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Pie

Sometimes little gifts come your way in life. Maybe its that accidentally perfect cake (when there is no bloody reason it should be great), or your suggestion is actually listened to. Few enough gifts pass our way that we occasionally turn them down. Not so today! For today is the day the Frisbee was first sold.

On this day in 1957, Wham-O (wish I had a company called that) rolled out the first Frisbee flying disc. The Frisbee name was actually a contortion of the name Frisbie, of the Frisbie Pie Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, William Frisbie Prop. His pies came in metal tins with the company’s name stamped into the bottom. Local Teens would toss the tins in the air and eventually got good at tossing them and playing “Frisbie.”

Sometimes around 1950 two entrepreneurs Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni came up with a moulded plastic version with much better aerodynamics called the “Flying Saucer”. I’m liking where this going. The partners split up and Walter Morrison modified it some more and sold the gizmo to Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”. Lord. Anyway, the rest, as they say, is history. Who better than to have the company that brought you the Hula-Hoop, Super Ball and the Water Wiggle. Hmmm. Better that Heinz anyway.

Boy oh boy.

I was going to come up with a doozie of a crappy game as the best of the worst but I got sidetracked. Truth is there were way too many bad games to pick a clear winner. What I did discover though was how many truly odd/unfortunate names for game systems there are out there. I give you my list, in no real order. They are-

APF “TV FUN” from the mid 70’s. An odd little Pong type game console sold mainly in the UK. APF made a really cool home computerish gaming system called the Imagination Machine then too. That was a way better name.

Also out about the same time was Nintendo’s Colour TV Game, Colour TV Game 6 and 15 and Colour TV Game Block Kizushi (what?)You think the marketing department might want to jump in right about now?

That’s OK, because we have the era of the “Boy”. Here goes. TV Boy, TV Boy 2, Super TV Boy,Cougar Boy (aka Mega Duck), Virtual Boy (not sure there), Wide Boy 64 (honest) and of course the actual Game Boy.

This fixation on naming handheld video game rigs boy is curious. Wide Boy 64 was actually an adaptor for their Game Boy to attach it to a TV, never sold to consumers.

Inflammable air, yeah right.

Henry Cavendish, British scientist,born in 1731, discovered hydrogen around 1766. He called it inflammable air. Wonder how he found that out? Anyway, he was not fond of people, particularly women and avoided contact as much as possible. He did attend one social function regularly, Royal Society Club meetings. But apparently he rarely talked to anyone. Fellow scientists eager to hear his latest discoveries were often met with a grunt. His aversion to publicity led to few of his discoveries actually being published. The famous Scottish scientist, James Clerk Maxwell, when looking through Cavendish’s stuff after he died, found unpublished papers on subjects credited to other scientists, most notably Ohm’s Law. One thing he did do and get credit for was an accurate analysis of air. Seems a safer oeuvre than fiddling with hydrogen.

Blah blah blah

The weekends are a time I head out to be with my family, recharge the batteries, catch up as much as possible on the US presidential campaign and dig up the messed up stuff I rant on about on these pages. I never knew that I would be finding so much stuff for the blog. I can’t even keep up anymore.

I promised to show you my return to model building. Think that’s easy to do? I’ve been mired in literally hundreds of choices; remember this is the first one, kinda special, virgin like. I can’t choose wrong, even though I may disappoint ardent modellers in my execution, I have to find just the right kit. The pressure.

But whats got me madder than hell is sorting through the overwhelming pile of really wigged out recluses. There is just too much good stuff. This could be the rest of 2008 alone devoted to men and women who prefer their own company more than anything in the world.

And I’m gearing up to launch Wellboy, yes its evasive and it sounds slightly like a brand of shoe. But me patient, you’ll know soon enough. As a kiss off to computer games, (just for now) I give you my “Oh Christ, what were they thinking” award winner for the screwiest early video game. Even odder than 8 man Tank. Honest. Check in tomorrow. I can’t wait.

Way to go Willie

So, in my daily prowl through the good stuff I often get distracted (you see I usually have a well organized week or two ahead of me where I know whats on slate for the blog and roughly where the good info is). But I will get on another train of thought and just follow it like a dog smelling a good spot to pee. In reality I will use any excuse to see whats around the corner.

Today I’d like to introduce you to my excuse: Willie O’Ree. This amazing man has the distinction of being the first black hockey player in the NHL. Born in Fredericton, New Brunswick he played minor league hockey for the Quebec Aces until being called up by the Boston Bruins to play a game against the mighty Montreal Canadiens. The day was January 18, 1958. The Bruins beat the Habs 3-0. What a way to start your career! He played only 2 games that year but was called up again in 1961 where he stayed for another 43.

1961 was his year in the NHL. He scored 4 goals and had 10 assists. He was a smallish forward,5 foot 10, 175 lbs. Amazingly, when he entered the NHL, he had almost no vision in one eye, the result of stick in the face in 1956. He kept it a secret from his junior team on up to the NHL, and no one new the difference.

Some of these are too good.

I can’t make this stuff up, that’s what is so damnable about history, it has happened, we gotta live with it. Anyway, a LOT of wonderful and odd people were born today so I’ve ripped off a list of my faves:

Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby. Born this day in 1841. He’s hockey’s Stanley Cup guy and for whom Vancouver’s Stanley Park is named. Seems he enjoyed being Canada’s Governor General.

Sonya Krukovsky Kovalevsky, in 1850. Brilliant mind, a mathematician of the highest calibre and author. Shunned by her native academia because she was a woman. She had to marry a man to move OUT of Russia to go to university.

Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger, in 1879. English born stage and film actor. He went from appearing in drag on the British stage to working alongside Boris Karloff and Raymond Massey in such cult hits as the original Ghoul and Bride of Frankenstein. Quite a range.

Goodman Aiskowitz, aka Goodman Ace, in 1899. Known for his dry wit and playful personality. Originally a writer, he moved to radio almost by accident and enjoyed a career that spanned decades as a performer (often with his wife Jane)and as a writer for the best of the Hollywood stars. Jack Benny was a fan of Goodman and in the early years used Goodmans jokes in his act. Notorious for his cheap “persona” Benny would quip how much he had to pay for them. Goodman fired back “”Your check got lots of laughs. If you have any more, send them along.”

Born in 1909, Gene Krupa. Legendary drummer who brought the instrument to the front of the bandstand and pioneered many modern percussion applications.

Martin Luther King Jr, born in 1929. “A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.”

The Odyssey odyssey

With the success of Atari and the arcade wars, Magnavox and its little Odyssey, the odd looking “brown box”, piddled along and got forgotten, victims of poor marketing, clunky hardware, and a good dose of weird. Not to say that Atari / Kee games didn’t have their fair share of oddities.

But Magnavox gave it a go and had a slew of Odysseys, no less than 10 different ones and a wacky Magnavox TV that came with a built in PONG game. The first Odyssey I’ve covered in earlier posts, the brown box, the one with the plastic overlays for the screen . . . .hmmmm. Their next machine, the 100 came out in 1975 and was a very basic machine that played 2 games: Tennis and Hockey. Controls were super simple and score was kept with plastic sliders on the console top. Wow. Cheap. Soon after came the 200 with one more game and partial on screen scoring ( so basic that you might be better to use chalk). But it one upped PONG with its 2 or 4 player option.

Models 300 and 400 came out in 1976 featuring single game chips and advanced onscreen scoring. Seems all the dough was going into displaying the scores. They had the same games as the 200. Each subsequent model was the same machine with one thing added. The 500 was a 400 with one more game, the 2000 the same as 300 and so on. I’m lost.

Only when the 3000 and 4000 came out did things get cool again. They had detachable paddles and true joysticks. Not bad for 1978. In the early 80’s, one of the final versions came out: the Odyssey 2, or Videopac G7000 in Europe, a substantial system that verged on “home computer”. It sold OK in North America, but took of in Europe and South America, then flamed in Japan. Maybe the cheap Japanese language stickers right over the English writing and photocopied manuals didn’t help.

What were they thinking?

Couldn’t resist telling you about who had birthdays today. January 9th was some strange time. The winners are . . . .

1901 Chic Young, Blondie creator. Yes.

1908 Simone de Beauvoir, existentialist feminist.

1913 Richard Nixon. I am not a crook.

and in 1940 Big Al Downing. Who can forget Bobby Poe and Poe Cats?

Tank you

So after reading about Tank and probing the early games I thought I’d see what else Kee Games got up to in the 70’s. From 1974 to 78 they released over a dozen games, at least 3 of them being Tank sequels. It doesn’t get any better than that. Since Kee was actually Atari, the idea was that they would release almost identical games to double the market penetration.

For example Spike came out in 1974 and was their version of Atari’s Rebound, a, you guessed it, volleyball game.

Also in 1974 Kee released Elimination, a four player Pong. Good god.

1974 was a watershed year for them with the release of Formula K and Twin Racer, their version of Atari’s Gran Trak 10 and 20, a racing car game, another early game to use ROM chips.

Tank 2 came out in 1975 as a Kee Game but with clear connection to the Atari brand. Then Tank 3 and so one. The final version in 1978 was called Tank 8 , in colour!!, where up to 8 players could go at it at once. Sounds like the last thing you need in a bar is eight guys crowded around a machine shooting dots on a screen. Check out the screen above. Just add beer and it makes sense. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to locate a picture of what the cabinet actually looked like.