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Space Invaders Under the Influence
The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
The Quiet Cult of the Olympia Report deLuxe Electric Typewriter

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strider_mt2k
07/16/09

In reply to Space Invaders Under the Influence
I remember this one and "Rally X" to the beat of Chicago and Jim Croce at the local pub.

My mom would take us there for dinner because we could walk through the woods to get there.

The Shadyside Inn, if it's still there.

The burgers were always great.

Good times.
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Edited by strider_mt2k at 07/16/09 11:49 AM strider_mt2k was starred strider_mt2k was unstarred

Maori_Yelir
07/16/09

In reply to Space Invaders Under the Influence
Great article. Even people of my age (23) who never got the chance to experience the arcade boom have plenty of adolescent years with the NES or SNES. Going from crude to eeriely real seems like the natural progression.

It makes me wonder if kids are getting screwed by not having to work their way up from NES Mario to Halo 3. Then again maybe they are just going to be agile killing machines because all they know is doulbe-joysticked-shoot-em-in-the-head... action.

Still, when I think back to beating Kirby for the first time it just doesn't compare to beating any of the games that come out now.
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Edited by Maori_Yelir at 07/16/09 11:37 AM Maori_Yelir was starred Maori_Yelir was unstarred

vqro
07/16/09

In reply to Space Invaders Under the Influence
Man, I was bad at this game. All those extraterrestials reproducing, shifting, coming down upon me! Aaaah, the terror!
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tande04
07/16/09

In reply to Space Invaders Under the Influence
"Watch, as I fire upwards through our own shields"
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ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNO-TOAD
07/16/09

@tande04: You know when you have an insane craving for something, but you can't get it? I'm sitting here at work, testing ghost images, and I have such an urge to watch futurama.
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Xeno
07/16/09

@tande04: "He's a madman! A madman!"
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Identity (Metric)
07/17/09

@tande04 mile island in the sun: and @Xeno: Awesome. Btw, X, your avatar is always making me chuckle always. Just like when I found out a guy in my class could do a perfect Dr. Zoidberg.
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OMG! Ponies!
07/16/09

In reply to Space Invaders Under the Influence
And so, through a haze of Marlboro Light smoke, "Physical Graffiti", and Schlitz beer was the strategy of shooting through one's shield conceived.
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Bigbadbikernerd
07/16/09

@OMG! Toesies on the Nosies!: Actually a study that I made up shows that this is the way MOST strategies are conceived (as well as several children).
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notsofresh
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
What was that thing that used to happen-- when you'd just let a cassette run on auto-reverse over and over and the tape would get so tightly wound on the spools that it wouldn't play anymore? You'd have to "unwind" it once with a pencil, all the way through, to get it to work? Right?

Did this really happen, or am I manufacturing 80s memories again?
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reddingofish
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
I rarely bought music on a cassette. I always bought the record and put it on cassette while I was playing it for the first time. Then I would listen to the cassette most often because records would degrade every time you played it and the cassette was expendable.

I also had an 8 track player in my 69 Volvo. I had a Blondie's Greatest Hits and Squeeze's East Side story. I wanted one of those 8 Track adapters that you could stick a cassette inside and play it on your 8 track but they were expensive and I was poor.
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Bigbadbikernerd
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
My first vehicle had a Pioneer-Craig 8 track in it. I even got the cassette adapter for it so I could listen to the new fangled cassettes. Talk about a tape eater...
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OMG! Ponies!
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler

I still use (micro) cassette tapes on a daily basis. When you need to do dictation, it's a proven technology.
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32ndnote
07/15/09

@OMG! Ponies!: Micro works great for personal use, but why not use the trusty ol' phone to record things?
More importantly, I love the mouse in this picture. The world needs more trackballs.
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OMG! Ponies!
07/15/09

@32ndnote: That is my dictaphone (though not a Dictaphone brand recorder). This is actually easier to use than a full Dictaphone machine which is bulky and clacky.

And the trackball is my Microsoft optical trackball that I've had for over a decade. I brought it from home and keep the company-issue mouse in a drawer.
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Ehrich Blackhound
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
Who remembers Cassingles?! Or the maxi-single with like three or four barely-different remixes/version of the same song... Like the dreaded "acapella" version...
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92BuickLeSabre
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
The headboard of my childhood bedroom is still essentially stacks and stacks of recorded cassettes.

The two great challenges:

1) Deciding which two albums best belonged on opposite sides of a cassette. Prince, Under the Cherry Moon didn't really belong with The Black Album. Maybe with Sinead's Nothing Compares to U? Poison doesn't work with G'N'R after all. Maybe with that crappy David Lee Roth solo album? And hey, War works well with CSNY after all.

2) Trying to use my multi-colored sharpies to best re-create the album cover on the spine. I believe I spent all of my artistic capital (in life) on those little thin white glossy paper, bent back, spines.
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SinisterBill prints in color on both sides
07/15/09

@92BuickLeSabre: You cannot possibly mean Eat em' and Smile as that crappy DLR solo album! That tour was my first concert!

You remember everyone saying Van Halen was going to die without Roth, then 5150 comes out and everyone was like, Dave who?

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strider_mt2k
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
Don't forget splicing them back together!

Radio Shack doesn't sell them anymore, bit i still have a splicing block...somehwere.

-probably next to the re-winder and the tape head demagnetizer!
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FriarNurgle
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
Anyone remember requesting songs on the radio just to sit on the edge of your seat waiting with anticipation to slam down the play and record buttons. Those were the days
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twitzgall
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
I don't think that link shows every blank tape ever...
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Wilson Rothman
07/15/09

@twitzgall: Did you play with the controls up top? It's a sortable database of tape images. The home screen doesn't show every tape—you have to mess with it.
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NurseDave
07/15/09

In reply to The Blank Generation: 1979 as Audio Cassette Enabler
I'm guessing someone at Giz got laid for the first time in 1979?
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Edited by NurseDave at 07/15/09 11:07 AM NurseDave was starred NurseDave was unstarred

rDub
07/15/09

@NurseDave: I was under the impression that most of the Giz dudes were in there 30s or younger ... that makes getting laid in 79 impressive or scary depending on how you want to look at it.
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92BuickLeSabre
07/15/09

@rDub: This piece was written by Steven Levy of Wired.

He was 28 in 1979. Which would also be impressive or scary, depending on how you want to look at it.
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rDub
07/15/09

@92BuickLeSabre: Thanks for the heads up ...
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