jhd

This is slightly o/t, but I was watching Big Brother (American season 20) last night, and for the first time I spotted some vintage hardware being used as set decorations. This includes Commodore Pet, a TRS-80 Model III, and another piece of hardware that was shown too briefly to identify. Has anyone else seen this? What was the third system? Is there anything else that I overlooked?

I had this happen with the plastic case of an electric heater -- it was never exposed to sunlight, and it spent many years in a storage closet in the various apartments that I lived in during that time. Over the course of a decade, it went from cream/beige to an ugly yellow. Obviously exposure to heat was a serious contributing factor.

A search on worldcat.org for the keywords "computer game design" returns 42 publications from 1982. There are a few collections of BASIC programs (many of which are available on bombjack.org), numerous specialist technical and engineering publications, and Jeffrey Stanton. Apple graphics & arcade game design. This is the most likely-looking title from 1982. Based on his other publications, Stanton was not a university professor, however -- he would later write guides to Atari and Amiga computers (and a book about Venice Beach, California). A keyword search for "adventure game design" turns up lots of D&D modules and the like, but nothing published in 1982. Given that Wizardry was only released late in 1981, I would be surprised if there was such a detailed book about the genre published as early as 1982. You may wish to expand the date range for your search a bit.

Is indoor (preferably climate controlled) storage an option? I have no old computers, but all of my video game consoles (other than what is currently being played) are neatly packed into standard-size cardboard file boxes, either in my apartment or in a rented (indoor) storage unit. If you wanted to be extra-careful, you could wrap them in some kind of packing material (e.g. bubble wrap) before putting them into the boxes. Old towels also make good packing material -- I often use those when transporting framed art. If outdoor storage (such as a shed or barn) is the only available option, I would use some kind of moisture barrier around the hardware, and then wrap the outside box as well. Movers use this thick, industrial-grade plastic wrap to protect furniture; that may be adequate if you use multiple layers.

Pardon my lack of technical knowledge, but how much value would the original source code be for a conversion to the Jaguar? The hardware is worlds apart. The only relevant parts (that I can see) would be the overall game logic, and it would seem almost easier to deduce that from just playing the game than trying to understand the original code.

I bought a Coco in early-1983, and that was the system on which I learned BASIC (and later Logo). I badly wanted to try Pascal, but the compiler package required a disk drive, and I only had a cassette system. I wrote a handful of original games, all now sadly lost to history. My My Elementary/Junior High had a TRS-80 Model III (just one), and I was able to occasionally play a few games on it -- mainly written by a brilliant older classmate. I signed-up for the programming class in about Grade 7, but I was told that typing class (using a manual typewriter!) was a co-requisite, so I was forced to drop the class. My High School had a lab of networked Cocos; we received some new Coco 3 systems when I was in Grade 12. I first used a PC when I started University, but I did not do very much programming beyond learning Turbo Pascal. I also experimented a bit with Vax BASIC on the University's mainframe system. To this day, I have never touched an Apple II. There was one available at the local public library, but I never had the opportunity to use it. My experience with the TI 99/4A and the C-64 is almost entirely limited to store demo systems.

That is impressive -- it is definitely comparable to some of the commercial games released BITD. I am surprised that he managed to get that much speed out of BASIC.

Well, since the project is based here in Canada, ever US$1 contributed is actually worth Cdn$1.30... Not that a 30% discount makes it that much more appealing.

Maybe I am unique here, but I have no real (game-related) regrets. I began collecting 2600 games in the late-1980s when they were ubiquitous at garage sales and the like (and some titles were still available at retail). I happily sold or traded duplicates (and those that I did not want, like sports games). My collecting has faltered as the games have become more and more difficult to find. I kept all of the boxes and manuals. I eventually (about 2004) purchased a used PlayStation and some games, and so I began collecting for that system. In 2008, I bought a new PS 2. I suppose that I should have started collecting "modern" systems a bit earlier in their lifecycle (though lots of games were still available at retail when I started buying in earnest). I have no interest in collecting a multitude of consoles and/or computers, so I have no regrets about things that I did not purchase. Similarly, I have utterly no regrets about the items that I have sold off (or donated) through the years.

The real estate market can be impacted the opposite way, too. Until last Fall, I owned a house in another city. Based on what we had originally paid, and the renovations/upgrades that were done, the house was "worth" about $200K. For various reasons, there was a glut of properties on the market -- easily 5 or 6 houses on the same street were for sale at the very same time. All of these houses were going for below $200K, some less than $150K. We had to drop the price significantly to even get an offer. We ultimately sold the house for some ~20% less than what we had paid for it just a decade before. If we had held out for what the house is "worth", it would still be on the market today. Sadly, our situation was not an exception -- I reviewed the data the house sales in the neighbourhood for the previous three years, and there was a distinctive downward trend.

Good for you returning the kid's Wii. That is a completely random assortment of games, representing 7 or 8 different platforms. I wonder how they came to have such a "collection".

Thank-you; I was utterly unaware of the Calgary and Edmonton shows.

Given the distance involved, I seriously doubt that someone from London, Ontario would make the ~5,000 mile round-trip to Portland, Oregon just to sell some video games. I have never imported goods (into either country) for resale, just my own personal use. I doubt that Canada customs would charge duty on a Canadian returning with unsold merchandise, but it would be necessary to somehow document where the goods originated. Many years ago, I had to do this with some expensive camera equipment that I was travelling with -- it was inspected and formally documented by Customs before I left Canada so that I could prove I did not purchase it in the US. I understand that US customs charges a license fee for any sort of commercial importation of merchandise; duty, if applicable, would be additional to that.

Same here. I remember trying to develop a hybrid RPG-text adventure game on the Coco, with significant chunks of code (and design elements) taken from other sources. Unfortunately, it became just too large and unwieldy to continue adding to.

Slightly O/T, but are there any such events held in Canada? I've heard of a few swap meets being held in various places Southern Ontario, and there was a one-off arcade game show here in Calgary several years ago. Cross-border shopping is not appealing, given the ~35% exchange rate, and the fees levied by Customs upon the return to Canada.

Back in 1998, I was easily selling 2600 consoles for $25 each (albeit not online, through the local free classifieds). Short of borrowing a time machine, I do not expect that you will find what you want anytime soon.

There is rather more preserved for the history of video games than I had realised, and that is heartening news. I agree 100%. There is little functional difference between "the records do not exist" and "the records do exist, but you cannot have access to them". I am a strong believer in libraries, archives, and similar institutions. And for the record, I have amassed a very large personal collection of research materials (albeit not video game related) that will eventually be donated to a public institution for all to access and enjoy.

The better question is what records relating to those systems (and the firms that created them) have been lost to history. Sadly, only a very tiny fraction of business have any kind of archival or preservation program in place (and then only a proportion of those are even willing to make the records accessible to third-parties). The volume of material that has been preserved about the development of the Studio II (etc.) is truly amazing.

I am definitely intrigued. I assume that the single enemy graphic shown (the knight in armour) is just a placeholder (as the knights did not appear until Level 2 in the original game, and they were significantly tougher).

Family Computing magazine (#4, December 1983) published an interview with game designer Roberta Williams. She discusses, in some detail, a children's game that she was then designing based on the syndicated comic strip Family Circus. https://archive.org/stream/family-computing-04/Family_Computing_Issue_04_1983_Dec#page/n69/mode/2up This game was presumably never finished/released. There was a Family Circus game released in 1992, but the description does not match William's comments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_Circus#Video_game Has anyone ever heard of this title? Is any additional information available? It is unclear from the article even what platform it was intended for.

Here is a hint: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Indenture_1991

That is both surprising and unfortunate. I hope that someone was able to eventually acquire the development hardware and other materials. The biggest challenge with selling or otherwise disposing of any collection like this is finding the right buyer. There was an article recently in a local magazine where this woman discussed liquidating her late uncle's massive coin and currency collection. It required specialist-level knowledge to separate the dirt-common from the rare and valuable coins, so she simply sold the whole lot to a dealer -- while she admitted that some unique items could have been sold online for much more, it was not worth the time and effort to sort through the volume of material. There is a real risk that the programmer's estate may not know what is significant. It is really a matter of approaching the deceased's estate at the right time. Unfortunately, it may be months (or even years) after death that probate is granted and the assets are disposed of. It took some 10 or 12 years after his death before we could start seriously liquidating my Grandfather's estate (and another decade to finish the task completely). In the article referenced above, the uncle was several years dead before the coin collection was even discovered.

Does anyone actively track the obituaries? Presumably, most (all?) of these former game programmers will eventually die. If approached politely, their heirs may be willing to sell (or even give away) things that, to them, have no value. It is simply a matter of being patient (and young/healthy enough to outlive the other person). My Grandfather, for example, was reluctant to part with anything -- he was very much a hoarder. In the years following his death, most of his "treasures" were sold-off or donated, as my Parents and I had little interest therein. One book dealer was extremely excited to find some very rare and obscure titles, and I was happy to get the money.

The Copyright Board of Canada can grant permission to reproduce works (in Canada, only) where the copyright holder is unknown/unlocatable. They cannot give someone ownership of the copyright. Here are the relevant decisions of the board: http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/decisions/unlocatable-introuvables-e.html (note that some of the contest is in French). None of these decisions involve video games (or computer software more broadly), though a few are about video or audio recordings. There may be similar bodies in other countries, my knowledge is limited to Canadian law.

Is this the very first add-on/cartridge to convert a game console into a general purpose computer? BASIC Programming for the 2600 was (probably) released a few months later. http://www.randomterrain.com/atari-2600-memories-history-1979.html#basic_programming