Tales from the Old School

Two very cool peeks into the fascinating days of the 80s and 90s games industry.

First, a half hour documentary about Ocean and Imagine games circa the early 80s. The boom and bust stuff is so over the top that it couldn't even be scripted. An absolutely amazing look into the world of the early UK development scene and gaming culture.

Secondly, listen to episode 91 of the 1up podcast Retronauts. It's a round table interview of developers from Tengen. It's a great conversation about NES development that goes into everything from unreleased games to Sega Technical Institute to how these guys are starting to find a place again in the age of Flash and iPhone development. Pretty awesome stuff.

The Robots of George Beker

As a kid with and interest in designing games, I would pore over BASIC code copying and pasting and remixing things into my own weirdo designs (which I still basically do.  I should really learn a proper language someday) .  In a a few of the programming books, there were wonderful, lively illustrations by George Beker.  Beker took the metaphor of a computer playing a game to it's logical end, an drew robots engaged in simulated activities.  The drawings are a lot of fun and remind me a little bit of the dozens of robot jokes from Futurama.  I wouldn't be surprised if the very nerdy writing staff of that show might have taken some inspiration from Beker's doodles.  Here are some of my favorites:

The Unbridled Enthusiasm of 1980's era Caucasian Youth

They're fruit snacks...to go

Some of Link and Mario

Boogie Boogie to the sound

C'mon, baby, let's get down

Face

Jammin all over the place

Keep it movin'

Don't be late

Yeah, baby, work it out

C'mon, ya'll, twist and shout

Talkin' about those fruit snacks

They come in bright packs

So we like 'em like that

And I'll bring some back

Chorus:

Super Mario (Real Fruit Snacks)

Nintendo (Fruit Snacks to go go)

Super Mario (Real Fruit Snacks)

Nintendo (With characters of Nintendo)

Super Mario (Real Fruit Snacks)

Nintendo (Let your fingers snap)

Super Mario (Real Fruit Snacks)

Nintendo (While you do the Mario rap)

Princess Toadstool is my friend

So sing along to the end

Dance Dance Dance to the beat

Move my body in my seat

Party all day and night

Make it loose

Keep it tight

Like 1 2 3

Or Mario, Toad, and Luigi

Do your dance

Dancing machine

Don't be dirty

Keep it clean

Move to the east...and west

Shake your body and nothing less

Chorus

Move quick around the land

Everybody just clap your hands

Party with me...and Shyguy

C'mon try try try

Princess Zelda, sing your song

Cause Link won't be long

Listen to the words...I say

There's gonna be a brighter day

Yeah Yeah Yeah

Keep it movin'

Now you're jammin'

And I'm groovin'

If I try really hard

Maybe I might be a star

Chorus x 2