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Christmas Morning, 1975 and 1976: Pong

Published December 9, 2014 '70s Decor/Design/Fashion , Atari , Christmas , Christmas Morning , Home Consoles , Video Games 2 Comments

Christmas 1975 Pong

Christmas Pong 1976

The first photo comes from DudesLife and shows the brothers playing the first commercial home version of Pong, the Sears-exclusive “Tele-Games” Pong.

In the second photo, via Michael Schroeder, dad and son play what looks like Atari’s C-100 Pong, released in 1976. (Pat Schroeder, seen in the poster on the wall, was the first woman from Colorado to be elected to Congress.)

The shot below (source unknown) shows the Super Pong (C-140) box on a Christmas morning in ’76 or ’77. Super Pong featured four games, while the other versions played only one. Compare all the versions at Pong Story.

Christmas 1970s Pong

MicroKids #1 (December, 1983): ‘Rating the New Games for Christmas’

Published December 9, 2014 Christmas , Home Consoles , Magazines/Zines , Video Games Leave a Comment

Micro 1982-1

Micro 1982-2

Micro 1982-3

Micro 1982-4

I know, I know. Your PS4 offers not games but “immersive experiences” that blur the boundary between fantasy and reality, creator and creation. I think that’s really cute! Now, how many screens can you clear on BurgerTime with three chefs, three shakes of pepper, and no way to save your progress?

(Read the whole issue at the Internet Archive.)

Toy Aisle Zen (1982): Coleco’s Tabletop Arcade Games

Published November 12, 2014 Electronic Handhelds , Toy Stores/Toy Aisles/Toy Departments , Video Games 1 Comment
Toy Aisle Pac-Man 1982

Pop’s Toy Store, November 24, 1982. (Photo: Walter McCardell/Baltimore Sun)

Serious. Business.

On the top shelf you can see a few Microvision games: Bowling, Baseball, Alien Raiders, Phaser Strike, and Connect Four.

(Photo via Tribune Photo Archives)

1983 Coleco Catalog: Tabletop Arcade Games, G.I. Joe, and More

Published November 12, 2014 Catalogs , Electronic Handhelds , G.I. Joe , Video Games 4 Comments

Coleco 1983-1

Coleco 1983-2

Coleco 1983-3

Coleco 1983-4

Coleco 1983-5

Coleco 1983-6

Coleco 1983-7

Coleco 1983-8

Coleco 1983-9

Coleco 1983-10

Select pages only. I didn’t remember how unwaveringly creepy the Cabbage Patch Kids were/are until the catalog jogged my memory. The “anatomy” lesson seals the deal.

The Coleco tabletop arcade games were at the top of every kid’s holy grail list. Other handhelds were good, even great, but these looked like actual cabinets and you could take them anywhere, especially to school where the other kids (and some adults) followed you around like so many hungry puppy dogs. It didn’t really matter that the screen was so tiny—the idea that you had a real arcade at your fingertips melted the logic circuits. We had some sort of fundraising drive at my elementary school in ’82, and the grand prize was either the Coleco Galaxian or Pac-Man. The number of chocolate bars one had to sell to get the thing was impossibly large, but I have very tangible memories of knocking on doors around the neighborhood all day long with dreams of that little machine dancing in my head. It was not to be, but I did get my beloved Atari 800 shortly thereafter.

The E.T. Rider? No, Coleco. No.

The G.I. Joe Arctic Recon Patrol? Yes. Very much yes.

Promotional Video for Atari Adventure Entertainment Centers, 1983

Published November 4, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , Arcade Cabinets/Coin-Ops , Atari , Video Arcades , Video Games 1 Comment

I talked about Atari Adventure, or Atari Video Adventure, here and here. According to Atari, the centers would be “the premiere showcase for the newest innovations in computer learning and video excitement.” There were less than ten locations across the U.S., at least one of them a straight up arcade at the Disneyland Hotel. It was a costly, ambitious enterprise that lost steam after Atari’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial debacle (Christmas, 1982) that partially launched the video game crash of 1983.

The footage includes quite a bit of concept art I haven’t seen, and I love the line: “Atari is dedicated to exploring the human frontiers of high technology.” Nolan Bushnell once referred to his business as “leisure applications of technology,” another nice phrase that’s become an overriding preoccupation of the first world.

Parts of the video were taken from another Atari promo from 1981 called “Inside Atari: The Next Decade” (below). I like the intro about the importance of games reflecting the “politics, the wars, the economic systems of the societies that create them”—narrated over some artsy footage of two white dudes in suits playing Go, an ancient Chinese strategy game.

Halloween, 1982: Homemade Pac-Man Costume

Published October 9, 2014 DIY , Halloween , Halloween Costumes , Video Games 4 Comments

Halloween Pac-Man 1982

(Photo via Timothy Davis/Flickr)

Halloween for the Atari 2600 (Wizard Video Games, 1983)

Published October 1, 2014 Ads , Atari , Halloween , Video Games 9 Comments

Halloween Wizard 1983-1

Halloween Wizard 1983-2

Halloween 1983-2

Full instructions at Atari Age. Here’s the synopsis:

A homicidal maniac has escaped from a mental institution. On Halloween night, the killer returns to his home town to wreak havoc! You are babysitting for a family in a large, two story house. Somehow the vengeful murderer has gotten inside! Can you protect the children and yourself from the fury of his knife?

Gameplay:

You control the babysitter character, and, at certain times, the child characters. As you move through the sixteen rooms of the two story house, avoid the killer when he appears. He will attempt to stab you and the children, so look for the knife with which to defend yourself.

Jack-o’-lantern icons at the top of the screen tell you how many lives you have left. Play the game at the Internet Archive.

Scott Adams and Adventure International, 1982

Published August 29, 2014 Counterculture (1960s) , DIY , Personal Computers , Video Games 5 Comments

Adams MH 5-21-82

Adams MH 5-21-82-2

Adams MH 5-21-82-3

The photos are from a 1982 Miami Herald story and show Adams inside and outside Adventure International’s Longwood, Florida headquarters. According to an interview I found in Antic, Adams moved into the “custom-built geodesic dome” in 1979. By summer of 1983 Adventure International had 40 employees and, according to The Free Lance-Star, was a “multi-million dollar company.” Many of Adams’ classic games appear in the second photo, including Adventureland.

Geodesic domes are largely DIY and “often identified with the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s.”

Buckner & Garcia Perform `Pac-Man Fever’ on American Bandstand, 1982

Published August 19, 2014 '80s Decor/Design/Fashion , '80s Movies/TV , '80s Music , Video Games Leave a Comment

The boys performed—I use the term loosely, as I don’t believe the cords on those instruments or that microphone are plugged into anything—on Solid Gold later that day: March 20, 1982.

Get Victimized by R. Cade and the Video Victims (Arrival Records, 1982)

Published August 19, 2014 '80s Music , Records (LPs) and Cassettes , Video Games 4 Comments

Victimized 1982

Victimized 1982-2

It should not surprise you that R. Cade and the Video Victims only made the one album. Why not subject yourself to the whole thing on Spotify, like I did? R. Cade & The Video Victims – Get Victimized.

It’s not Arcade and the Video Victims, mind you. It’s R. Cade and the Video Victims. Get it?

“Video magic, you were there all the while. Put my quarter in, and you made me smile. Whoa-oh-oh-oh ah…”

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