Hannah is two weeks (and a bit) old now. At birth she weighed 7 lbs., 3 ozs. If she'd been born in a hospital, that number probably would have been higher because they would have weighed her right away. At the midwife's she was an hour or two old when they did it, so she'd pooped away several ounces.
The midwife checked her the other day and she's up to 8-1/2 lbs. Not bad for two weeks. Because of her gestational diabetes, Dorothy had been concerned those first few days that her milk wasn't coming in fast enough. Whether it came in quickly or not, this is confirmation that Hannah's getting plenty now.
01 October 2008
Hallmark missed the point
How did this happen? I caught a post on Usenet a couple months ago saying there would a Pac-Man coin-op ornament released in October, so I set a reminder in my PDA. (That's what they're for, right?) It goes off today, so I go looking at the Hallmark web site to see if I can find the date. What I find is an ornament page with the photo you see to the right.
That's not the coin-op I remember and loved. Yes, it's yellow. Yes, the shape's right. Yes, it has the lovely, red-knobbed joystick. But the marquee and side art, two of the most important distinguishing characteristics of an arcade cabinet, are all wrong. What I remember is the classic Midway cabinets, like the one to the left (photo stolen from the KLOV).
What, I wondered, had gone wrong? Could it be that somehow, after Midway's Pac-Man contract expired and Namco got the rights back in the States that they could no longer use the art from Midway's cabinets? Is this, perhaps, what the cabinets looked like in Japan, except for having "Pac-Man" where it was "Puc-Man"?
Unfortunately, my Google fu failed me and I could not find a photo of the Japanese coin-op. But I did come across what you see to the right at the Brookstone web site: a 25th anniversary coin-op for home use. Look, right there on the side! That's the Midway artwork! (Yes, with a 25th anniversary Pac-Man logo over the top of it, but that's irrelevant.) Obviously, Namco can still use the artwork.So now I'm just baffled. Hallmark has made a Pac-Man coin-op ornament, advertised under "Nostalgia & Fun," but made something that doesn't actually look like what Generation X will remember. Nostalgia is a very tricky thing. No, an item need not look exactly like the original to invoke it, but it needs to be close. Hallmark's ornament falls short of that. I don't care if it does make the original arcade sounds -- which is cool, I admit -- I'm not nearly as interested as I was and probably won't bother to buy it now.
Am I being to picky? Has my years of dedication to the classic video games as a hobby clouded my judgment? Will others not remember the Pac-Man cabinet as well as I? I may have to poll my friends. Maybe that's also a good excuse to let them know about my new blog!
23 September 2008
And so it begins
I've toyed with doing a blog for a while. Unfortunately, I have little profound to say and little time to write it. However, I recently had my third child, a girl named Hannah. This is our first girl, so I was inspired to take (and caption) the below photo.
To clarify, those are cloth diaper covers hanging up to dry and the purple thing at the lower left is the diaper pail liner, also drying. No doubt there will be more photos in the future of this blog. In the meantime, welcome, friends.
To clarify, those are cloth diaper covers hanging up to dry and the purple thing at the lower left is the diaper pail liner, also drying. No doubt there will be more photos in the future of this blog. In the meantime, welcome, friends.
01 May 2007
Re: Any good finds lately?
[Originally posted to rec.games.video.classic.]
In article <0AbZh.1532$VE.1164@newsfe12.lga>, T. Rivet wrote:
>Managed to hit the flea market and a few rummage sales today, but didn't
>see a thing worthwhile.
>Not a game related siting at the yard sales, completely bone dry.
>Anyone else having any luck? Or has it dried up everywhere?
My neighborhood had a yard sale this Saturday. I found an Atari Ultra Pong in the box with instructions. A check of the battery compartment revealed batteries which weren't leaking, but it looked like there might have been some leak slightly once before. In general, the console was in good shape. I haven't taken the time to test it yet. This is my first Ultra Pong. Oh, and I paid $5. (It was marked $20.)
The box is in good shape except for the packing tape used once to seal one end. Unfortunately, it appears someone ripped some of it off at one time, leaving a white gash in the front. :-( The instructions would be in good shape if they hadn't been all crumpled up from the console being put in on top of them.
[I posted a followup on 24 May 2007.]
Sorry to follow up on my own post, but it's actually an Atari Ultra Pong Doubles. Unfortunately, it's missing two of the four paddles. But the good news is that it does work. It was kind of odd, though. When I first started testing it, there was no sound. As me and my sons played it, though, the sound started working.
Which leads me off on a tangent. Many "pong" consoles have their own speaker rather than using the televisions. Why is this? Was it really cheaper to include a speaker in the console rather than the circuitry to send both video *and* audio to the television? And how hard is it to convert a "pong" to work directly with modern TVs with separate audio/video inputs?
[J. T. August answered my question.]
In article <0AbZh.1532$VE.1164@newsfe12.lga>, T. Rivet
>Managed to hit the flea market and a few rummage sales today, but didn't
>see a thing worthwhile.
>Not a game related siting at the yard sales, completely bone dry.
>Anyone else having any luck? Or has it dried up everywhere?
My neighborhood had a yard sale this Saturday. I found an Atari Ultra Pong in the box with instructions. A check of the battery compartment revealed batteries which weren't leaking, but it looked like there might have been some leak slightly once before. In general, the console was in good shape. I haven't taken the time to test it yet. This is my first Ultra Pong. Oh, and I paid $5. (It was marked $20.)
The box is in good shape except for the packing tape used once to seal one end. Unfortunately, it appears someone ripped some of it off at one time, leaving a white gash in the front. :-( The instructions would be in good shape if they hadn't been all crumpled up from the console being put in on top of them.
[I posted a followup on 24 May 2007.]
Sorry to follow up on my own post, but it's actually an Atari Ultra Pong Doubles. Unfortunately, it's missing two of the four paddles. But the good news is that it does work. It was kind of odd, though. When I first started testing it, there was no sound. As me and my sons played it, though, the sound started working.
Which leads me off on a tangent. Many "pong" consoles have their own speaker rather than using the televisions. Why is this? Was it really cheaper to include a speaker in the console rather than the circuitry to send both video *and* audio to the television? And how hard is it to convert a "pong" to work directly with modern TVs with separate audio/video inputs?
[J. T. August answered my question.]
"I can go to any electronics surplus store and buy little cone speakers under $1 each. The circuits to produce the audio channel(s) of an r/f signal are several, and have to be soldiered into the r/f circuit, making it noticeably more complicated. So yes, it was easier and cheaper to just include an internal speaker."
14 April 2007
Brag: Turbo board game
[Originally posted to rec.games.video.classic.]
Today was half-price day at the local kids' sale. For those without kids, this is basically a giant consignment sale. A small group rents a space for a month, takes in pre-priced items from contributors, has volunteers help sort them and set up, and so on. The primary seller is kids' clothing, but there are also toys, books, baby items, etc.
Since most items come from parents of kids ages 0-12, it's usually not a hot spot to find classic video game stuff, although often there's some more modern games. Today I scored a 1982 Turbo board game in great shape and complete for $2. I didn't have this one, so it was a nice find.
I also picked up one of those Ms. Pac-Man TV Games by Jakks Pacific for $2. Someone had left the batteries in it until they leaked -- I didn't think these things had been around long enough for that to happen(!) -- but some Q-tips and vinegar took care of that. It works fine. This is the first of the arcade-based TV Games plug-and-plays I've spent any time playing. It's old news, but they did an okay job on it. The controls obviously aren't up to arcade standards, but the games are close enough to the real thing that the differences just nag at you a bit. (As opposed to the whole thing being so obviously something like an NES-on-a-chip that you want to retch.) Rotating the joystick to steer in Pole Position worked better than I thought it would.
It's been a long time. Nice to find something "new" again.
Today was half-price day at the local kids' sale. For those without kids, this is basically a giant consignment sale. A small group rents a space for a month, takes in pre-priced items from contributors, has volunteers help sort them and set up, and so on. The primary seller is kids' clothing, but there are also toys, books, baby items, etc.
Since most items come from parents of kids ages 0-12, it's usually not a hot spot to find classic video game stuff, although often there's some more modern games. Today I scored a 1982 Turbo board game in great shape and complete for $2. I didn't have this one, so it was a nice find.
I also picked up one of those Ms. Pac-Man TV Games by Jakks Pacific for $2. Someone had left the batteries in it until they leaked -- I didn't think these things had been around long enough for that to happen(!) -- but some Q-tips and vinegar took care of that. It works fine. This is the first of the arcade-based TV Games plug-and-plays I've spent any time playing. It's old news, but they did an okay job on it. The controls obviously aren't up to arcade standards, but the games are close enough to the real thing that the differences just nag at you a bit. (As opposed to the whole thing being so obviously something like an NES-on-a-chip that you want to retch.) Rotating the joystick to steer in Pole Position worked better than I thought it would.
It's been a long time. Nice to find something "new" again.
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