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@DarthAzrael in December 2021

@DarthAzrael

This photo is undated and unlabeled but features a boat called the Auklet II. It's a bit blurry but readable. There's actually quite a lot of info about this boat to be found. It is a 57-foot boat that was built in Seattle, Washington in 1951 for the Fish and Wildlife Service. It was initially headquartered in Juneau, Alaska and has been in Alaska ever since. When Alaska became a state, it was transferred to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It was upgraded and…

@DarthAzrael

Commodore Microcomputers was an official Commodore publication that covered all of Commodore's computers. In the September/October 1984 issue that included the Commodore 64, VIC-20, as well as the CBM, PET and SuperPET lines. Some of the features from this issue include: The Quest for Enhanced Productivity: Commodore Meets the Challenge - This article covers the various productivity software produced by Commodore. This includes the built-in software suite of the Plus/4, a…

@DarthAzrael

Fatal Fury Special is a 2D fighting game that was released for both the home and arcade versions of the Neo Geo hardware in 1993. The original Fatal Fury was perhaps the earliest competitor to Street Fighter II though it was actually developed at the same time by the original creator of the first Street Fighter game. Fatal Fury Special was the third game in the series though not really a true sequel. The review below is for the Sega CD version and is from the April 1995…

@DarthAzrael

This photo shows a bunch of logs attached to one another along with cables and a shed on pontoons. Looks like maybe some sort of aquatic farming venture. Given the mountains visible in the photo, I would say this was taken somewhere in the Pacific Northwest or perhaps on a lake somewhere else in the Western part of the country. This was scanned from a 35mm slide and was likely taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s. It was badly faded so this is a version scanned with…

@DarthAzrael

Computer Entertainment was not a magazine that I bought at the time it was on the shelves. I didn't even have a computer yet and my only video game system at the time was the Atari 2600. However, I would have definitely have loved it. Computer Entertainment was the (sadly short-lived) successor to the original Electronic Games magazine. Game systems were not doing so well at the time though that would soon change with the introduction of the NES. In the mean time, home…

@DarthAzrael

While I have been participating in Hive Powerup Day for a long time, this is the first time I have actually made a post about it. I mean what is there to say, really? By powering up, I am supporting the Hive blockchain and hopefully myself in the long run. I have managed to power up 100 hive or more (sometimes a lot more) for many months now but with the recent price rise it is getting harder. Where does the liquid hive come from? From a few places. Read more:…

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Computer Gaming World was the best computer gaming magazine out there for most of its life, at least if you had a PC. While it did cover other computers, at least in its earlier days, it always seemed to emphasize DOS and Windows coverage particularly in regards to multi-platform games. It was an excellent magazine and had a very long life but a disappointing end. It was bought by Microsoft in 2006 and retitled 'Games for Windows'. It only lasted another two years after…

@DarthAzrael

Star Wars Weekends at Disney MGM in Orlando, Florida, 2006. Includes parade and other random scenes. Star Wars weekends was like a sort of mini Star Wars convention at Disney MGM Studios (Hollywood Studios) in Orlando, Florida that was held on 4 or 5 consecutive weekends in May and June. There would be a Star Wars themed parade, special guests (usually actors from the movies) doing interviews and signing autographs, and other Star Wars themed events. Sadly, this event was…

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Crusaders of the Dark Savant is the seventh game in the very long running Wizardry series of fantasy computer role-playing games. Crusaders was released by Sir-Tech in 1992 while the original Wizardry had been released all the way back in 1981. While the games changed a great deal over the years, Wizardry VII still had a style familiar to fans of the original. Like the previous games in the series, this game was played from a first person point of view with turn based…

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Out in the distant reaches of the curb of my next door neighbor I discovered a small, towering beige monolith. To my expert eyes it was clear that it was a computational device of ancient origin. I immediately determined to ascertain whether or not it could be resurrected so I brought it and the accompanying cathode ray tube monitor and other accessories back to my laboratory. Read more: https://blurt.blog/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/digital-archaeology-expedition-1…

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'enter' was a computer magazine for kids. It covered most of the home computers available at the time including the Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari 400/800, TRS-80 plus several others and included articles, reviews, programming exercises (generally in BASIC) and more. The March 1983 issue included the following: Read more: https://hive.blog/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/enter-march-1985-54d2c737aa402 #retrocomputing #Commodore #Commodore64 #AppleII #Atari #Atari400 #Atari800…

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Doom (DOS) There have been many video games through the course of their relatively short history that have changed the face of gaming. Space Invaders did it, Pac-Man did it, even Streetfighter II did it. Doom is also one of these games. While there had been a few games that came before that could be called first person shooters, Wolfenstein 3D perhaps being the most notable, Doom was the first to offer the right combination of smooth graphics, compelling game play, variety…

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This photo shows three individuals standing in front of a building that with a sign that says "American Duck Club Green Head Lodge". Looking up "Green Head Lodge" revealed several hunting lodges for hunting ducks and other hunting and fishing activities. Based on some other photos, it seems likely that this was taken in St. Ambroise, Manitoba Canada, possibly on Flee Island, probably in the late 1950s or early 1960s.. For more info and additional photos from this set, see my…

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The One is a 16-bit gaming magazine that was published in the U.K. in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Initially it covered games for the Amiga, Atari ST and DOS based PCs but later expanded to cover 16-bit consoles as well. The August 1989 issue includes: Read more: https://hive.blog/hive-140217/@darth-azrael/the-one-august-1989 #retrogaming #retrocomputing #Amiga #AtariST #DOS #gaming

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Game Player's covered a variety of video game system and home computers. In 1991 this list included the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Atari Lynx, Amiga, PC (DOS), and TurboGrafx-16. The February 1991 issue included the following: Read more: https://hive.blog/hive-140217/@darth-azrael/game-player-s-february-1991-707cfc70b5ea7 #retrogaming #gaming #NES #Nintendo #Sega #Genesis #SegaMasterSystem #Atari #Lynx #Amiga #DOS…

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Sinistar was a fairly popular arcade game released by Williams Electronics in 1983. Interestingly, in a time when arcade to home ports were very common, no home port of Sinistar was released until more than a decade later as part of several of the Midway compilations for a variety of systems. Read more: https://blurt.blog/retrogaming/@darth-azrael/sinistar-atari-5200 #retrogaming #Sinistar #Atari #Atari5200 #blurt

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Warwick Davis interviews Peter Mayhew and Rick McCallum during Star Wars Weekends 2006 at Disney/MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios) in Orlando, Florida. The stormtroopers entertain the crowd as they wait. This video was recorded by me on May 20th, 2006. See the video here: https://hive.blog/hive-181335/@darth-azrael/fbkedplh #StarWars #Disney #MGM #HollywoodStudios #StarWarsWeekends #WarwickDavis #PeterMayhew

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With this post, I start looking at the contents of a new disk. This one includes the contents of AGREENEW.DOC which is dated September 24th, 1985. This looks to be the "about" info for the Close Encounters SIG or, based on the name of the file, perhaps the info displayed when you subscribe to/sign up for/enter the SIG. Read more: https://hive.blog/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/digital-archaeology-floppy-disk-10-99f19eec1a6ea #retrocomputing #Delphi #telecommunications

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The Atari Jaguar was Atari’s last attempt at a home console. The Atari Jaguar was released in 1993 and discontinued in 1996 after selling only 250,000 units. The Jaguar had a lot going for it when it was released. It was the most powerful system available (even if the 64-bits claim was a bit of an exageration… it would more accurately be called a 32-bit system) and it was affordable. However, the multi-chip design made it difficult to program for and there were too few 3rd…

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The slide this photo was scanned from is not dated or labeled but it was likely taken in the late 1950s to early 1960s and, based on the foliage, was probably taken somewhere in Florida. It shows a woman with some bees and there is clearly some kind of beekeeping activity going on. This beekeeping enterprise has shown up in previous slides I have scanned. For more info and photos from this set, see…

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BLiP was a video games magazine published by Marvel in 1983. It had a comic book form factor and typically included a video game based comic strip among various articles about gaming. Not really a bad idea for the time but they were a little too late. Had Marvel come up with this a couple of year earlier, it probably would have had a longer run. As it was, 1983 was a bad year for the video game industry and BLiP only lasted 8 issues. The premiere issue (pictured above) was…

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RUN covered Commodore's 8-bit computer line, primarily the Commodore 64. I bought this magazine regularly starting a few years later, especially after Commodore stopped publishing Commodore Magazine. This was the 13th issue so it would have been published sometime between December 1984 and January 1985. I guess they were selling enough issues at that time to justify publishing an extra bonus issue around the holidays. This issue includes: Read more:…

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This photo is not labeled or dated but was likely taken in the late 1950s to early 1960s. It appears to have been taken at a place called Green Head Lodge which seems to have been a duck hunting lodge. While photos from Green Head Lodge appeared in previous sets, this photo is the one that gave away the location. Written on the truck in the foreground you can partially see Green Head Lodge and "Delta Marshes". There is another truck in the background that has wooden siding…

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MacLife was the successor to MacAddict but in my opinion, MacAddict was the much better magazine. It was like Maximum PC but for Macs. MacLife on the other hand is just kind of...boring. But then that is really what Macs have become. From their switch to Power PC through their switch to Intel they kept things pretty interesting with design changes, operating system upgrades, etc. Since then, it seems very little has changed and the things that are changing are questionable.…

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The mid 1990s were a pretty bad time for Apple. Their market share was dropping and for the most part their systems were not price or performance competitive with PCs of the time. In addition, they couldn't compete on price with the clones they were licensing. The PowerBooks were terrific but you had to sell a kidney to be able to afford one. For instance, the PowerBook 1400cs was $2500 and there were others that were much more expensive (see below). MacAddict was a magazine…

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No, Space Adventurer Cobra was not quite my first exposure to anime but it is, indirectly, what got me interested. The first anime I ever saw, though I didn't know it at the time, was Battle of the Planets (otherwise known as Gatchaman). This was when I was probably only around 6 years old and to me it just happened to be my favorite cartoon. I had no concept of what anime or Japanese animation was. Fast forward a decade or so and I'm sitting on the couch flipping through…

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The stunt show at Disney MGM (now Hollywood Studios) in Orlando, Florida. This show was designed to show what it was like to film movie scene involving stunts, in this case featuring cars, motorcycles and physical stunts as well. The show opened for the first time on May 5th, 2006 so it was only a couple of weeks old when this was recorded. See the video here: https://hive.blog/hive-181335/@darth-azrael/goitstlr #Disney #MGM #HollywoodStudios #stunts #StuntShow

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The IBM Personal Computer 300GL is a model designation that actually covered a pretty wide variety of different models. Machines were built with the 300GL designation with CPUs ranging from Pentium MMX to Pentium IIIs and everything in between. This particular one came with a 300 MHz Celeron (Mendocino). The Mendocino Celerons were essentially Pentium IIs with a small, on die cache. The cache was less than the Pentium IIIs of the time (128K vs. 256K) but it ran at full clock…

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Working Designs was famous for their anime based games and JRPG style games. There were several games that they developed for the TurboGrafx-CD and the Sega CD that are highly sought after today and Vay is one of those if the prices on eBay are any indication. This ad for the Sega CD version of Vay is from the August 1994 issue of EGM^2. Read more: https://hive.blog/hive-140217/@darth-azrael/vay-sega-cd #retrogaming #Vay #WorkingDesigns #Sega #Genesis #SegaCD #gaming…

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Etrian Odyssey is an RPG released on the Nintendo DS by Atlus in 2007. At ten years old it is arguably a vintage or retro-game now but even when new it was a real throw-back to the likes of the Bard's Tale, Wizardry and AD&D Gold Box series of RPGs as opposed to being more like modern RPGs. Read more: https://blurt.blog/retrogaming/@darth-azrael/etrian-odyssey-nintendo-ds #retrogaming #NintendoDS #EtrianOdyssey #gaming

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One type of upgrade that was common for a while for the Atari 400 were keyboard upgrades. These replaced the membrane keyboard with something closer to a 'real' keyboard that could actually be used for touch typing. These upgrades weren't cheap for the time but I guess an Atari 400 plus keyboard upgrade was cheaper than an Atari 800 and if you already had a 400 anyway, it was substantially cheaper than buying a whole new computer. Even the much cheaper VIC-20 had a real…

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Portacomp III 386-25 This is a fairly early portable computer that apparently predates laptops. It reminds me of two machines I used to own. One was an XT class portable Compaq. It was older than this one and had a small CRT display instead of the gas plasma like this one. The other was a 386 laptop of similar specs that did have a gas plasma display. Read more: https://blurt.blog/retrocomputing/@darth-azrael/portacomp-iii-386-25 #retrocomputing #technology #computers #DOS

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Throughout most of the 1980s all the way through the early 2000s Computer Gaming World was known mostly for its coverage of PC games (DOS and then Windows). It's easy to forget how early they actually started. This issue is from November/December 1982. The PC, as in the ancestor of the Windows based computers we use today, wasn't even introduced until the previous year and it was quite expensive as it was designed as a business machine. The IBM PC Jr., the first feeble…

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The Sega Master System was a competitor to the Nintendo Entertainment System and a predecessor to the Sega Genesis. Although technically superior, it never did as well as Nintendo in most of the world. I was surprised to learn that in sold less than the Atari 7800 in North America. This was for a number of reasons including but not limited to: a slightly later entry into market, poorer marketing, and Nintendo's draconian and anti-competitive licensing scheme. Read more:…

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Unfortunately, the slide this photo was scanned from was not labeled are dated. My best guess is that it was taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s. It shows a man and boy along with a couple of old cars (at least they would be old now). They appear to be standing outside some kind of apartments or perhaps motel. For more info and photos from this set, see https://hive.blog/photography/@darth-azrael/vintage-photos-oestreicher-1405-1408 #photography #slides #vintage #photos…

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This is an advertisement for Mega Man 7 by Capcom for the Super Nintendo from the November 1995 issue of EGM 2. Anyone at all familiar with Nintendo has probably at least seen a Mega Man game. This 2D platformer was one of the major franchises on the original Nintendo system. Mega Man 7 is, as logic would dictate, the 7th game in the series and the only one in the original series to be released on the Super Nintendo though there was also a separate Mega Man X series that…