Highlights from Christmas 1977.
KLOV forum member Empire found a Montgomery Wards catalog from 1977, and has been uploading scans of the choice bits.
Video Games:
1977 was the tail-end of the dedicated console era, and most of these didn’t have long to live. By the time kids got down to circling their favorite items in the catalog, the Atari VCS would have already been released.
Toys:
1977 was also just prior to the three and three-fourths inch action figure explosion, started by Takara (in response to higher plastic costs due to the oil crisis), and dominated by Kenner’s Star Wars line.
You just dumb, son. You just dumb.
Housewares:
Beer can collections must’ve been a back East thing.
Hm. Guess that’s pretty accurate for a 1977 fridge, except I don’t see any cigarette cartons in the freezer.
link love 101609
If you’re local, don’t forget: Max Brooks will be speaking at the Clark County Library tonight at 7:00pm.
Playgrounds from the 1970s. I was thinking the other day that designing a series of dinosaur jungle gyms would be a lot of fun… apparently there’s at least one already out there. Also, we had the generic t-shaped gym when we were kids — five of us would climb into one at lunch and be Voltron for the hour. [via MAKE]
Heather Anne Campbell’s Demon’s Souls review. I’ve been chipping away at the game all week… it’s tough, but fun tough.
A Gamasutra Q&A: Parsing Fumito Ueda’s Creativity.
Filed under las vegas, MLP, nostalgia, video games | Comment (1)link love 092209
Classic gaming edition.
A gallery of photos from GCC, the company responsible for Ms. PacMan, Food Fight, and a slew of home console titles for Atari (they’ve since moved on to the printer business).
The 30-year invasion: The making of Space Invaders Infinity Gene.
The latest from Ben Heck: A new Atari 800 laptop mod. I’d love to score one of these.
The Best of CGE ’03 DVD set, featuring Nolen Bushnell’s Atari Story panel, arcade designer highlights, and more, is now available. In related news, the latest word is that Classing Gaming Expo 2010 is a go, and will be taking place here in Las Vegas.
Filed under gamedev, MLP, nostalgia, video games | Comment (0)link love 091109: DC anniversary edition
I was a latecomer.
By the time I bought my first Dreamcast, the system had already lived and died, games were only available on the internet and in dusty stacks on the used software endcaps of dedicated video game shops, and the console itself could be purchased for thirty bucks easily.
I was looking for something new, a change of pace from the titles I had been recently playing. I don’t know why I’d gone with the original Xbox over the PlayStation 2… No actually, that’s not true, I do remember. Halo. You see, I’ve been a Bungie fan since way back in the day — played the hell out of Marathon, and Myth is one of my all-time favorite series — and I was one of those folks watching with wary trepidation when it was announced that Microsoft (Microsoft!) would be purchasing the studio.
Anyways, so I had an original Xbox, I was tired of XTREME games about dudes shooting dudes, and I wanted something different and interesting. After a bit of shopping, I came home with a Dreamcast, two controllers, and used copies of Seaman (with microphone), and Grandia II.
And so, a very special link love.
History and Introspection…
9.9.99, A Dreamcast Memorial from 1UP.
Gamasutra Feature: The Rise and Fall of the Dreamcast.
Peter Moore, on the Dreamcast: 9/9/99 Ten Years After.
From Ars, The Swirl That Shook Gaming.
Still want more? Bitmob has been thinking about the Dreamcast all week.
Highlights of the library…
Destructoid celebrates 10 years of Dreamcast: the games.
The Sega Dreamcast Shmups Library, revised edition, at Racketboy.
A Decade of Dreams, a bunch of Dreamcast Quick Looks from Giant Bomb.
And the ultimate software retrospective of the week: THE DREAMCAST TOP 100.
They still make games for this thing?
Gaming on the Dreamcast is not dead. In fact, new titles continue to be developed and released every year, primarily by German publisher redspotgames. Here are some of the newest…
Announced this week, Rush Rush Rally Racing.
Yuan Work’s supercute Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles.
Dux and Last Hope, two shmups designed by NG:DEV.TEAM’s René Hellwig.
Filed under MLP, nostalgia, video games | Comment (0)Locals! Things happening locally!
October is looking to be a fine month for geeks. Let’s go to these.
Natural History Auction
Featuring the Tyrannosaurus rex “Samson”
Saturday, October 3rd
Preview: September 18 – October 3
The Venetian, Las Vegas
One of the largest known Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered will be offered on Saturday, October 3rd during Bonhams & Butterfields Natural History auction to be held at The Venetian in Las Vegas. The auction will contain approximately 50 lots of fossils with the centerpiece of the sale focusing on the expertly mounted female T. rex, expected to bring millions of dollars.
Preview the auction catalog.
An Evening with Max Brooks:Surviving the Zombie Wars
Author: Max Brooks
Friday, October 16th, 7:00 p.m.
Clark County Library
1401 E. Flamingo Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Max Brooks, considered by many to be one of the world’s foremost zombie preparedness experts, will take the stage at the Clark County Library to explain the keys to success against the hordes of the undead that may be stalking you right now.
Filed under las vegas, literature, nostalgia | Comments (2)
