Quarter Past
@quarterpast
Researcher, pre-20th-C videogames (Citations available upon request)
The fledgeling #AT40, now turning three years old, takes out full-page ads in the trades to grow its reach. Please feel free to offer answers to any of these 40 questions below.
July 21, 1973: It’s the summer of Pong! Here’s what you need to know as we head to listen to the #AT40 at the arcade: 🔴 It’s revealed to the Watergate Committee that Nixon made Oval Office tapes 🔴 Bruce Lee just died at age 32 🔴 Alex Trebek made his US game show debut on Wizard of Odds
if you crack that nut please tell me your secrets did see this book recently
July 10, 1971: Within the last week, the world lost Louis Armstrong and Jim Morrison. In a solemn spirit, we’re still headed to the arcade to listen to this week’s #AT40. There are no commercial video games yet. We’ll stick with four-player pinball.
Looked up the bio for Heatwave's bass player and found a little more than expected #AT40
Meat Loaf is an interesting character to try and explain to young people that he did in fact exist and prosper in the music industry #AT40
How do you not fall in love with the guy when he shows up in this shirt? #AT40
Guessing because they were commonly left in the car where they baked to death. Check out this Billboard ad from issue with this #AT40 where they're selling screen printing directly on the cassette to avoid that.
June 24, 1978: The Grease soundtrack will continue until morale improves! Resistance is futile! We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 & play a brand spanking new game: Fire Truck. It’s two players, so you can sit & drive while you make your dorky friend stand up and control the rear!
The release of "Wannabe" is now closer to the release of The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" than today.
June 23, 1979: Doctors confirm the music industry’s diagnosis of stage IV disco. We’re headed to the arcade to listen to the #AT40 and pay respects to the patient. While there, we’ll drop a few coins in the new Space Invaders machine. (They finally got a second one, so the lineup isn’t as long.)
I can’t find this exact schema in the MIT archives, but its predecessor was first published in a report (R-193) dated November 10, 1950. (The plans themselves probably date back to the previous year, as the framework of the computer was started in the spring of 1949.)
Don't believe the hype! Lots of chatter today about how Space Invaders released publicly on this day in 1978—but that's not the case. In the US, the first mention in trade publications didn't occur until late October. The games themselves probably didn't arrive at locations until November.
The television theme songs will continue until morale improves! #AT40
As for video games at the arcade this week, we will of course be huddled around the new Death Race game. The outrage machine hasn’t activated on this one yet (that’s next month) so we’re still running over monsters, or gremlins, or school children or something. It’s up to your imagination. #AT40
June 12, 1976: Experts argued that the music industry couldn’t fall any further. They were wrong! We’re headed to the arcade to listen to this week’s #AT40 — this one contains no fewer than two war crimes & four (4!) TV theme songs! And in just a couple of days, the apogee of American TV debuts: