Old-School Gazette: Your source for the "latest" in technology and entertainment.
Friday, October 22, 1982.
Technology
Big week for Japan as the Japan Microcomputer Show saw the unveiling of a number of new consumer electronics, some of which may make their way to the United States.
Canon introduced the Canon X-07 Handy Personal Computer, a portable computer with a Z80-compatible processor and a display that can show 4 lines that are 20 characters long. The machine runs a BASIC interpreter, but the keyboard is too small for adult touch-typists. A company called dB-SOFT has released casettes for the X-07 containing both business software and games. The machine is being released in Japan for the equivalent of $445.
Another portable computer shown was the Casio-FP 200, which has a full-sized keyboard. The display has eight lines with twenty characters each. In addition to BASIC, the FP-200 has another programming language called "Casio's Easy Table Language", which is said to be more like Visicalc than a normal language. Unfortunately, the software is otherwise lacking, as there is no text editor. The machine is selling in Japan for the equivalent of $300.
Video Games
Universal has released the "Mr. Do" arcade cabinet, though technically what was released was a conversion kit for other arcade cabinets. The game is very similar to Dig Dug in appearance. The purpose of the game is to collect all the cherries on the screen with the circus clown avatar, the titular Mr. Do, while avoiding enemies, called "creeps". The player can also defeat enemies by dropping large apples on their heads or using a weapon against them, a "power ball". The player can furthermore create tunnels through the ground. Enemies cannot dig tunnels, but they will aggressively follow the player into the tunnels that already exist.
For home gaming, Atari has released for its Atari 2600 console a new game called "Swordquest: Earthworld." This is the first in an ambitious series of games that will become the "Swordquest" series, the other games being "Fireworld," "Waterworld", and "Airworld". Each game will come with a comic book that explains the plot of the game and will be part of a larger contest. Anybody that believes that have solved the riddle of any of the games may mail in the solution to Atari, and if he or she is the first with the solution, there will be a fantasy-themed prize worth approximately $25,000. All four of the individual winners will then be taken to Atari headquarters where they will all compete for a fourth prize.
Film
On October 16th, "Android" was released into theaters. The film is a science-fiction drama about a man far from earth that lives with an android and is creating another prototype android under illegal circumstances. Focus is given to the development of the personality of the androids and their relationship to humans.
Released today was "First Blood", starring Sylvester Stallone of "Rocky" fame. Stallone plays a Vietnam veteran named John Rambo who has a conflict with corrupt law enforcement. Rambo uses tactics seemingly learned from the Viet Cong to fight while greatly outnumbered.
Also released today was the third in the "Halloween" horror series, "Halloween III: Season of the Witch". Interestingly, this movie does not feature the series' antagonist, Michael Myers. It instead explores a horror story that contains both science fiction and witchcraft.
Television
On Tuesday, October 12, Cindy Williams made her final appearance as Shirley in "Laverne and Shirley". The series will continue, however, with just Penny Marshall as Laverne.
Today saw the final appearance of Susan Stafford from Wheel of Fortune. She is to be replaced by one Vanna White.
Sources, all of which are awesome and worth exploring independently:
http://kpolsson.com/comphist/comp1982jul.htm
https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-09/page/n259/mode/2up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_in_video_games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Do!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_BBQWed8Vk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_in_film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Ywpis2gkI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Blood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_III:_Season_of_the_Witch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_in_American_television
This was supposed to be out over a week ago, but things have been nuts for me lately!
This is a not-quite-official announcement of the Discord server I just created. Completely free. Don't need to be a supporter on Locals. Don't even need to be a member.
It's definitely not a secret that this community hasn't been active since Matt Hartley hasn't been involved. I think there are a few reasons why (one being that I had a lot less time to devote to it than I realized), and I think that making a completely free alternative would help, and I unfortunately don't think I can do that on Locals! You have to pay if you want to post. Discord should be free (unless I did it wrong).
Feel free to come join! It's still kind of experimental at this point, and I don't know how well I'll handle content moderation, which will probably be the biggest challenge.
