Yesterday was, needles to say, a rather rough day for me. I woke up quite late, as usual, to the news that Astronaut John Young had died the previous day, January 5th. John Young was an absolute legend among astronauts, up there as high as Alan Shepard, John Glenn or Neil Armstrong. John Young flew …
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Category:History
The Commodore 64 Christmas Demo
Ah, the Commodore 64. The best selling computer of all time, one that most anyone involved in the classic gaming scene is aware of, and those into old computers certainly must have at least tried to experience. What a better way to do this holiday than to go back to 1982/1983 and experience the in-store …
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The Computer Chronicles – The Internet (1993)
I thought it fitting, given recent events, to share this episode of the Computer Chronicles discussing the Internet in 1993. I don’t have to explain the internet to you – you know what it is, but understanding how it became what it is and why it was such a major thing, that’s something else entirely. …
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AIM Is Dead
Today, December 15th, 2017, marks a pretty dark day for the internet – no, we aren’t talking about Net Neutrality here (although I’m about to get into that, check ahead a few articles,) I’m talking about the death Aol Instant Messenger, or AIM, which had its servers shut down today. I had covered this when …
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Keeping Useless Junk Around For The Future – A Quick Thought
When I think about my hobbies, one common trend I’ve noticed is that much of them involve, for on reason or another, me desiring to keep things that do work doing what they do. Hell, its also my job, actually – much of my day to day game store work is actually repairing old game …
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Bits And Bytes – Program 8: Games & Simulations
Wow, we haven’t taken a look at Bits and Bytes since July! Time to get back to it. Bits and Bytes episode 8 deals with Simulation software and games which have an educational lean to them. While being an episode dealing with games, it does touch into some elements of gaming back in the early …
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45 Years Ago, The Launch Of Apollo 17
Early in the morning of December 7th, 1972, the final Apollo mission to the Moon, Apollo 17, launched from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center carrying Gene Cernan, Ron Evans, Harrison Schmitt to the Taurus–Littrow lunar valley. Apollo 17’s landing location and planned launch time dictated the first night launch of any manned American …
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The Computer Chronicles – Mainframes to Minis to Micros (1983)
Let’s take a trip back. All the way back, in this case, to the original episode of “The Computer Chronicles” back in 1983. The idea behind the computer chronicles was to cover the then-new field of personal computers. Just what could you do with these little machines, and what was their future? These machines, some …
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When Something Is Called “The Future,” It Never Really Is…
Following behind my previous article about hype culture, I wanted to discuss another trend in how upcoming things are discussed. This is something that goes in well with hype culture but deserves its own little bit of discussion: that is, when someone says something is “the future.” You will hear this one all the time …
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Voyager: Images from the Odysseys – 2017 NASA JPL Film
40 years ago, the twin Voyager 1 and 2 space probes were just starting on their historic journeys to the outer solar system. Voyager 1 destined to visit Saturn and Jupiter, Voyager 2 destined to not only study those planets, but also to be the first, and still only probe to fly by Uranus and …
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Skylab: The First 40 Days – 1973 NASA Film (Old Article)
Update 6-23-2018: The original upload channel has been deleted. This article has been replaced by a new one for the 45th anniversary of the Skylab 2 mission here: http://www.xadara.com/skylab-the-first-40-days/ Switching gears just a bit back to space, we have this nice little film from the mid 70’s regarding the first manned Skylab mission. Skylab was …
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Oddity Archive Covers The Max Headroom Incident
One of the many more unique YouTube channels I follow is Oddity Archive – a channel devoted heavily to the more eccentric side of television, film, and home media of all types. Incidencally, the channels first subject was, of all things, the Max Headroom Incident. Now, Ben, the man behind Oddity Archive, kind of hates …
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30 Years Ago: The Max Headroom Incident
In case it isn’t obvious, I have an interest in strange things, strange events, and the 1980’s. Well, it doesn’t get much stranger than this. On November 22nd, 1987, the last broadcast signal intrusion of the analog TV era happened in Chicago. Unlike the Captain Midnight incident, to this day we still have no idea …
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Space Shuttle Missions And Payloads – 1980 NASA Film
Time to go back to the early days of the Space Shuttle program. 1980, in this case, when the first flight was still in the middle of a variety of delays. The Space Shuttle was basically ready, but as luck would have it one thing after another kept the vehicle grounded until April 12th, 1981, …
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Game Player’s Gametape Vol. 1 No. 6: Ultra Games
It’s been a while since we’ve last taken a look at the Game Players Game Tape series. In tape number 6 we have games from the publisher Ultra. Now, this is a funny one – the last tape was Konami games, and this one is Ultra games. Thing about that, for the few of you …
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