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- clok1966
Ultraman vs. Odyssey
Okay, for those of you who didn't read my last entry (and who could blame you?) this blog is about pretending it isn't 2007. We're using our imaginations and pretending that it is 1972.
Technically, this isn't an historically-themed blog. See, because I'm going to try to write about the games from the perspective of the year they were released, it's more of an exercise in drooling self-delusion (Play along at home, kids!). We're going to treat these games as if we, meaning you and I, are seeing them for the first time. Most importantly, we haven't seen anything created after them.
For instance, Haunted House for the Magnavox Odyssey is the gosh-darned best graphical adventure game I've ever seen in my life for a home videogame system! This is an indisputable fact because we're in 1972 and we've never seen anything that post dates it. Okay? If you can stay in character for the comments section, that will be fun, too, but isn't required, (especially since I'm playing in someone else's site).
I'm also going to start by keeping my initial line of investigation school-yard simple:
Ultraman vs. Odyssey, who would cream whom in a fight?
Let's say that each day between school and dinner in fall of 1972, you have about a half-an-hour of TV time during which you may either watch Ultraman or play your brand spanking new Odyssey. Now, you love Ultraman! BUT, you are fascinated by this new TV manipulating toy called the Odyssey! What do you do?
(For you English teachers out there, I'm writing in "second person presumptuous" voice. Yes, I'm presuming that you really feel what I say you feel. Right, it's part of my charm. Go figure.)
Obviously, the day you get your Odyssey, you're going to use that half-hour to try to play it.
Screw Ultraman, you can watch that Nihon-jin sixties has-been tomorrow, if you still even feel like watching rubber suited grown-ups romp around on miniature landscapes. To you, at this stage in the world's evolution, from your perspective, here in 1972, the Odyssey IS the next necessary step on mankind's road to 3-D Smellivision. Either that, or it will be completely ungroovy and you'll go back to watching Ultraman again, real soon.
Anyway, next entry I'll talk about Table Tennis for the Odyssey by Magnavox.
Comments
>For instance, Haunted House for the Magnavox Odyssey is the gosh-darned best graphical adventure game I've ever seen in my life for a home videogame system! This is an indisputable fact because we're in 1972 and we've never seen anything that post dates it. Okay? If you can stay in character for the comments section, that will be fun, too, but isn't required, (especially since I'm playing in someone else's site).
How old were you in 1972?
I turned 5 in 1972 and I remember playing PONG that year. Alas we didn't have an Odyssey so I don't remember that. I do remember watching Ultraman (channel 17, 4:30, in Philadelphia, PA) that year. Some people play videogames for nostalgia. I'm playing them because I didn't get a chance to when a lot of them first came out.
So remember, this is self-delusion on two scales. 1) I'm time traveling to 1972, so I can play videogames as a fairly reasonable, if emotionally disturbed, adult; and 2) I haven't played any videogames, ever. So, I can't compare, say, Football on the Odyssey to any Football game that happens to come out in the years after 1972. I can compare Odyssey Football to, you know, real life Football, the kind with an actual ball that I hear that people play outside. I also might be able to compare it to one of those board games that you put little magnetic football players on and hit a switch and the whole thing shakes and moves the little players around. I can't compare it to Football 1995 because it doesn't exist yet. To do so would, I don't know, rip a hole in Spacetime(tm) or create a paradox or something. I hate temporal mechanics.
It's an angle. An exercise I'm using to try to simulate the experience as it might have been back when no one had seen these things. Kind of like an historical park you go to where all the employees walk around pretending to be people from the 17th century while you wear a baseball hat and take pictures of them.
I probably read more into your question than was necessary. You may have only wanted to know how old I was in 1972, so, I turned 5. yup. 5.
It's an angle. An exercise I'm using to try to simulate the experience as it might have been back when no one had seen these things. Kind of like an historical park you go to where all the employees walk around pretending to be people from the 17th century while you wear a baseball hat and take pictures of them.
I probably read more into your question than was necessary. You may have only wanted to know how old I was in 1972, so, I turned 5. yup. 5.
Me? Four. Practically the same, then.
And my point?
Do you really expect some serious discussions between a four and a five year "old" videogame expert? So, thanks for your extensive answer, regard this aspect ;-)
Completely ignoring the fact the my first videogame was a generic Pong variant (in color, though) at the wise, ripened age of eight...
Regarding Ultraman - I still don't know this series but I could've compared Pong to the only American TV show that I knew at the time: Star Trek.
Well, Star Trek wins against Pong. No doubt.
And maybe even against the Vic-20 which a friend had some years later (my first real computer experience).
But not against *my* first computers (ZX-81 and Atari 400) ;-)
bye
Calibrator
Well, Star Trek wins against Pong. No doubt.
And maybe even against the Vic-20 which a friend had some years later (my first real computer experience).
Considering William Shatner was the spokesperson for Commodore and the Vic-20, that might be a bit more of a fight than you might think!
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
======================================
Considering William Shatner was the spokesperson for Commodore and the Vic-20, that might be a bit more of a fight than you might think!
He he!
Of course I never saw the Shatner commercials for the Vic-20 at the time - I'm pretty sure that they weren't on air in Germany (I may err on that, though).
When I got my Atari 400 I saw some printed ads with Alan Alda (practically unknown in Germany) who promoted the Atari line as "serious home computers".
I didn't think too much about it as a 13 or 14 year old but I guess they wanted to spend the money on more important things...
Still - the thought of Shatner, one of my youth heroes, shamelessly promoting the Vic-20 with such lines as "Invest in the wonder computer of the 1980ies for under $300" is pretty hilarious today ;-)
bye
Calibrator
There's actually a little coverage in the upcoming book from me and Matt about the "spokesperson" boom of the early 80's. Commodore had Shatner, Tomy had Sarah Purcell, Atari had Alan Alda, Tandy/Radio Shack had Isaac Asmiov and Bill Bixby, Texas Instruments had Bill Cosby, Mattel had George Plimpton, etc., not to mention more generically "The Little Tramp" for IBM and "The Wizard of Odyssey" for the Odyssey2. I think back then these companies were probably worried that the average consumer wouldn't know WHY they would need one of these devices, so they believed they needed a well-known personality to show that, hey, these things are a-OK.
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
======================================
Do you really expect some serious discussions between a four and a five year "old" videogame expert?
Oh! LOL, I see. Yeah, trying to maintain the persona of whatever age we were in 1972 would be exhausting, particularly for those not born yet. Heck, it's hard enough just trying to write like I've never seen another videogame before. I'll often break my "prime directive", so to speak, and pollute the timestream with reference to later games, but I try to avoid doing so whenever possible. So, to try to restate: we're pretending we're back in 1972 at whatever phyical age we are right now, playing videogames as if we'd never seen any videogames made after the one we're playing now. Also, it should be noted that this is not the Sam Beckett class of time travel, a.k.a. Quantum Leap where you can't leap back to a time before you were born and you need to have the transplanted brain cells of your friend so that he can holographically talk you through archaic things like system installations and tech support.
So, anyone born after 1972, you can still play along by pretending you've gone back to 1972 and lots of videogame specific information has been erased from your brain.
Ah, if only we had a paid staff. What a great idea for a post--the personalities that sold us on computers. I always thought Bill Cosby was the oddest choice of all. I guess that Texas Instruments was trying to find the least "techie" type person they could to sell the line, while smarter companies went for figures with "nerd" value (Shatner, Asimov). I always thought the "Lil' Tramp" campaign was a bit daft, too, but at least that was some connection (the "Modern Times" movie). What M*A*S*H has to do with computers, I'll never know.
They should have gotten Mr. Wizard!
Ah, if only we had a paid staff. What a great idea for a post--the personalities that sold us on computers. I always thought Bill Cosby was the oddest choice of all."
Yeah - I guess they should have taken Bob Hope! ;-)
I guess that Texas Instruments was trying to find the least "techie" type person they could to sell the line, while smarter companies went for figures with "nerd" value (Shatner, Asimov). I always thought the "Lil' Tramp" campaign was a bit daft, too, but at least that was some connection (the "Modern Times" movie).
But the movie isn't necessarily "pro-modern", isn't it?
What M*A*S*H has to do with computers, I'll never know.
They should have gotten Mr. Wizard!
Who's that?
bye
Calibrator
Don Herbert is "Mr. Wizard". He had a series of science shows in the 60's and 70's where he would have children perform the experiments he would describe/assist them with. Fun stuff. He gained more noteriety in the early 80's with a series of science shorts on the Nickelodeon television network based on the same format back when that network was very different from what it is today. Actually, not too long ago, as part of a retro science revival, The Science Channel re-ran some of the original full length black and white shows of Mr. Wizard, not the color, newer Nickelodeon shorts. Mr. Wizard himself could be alternately friendly/playful and short/brash. Interesting mix.
And to answer, Matt, I think the choice of Bill Cosby and Alan Alda were fine, since these companies wanted friendly personas/personalities to hawk their products. They were two beloved icons. I actually have great respect for Alan Alda post MASH, as I'm a huge fan of Scientific American on public television...
======================================
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
(A PC Magazine Top 100 Website)
======================================