benjedwards

benjedwards, 1 month ago to random

Clip art collections from the early 1990s are forgotten cultural time capsules, freezing life three decades ago as digital illustrations full of obsolete tech, vintage fashions, and more

I dug through clip art CDs to find fun examples:
https://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/3337/tech-time-capsule-early-1990s-clip-art-captured-an-era

Clip art example from the 1990s
Clip art example from the 1990s
Clip art example from the 1990s

clive, 2 months ago to random

I just pre-ordered "Seeing Red", @benjedwards's upcoming cowritten book about Nintendo's Virtual Boy ... one of the strangest episodes in the history of VR

this is gonna be fun

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262045063/seeing-red/

benjedwards, 2 months ago to random

Avast, me hearties! Back in 2020, I wrote a piece about what life was like before the Internet, and how things are different now

It languished unpublished, but I decided to put it up on VC&G because some people might enjoy it (or enjoy arguing with it):

https://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/3132/my-memories-of-what-life-was-like-before-the-internet

benjedwards, 2 months ago to random

Attention video game fans! I co-wrote a Platform Studies book called Seeing Red: Nintendo's Virtual Boy with José Zagal for MIT Press, and it's coming out May 14th

You can pre-order it now on Amazon if you're wild about stereoscopic red consoles: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Red-Nintendos-Virtual-Platform/dp/0262045060/

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

Tomy Shooting Gallery. This is what we played in the back of the car in the 1980s before Game Boy came out 😁

Still fun!

Tomy Shooting Gallery pocket game 1980s
Label: JAPAN SHOOTING GALLERY Tilt game backward, then forward until targets prop up. Now tilt game back until it is almost level. To load, push shooter lever to the left. Then aim, pull back the shooter lever, and release. See how many points you can score by knocking down the targets. 100-170 Sharpshooter 50-90 Try Again 0-40 You Need Practice

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

That’s right, friends: this coupon for Pac-Man cereal has NO expiration date

Papa’s eating good tonight!

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

What are the best Mac Apple Silicon freeware hobbyist games? There's got to be some out there somewhere

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

Fun fact: people love my photo of the Commodore 64 so much that some buy a high-res version (a PNG file) of it for use as a wallpaper. Why?

Because proceeds go toward keeping the vintagecomputing.com archives up and ad-free! Thanks!

https://benjedwards.itch.io/c64

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

Macintosh turns 40 today, and to celebrate, I wrote about the weirdest and rarest Macs ever made. Read it at Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/macintosh-at-40-the-oddest-and-rarest-macs-ever-built/

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

Dear computers, what is preventing you from looking like this?

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

I have a friend with a 2015 iMac and an iPhone 11, and they have so many photos that they've run out of space. They want to copy the photos to the iMac, but it's not working in the Photos app. Is there another utility or a terminal command I could use to force this operation?

benjedwards, 4 months ago to random

Next time I'm out in public and everyone is using their smartphones, I'll pull out my TRS-80 PC4 Pocket Computer from 1983 (with matching Pocket Printer) and print out something Very Important

paulrickards, 5 months ago to retrocomputing

My New Year’s resolution this year is 640x400x1 🥳

Say Hello, World! to the new-to-me Macintosh Portable. This is the fancy backlit version (M5126). More luggable than laptop weighing in at 16 lbs. It’s just such a beast of a machine.

It comes with this even larger travel case with room for lots of extra gear.

#RetroComputing #VintageApple #VintageMac #MacintoshPortable

Mac Portable case standing upright.
Mac portable case laying flat, handle facing you.
Mac Portable inside the case with the case lid opened.

benjedwards, 5 months ago to random

I'm into the NES again these days. What's the worst NES game that's actually really good?

benjedwards, 5 months ago to random

Sup guys. Is anyone still on Mastodon?

benjedwards, 6 months ago to random

What's the oldest physical family heirloom you own, and when does it date from?

I have a few of my great-great-grandfather's books from the 1880s. Wish I had something older

benjedwards, 6 months ago to random

I find it compelling when people like unpopular entertainment, because you can’t argue against their feelings. There’s real love there

What do you love that everyone else hates?

benjedwards, 8 months ago to random

Nintendo should make a sequel to F-Zero called F1 Racing

benjedwards, 8 months ago to random

Everyone has a tiny LLM inside them that says, "as an AI language model, I don't feel like folding the laundry today."

benjedwards, 8 months ago to random

I’m starting to think that network-connected software was a mistake

thomasfuchs, 8 months ago to retrocomputing

#septandy #retrocomputing

Detail from the box, a bunch of kids looking like zombies, staring at the computer
Ideal for: Entertainment, Education and Productivity

benjedwards, 8 months ago to random

I see so many people toggling on/off like a light switch. Something's right/wrong, good/evil. But I beg you to upgrade from 1-bit reasoning. Things can be bad and good simultaneously. In fact, most things are—in different ratios and for different cultural groups

Embrace nuance😁