1983
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Rare Atari 2600 game, Red Sea Crossing, pops up in Philly shop
Red Sea Crossing is one of the rarest Atari games in existence. According to legend, the developer, Steve Schustack, made 100 copies in 1983 and promptly lost track of where they went or what happened to them. Until now, there was just one known, unauthenticated copy of the game on this planet, and after years of hoarding it the owner recently decided to auction it off on Ebay, on August 22.Yesterday, another copy of Red Sea Crossing turned up at Medium Bob's Curiosity Shop in Philadelphia. The boys at Medium Bob's have since recorded themselves playing the game, providing proof of its functionality, which is more than the owner of the original copy has done. The owner of the first copy has since postponed his auction and made offerings to the drama llama over on the AtariAge forums.Medium Bob's is accepting offers on its copy of Red Sea Crossing, but doesn't yet have a plan for proceeding with the sale. It will post details on its Facebook page once it decides a course of action, but for now "the game is buried deep in a vault somewhere near the Earth's core."
Found Footage: The Macintosh Software Dating Game (1983)
In 1983, Apple was trying to get software developers excited about the new Mac platform and a new way of working with computers. The YouTube video below shows highlights of an Apple event in which Steve Jobs plays the part of The Dating Game host Jim Lange, asking questions about software development to three bachelors software magnates -- Fred Gibbons of Software Publishing Company, Mitch Kapor of Lotus Development, and some guy named Bill Gates from Microsoft.Of those three software giants, only Microsoft has really survived into the 21st Century. Software Publishing Company left the PC scene in 1994 and Lotus was assimilated into the corporate body of IBM. The video has edited out most of the bits with Gibbons and Kapor, so you get to hear Bill Gates gush about how wonderful the Mac platform is and how Microsoft in 1983 honestly expected Macintosh software to account for one-half of their revenue. It's a weird little video, and very indicative of the type of PR stunts that were popular in the early days of the digital revolution. Enjoy!Tipped by a tweet from Dennis
WarGames returns to theaters via digital distribution & projection network
The Metropolitan Opera has enjoyed success through digital distribution in HD to move theaters, so of course our next pick for the Digital Broadcast Network is...Wargames? Thanks to the reduced cost of beaming the movie via satellite, National Cinemedia is giving the 1983 flick a one night only return in 300-plus theaters ahead of the 25 anniversary DVD release. This isn't the only movie enjoying the benefits of the technology, and seeing old movies on the big screen is a fine job for HD. However with great power comes great responsibility and we ask that it should be reserved for true classics of American cinema, like Top Gun, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Goonies, Labyrinth. We're not sure WarGames makes the cut.[Via Pop Machine]
1983 Apple T-Shirts
The Mothership!, a Mac site "dedicated to the preservation of Apple computer history," has come across a catalog picture of a quirky piece of Apple schwag hailing from 1983. Surely, even back then it is apparent that Apple covered all the bases, offering colors, styles and sizes for the entire Apple-obsessed family.While I'm glad Apple's branding and marketing have come quite a ways since 1983, I still wish they'd offer some kind of catalog to score schwag like this. Aside from the schwag that Laurie picked up for me when TUAW made the trip to this year's Macworld, how else am I supposed to get my fix?[via digg]
