Month: October 2010

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3 Gaming Home Base

Four rather colorful horsemen of the apocalypse

Halloween was a bust this year – little E was plagued by a stomach virus just when he needed it the least (like there’s a good time for that sort of thing); I spent most of Saturday trying to keep up with the upchuck. Needless to say, no trick-or-treating took place this year… and no one came to the house this year, since Xena’s doghouse has been relocated to the front of the house. (Xena goes as Cujo every Halloween.)

In the meantime, me and my three-year-old boy spent all weekend exploring one of the most enduring and conceptually disturbing survival-horror video game franchises of all time. Strong stuff for a pre-schooler, you say? Sure it is, but it’s all so innocent. … Read more

Categories
Gaming

An Odyssey2 mystery

There’s a neat archive of old, old computer print advertisements on the web, which turned up this interesting little gem, a short-lived home computer called the Ohio Scientific Challenger 4P:

Ohio Scientific Challenger 4P

Whoa… what’s up with those joysticks?

Ohio Scientific Challenger 4P

Those, my friends, are Odyssey2 joysticks – the original detachable kind, seen below on the left side. (To its right, just for reference, is its immediate ancestor, the Odyssey 4000 joystick, which changed the orientation of the casing and the placement of the button for reasons unknown.)

Odyssey2 and Odyssey 4000 joysticks
(The Odyssey2 joystick is rotated that way for comparison to the Odyssey 4000 joystick – these photos were originally taken for the Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2 DVD. The Odyssey2 joystick was always held with the action button at the upper left corner.)

The Odyssey2 and the Ohio Scientific Challenger 4P were both released in 1978; the Odyssey 4000, the last dedicated console released by Magnavox before the Odyssey2, was released in 1977.

So the question becomes: who made the joystick? Did Magnavox (makers of the Odyssey consoles) make the joysticks and license the design to Ohio Scientific? Did Ohio Scientific originate the design and license it to Magnavox as early as ’77? Did both parties license the design from someone else entirely? (For that matter, did the joysticks for the Ohio Scientific machine actually look like that, or did they grab the first available joystick they could for the photo?)… Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Serious Stuff

Podcast of Extraordinary Magnitude: Oh Poopy

Here is the newsThe true (but necessarily vague) tale of the time I had to sue someone for stealing from theLogBook.com. 😯 Also included: more weird radio stories, waterproof droids and… a cat on crack.

Listen here:
[audio:https://www.thelogbook.com/earl/podcast/10292010-ohpoopy.mp3]

Right-click here and “save as” to save to your hard drive or MP3 player; leave feedback with this post or in the forums.… Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Home Base

Brain scan

A couple of my Facebook friends recently posted some personality and intelligence test results courtesy of an app there. I’ve taken those same tests before, but it’s been a while; I went directly to the site for the tests rather than do the Facebook app (even before the recent revelations, I just don’t do Facebook apps) under a silly pseudonym. But what the heck, I’ll post the results here, even if I don’t want them to have my info. … Read more

Categories
Funny Stuff Toiling In The Pixel Mines

Podcast of Extraordinary Magnitude: Radio Daze

Here is the newsWar stories from the end of locally-owned radio. The goofiest radio commercials you’ve ever heard. Highly unprofessional and inadvisable behavior. Plus special appearances by little E and the Devil. 😯

Listen here:
[audio:https://www.thelogbook.com/earl/podcast/10222010-radio.mp3]

Right-click here and “save as” to save to your hard drive or MP3 player; leave feedback with this post or in the forums.… Read more

Categories
...And Little E Makes 3

Conversations with Little E, vol. 2

So tonight I wetted little E’s head down after he’d been splashing around in the bathtub for a couple of minutes, as a precursor to a shampoo attack. So keep in mind, the kid’s been sitting in warm water and splashing around for a couple of minutes, but when I pour water on his head (with ample warning), he says “DAD! YOU GOT ME ALL WET!”

Um… … Read more