________________________________________________ / \ | _________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | DOS & Don'ts | | | | | | | | A Modern Newsletter | | | | for Vintage-minded Folks | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | C:\>Issue #11 September 2024_ | | | |_________________________________________| | | | \_________________________________________________/ \___________________________________/ ___________________________________________ _-' .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. --- `-_ _-'.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--. .-.-.`-_ _-'.-.-.-. .---.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-`__`. .-.-.-.`-_ :---------------------------------------------------------------: `---._.---------------------------------------------------._.---' ------------------ In this Issue... ------------------ Your Letters! Features ---------- The Basics of B.A.S.I.C., Joe Collett Midway's Pac Men: How Midway Lost Their Pac-Man Licence, BlueMSX Remembering K-mart, Grizzly Adam Columns --------- The Latent Image, Jon Mullin Retro Living in a Modern World, Grizzly Adam Bits & Bytes -------------- Random Access Memories Unclassifieds Ads ------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __ __ __ __ \ \/ /___ __ _______ / / ___ / /_/ /____ __________ \ / __ \/ / / / ___/ / / / _ \/ __/ __/ _ \/ ___/ ___/ / / /_/ / /_/ / / / /___/ __/ /_/ /_/ __/ / (__ ) /_/\____/\__,_/_/ /_____/\___/\__/\__/\___/_/ /____/ -=In response to Ashley Thomas' "Type & Tell" article=- Your recollection of typing insults into the program reminds me of a time not too long ago when my spouse and I were playing Alpha Beam with Ernie, a Children's television workshop game for the Atari 2600. Much like Type & Tell, the manual suggested additional gameplay variants. One in particular was called "Superchallenge" and encouraged players to spell their own four- letter words. Well, we all know what that is slang for... So my spouse and I literally played this children's game for hours spelling words like "fart", "butt," and much worse. Actually, I did an audio recording of our time playing the game for the February 7, 2024 episode of the Atari 2600 Game by Game Podcast. Don't worry, I bleeped all the cussing! Signed, Grizzly Adam ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================THE BASICS OF========================== ________ ________ ________ ___ ________ |\ __ \ |\ __ \ |\ ____\ |\ \ |\ ____\ \ \ \|\ /_ \ \ \|\ \ \ \ \___|_ \ \ \ \ \ \___| \ \ __ \ \ \ __ \ \ \_____ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \|\ \ __\ \ \ \ \ __\|____|\ \ __\ \ \ __\ \ \____ ___ \ \_______\\__\ \__\ \__\\__\____\_\ \|\__\ \__\\__\ \_______\\__\ \|_______\|__|\|__|\|__\|__|\_________\|__|\|__\|__|\|_______\|__| \|_________| =========================BY JOE COLLETT=========================== (Editor's note: I found an old article of Joe's in the submission folder and I am glad to be able to run it. Thanks again for everything, Joe!) If you have ever played on an old 8-bit computer such as an Atari 800 or Commodore 64 then you have seen BASIC. You may have even learned it in school if you are of a certain age. Even if you are younger and have learned a different programming language you still may have heard of BASIC. But what is BASIC? BASIC stands for: Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It was created in 1963 by a couple of guys from Dartmouth college to let students with a non-computer background create programs and be able to use a computer. This early version of BASIC ran on a DEC PDP-11 and similar computers. These were huge computers that you accessed through a data terminal. BASIC was designed to be human readable and easy to understand. For example, if you wanted to print something on the screen you would use the command "PRINT". They tried to make it as easy as possible for people to use and create programs. During the 1970s a few things happened to expand the use of the language. Most notable was the micro, or home, computer market. Computers like the Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80 would boot straight to BASIC. As soon as you turned these computers on you were ready to program. The computers of the day would even come with manuals to get users started in BASIC. By the 1980s, BASIC was being taught in schools all around the world. By the 1990s it started to slow down, and other languages took over. Many programmers would love to talk about how bad BASIC was and how it wasn't powerful, but that is not what BASIC was designed to do. It was about being accessible and showing what computers could do for anyone who wanted to try. The goal of accessibility and ease of use never died, but carried on into other languages such as Python and Ruby. Both languages are easy to learn and are more human readable than C++ or Java. BASIC still lives on in a new form called Visual Basic. It's still easy but not structured like the older versions, and it takes more time to learn. Other programmers still make fun of it. I by no means am a great programmer, but I do enjoy playing around with it. I enjoy BASIC and at times I still want to play with the old systems of early BASIC I used back when I was a kid in the 1980s and '90s. If you want to experience old school programming on a modern machine you can download QB64, a modern recreation of the old QBASIC language. I played with it years ago and Grizz reminded me of it recently. QB64 is designed to work on modern systems, which is very nice. You could also get an emulator for an early micro, such as the Commodore 64 or Atari 800. Oh, and to show you how simple it was to program in BASIC, let's have a quick lesson. Let's make a program that will say "Hello, Bob." The first thing we need to know about early BASIC is that the lines are numbered. The numbers are use to determine the order of commands and as a reference for GOTO, GOSUB, and similar commands. The standard is to count by 10s as so: 10 PRINT "HELLO, BOB." 20 END So, in this example I just tell the computer to print on screen using the PRINT command; what I want it to print is in quotes. The 2nd line ends the program. Yeah, it's not that hard to figure out. That's why it was so popular. Also, it's not case sensitive. PRINT, prINT, print, and Print all mean the same thing. In early computers they didn't even have lowercase characters, it was uppercase or bust! Let's modify our program to make it say "Hello, Bob" over and over again. To do that we have to add a statement that will cause the program to loop, that will essentially tell it to run the PRINT command over and over. To do this we will use the GOTO command. It tells the computer to "go to" a specific line of the program. 10 PRINT "HELLO, BOB." 20 GOTO 10 In this example we left off the end command. Why? Because BASIC will never see it. This program prints "Hello, Bob" and when it gets to line 20 it goes back to line 10. This causes an infinite loop. To stop your loop, you can press ctrl-break or on some devices ctrl-c. This will stop, or "break," the program. From this example program you just learned how to print text on the screen and how to make a loop. Congratulations! If you are interested in programming in this BASIC there are a few ways to do this. You can get an old microcomputer that boots to BASIC, such as a Commodore 64 or an Apple II. Or you can check out QB64, which is very compatible with the old flavors of BASIC that ran on early IBM compatibles, like GWBASIC and QBASIC. There are a ton of tutorials and guides online on how to program in BASIC. You can write a text adventure game or a program to calculate your credit card interest. Yeah, that second one is not as fun but it's still something you can do. You can also do graphics in BASIC which means you could even make a Pac-man clone! Don't worry about what the haters say- BASIC was made to be accessible, and fun! So check out some guides online (or check out Grizz's BASIC game "Codename:Arcturus" from issue #5) and get programming like it's 1978! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________ | How Midway Lost Their Pac-Man Licence | ============================================================= ___________________ .- '' -. |___|___|___|___|___| .- '' -. / \ .-. / \ | .-. ____| / \ '-' |____ .-. | | | _| ________ / \ ________ |_ | | |(M)| | / | | | | \ | |(P)| |(I)| | :| | |_| | |: | |(A)| |(D)|_| :|.''. .''.| / \ |.''. .''.|: |_|(C)| |(W)| :|'..' '..'|/ \|'..' '..'|: |(*)| |(A)| :|.''. .''.| | | |.''. .''.|: |(M)| |(Y)| :|'..' '..'| |_| |'..' '..'|: |(E)| |(')| o :|.''. .''.| / \ |.''. .''.|: |(N)| |(S)| |\ :|'..' '..'|/ \|'..' '..'|: o |( )| | | | | \ :|.''. .''.| | | |.''. .''.|: /| | | | | | | \ :|'..' '..'| |_| |'..' '..'|: / | | | | | | o `-.\ :| | / \ | |: / | | o | \ :\________|/ \|________/: /.-' / `````````| | | |````````` .--. |_| / _.-' ___ \ '-. |___| '--' ____________ \ .-' .-'\ \ .-' .-' \ \.-' .-'________\ ____________ | By BLUEMSX | ============================================================= In the 1980s, Pac-Man was distributed overseas by Bally Midway. The company began as two separate entities, Bally Manufacturing Co and Midway Manufacturing Co. Bally first opened its doors in 1930 with two electro- mechanical games - Ray's Track, a racing game and Ranger Projectile Shooter, a simple light gun game. They would soon switch gears to the pinball industry. These Pinball machines were quite different from modern machines in one key way. They were primarily gambling machines as there were no flippers to keep the ball in play once it was served. This led to a series of crackdowns where countless machines were destroyed, including a famous incident in which many were dumped into New York's waterways. This crackdown would be lessened when Bally's rival Gottlieb released Humpty Dumpty in 1947, the first Pinball machine to feature flippers. This new design would in turn be copied by every other major pinball maker and changed how pinball was perceived. It was no longer considered a game of chance, but instead a game of skill. Bally held out, producing gambling pinball machines for many years and even creating bingo machines and other pinball variations to keep their machines selling. They finally switched to modern pinball in the 1960s. Midway Manufacturing Co would also begin with electro-mechanical games, with their first release being a ball popping game called Red Ball in 1959. They would continue to release electro-mechanical games through the 1960s. In 1973 they would release Winner, their first electronic video game. The game was a clone of Pong with no major changes, which was common at the time. A four player variant was later made called Winner IV. This would be followed by other video games in the years after. Leader was a unique mix between Pong and Atari's Warlords. TV Basketball was a simple Basketball game, and TV Flipper was a video pinball game. Another standout was Asteroid which, not to be confused with Atari's Asteroids, was a vertical racing game where you must avoid incoming asteroids. It would be in 1978 when the game that truly put Midway on the map would be released, Space Invaders. While actually licensed from Japanese company Taito, Space Invaders became Midway's biggest success to date. Multiple sequels and variations would be released until 1980 when Midway would license another game from a Japanese company, Namco. This game was, of course, Pac-Man. As I have mentioned in prior articles, Pac-Man became a massive success for all involved. It is here where our story takes a major turn. Midway was acquired by Bally, merging the two companies into Bally Midway. During this period it wasn't uncommon to see games released under both Bally Midway and Midway due to games being developed and rolled out concurrent to the merger. With the huge success of Pac-Man, Bally Midway was looking into how to build upon it. While Namco was developing a Pac-Man sequel of their own, Super Pac-Man, Midway would strike first by finding inspiration in an unlikely source. Bootlegs, copies, hacks, and conversions of Pac-Man were quite rampant in the arcades, and one company that did such conversions was General Computer Corporation, or Gencomp. They'd made a conversion kit of Atari's Missile Command called Super Missile Attack, which led to them being sued by Atari Inc. So when they'd created a conversion kit for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto, they brought their work to Midway, in hopes of making it official. Compared to Pac-Man, Crazy Otto featured multiple mazes, moving items, and other smaller gameplay improvements. Midway decided to work with Gencomp but changes needed to be made. The somewhat unsettling design of the main characters, which resembled Pac-Man with legs, was altered to use characters from the original Pac-man. After a few name changes, revisions, and with Namco's approval, Crazy Otto became Ms. Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man proved to be an even bigger success than Pac-Man, being offered both as a dedicated machine and as a conversion kit of existing Pac-Man machines. Bally Midway would continue to work with Gencomp for their next games in the Pac-Man series, as Pac-Man fever was sweeping the United States. The first of these games was Pac-Man Plus, which was meant to compete with the unlicenced Pac-Man conversion kits from the time of Crazy Otto. Next was Super Pac-Man, licensed from Namco, where the player had to open gates to collect fruits while avoiding the ghosts with new and returning powerups. Then Jr. Pac-Man, which featured massive mazes, improved graphics, and was often converted from Super Pac-Man. Baby Pac-Man came soon after and was a unique mix of Pac-Man and mechanical Pinball. Pac-Man and Chomp Chomp followed, which while It didn't pass its location tests, was a graphical modification of Namco's Pac and Pal featuring Pac- Man's dog from the Hanna Barbera Cartoon. Pac-Land, also licensed from Namco, was a platforming game based on the aforementioned cartoon, and was the inspiration for Super Mario Bros. A notable game was Kick Man where you play as a clown on a unicycle and try to catch falling balloons and Pac-Men, with the Pac-Men having been added to the game later in development in hopes of boosting sales. Their final effort was Professor Pac-Man, which was a Pac-Man game in name only. Notably, at least three different versions of this game's origins exist. The first version claims that Johnny Lott and Ed Adlum, champion foosball player and publisher of arcade magazine Replay respectively came up with the idea for a more traditional Pac-Man maze game, with quiz elements during gameplay. They brought the idea to Bally Midway who developed it further, removing the maze elements in favor of a more traditional quiz game. The second version claims Lott and Adlum brought the idea for the game to Bally Midway, who turned the idea down. Months later Professor Pac-Man would appear at an arcade trade show, leading to a potential lawsuit. Lott and Adlum would be paid royalties on every game sold as a result. In the third version the game was designed by Bally Midway alone as Quiz Ms. and didn't feature Pac-Man at all. Like with Kick- Man, the game was made to feature Pac-Man to boost sales. Interestingly, Mark Pierce, one of the lead developers of the game, claims to have no knowledge of Adlum and Lott's involvement or any potential legal action. Whatever is the case, In Professor Pac-Man the player had to answer various educational questions within the time limit. Three question sets were planned for the game for different audiences and locations. Family for general audiences, Public for bars and more adult areas, and Prize for casinos. This was done to offer more variety in the questions, and with planned software updates, questions would be refreshed every three months. Only the Family set would ever be produced, with no software updates to follow. The problems with the game were numerous. Not only was a game of this type extremely unpopular with arcade operators (to where only 400 machines were produced with a large portion of them being sent back to Bally Midway to be refunded), but to rub salt in the wound only Super Pac- Man, Pac-Land, Pac Man and Chomp Chomp, and Ms. Pac-Man were approved by Namco. While Namco had tolerated the prior Pac-Man games, Professor Pac-Man was the final straw. Namco would after this point revoke their Pac-Man license with Bally Midway, leading to Midway having to sell off or scrap their remaining Pac-Man games over the next year. To help remedy this, two games would be made to run on the unsold Pac-Man boards, Jump Shot and Shoot the Bull. Jumpshot was a simple Basketball game, while Shoot the Bull was a darts game. Around this time, the Video Game Crash of 1983 was in full swing, which caused companies like Bally Midway to struggle more than ever. This caused Bally Midway to produce less games, but they did find success with games like Tapper and Spy Hunter. After this point, Namco would bring over their arcade games to the United States well into the 1990s, with help from their old business partners at Atari, which was now known as Atari Games. Among these releases was Pac-Mania which marked a symbolic end to Namco and Bally Midway's relationship. Bally and Midway parted ways in 1988 when Bally sold off Midway and their amusement divisions to their old rival Williams Electronics. This allowed Bally to focus on making gambling machines again. Williams would go on to use the Midway name for arcade games, and were even allowed to use Bally's name for some of their pinball releases. The main Bally Corporation would go on to create their own line of casinos called Bally's starting in the 2000s. Years later, the rights to the new Pac-Man characters created during Namco's deal with Midway were held onto by Gencomp and were fought over frequently between them and Namco in regards to who owned what. This did mean that characters like Jr. Pac-Man, Baby Pac-Man, and Professor Pac-Man would appear in later Pac-Man games, such as Pac-Man World on the Play- station. Ultimately Midway's greed led to Bally selling off the company, making their story a cautionary tale. It never hurts to follow up on success and make something great that is beloved by many- as long as it's done legally. 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." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________________________________________ | ____ ______ | | | | / /R E M E M B E R I N G | | | | / /_______________________________ | | | |/ | _____ _____ ______ _| |_ | | | | /| / \\__ \|_ __ \|_ _| | | | | \| | Y Y \/ __ \| | \/ | | | | | | |\ | |__|_|__(____ /__| |__| | | | | | \ -------------------------------- | | |____| \_____\ BY GRIZZLY ADAM | |__________________________________________________| When I look back at the department stores of my youth, I find that I have the same kind of nostalgia for K-mart that the previous generations felt towards Montgomery Wards or Woolworths. My earliest K-mart memories revolve around it being "Grandma's store." This is where my grandma liked to shop and where she got her photos developed. She was quite the shutterbug and her ever-present collapsible camera caught anything and everything. I am pretty sure K-mart was also where her film and endless supply of flash cubes came from. My family typically shopped at Wal-Mart, which had the advantage of being .-------------------------------------------. attached to the local mall. | .---------------------------------------. | Dad would often want to go to | | | | the mall's Radio Shack for | | SEND US LETTERS | | electronic components and | | | | other hobbyist necessities, | | We want your interactions! | | and I was often able to | | Respond to any of our articles | | convince him to take me to | | with your own thoughts and | | the Kay-Bee toy store that | | we will publish them in | | was next door. Despite both | | our next issue! | | Wal-Mart and K-mart being | | | | present as far back as I can | | Letters can be submitted at | | remember, Wal-Mart felt new | | http://dosanddonts.mywebcommunity.org | | and seemed to have a younger | |_______________________________________| |clientele. Even in the 1980s, |___________________________________________| K-mart seemed like it had been surpassed by the new hot-thing. I think this is why it was "Grandma's store"-- it was the store that her generation had learned to trust in the previous decades. One thing that really impressed me was the K-mart cafe. On occasion I would accompany my mother on a trip to the store and if it was close to lunch time I would be treated to a meal from the small eatery tucked away within the large store. This may just be in my head, but I remember the lighting being very subdued. I assumed that the odd lighting was intended to accentuate the giant Crystal Light mixers that were always churning away. The dim lights made the cafe area feel cozy to this young and not- yet-diagnosed autistic shopper. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the store that always seemed busy and a bit overwhelming. We rarely made the trip to K-mart, though. As I stated before, Wal-Mart was my family's preferred store. It was only during back-to-school and holiday shopping that we would typically make the somewhat longer drive. While we didn't get many of our stationary supplies there, K-mart was the place that most of my clothing and shoes came from. It would often feel like I tried on every item in the entire boys department, but wasn't allowed to pick from most of the options. If it wasn't cheap, it wasn't going to be mine. Luckily, K-mart had a good assortment of inexpensive graphic tees with designs that weren't terribly dorky. Sometimes I would get lucky and something I wanted would be a blue light special. I fondly remember an ocean blue shirt with a surfing t-rex embossed upon it. That was the height of my childhood fashion. Younger readers may be asking themselves, "What is a blue light special?" Well young friend, this was K-mart's spontaneous sale system. Picture it, you are decked out in your windbreaker or leg warmers as you push your cart down the aisle of your local K-mart to the beat of "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Suddenly, the song is interrupted by a store-wide announcement: "Attention K-mart shoppers, there is a blue light special on select boys shorts." To aid your search for the product in question, a rotating blue light would be placed amidst the sale items to guide you in like a schooner to a light- house on a foggy night. The sale was time limited and first come first serve. These sudden sales were not unlike Amazon's flash sales or some Black Friday deals. K-mart found that their customers hung around a bit longer and looked at more products as they awaited the next blue light special. These days K-mart is just a distant memory. The store peaked in the mid- 90s and then had a very slow decline. During this time, they discontinued and reintroduced the blue light special, made a deal with Martha Stewart shortly before her insider trading scandal, and tried to reinvent themselves as edgy. If you haven't seen their "I shipped my pants" advert, I highly suggest you look it up. Our local K-mart lasted until 2020, but it seemed mostly dead long before. As the company began closing under- performing stores across the country, they soon lost their marketing leverage and the shelves began to sit empty as suppliers were choosing to cut ties with the failing corporation. At the time of this writing, only twelve K-mart stores remain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | The Latent Image - with Jon Mullin | | | | This Month: | | Disposable Cameras | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- So we all know I love vintage film cameras. They are tactile, complex, and unique pieces of machinery. Sometimes simplicity makes the most sense; that's where the disposable camera comes in. They use simple designs with minimal parts to keep costs down. The best part is you can still enjoy them to this day! There are more options available now than ever before. Let's take a look back at how the disposable camera came about, and what makes them so special. The first disposable camera came out in 1949 from a company called Photo- Pac. Their camera was a cardboard box that functioned similarly to the cameras of today. It wasn't a hit, but in the 1960s a company called PEX gave it a go and made the Photo Pack Matic. Despite the similar name to its predecessor, it also didn't take off. In the mid '80s (1986 to be specific) the modern disposable camera came to be. The Fujifilm QuickSnap. It was a hit! It used the same 35mm film that was used in popular family cameras of the time. It was simple in design with manual film advancement, a simple lens, and a primitive viewfinder all wrapped in a plastic body with a cardboard sleeve. Photography now was available to a whole new audience including children, lower income families, and travelers who don't want their nice camera stolen. Now these little disposable cameras weren't perfect. The lenses were almost always made of plastic instead of glass to keep the costs low. This meant softer images and a slight haziness that sometimes reared its head. They were also very basic cameras, with little in the way of any exposure control. You basically had a set shutter speed and aperture. This means that if you had a slower speed film in your disposable camera you had to shoot for the right environment for your film. Slow speed films for outside or high speed films for inside, and you don't want to mix that up unless you want to waste all your shots. Disposable cameras of today overcome these limitations by using a bunch of cheap but effective tricks. They gave them a faster speed film but a narrow lens aperture to let less light in so it would work well outside. This also kept everything in focus from close to far so you didn't have to be a certain distance from your subject. They also added a flash for use indoors. Now one camera could do indoor and outdoor photography just fine. They also introduced waterproof cameras. These cameras will let you take photos at the beach or in the pool without the risk of damage. The market for disposable cameras is quite vast these days. There are interesting options from Lomography that offer unique and interesting colors and effects. The usual options from Fujifilm and Kodak are safe bets every time. Ilford has options if you want black and white photos. The best thing is there are tons of options out there for a variety of styles and tastes. It's an old technology, but still one that hasn't found a good replacement. A company called CampSnap has made a digital camera that resembles disposables, but this is just a basic digital camera that lacks a screen. They retail for $65.00, so they aren't terribly expensive, and may be a solid alternative to the Disposable camera down the line. In the end, the disposable camera appears to be here to stay. It's a good, cheap option for giving to kids on a trip, or for photos during a day at the beach. They come in a variety of styles and film options too! Next time you go out with friends, pick one up and enjoy making memories without the distraction of the digital age. The memories you make will be well worth it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: My Personal Arcade | | | |_________________________________________________| | |_____________________________________________________| Growing up in the 1980s, I was raised in the shadow of the arcade movement. Dad would occasionally bring home the odd mechanical coin-op machine. I don't know how he acquired these things, but I was always glad that he did. I remember a bowling game that had several mechanical gremlins that we had to chase down. At first, we placed a large tuna can under the coin slot to catch the same quarter that we reused ad nauseam. Eventually we bypassed the coin slot to make the game free-play. Of course, we didn't tell the neighborhood kids that would pop-up to play on our new machine, so as an owner-operator, I had a nice income for a 12 year old. What I really wanted, and what I spent much of my new-found wealth on, was a video game cabinet. Friends, let me tell you about the arcade that I built in my own home. Ever since Arcade1up's 3/4 scale machines came on the market, I have been keeping tabs on them. This spring, I finally pulled the trigger and purchased the Vectrex cabinet and riser. This cabinet was unique among other Arcade1up machines. Not only are its side panels cut at a unique angle, this is one of the few of their machines that features a trackball controller. The cabinet has a total of 12 games and besides the main title, I was most excited to play Asteroids, Centipede, and Missile Command. Not long after, I found an older Rampage cabinet for sale online and snatched it up as well. While having only 4 games and not nearly as handsome as the Vectrex cabinet, the price was right so I brought it home. From its game selection, I was most excited about playing Defender. However, the way the controls are mapped make playing the game an exercise in frustration. I was happy to have Joust, though. Unfortunately, the game controls have proven to be unreliable. I replaced the controller ribbon and repaired some cold solder joints on the decoder and main boards, but that only fixed the problems for a couple weeks. I may have another look at this soon, but I am beginning to lean towards rebuilding the machine as a retro- pi. At this point, I began watching for a third and final machine. I wanted something special, something that evoked the right flavor of nostalgia. I considered Ms. Pacman and Joust. I mean, I really considered Ms. Pacman. But what I really wanted, either Berserk or Wizard of Wor, was not offered. I finally settled on the Dig Dug cabinet. Dig Dug was one of my favorite games for the Atari 2600, and among the 14 included games was also Pac-man, Galaga, Mappy, and Rolling Thunder. I am really happy with this cabinet and it has probably been played more than the other two cabinets. Rounding out the game selection is a more unique piece with a personal history. Back during my highschool days, Dad and I would visit surrounding towns during their city-wide cleanup. For about a week, several communities would encourage residents to put out their old appliances, electronics, furniture, etc., and at the end of the week the city would pick everything up. We would pick up anything that looked promising, clean-up, repair, and re-sell it. A washing machine that we picked up was traded to an antique dealer for a vintage pachinko machine. After being in my family for approximately 30 years, I restored this Japanese vertical pinball-style machine and mounted it in the arcade area- but that will be its own article! Now that you know the game lineup, let's move onto the actual remodel. The arcade is located in the basement in a 12' x 6' nook under the stairs. The basement was at one time fully finished, but the previous owner's unfinished remodeling meant that there was a lot of work to do to make it truly finished again. After removing some abandoned plumbing connections, recessing an outlet into the wall, and repairing the drywall, it was time to talk about paint. After careful consideration, we settled on ink blue with neon strips of blue, yellow, orange, and pink. Next, I created a false floor from plywood to hide the sump pump cover and cord. This allowed the entire floor to be easily accessed without having a tripping hazard. The plywood was then covered with interlocking foam tiles- getting old sucks! Atop all of this is a black light reactive rug like you used to see in arcades. Speaking of blacklight, I installed some custom lighting that comes on with a flip of a wall switch. A black light shines over the arcade area, a rope light on the border of the room divides the arcade from the rest of the basement. Above the rope light on a soffit is a sign that proclaims in neon "ARCADE." A psychedelic black light poster of a UFO abductions hangs above the pachinko machine. Other delights include a tin Atari sign, a lighted clock, and a custom arcade scratcher my spouse made for the cats. She decided to call the machine "Cat Burglar" and I customized some artwork of Mappy and Goro to suit the team and even did a mock-up gameplay screen that was based on Keystone Kapers but featured modified sprites from Mappy. The final touch was redoing the Activision logo to read Cativision. I recently finished up the project by creating black 2' x 2' ceiling tiles from 1/4" plywood. Plywood was chosen after seeing how poorly the previously installed standard ceiling tiles had aged. The black plywood makes for a nice contrast against the white ceiling grid frame, reminiscent of the 3D perspective grids that were popular in 1980s design. Even though the project is officially wrapped up, that doesn't mean that minor tweaks aren't still on our minds. My spouse has spoken at length about her desire to splatter paint the black tiles with UV reactive paint. The lighted clock is not tied in with the rest of the lighting because it is controlled via remote. I would like to hot-wire the clock lights and make them come on with the same switch as everything else. I also have a vintage glass casino sign that I would like to find a place for near the pachinko machine. Oh, I also forgot. I also had a broken Bally Harlem Globetrotters on Tour pinball machine given to me that will soon be moved in, but that will be a different article. Speaking of, next month I will give you a tour of my in-home disco. 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' ) > Random Access < ( Memories ) `-----------(_)----' 0 o .-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-._.-=-. Ripjetski writes: There was this one time, at band camp... 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