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Suds, Laser Cannons, and Aliens: Space Invaders Under the Influence [Videogames]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:18:10 +0000

In his third guest installment, the illustrious tech writer Steven Levy explains what it’s like to play arcade Space Invaders while totally shitfaced.

When game historians recall the late ’70s wave of video arcade games, they will correctly identify the major time-wasters, which include Asteroids, Breakout, Missile ~~Defense~~ Command and Space Invaders. (Pong was sort of a brain-damaged predecessor.) But the way it really was, at least in a certain central New Jersey bar, the correct way to describe the arcade video game craze was this way: Space Invaders. Period.

It was like the Beatles of video games. Maybe Space Invaders wasn’t such big news to canonical hackers like those MIT Wizards who played Spacewar on a PDP-1 back in the sixties, but to people for whom computers still meant giant data-processing machines the game was a revelation, something totally different from the physical engagement of a pinball machine, yet icily futuristic. There was also the fact that these weird machines would just appear in a bar one day, without explanation. You’d go out for drinks and there in a dark corner was the future, standing head high in a cheesy enclosure with the monitor just below eye level.

I was hooked, of course, compelled to endure the humiliating learning curve where your laser cannon gets immolated by the relentlessly advancing rows of bug-like creatures. Without access to hints or cheat sheets-no, you couldn’t Google stuff back then-you had to figure out strategy on your own. (Or hang around until someone really good played it, so you could learn his tricks.)

One key aspect of Space Invaders circa 1979: You played it in a bar. This affected game play, strategy and your liver. After playing it for a while, you got into a groove and could ditch your normal thought processes to become an alien-killing machine. Instead of the soundtrack of dread, the cardiac thumping that accompanied the advancing horde would energize you like a Led Zeppelin anthem, as you’d scoot behind the bunkers, wipe out rows of invaders and finally, in the frantic final stages, go into a ruthless, pixel-shredding melee mode. (Not that you knew what a pixel was.) But this Ender-like zone you were entering was counterbalanced by the fact that longer you were in the bar, the drunker you got.

You have to remember that this was new. Space Invaders was the population’s first chance to develop the computer-game chops that are now second nature to a four-year-old. Believe it or not, the heart-stopping mix of bloodlust and panic that sprang up when the “mystery ship” with all its bonus points boogalooed across the top of the screen was a novel experience. (I was about to say that the mystery ship “randomly” appeared but after you played it a long time, you learned exactly when this would happen. Space Invaders might have been a twitchfest, but it was a puzzle as well.)

Should I expound upon the concept that the unforgiving menace of the space aliens tapped subconscious Cold War fears? Nah.

Later on, of course, reasonably faithful simulations of the original appeared first on the Atari 2600 and later on computer software. And now you can play it online, free. But that doesn’t do justice to the original context—where you had one foot in the strange new world of digital simulation and the other foot in beer-soaked sawdust. You just can’t, in this day and age, replicate the feeling when the last murderous wave finally wipes you out and you know that it’s going to cost you another quarter to fight them back.

Steven Levy is a senior writer for Wired, most recently writing about Google’s ad business and the secret of the CIA sculpture. He’s written six books, including Hackers, Artificial Life and The Perfect Thing, about the iPod. In 1979, he had just left his first real job, at a regional magazine called New Jersey Monthly, to become a freelance writer, and had yet to touch a computer.

Gizmodo ‘79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Phreaking the Phones: Before there Was Hacking [Giz 79]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:18:02 +0000

Before there were computer hackers, there were phreakers. And before there were macs, Jobs and Woz kept themselves busy building their own blue boxes (Above) which would emulate precise control tones to seize control of the phone system.

They were inspired by this Esquire article from 1971 called Secrets of the Little Blue Box, by legendary writer and typewriter fetishist Ron Rosenbaum.

Woz’s boxes were simply, by standards of circuitry, but the original creator of the Blue Box, built his with failsafes in mind in case the law got too suspicious.

He sighs. “We had this order for a thousand beeper boxes from a syndicate front man in Las Vegas. They use them to place bets coast to coast, keep lines open for hours, all of which can get expensive if you have to pay. The deal was a thousand blue boxes for $300 apiece. Before then we retailed them for $1,500 apiece, but $300,000 in one lump was hard to turn down. We had a manufacturing deal worked out in the Philippines. Everything ready to go. Anyway, the model I had ready for limited mass production was small enough to fit inside a flip-top Marlboro box. It had flush touch panels for a keyboard, rather than these unsightly buttons sticking out. Looked just like a tiny portable radio. In fact, I had designed it with a tiny transistor receiver to get one AM channel, so in case the law became suspicious the owner could switch on the radio part, start snapping his fingers, and no one could tell anything illegal was going on. I thought of everything for this model – I had it lined with a band of thermite which could be ignited by radio signal from a tiny button transmitter on your belt, so it could be burned to ashes instantly in case of a bust. It was beautiful. A beautiful little machine. You should have seen the faces on these syndicate guys when they came back after trying it out. They’d hold it in their palm like they never wanted to let it go, and they’d say, ‘I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it.’ You probably won’t believe it until you try it.”

[Esquire, Photo of the Blue Box taken at the Computer History Museum]

Brand Keyboard Is a Champion, or Possibly Critic, of Capitalism [Advertising]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:58 +0000

This concept keyboard plays on our love of, or at least interest in, marketing by replacing all the letters with logos of corporations whose name begins with said letter. I seriously just spend five minutes picking them all out.

The idea is that brands are so recognizable that we can exchange them with letters, probably the most recognizable symbols we know. It works, too, if you give it a second, although some of them are tricky (The Rolling Stones is only a corporation in the most cynical of senses). It doesn’t actually exist, but it’s a fun little experiment. [Ignacio Pilotto via Crunchgear]

Palm Mojo SDK for WebOS Now Available to Anyone, App Submissions Start in Fall [Palm]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:52 +0000

Softening the blow that Apple struck yesterday, Palm has released its Mojo SDK for anybody to download. They’ll start taking app submissions for the App Catalog from all developers in the fall.

That’s later than we’d like—the sooner the Pre starts building a robust developer community, the more likely the platform is to thrive—but to be fair, we had to wait a whole year for iPhone apps. In the meantime, they’ve got a trickle of apps that’ll be hitting the App Catalog to keep Pre owners sated (sorta). Coincidentally, Palm’s App Catalog will be launch right around the same time as Window Mobile’s, so we should be in for an app-y fall. [WebOSdev via Palm]

WWDC Demo: Server Admin Remote, a remote server admin tool for iPhone

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:51 +0000

Filed under: WWDC, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac OS X Server

Seems a little redundant, doesn’t it? What else would an app named Server Admin Remote do? Well anyway, if you’re in the market for something to remotely administer your servers (to a point), particularly Mac OS X servers, this is one handy and powerful tool. View logs, enable services, even reboot the server all from your iPhone (or iPod touch). Plus, there’s support for multiple server instances, which you switch between just like in Tweetdeck — a quick swipe left or right does the trick.

Server Admin Remote (iTunes link) is currently $7.99. We’re planning to have a more in-depth look later, so stay tuned.

This concludes our WWDC video series. Thanks to all the developers kind enough to stop by and show what they are doing. Your efforts make Apple’s desktop and mobile platforms truly amazing.

TUAW WWDC Demo: Server Admin Remote, a remote server admin tool for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cheap Trick Releases Newest Album on 8-Track Cassette [Audio]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:47 +0000

How’s this for lucky timing! In the midst of our Gizmodo ‘79 theme week, legendary power-pop act Cheap Trick is releasing their latest album (coincidentally entitled The Latest) on a very late-’70s medium: 8-track cassette.

The retro format is pricier at $30 compared to the digital or CD formats, and not too many people still own 8-track decks (well, except for me), but it’s definitely a collector’s item. You can pre-order it here. [CNET]

Sony KV-1375 “Citation” Is Was the Future of Televisions [Gizmodo 79]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:42 +0000

Huge investments as they were, 1970s TVs were subject to the same kind of bleary-eyed lusting as today’s hottest gadgets. Unlike now, though, cutting-edge features weren’t easily quantifiable. So what was there to drool over, if not specs? Plenty.

First, we had design. No, not an obsession with thinness and flatness, but actual, romantic, aspirational design, which at least appealed to big ideas, even if the results didn’t always match the ambitions. From Sony:

Nicknamed the “CITATION” after a type of jet, it was inspired by imaging a monitor one might find in a jet cockpit. It was also the heyday of woodgrain finishes, which made the CITATION’s plastic-coated case (reassuringly solid from metal underneath) a bold, powerful design.

Yes, this works on me. But I want more! What other features might I find wrapped in the sultry prose of my glossy Sears Roebuck catalog?

In addition to its unique and innovative design, this TV incorporated the Jet Sensor, whereby the user selected channels by gently pressing the control panel buttons. Incorporating newly developed NBM phosphor, which greatly increased the luminous sensitivity of cathode-ray tubes, this TV offered unparalleled picture clarity.

Yes. Awesomely named “Jet Sensor”buttons? Mysterious NBM phospor technology? Increased luminous sensitivity? Unparalelled picture, expressed in vague terms of “clarity?” I’ll take this over refresh rates, response times and screen resolutions any day. [Sony, Sony]

Gizmodo ‘79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

NASA Releases Restored Moon Landing Footage [Space]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:37 +0000

NASA has been working with Lowry Digital in Burbank to restore all of the original tapes from the July 20, 1969 moonwalk, and they just released the first clips of it.

They’re planning to complete the whole thing this fall, but they’re showing off some of the more iconic moments now, such as the first steps on the moon.

The restoration doesn’t bring the quality up to HD or anything, but it’s a definite improvement over the video we’ve been used to seeing for the last 30 years.

[Boing Boing Gadgets]

Apple Patent Puts Flash Storage, Device Settings In Headsets [Apple]

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:32 +0000

Apple’s patent policy—filing for basically any idea that any employee is willing to sketch, ever—gives us an endless supply of speculation grist, some interesting, some not. Take this patent, which calls for flash microstorage in headsets and earbuds.

The patent describes the sharing of device settings, preferences and even media between iPods and iPhones by means of a sort of smart headset, which stores personalizations in a small cache of flash memory. As described, it sounds a bit strange, and its purpose isn’t entirely clear: most of the functions are things that fall under the purview of syncing, which is something that most iPod/iPhone users do regularly anyway, and which they have to do when buying a new device anyway, mooting the “it makes transitioning easier” angle.

But for certain settings, it makes some sense: volume and EQ settings, for example, could be kept the same between devices, ensuring a uniform listening experience. It’d be a teeny, tiny feature that most people wouldn’t notice, but it’s far from implausible. [Unwired View]

OpenFeint drops dev fees as Chillingo announces social gaming network Crystal SDK

admin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:17:31 +0000

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Freeware, iPhone, SDK, iPod touch

The social gaming market on the iPhone has taken two sharp turns recently. First up, right after announcing that their system hit a full million users, OpenFeint announced that their social gaming platform has gone completely free for developers. Originally, the SDK was free to download, and then there was a small cost-per-user fee for developers, but with this new change, that cost is gone, and OpenFeint will now make all of their money, as we were told by Peter Relan, from referring users to other games and in-app purchases, and then taking that cut from Apple.

The popular publisher Chillingo has also announced a newcomer to the social gaming scene: they’re planning to introduce another system called Crystal SDK, that will presumably both be free to all developers, and automatically included in most of Chillingo’s games. Their release specifically tells us that “Crystal is iPhone’s answer to Microsoft’s Xbox Live,” so they’re officially throwing their hat in an already crowded ring.

With a million users, OpenFeint is still the biggest network going, but obviously Chillingo believes there’s still many more to pick up. Should be interesting to see, as always, what users decide to do.

TUAW OpenFeint drops dev fees as Chillingo announces social gaming network Crystal SDK originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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★ Technology News | TechCrown News

Suds, Laser Cannons, and Aliens: Space Invaders Under the Influence [Videogames]

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Phreaking the Phones: Before there Was Hacking [Giz 79]

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Brand Keyboard Is a Champion, or Possibly Critic, of Capitalism [Advertising]

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Palm Mojo SDK for WebOS Now Available to Anyone, App Submissions Start in Fall [Palm]

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WWDC Demo: Server Admin Remote, a remote server admin tool for iPhone

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Cheap Trick Releases Newest Album on 8-Track Cassette [Audio]

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