New Storify Account To Archive My Livetweets Of Dumb 80s Movies/Cartoons.

So hey, in case you wanted a glimpse of my social media feed that isn't me grumbling about social justice/gender stuff or picking fights with minor celebrities/politicians or whatever, I put together a Storify account specifically for nerdy stuff. It has livetweets of 1980s cartoons and movies (like The Golden Child and the G.I.Joe animated film) and also a master thread for production-related tweets about my upcoming video game project "Never Go To Work".

Magazine Article About Controlling A Model Train Set With A TRS-80

 

In my recent jaunts to Portland's outlet warehouse stores  I wound up with a stack of old model railroad magazines from the 1960s through the 1980s... because of course I did. Flipping through them, they are detail-intensive and super esoteric, which means they're perfect for this blog. Unfortunately, I cannot even try to care enough about model railroading to this degree. However, this article "Computerization Of The Great Southern" in the March 1983 issue of Model Railroader caught my eye because it intersected with 1980s retro-computing, which *is* something I give half a crap about.

The article features Lorell Joiner (who apparently died in 2007) discussing the computerization of his Great Southern Railroad model. As you can see from the photo, the equipment involved is a TRS-80 computer. Apparently the Great Southern was kind of a legendary big deal in the model railroad world, and certainly looks like no joke:

The article doesn't go into any of the program code or anything, but does detail the engineering aspect of it using those awesome programming flowcharts that used to be all over computer programming books from the 1980s.

 

Robocop Archive - The Source For All Things Robocop.

While doing research for a piece for my new blog gig (don't worry, I'm not quitting this one, just reorganizing what I'm gonna start posting where), I came across this cool fan site/resource for all things Robocop. The look is still Web 1.0ish-looking, which I find endearing, but it's up to date enough to be commenting on the Robocop statue.

"You've Got The Touch" Action Figure Stop-Motion Of Battle From Transformers The Movie.

Every Single Pee Wee's Playhouse Secret Word Ever.

The Guy Who Wrote The "Jumping The Shark" Episode Of Happy Days Weighs In On The Phrase.

And, in defending it, seems to completely misunderstand what the phrase actually means.

Fortunately, my career didn't jump the shark after "jump the shark." When "Happy Days" ended, I went directly to the ABC Paramount hit show "Webster" and, after that, wrote and produced, among others, "It's Your Move," "He's the Mayor, "The New Leave It to Beaver" and "Family Matters." In 1987, Brian Levant and I created the action comedy "My Secret Identity," which won an International Emmy.

Rowan Atkinson As Marc Almond

A cute vid of Roan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) impersonating Marc Almond from Soft Cell.

Ann Coulter Used To Be Pretty Cute, In A Dorky Way.

I've seen this pic thrown around on the internet a bit, with various commentary. One thing nobody has pointed out is how absolutely adorable she is. I mean, those cheeks, that turtleneck, that cute little bob haircut, she's in the fencing club for godsakes...

I think I'm totally developing a crush on Ann Coulter, circa 1980 or so. I would totally have invited her out so we could sit across from each other in beanbag chairs, eating french fries and listening to Voices by Hall And Oates with a pair of giant headphones apiece. Her kiss would have been on my list, if you know what I mean.

Well, if I hadn't been like 3 years old when this pic was taken, that is.

Wait, The Ghostbusters Cartoon Was Based On A Live Action Show?

Okay, before you write me off as touched in the head, I'm not talking about The Real Ghostbusters based off the Ivan Reitman /Dan Ackroyd / Harold Ramis movie. I'm talking about the cartoon Filmation's Ghostbusters. The one with this intro:



I watched this cartoon a few times as a kid, and had absolutely no idea that it was based off an earlier live action show:

God's Number Is 20.

Using 35 years of CPU time donated by Google, researchers have finally determined conclusively that there is no position on a Rubik's cube that requires more than 20 moves to solve. Here you can find the data and a timeline of the research.

An Assload Of Arcade Game Kill Screens, Narrated.

You Are A Shark.

I don't get it. What exactly is there left to choose? You're already a shark. I'm preetty sure that means you've already won.

Baby DEVO!

via Kali Kazoo.

"Why Don't You Come Over Here And... Party With Grandma!"

via Everything Is Terrible.

Spooky. Glitchy.

Besides Julia Segal's absolutely hilarious one, the Tumblr account I check out near-daily is lowmoralfiber, which is maintained by a 20-year old Norwegian noise musician. He seems to share my love of malfunctioning electronics, drone/noise, and early 80s RPG computer games. Enjoy.

PIXELS - An 8-Bit Attack On New York.

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Watch original web videos.

PIXELS, a two-minute Parisian short film by Patrick Jean, where retro video game characters ravage New York. You just have to see this. Did you catch all the retro-game logos? A lot of them are blink-and-you'll-miss-em.

EDIT: Just noticed the C64 subway entrance is at 23rd Street.

M.U.S.C.L.E. Revisited - I-Mockery Gives Names To 233 Of Them.

In this article, RoG from I-Mockery goes through and makes up names for 233 M.U.S.C.L.E. figures, who were apparently nameless save for the leaders: Muscleman and Terri-Bull.

Me And My Brother Discuss The Music Of Mega Man 2

Yesterday, the following conversation transpired between my brother and I regarding the music of Mega Man 2, a childhood favorite. There may have been some drinking involved.

My Brother: Crank up Bubble Man's music first.

Me: Aw come on, everybody says they love Bubble Man's music. It's overrated.

My Brother: What, has it gone too mainstream for you or something? Did you like it better back when it had indie appeal? Fine; I remember Flash Man's music being cool, crank that up.



Me: Um, no.

My Brother: Yeah. Um, no. Wait, let's let it play until the breakdown... Um, no. Wait, I was probably thinking that I liked Flash Man's weapon the best, not the music. Try Quick Man.



My Brother: THIS is what I was thinking of when I was trying to remember Flash Man's music. This is more like it.

Me: This IS better... it almost has some sort of Latin groove to it. Like a bossanova or something.

My Brother: Yeah, something like that.

Me: I have no idea what a bossanova sounds like.

My Brother: Me neither. Try Heat Man.



My Brother: This is cool. Remember how we used to make cassettes of video game music to play in our walkmans on the bus?

Me: Yeah.

My Brother: Man, we were dorks.

Me: Yeah.

Me: Hey, there's the Wood Man theme.



Me: This is pretty cool (imitates hi-hat rhythm with his mouth). I just know this wound up on one of my video game mixtapes.

My Brother: What about Air Man?



Me: Ouch. That sounds awful. Not even nostalgia makes me like this.

(similar thoughts are expressed regarding Crash Man and Metal Man's theme.)

Me: Fine. Let's check out the Bubble Man theme.



Me: Fine, you win. This is really cool, and likely the best music in the game.

My Brother: Told you.

WTF Is Going On Here 9 - Crying Number/Insult Number.

Wait, what the? Who would?

It's probably just a tape loop going "You're paying $2 a minute for this, you idiot."

Funny thing, you probably got the same loop if you called this number in the 1990s -

Charming British Guy Doing Terribly At Classic Trash-80 Game.

I've always found this "walkthrough" of Dungeons Of Daggorath hilarious, with the narrators self-effacing commentary over his admitted incompetence with the game.