In December of 1996, I was a skinny, optimistic high school junior, ready to take on the world! I kept one of my high school papers because I wrote a front page article and I'm a packrat. Little did I know that 17 years later, it would serve as a perfect time capsule for some of the technology of the day.
Check out the video below for a journey into the ridiculous TVs, CD players, and phones of the past!
Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my latest Yeah They Still Work (YTSW) video on cassette tapes. Many people asked to see my collection, so here are some pics!
The motherload. Not as organized as usual, but the tapes go two levels deep.
i always labeled my mixtapes with a number. I added the date for later ones. Here's close to the end of my mixtape era in 1999.
I also labeled the backs with Title and Artist. if I didn't know, I just guessed
I also had plenty of store bought tapes ... Don't Be Cruuuueeelll
I always loved the font choices for album covers. This one is particularly fancy, especially given Bobby Brown's content
I'm a huge fan of liner notes, and I miss them from most digital downloads.
Do you still have your cassette tapes? I grew up in a family of DJs so I was surrounded by vinyl records and cassette tapes. In fact, I didn't switch over to CDs until the late 90s. I still have a subset of my favorite tapes even though the majority of my music is now digital.
Check out YTSW 1 on the minidisc (post and video) and YTSW 2 on the Double Dribble Tiger handheld (post and video)
This is a continuation of a series involving my old gadgets that are still ticking. Please check out my previous post on Minidiscs.
Before I got my Gameboy via the Sunshine Sales Club in late 1989, my portable gaming needs were served by Tiger Electronics. There were enough beeps and hoops from these machines to keep me entertained. They were usually based off of full fledged arcade and NES games such as ... Double Dribble.
When you turn on the game, you don't get the "Dubble Dibble" voice from the NES version. Voices are a far cry away, as the technology behind Tiger games is even more basic than the Atari 2600 from the late 70s / early 80s (my first game system). The gaming experience consists of a screen with a few predetermined sections that light up in response to player movement on the control pad and one, huge button. The sections are pre-drawn player graphics for the offense and defense. There are only two sounds - a "tick" for moving / dribbling / shooting, and a referee type whistle for scoring.
The game is tough. The CPU will immediately steal the movie if you stay still for a second. You have to consistently move and hope that the random number generator blesses you and counts your shot as good. It makes for a intense game that surprisingly makes me feel like I'm competing in an actual sport.
IIt kept my 9 year old mind occupied. And it was fun. Definitely my favorite of my Tiger games, besting others that have log since died like Double Dragon, Karnov, and Altered Beast. Those games proved to be too ambitious for a Tiger handheld. Simple sports games work best.
