last pick. Not only is Fire/Flying one of the least useful typings, but Charizard simply struggles throughout nearly the whole adventure, with his only truly relevant matchup being against Ice Pokemon, which he's already weak to due three out of all five Ice Pokemon in the game having a water dual type, meaning they not only take neutral damage (or sometimes halved damage, if you're in Gen 3 onwards where Dewgong has Thick Fat), but they'd be dealing super effective damage at you. What about Erika, I hear you say. Erika has Dodou spawning nearby, and we're gonna need him to learn Fly which Charizard can't learn (in Red/Blue) making him even more redundant. Not to mention, Dodrio is a Normal typing too so he gets STAB (Same-type Attack Bonus) on Hyper Beam, one of the only good infinitely re-obtainable TMs. So Zard's only real good main- playthrough match-up is... Jynx?? A whopping one singular Pokemon. But yeah, Charizard's awfulness can't be understated in gen 1 but chin up, fans of the Zard! 'Cause your favorite fire-breathing not-dragon giant flying lizard is quite useful in Gen 3. But that's not where we are so the infinite dunking will probably go on long enough that Shaq will need a whole new tree for all the broken rims. But that's if you catch me on a bad day, luckily now is the time to discuss your other important picks for the team. While there's debate between Bulbasaur and Squirtle, the former is the definitive pick for the team we're building here. You're fine picking Squirtle, but you'll face some difficulty optimizing your team since there's not gonna be as many options for coverage had you just went with Bulbasaur or heck, even Charmander. There's already an ocean of great water types in the game, but not so for grass and fire so to avoid redundancy, Squirtle gets the axe. And if you're still hung-up, Bulbasaur can learn Sleepowder. Even if that's still not enough for you and you went with Squirtle anyways, I've prepared an emergency team pick just in case. With your starter picked up, now you actually want to level up a bit. Bulbasaur doesn't get his STAB until level 13, so some early game patience is in order. Unlike Squirtle, who only needs to wait till level 8. But with Brock, the first gym leader out of your ear, it's time to move on. Contrary to popular belief, Nidoking is not the King of Gen 1.As his powers to shatter speedrunning records always being cited actually comes from a misunderstanding of how Gen 1 works and how speedrunning works in general. See, Nidoking is not picked because he's just "really really good", similar to how Stoutland isn't picked in Gen 5 speed runs because he's about to sweep Rayquaza in VGC (Video Game Championships) any time soon, rather Nidoking is just taking advantage of both being early and being early enough to take advantage of how the item known as X-Accuracy ignores accuracy checks entirely allowing moves like Horn Drill to always land, which are typically held back by their 30% accuracy as a way to balance their guaranteed KOs. Outside of that hyper-specific context, Nidoking is relatively above average and its Ground/Poison typing does it no favors, as it takes super effective damage from Ice, Psychic and Ground: three of the scariest types in the game. And if you wanna be a smarty pants about it, Horn Drill is not learned until level 41, can require a TM (which we're avoiding) and Nidoking is slow as hell. Cherry on top? He's recently been outclassed by Clefable in recent speedrunning routes. So if you wanna be a YouTuber gremlin and spread poorly researched facts based on conjecture, you may wanna re-do your two minute google search. Now, who's to catch after Bulbasaur? We've already ruled out Spearow and Pidgey due to their lower attack stats, worse movepool coverage and inconvenient leveling so your next bet is a Geodude. A surprise pick for sure, but a welcome one. Onix would be fine, but he misses out on Earth- quake. You don't actually need Geodude for some crazy match-ups in the game, but he works as a nightmare fuel for Garry's Pidgeot, the most annoy- ing Pokemon opponent in the entire game. The resistance to normal attacks is great as well as they're really common throughout the game. Geodude also gets immunity to electric attacks due to his ground typing so Surge's Pokemon can't do jack to him. Oh, and don't be fooled into picking a Dugtrio. That high level and the sweet words from clickbait-hungry You- Tubers may entice you, however endgame threats will quickly catch-up to Dugtrio's abysmal HP. So far we've established Venasaur, Dodrio and Graveler (Or Onix, not a huge difference). Abra should be on your team as well if you haven't picked him already then evolve him to Kadabra (or trade to get Mr Mime who is also quite decent. Alternatively Hypno is also great). That's four already. For your water types, both Tentacruel or Vapereon are fantastic but you may wanna hold out on the latter, considering you only get one Eevee in the whole game. The choice isn't actually between who's better, but between who's harder to replace. To follow a comical theme here, the fire type is the worst so your only real choices are between Jolteon or Vapereon. You cannot go wrong with either of them, but Jolteon would be my personal pick here. There's a ton of water types in Gen 1, but it is really difficult to find good electric Pokemon in RB. The reason Jolteon stands out is due to his coverage as well as his speed, and remember speed is used to calculate crit. We now arrive at our last three Pokemon to discuss. Tentacruel, my sixth pick for this team. Zapdos, a fancy alternative for both Jolteon and Dodrio. And lastly, Jynx. Your emergency pick. Tentacruel's insane stats, great typing and fantastic coverage simply makes him a badass pick. Jynx's typing is great, and having two psychics is not as redundant as it sounds considering this is Gen 1 where psychic was basically king. As for Zapdos, this brings us to one last myth that clickbaity channels love to spread. You see, the legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres have the last syllable of their names based on the Spanish numbers Uno, Dos and Tres meaning One, Two and Three respectively. This sounds like a really fun trivia to share in parties and hangouts. It even sounds like a great way to spread baseless rumors and pure conjecture! The one in particular being that this is meant to indicate their ranking in viability. Now this sounds all well and good, but if you squeeze an ounce of mental effort you'll realize that's an incredibly stupid line of thinking and there's no logic behind making your three legendary birds objectively unequal. But why do they use these names to begin with, I hear you ask? That's the neat part, they don't. Their names in Japanese are Freezer, Thunder and Fire respectively. When people say gen 1 was a reflection of simpler times, they weren't exaggerating. Now put yourself in the shoes of a localizer. You are a resident native to America, and you're localizing a game aimed at kids. Do you really expect your child to come and shout "Mom! Dad! I caught Fire in Pokemon Red!" And get a confused look like he has three-heads at best or give a terrible panic attack at worst? What if a kid gets made fun of for saying "In Pokemon Blue, you can catch Thunder!". Naturally, some changes were in order. This also contextualizes a sister myth of this one that Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan are based on Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan respectively when that was in fact, you guessed it, a localization name only. In Japanese, they're named after Japanese MMA fighters, who would probably be less known among European and North American kids overseas. Trivia dump out of the way, with Zapdos's "drawback" explained, now we can move on to why he might be your best pick. One obvious thing to mention is availability. Unlike Articuno, Zapdos does not require a deeply intricate, unnecessarily convoluted dungeon to navigate or even a puzzle to solve. Matter of fact, it's a straight path to the legendary with little to no fanfare. You could get lost and encounter Voltrob, Pokemon's version of the mimic trope popularized by Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior), but it's no deal breaker. Zapdos has the best typing and access to two great STABs. Articuno is not that terrible if you really wanna get him, as his weaknesses are not the end of the universe in the context of a gen 1 playthrough. He's surprisingly well-placed actually, the only issue is that Jynx is far less inconvenient to obtain. So get her instead since you only need to trade a Poliwhirl to get her using an in-game trade at Cerulean City. Now, time for the drum roll. Your final team is... Venasaur, Kadabra, Dodrio, Jolteon, Tentacruel and Jynx. Geodude is taken out due lack of endgame viability. Zapdos is left out to avoid unnecessary hassle. Jynx is included because an early offensive ice type is great. While she doesn't learn any psychic STABs, Kadabra already takes care of that. You may also want to take advantage of her Ice Punch, since it has 10% chance of causing the freeze status which is downright ruthless in Gen 1 as a frozen Pokemon is unable to move and cannot be thawed without Ice Heal or without being hit by a fire attack... as if you already needed even more reasons to avoid using fire Pokemon. Before we wrap up, let's nail down a team for Squirtle too just in case. Blastoise is a reliable mon as he's in a gen that favors poison and water types, and is flexible in a way that won't require us to alter the team drastically. But due to Gen 1's dismissal for grass types, Bulbasaur is tough to compensate for. But I believe Victreebel (for Blue) and Vileplume (for Red) are great alternatives as they're acquired early. They're also both catchable in Yellow. Exeggutor is fantastic too thanks to his Explosion. Stone-evolutions, versions exclusives and Safari Zone mons were left out to avoid headaches, but Squirtle cannot avoid them unless he's ok with an unoptimized team. Just make sure you have a movepool table at a different tab just to not regret leveling your stone mons too early. Some final notes to wrap up the article as it's becoming impossible not to keep adding more and more as results of months of research. Nearly every single day had last minute reworks or entire sections being scrapped or re- written (or unfortunately, outright forgotten in my increasingly forgetful mind). Not to mention, birthday celebrations further delaying this article. Yeah, I turned 25 as of the writing of this. Yippee! But to conclude last minute notes, Jynx is great against Ghosts, as gen 1 is the only gen where psychic is super effective against ghosts due to what I can only presume is a programming error. Oh, if you also really want a psychic attack on her, the Psychic TM is easy to obtain and Kadabra won't need it as he learns it naturally. Oh, and Tentacruel learns Mega Drain as TM, as if he wasn't already a badass. Final final note is that my arm is beginning to hurt as I'm typing this final paragraph so this is quite literally the end. Happy hunting! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ,---. ,---. / /"`.\.--"""--./,'"\ \ \ \ _ _ / / `./ / __ __ \ \,' / /_O)_(_O\ \ | .-' ___ `-. | .--| \_/ |--. ,' \ \ | / / `. / `. `--^--' ,' \ .-"""""-. `--.___.--' .-"""""-. .-----/ \------------------/ \--------. | .---\ /----------------- \ /------. | | | `-`--`--' `--'--'-' | | | | Retro Living in a Modern World | | | | | | | | with Grizzly Adam | | | | | | | | This Installment: The Snackmaster | | | |_________________________________________________| | |_____________________________________________________| One thing that I remember fondly from my youth was watching cooking infomercials on Sunday mornings. I was absolutely fascinated with one product in particular-- the Snackmaster sandwich maker. The infomercial featured a then unknown Cathy Mitchell, now known primarily for her "dump" cooking series. The Snackmaster would basically make toasted triangle sandwiches that would seal around the edges by delicately smashing the edges together. Cathy would make wild creations made my mouth water, such as spaghetti sandwiches sealed inside leftover garlic bread. At the time, this was actually considered fairly healthy. Carbs were at the base of the food pyramid, and we were advised to eat up to 11 servings every day to maintain a healthy diet. I came across an original snackmaster recently at a charity shop and we have been using it to cook up some culinary delights over the last few months. My spouse has especially seemed to enjoy cooking with it, but she gets less enjoyment out of cleaning it. Newer sandwich makers have added removable cooking plates that can be run through the dishwasher, or even swapped out for grill, griddle, and waffle plates. I have owned these kinds of sandwich makers in the past, but right now I am excited about having the real Snackmaster experience. The first thing we tried to cook was some all-american apple pie. Pie was one of the big talking points of the infomercial, and I would be willing to bet it was what most Snackmaster owners tried first. Per Cathy's instructions, we buttered our bread on the outside, placed one piece in the Snackmaster, added a liberal amount of pie filling, and topped it with a second piece of bread. Two minutes after closing the lid, the pie was cooked. Cathy suggests topping with powdered sugar, but we chose cinnamon and sugar instead. The first bite sent waves of nostalgia through me. These are actually pretty decent hand pies, even if they were overfilled. Another recipe that was featured in the infomercial was "pizza." Cathy claimed during the infomercial that she has Snackmaster pizza parties where guests would build and cook their custom pizzas. Contrary to popular belief, I do have friends. However, I also have social anxiety so I don't do parties, not even pizza parties. My spouse decided to try her hand at cooking triangle pizzas for us, but she did deviate from Cathy's recipe by substituting crescent dough for the crust instead of bread. The dough was more difficult to work with than anticipated, but she made it work. Mine had beef, peppers and onions and was quite tasty and I highly recommend it. For the next recipe, I went off script. We had some leftover apple pie filling, but not enough for the both of us. I remedied this by adding raisins to stretch it and spicing with cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. The end result was a delicious mince style filling, albeit with a little too much clove in it. I really enjoyed it, and the way I used up leftovers would have made Cathy proud (remember the spaghetti sandwich?). One thing that Cathy stressed in the infomercial was how easy it was to make a breakfast spread of triangular breakfast foods with the Snackmaster, and I decided to test this by making my spouse breakfast in bed. I whipped up some pancake mix, spooned it into the two of the wells of the machine machine, and dropped in some pre-cooked turkey sausage links. I cracked a couple eggs into the other two well and closed the machine. About 2 minutes later the light indicator light went off and everything was cooked as expected. The eggs were over easy and the pancakes were pancakey and delicious. My original intent was to split this article between the Snackmaster and some selected recipes from my vintage cookbook collection. However, when I began writing about the Snackmaster, it quickly became apparent that this marvel of cookery deserved to have its own spotlight. I have thoroughly enjoyed having the snackmaster back in my life and getting to make great new memories of it with my spouse. Overall, I still love the Snackmaster and I still love the old Snackmaster infomercial. Next month, I will walk you through my adventures with Teddy Ruxpin. 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ================== | UNCLASSIFIED ADS | ================== ######################### ## 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 you how 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. If you're like I was, you want a powerful, muscular, well-proportioned build you can be proud of anytime, anywhere. You want the "Greek-God" type of physique that women rave about at the beach. The kind that makes other fellows green with envy! WRITE NOW FOR MY 32-PAGE ILLUSTRATED BOOK Mailing me will be the turning point in your life. I'll send you a copy of my 32-page illustrated book, "How Dynamic-Tension Makes You a NEW MAN." Tells how an why my methord workds, shows many pictures proving what is has done for others. Don't delay, WRITE NOW! CHARLES ATLAS, Dept. 8111 115 East 23rd ST., New York, N.Y. 10010 ................................... *********************************** : BIG AL'S COMPUTER BARN : * MISSING PERSON * : 18 MEGABYTE Hard Disk Drive : *********************************** : Only $3000! : * Have you seen Polythene Pam? * : BEST PRICE EVER! : * DESCRIPTION: Good looking, * :All the storage you'll ever need!: * looks like a man. Attractively * : Never use floppies again! : * built. Last seen wearing a * : 327 Gates Street 235-555-4231 : * polythene bag, jackboots and * ................................... * kilt. * *********************************** COLD STONE STEVE AUSTIN CREAMERY Stunningly good ice cream! ATTENTION GEEZERS: All flavors only $3.16 Do you have problems opening Because COLD STONE said so! digital pictures of grandkids? ________________________________ or taking four consecutive steps? | Eating food sure is yummy | Then we've got a computer for you! | 'cept for the fact that your | The GRAMPY-AUGHT-SIX | teeth get crummy. | utilizes easy to read | Nobody wants a smile | 400 point type! | that's ugly and vile. | Turn even the shortest of emails | Use DEDEDE TOOTHPASTE to | into an unforgettable all-day | smile with style! | affair! And you'll never lose track | ~~~~~ | of our new meatloaf sized cursor, | _^__________________||||||| | and it's shaped like meatloaf too! | |__________________________| | Base system only $599.99 - | BUY | Optional mouse* $5.99 | DEDEDE TOOTHPASTE | *An actual mouse that will | TODAY! | pre-chew your food for you! |________________________________| ================================== WALKER TEXAS GRAINGER |Greetings Inventors of the World!| Out for those who are on the run! | Looking for a new use for your | | old Robot Master Designs? Why | -<>-=-[]-=-()-=-<>-=-()-=-[]-=-<>- | not SEND THEM TO ME, Dr. Albert | | Vincent L Gambini | | Wily to combat the menace of | + ATTORNEY AT LAW O | Mega Man! Call or fax me at | | Representing Yutes Since 1992 | | 871-217-WILY | O (555) 334-5018 + =================================== | Call Today! | Chuck Norris' -<>-=-[]-=-()-=-<>-=-()-=-[]-=-<>- Roundhouse Kickball League HAVE A DEATH WISH? *********************************** Sign your team up today! Do you want something to help First place: $500,000 speed up those time consuming Second place: Full funeral package repairs? Try the new MUPPET LABS ELECTRIC SLEDGEHAMMER *** GAZPACHO'S *** Yes it is simple in concept, Don't miss this week's deals: but we assure you it is entirely Free-range 12-legged cave frogs foolproof. Simply plug the are HALF OFF! machine in, press the start You'll be singing our praises over button, and watch as even the 2-for-1 Sing Beans (with coupon)! longest nails and toughest of Select from any of our boards are driven to kingdom 31 Thrice-Cream flavors come. Order today for the new and we'll throw in a Powdered Flart low price of $199.99. NO CHARGE! MUPPET LABS: Burple Nerples only 3 dollops each! WHERE THE FUTURE IS BEING MADE Free Grabbles Stick with TODAY! (returns not accepted) every Grabbles purchase! *********************************** *** GAZPACHO'S *** ................................... For food you can't . Noodles Wrinkle Cream . find anywhere else! . made using the wrinkles of . Look for our new . a real Shar Pei! . Marzipan City location off Exit 5! . Available at all . . mediocre and better retailers! . *********************************** ................................... New! from Hitches, Trailers & Hairpins We're the MARIO BROS under license from Barrelizer Co. and PLUMBING's our game THE BARRELIZER TRAILER ATTACHMENT we're not like the others Now you can bring your very own who get all the fame! Barrelizer with you across When your sink is in trouble highways, roads, and other long you can call us on the double distance travels. Perfect for we're not like the others smaller vehicles with limited you'll be hooked on the brothers! transport space. For super service call Now only $19.99 plus shipping! 556-2746-MARIO Optional reinforced Barrelizer wheels also available. *********************************** Order Today! * OFFICIAL NOTICE FROM LAPD * ??????????????????????????????????? *********************************** ? Does ANYONE have Boardwalk for ? * Dead Man's Curve is no place to * ? Mcdonald's Monopoly? ? * play, you'd best keep away! You * ? I have like 15 parkplaces. ? * won't come back from Dead Man's * ? Willing to pay 20 bucks. ? * Curve! * ? Call me today. 555-420-2393 ? *********************************** ??????????????????????????????????? ----------------------------(\/) (;,,;) (\/)----------------------------- (((_.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._))) ))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(( (( > < )) )) EDITOR: Grizzly Adam (( (( > ASSISTANT EDITOR: Jon Mullin < )) )) ACTING ASSOCIATE EDITOR: BlueMSX (( (( > PUBLISHER: Grizzly Adam < )) )) ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Joe Collett (( (( > < )) )) WRITERS (( (( > --------- < )) )) Grizzly Adam (( (( > Joe Collett < )) )) BlueMSX (( (( > Jon Mullin < )) )) Yousef (( (( > < )) )) http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org (( (( > http://www.youtube.com/@DOSandDontsNewsletter < )) ))...............................................................(( (( > SHARE ME! PUT ME ON YOUR SERVER, SEND ME TO YOUR FRIENDS! < )) ))...............................................................(( (((`-._.-'`-._.--._.-'`-._.--._.-'`-._.--._.-'`-._.--._.-'`-._.-)))