In this EXTREMELY text- and font-dense ad, a Commodore 64 is a computer flying to space, and the red Action Replay cartrige is a shuttlecraft about to dock with it. Headings include "WARP 25 BREAKS THE 5 SECOND BARRIER!!!" "PLUS UNIQUE CODE CRACKER MONITOR" and "POWERFUL DESIGN WITH ON BOARD L51 LOGIC PROCESSOR CHIP"
Total Back Up Power Takes A Quantum Leap!
In this William Geise illustrated ad, the title "Computer Graphics" appears up top, being cast from a giant Apple II monitor on an iceburg; the casts are a gradiant from purple to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple again, hewing towards neon tones. From the tan Amdek monitor flies a red biplane, a parachuting penguin, and a leaping unicorn; dolphins jump from the ice into the monitor. Around the iceberg, a sea otter peeks up, a penguin tap-dances, and a whale tale lifts a unicorn on a floe. The monitor is sitting on a giant Apple II. Down below, breathless text describes three different programming packages: "For the artist: Special Effects by David Lubar and Mark Pelezarski. Paint on your computer in over 100 colors with 96 different brushes!" "For the designer: The Complete Graphics System II by Mark Pelezarski. Everythign needed for computer-aided design." "For the programmer: The Graphics Magician by Mark Pelezarski, David Lubar, and Chris Joehumson. Add fast, smooth animation and hundreds of pictures to your programs." In the bottom left, the penguin software logo appears next to ordering information, with a sunfish floating to its left; at the very bottom it says, "All Penguin applications products are now on unprotected disks for your convenience."
COMPUTER GRPAHICS
An ad in a faux movie poster style, reading "Cinemaware Presents: The TREE STOOGES" Moe, Larry, and Curly appear right (They can save the day by making ASSETS of themselves!"; the Evil Banker appears stage left ("He took their NEST EGG and told them to BEAT IT!"); and the Widow and her Three Beautiful Daughters appear below ("They're about to be thrown out on their ARREARS!"). On the bottom, Amiga screenshots depict the handdrawn cartoons plus the realistically colorized screenshots of the old black-and-white films.
Can THREE Stooges save ONE orphange from FOREclosure?
An ad for the company Creative Software. The four left boxes depict VIC20 cartridge games: a man in space for Moondust, giant robot wasps attacking buildings in Save New York, a UFO shooting at a fighter jet shooting at a satellite dish in Astroblitz, and a giant fly attacking a garbage truck in Trashman. All are marked "Joystick controller required." The five smaller applications on the side are a sports car on a jack named Car Costs, a car attached to a comically giant loan agreement named Loan Analyzer, a set of bar charts named Household Finance, a safe with valuables inset into a wall covered in floral wallpaper named Home Inventory, and a man leaning over and considering his computer named Decision Maker.
The #1 independent VIC-20 full-line software publisher in the US is proud to announce 4 new Game Cartridges & 5 Home Appliances for the COMMODORE 64.
The cover of Family PC magazine for October 1999. Below the white-and magenta logo are the words "Real Life. Real Answers." The cover image is a kid holding a gun, looking at the viewer very intensely - well, as intense as a clean-cut 14-year-old wearing his hat backwards holding a pink plastic lightgun can be, anyways. The headlines on the left hand side read: "Teens & Violence", "Should We Blame The Games?", "How to Talk to Your Kids," "9 Games Kids Shouldn't Play," "PLUS: "Halloween Fun & Crafts," "Online Trading: Tread Carefully"
Teens & Violence: Should We Blame The Games? (Source.)
An ad for AI West (May 4-6 1998), in black and red. Up top, the beveled logo, with the red call to action: "Plan Now To Attend" Below, the full name: "The Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computer Technology Conference and Exhibition" A full page red heading declares, "The ONLY West Coast Conference/Exhibition on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE in 1988!" Smaller headings in the dense text emphasize The Conference ("Emphasis will be on COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS..." "32 Technical Sessions and 12 Tutorials are planned"), The Exhibitions ("Leading suppliers will be displaying their latest equipment..."), Who Should Attend ("Corporate Executives, Computer Systems Designers, Office Automation Specialists..."), Organized By (Tower Conference Management, DM Data, Applied Artificial Inteligence, Society for Computer Simulation, PC AI, Spang-Robinson Report). Bottom center is a clip-out coupon asking for information about attending or exhibiting (complete with line for Telex number), and bottom right is a red wireframe human head.
"As the leading West Coast exhibition devoted to PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS of Artificial Intelligence, AI '88 provides a forum where vendors and users can meet to discuss specific needs, exchange ideas, and get down to serious buying and selling..." (Source.)
In the background, a female, red-silhouetted elf with red eyes faces left; a male, blue-silhouetted human faces right. Center, a full-coor skeletal cerberus with bat wings rampant, its skull faces and red pixel eyes focused on you. Below, the words "A fierce battle with Dark Dragon ensued" appears in florid script.
Shining Force CD (Sega CD, 1994)
Printed in the August 1983 issue of Compute!, a photograph of a blue and white gameplay screen for the VIC-20. Ladders climb up and down, and platforms run across a brick wall; up top is a timer, a score field, and a high score field. At the very bottom of the screen, the titual 'Dragon' looks more like a gecko, while the presumed goal is up a ladder to the right.
"Here's a short but exciting game for the VIC-20..." Programmed by Steven R. McCloskey, Dragon was a minimalist take on Pac-Man, changing it from a game of clearing the board before you're hunted to chasing down food before you starve. (Source.)
A yellow cylinder, with legs, two arms, green eyes, and a red tongue. The free hand is posable is just strong enough to hold a pen; the big palm hand lifts in order to put the coin into his mouth.
Robie the Robot (1982) (Source.)
The cover of RUN Magazine from September 1988. It pictures a man daydreaming at his keyboard imagining he was a superhero (that looks an awful lot like the Captain Britain of 1988). Headlines include "You Can Become A Power User: How To Turn Your Fantasy Into Reality", "Attention New Users: Guidelines On Getting Started", and "recreate Famous Battles On Your C64", plus subheadlines "Inertia Mania Arcade Action", "Card Shark 64/128", "Spelling Challenge", and "C-64/128 Vacation Checklist." Artist: Istvan Banyai
You CAN become a POWER USER!
A review of the Amiga CD32 game Trolls from the May '95 issue of Amiga CD32 Gamer. The review shows screenshots of trolls on building blocks, trolls skating, trolls on a bookshelf, trolls on a stereo, trolls fighting a teddy bear, and trolls skating on a stereo. The review score is a solid 87%.
Remember when those fuzzy dolls were everywhere?
Up top, a computer kiosk; a screen and keyboard on the left, a place for a price card on the right, and multiple shelves of storage below. On the right hand side of the storage, places to install disc burners or cartridge burners appear. The heading below the image reads "Xante: Software While-U-Wait", while the preview reads "New distribution system makes programs and manuals on the spot for PC and PCjr." The story continues below, and to some future page.
"New distribution system makes programs and manuals on the spot for PC and PCjr..." (Source.)
Article from a 1988 issue of COMPUTE!'s Gazette, featuring a hack to use functions from the C64's built in BASIC interpreter to interpret a broad array of BASIC statements as a function. Headings are Typing It In, Using Smart VAL, and Error Trapping.
Give your 64's VAL function a lession in mathematics with this short-but-powerful machine language routine!
A red ad, showing five games. The title is "Sparks of Genius." Game 1 is NARC ("Your mission is to seek out and destroy the king pin of the MR BIG Corporation); screenshots show a beat-em-up and a guy on a walkie-talkie. Game 2 is Robocop 2 ("Seven levels of muscle-straining, reflex-testing, sideways scrolling fury!); screenshots show a sidescrolling stage and robocop firing up. Game 3 is Total Recall ("As Doug Quaid you travel to Mars to discover your true identity..."); a poster and images of a platforming section and an elevator section appear. Game 4 is Chase HQ 2 ("Special Criminal Investigation - continuing where Chase HQ left off..."); screens show a racing game in a foggy cityscape in skyscrapers, and a helicopter chase in a dirtier city at nighttime. Game 5 is Pang ("No time for balloonin' around!"); screenshots show a UK palace and a mountain range, both of which have a tiny guy in a safari hat shooting up at bubbles. At bottom, the OCEAN logo.
SPARKS OF GENIUS (Source.)
A top-down RPG. To left, a depiction of a village. To right, headshots and statistics for party members Trelain, Junara, Mahmud, Thal'Kan, Lucina, and Suela, all of which are some combination of blue, yellow, and grey. Bottom left are the movement buttons and a Help button. Bottom center are various controls.
The Aethra Chronicles: Celystra's Bane (DOS, 1994)
I have been slowly going through the alt-texts, adding in names to each alt-text for when the Firemen visit the next part of the library. It's slow work.
If you get to a playable demo, DM me.
Two people talk to each other. A man, in a striped polo, with an Apple II for a head. A woman, in a blouse, with a Disk II disk drive. They're using their hands animatedly. Illustration drawn by Martin Cannon.
"Martin, can you draw an image to illustrate the disk drive communicating with the computer?" "Say no more, Eric & Will." (Source.)
The Cardiac - "CARDboard Illustrative Aid to Computation", a blue cardboard computer resembling a calculator wheel. Device left is the output strip. In the left half is the 'accumulator', which is altered by three cardboard strips; a flowchart gives instructions on how to interpret the 'command' at any given step. On the right half is the memory, which is able to be written to by the human operator's pencil; to the left of each slot is a space for the operator to put a 'bug' which acts as the instruction pointer
Decimal registers, decimal assembly language, graphite-rubber memory... the CARDIAC was a different kind of computer in more than one way.
A Global Coffeeshop style ad. Column left shows a man, near, standing in South America, waving to a woman, far, standing on North America. Dense ad copy touts the abilities of the Internet, circa 1993.
5-HOUR FREE TRIAL (Source.)
Top left, the phrase "Hot pursuit through space and the vortices of time!" Top right, a vampire with scarred cheeks looks over a painting of a nose-shaaped spaceship flying through space. Center, the title "Ramware Presents... Time Lord." Down below: "The fallen Time Lord, who presumptuously calls himself The Master, is at large. The elders of Waldrom have suppleid you with the hyperspace-worthy vessel TARDIS, and commissioned you to eliminate the evil 'Master'. Your resources include clones who will fight for you, the formidible CRASER weapons of the TARDIS, and magic weapons such as Fusion Grenades and Borelian Matrix Crystals. Travelling through hyperspac ein search of the evil one, you will encounter Time Eaters, Neutron Storms, and other alien creatures and phenomena. Entering real space to search planets, you will encounter still other dangers. You will enter native settlements to buy food nd supplies - or to fight for survival. And once you find The Master can you destroy him? Bassed on Dr. Who of PBS fame. Apple Integer Basic, Disk, 48K... $29.95." Bottom left, the cylindrical CRT and keyboard logo of TSE Hardside appears, allong with an order number (with Visa and Mastercard presented).
"Based on Dr. Who of PBS fame." (Source.)
ROGUE: The Adventure Game. The game of Rogue was originated by: Michael C. Toy and Kenneth C.R.C. Arnold Adapted for the IBM PC by: John Lane. Significant design contributions by: Glenn Wichman and scores of others. Public Domain Software - 1984, not to be sold. Rogue's Name? Player
Rogue (DOS, 1984)
A building diagram for the data center that composed the Whirlwind 1. The top row is Control (C-Row), racks numbered from C1 to C15. The next row is Arithmetic Element (A-Row), racks numbered AX1 to AX8 then A0 to A7, then AD, then A8 to A15. The next row is Electrostatic Storage (E-Row), numbered EX1 to EX8, then E0 to E7, then ED, then E8 to E15. The shortened fourth row is Flip-Flop Registers (F-Row), numbered F0 to F7, then FD, then F8 to F15. The fifth row is Power (P-Row), numbered P1 to P14. Two racks outside the building are labeled P0 and P15, used for power switching and regulation. A small test room has the Test Control racks, numbered TC0 to TC17. Most racks have a unique, labeled purpose.
The layout of the Whirlwind I (MIT, 1944)
Superimposed over both halves, the title "Power Dolls". The left half has a green-to-blue gradient, the silhouette of a mecha, the words "Detachment of Limited Line Serivce Scenario Simulation Game Copyright 1994 Kogado Software Products" and the optiosn "Game Start, Data Load, Quit." The right shows a headshot of the mecha, one single green piercing eye looking at the viewer while exposed hydraulics lift the head into place from the dense armor around it.
Power Dolls (FM Towns, 1994)
A review of the Commodore 64 game Space Taxi from the 1985 issue of Run Magazine. The screenshot above shows a typical play screen, with multiple landing pads, a customer on pad 4, a fuel gauge, a shift timer, an earnings bar, a "Tip Meter" counting down, and an exit once the cabbie has finished their job in this screen. The review gave it a B, ultimately summarzing that "Space Taxi is a feature-packed game with lots of amusing twists."
Space Taxi: "You'll Need Finesse, Agility And Precision To Finish Your Shift"
( Serious answer: You'll see a repost roughly every 3-4 months, though it could happen as soon as a few weeks and it could be years. )
photo of my atari xegs, purchased at VCF SoCal for $90. photo includes keyboard and copy of mario bros XE, plugged into the system. keyboard is a rubber dome mitsumi type and probably one of the worst keyboards i’ve used. same keyboard as the rest of the XE and ST line. hardware based on atari 65xe. has 64kb of RAM, SIO port, GTIA, ANTIC, and POKEY chips. BASIC runs when keyboard is plugged in. missle command plays when no keyboard or cartridge plugged in. fascinating 45 degree angle design, but ports (outside the SIO and video / power ports) also at 45 degree angle so it is not very practical for inserting peripherals. i still personally enjoy the design, and the atari 8-bit line has a fantastic library of games, programs, and demoscene releases. works best paired with a Fujinet
atari xegs console/computer
The bot has no discretion; the bot has no timing. It has a set of parameters and the urge to post.
A review from the April 1988 Up top, the aforementioned article title, and a picture of the machine itself; the grey machine doesn't look too dissimilar from modern pizzabox computers, with a 5.25" disk drive where a modern pizzabox would have a CD drive, and a detached clickey keyboard that's not too far from IBM standard. The article touts such features as the enhanced video RAM ('an expansive 64K'), enhanced CP/M, support for multiple operating systems
CLOSE UP: The Commodore 128D
An article about Eliza, the psychoanalysis AI. The dense, three-column article includes several multi-paragraph sections, with headings "Description", "How it works", "Detailed Explanation", "Limitations", "Modifications", "A Few Comments", "What it all means," and "Geneology." The bottom of the page contains a table listing the 20 variables used over the course of the program.
Ever want to play with the world's first conversational "AI" yourself? Steve North converted it from MIT's LISP to Microsoft Basic, so as long as you've got 16K of ram you're ready to go! (Source.)
