However, we do enjoy quite a few shows that are not on over the air broadcast television.  What to do.

Well, actually, there’s plenty of options out there. Since we would keep the Comcast High Speed internet service, we had one major option.  Internet TV.  Dad’s are another.  But, I don’t want to buy a bunch of DVD’s, especially for things like Diner’s, Drive In’s and Dives.

I started looking at the various set top boxes (didn’t want to put a computer on every television in the house.) I immediately ruled out Apple’s Apple TV device, even though I am a fan of the device.  I pretty much forces you to buy TV shows through iTunes. Of course, it does have Netflix, but so does the Wii.  Big deal.

Western Digital has a nifty device, but it is mostly a ‘bring it yourself’ type of device where you supply the content.

Boxee Box, while fitting the bill, was just too costly. At nearly $180, I didn’t think it was really worth the money, considering you have to pay for many of the services (like Netflix and Hulu Plus) anyway.

Enter Roku.  Roku sells several boxes, ranging from $49 to $99.  The box I settled on was $79.  The tiny little box has composite and HDMI video and audio outputs. And packs a punch.  It is just slightly smaller than the Apple TV and has a somewhat more sophisticated remote control. 

Setup was spotty. No, actually, it was a pain in the ass.  Physical setup was a snap: plug in the cables and that’s it. No, the software setup was a pain. You NEED a credit card or PayPal just to activate the damn thing. While you don’t get charged, they do check the validity of the card. Without this vital step, you bought yourself a tiny little brick.

Once activated and your Roku account is all set, you can add channels to the device. This part was somewhat easier, but, as with anything, your mileage may vary.  Most of the channels will require some kind of payment, but they are worth the nickel and diming you will get. There are also apps available, though most are games.  And, some of those games require Roku TV game remote.

There are, literally, hundreds of channels to add. Some free, some free to add and others are paid channels. You have to be careful, some of them say they free, but, they are not. Some are free to add and then invoke a use tax, so to speak, saying that the preview channel is set to expire and you need to pony up the money to keep on trucking.

Most of the channel want you to ‘tie’ the channel to your device. You are given a URL on the ROKU, you go to the computer and type the URL in and, viola! You’ve got programming.

The quality of the video will, of course, vary with the source, but, when true HD video is playing, man…you realize just how good you have it.  Audio quality was hard to tell as we are using the television’s built in speakers.  Overall, it sounded great.

At $79, the device is well worth the money. I don’t know that I would buy the more expensive version as the only apparent difference is the remote.

Our experiment with cutting the cord is off to a strong start.The different service on the Roku make it easier to do this, but time will tell.  Now, we need some kind of DVR and then life would truly be great.

Unfortunately, Android is the predominate mobile operating system. Android is one of the biggest turkeys unleashed in the last century.  This operating system is not only fragmented beyond belief, it is slow, unreliable and built upon Linux-a major drawback. Linux is a desktop operating system and that is where it should stay.  Even my favorite mobile OS, webOS, is built on the turd that is Linux.

So, what to get.  My choices were limited. Yes, I could spend a hundred bucks and get another Pandigital or something even worse, like the Maylong. I didn’t want to do that. I took a look at the Nook Color and the Kindle Fire and a couple of other tablets like the Acer Iconia (which is really nice, but more than I wanted to pay) and the Motorola Xoom.  Ultimately, I selected the Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire is a 7 inch tablet running some flavor of Android that has been wrapped up in Amazon’s nice user interface.  Amazon has done a nice job covering up the goop that is Android’s native look and feel.  And, good thing too. The native look and feel is disjointed and very inconsistent. It is worse than the old Macintosh OS or Windows 2.1. And that’s saying something.

The Fire contains 8gigs of storage, of which about 6 is free for your use.  But, there’s a gotcha: only about 2 gigs are available for apps.  The rest is devoted to content. This was a mistake that Palm made with the early releases of webOS. However, apps are pretty small, so this should not be an issue for most people

The device looks a lot like the RIM Playbook.  Indeed, they were both built by the same company and probably share the same innards as well.  The Fire lacks an SD card slot and an HDMI connector.  The only connectors it has are for the earphone jack and a USB connector for power and to transfer files.

The Fire is rather speedy and the animations are smooth.  Wi-Fi performance is good, with 802.11n connectivity (it will also do b and g.)  Battery life is great, just shy of the iPad at about 8 and a half hours, depending on your use.

Whispersync is there, though the device is Wi-Fi only.  After I registered the device, all of the material I had purchased for my first gen Kindle appeared on my bookshelf. Tapping a book initiated a quick download and off I went.  Even the magazine I subscribed to showed up. One also gets 10gb of Amazon storage, so anything you buy through Amazon is available in the cloud as well.

Navigation is very intuitive and easy to use.  In fact, no printed manual was included. An e-version is included, but you don’t need it. Amazon’s UI is super easy to navigate.

My big complaints come from the use of Android and not so much the hardware, which is pretty nice. No, the operating system is where the Kindle Fire falls flat. Android still needs to mature, but the version on the Fire is adequate for what it is used for.  The included Facebook ‘app’ is not really an app, it is more like the mobile Facebook site wrapped up the browser.

All in all, the Kindle Fire is well worth the $200 it cost and even more so if you already had a Kindle and lots of content.

It certainly LOOKS much nicer than the first gen Kindle that I own, which looks more like a wedge of cheese than a high tech e-Reader.  Still, at least that original Kindle had a secondary use: a door jam.

Call of Duty has endured and, through time, has had many great and not so great games.  Recent editions, however, have sort of staled. Oh, there are minor differences and a few enhancements in the last two games.  Unfortunately, Activision didn’t actually develop them. It’s subsidiary Infinity Ward did Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 and parts of Modern Warfare 3.  Black Ops was done, mostly, by Treyarch. Try as you may, though, the games suffer from a sameness that Activision seems to want to acknowledge and set right.

The answer is Elite.  Elite is a service that started with MW3 that provides, among other things, enhanced stat tracking, and the ability to look at said stats from a multitude of devices.  Elite has a free and a paid version.  The paid version, which costs fifty dollars (US) give additional perks like clan management and a ‘season of exclusive downloadable content’ such as map packs. They promise nine months of the DLC.  Elite members get the DLC weeks or months before ‘normal’ users.  Most map packs are in the $15 range and they said three to four such packs would be released, so $50 seems like a good deal. Right?

Not so fast.

If only one person in your household plays the game, then, yes, awesome deal. BUUUUT…..

If, like me, you have two more people (or more) in your household who also like the game, well, you best be ponying up Fifty bucks per person because those map packs ONLY work with paid memberships. Yep. They are not CONSOLE oriented like the other map packs, no, they are PER USER.

I made the mistake of purchasing Elite, thinking that the new maps that came out a few days ago, would be made available for all users.  I remember reading that early on. They would be CONSOLE tied, not user tied. Well, guess what? They are tied to the USER.

Of course, I was not going to spend another $100 in addition to the $50 I had paid for Elite and the $60 that the game cost.  $210 is quite a bit of money for a shoot them up game. Hell, it is a lot for any game.

So, unhappy with the situation, I attempted to contact Activision. I found NO phone number on their web site and, seemingly, no other good way to contact them.  I finally found a support page on FACEBOOK!  So, I posted my complaint and, surprisingly, got a response fairly quickly.  I was told that  I would need to contact MICROSOFT for a refund since I bought Elite from XBOX Live Marketplace. 

Well, calling Microsoft would have meant a forty five minute wait on the phone but I could get help immediately if I used the online chat. So, I did.  I got some dude named ‘Marc’.  He was very helpful and, in fact, did refund the full fifty dollars plus gave me a one month XBOX Live Gold Membership. He apologized for the inconvenience and that was that. 

Not so quite, though. Back on Facebook, the Activision rep responded again and was sort of sympathetic. They said that Activision was aware of my situation (I’m guessing they got LOTS of complaints) and were going to address it. Not only that, my complaint was being forwarded to the appropriate departments.  So, maybe they will offer a ‘family’ membership option. As long as it is reasonably priced, I would probably buy it.  Reasonable being up to twenty dollars more. 

At any rate, be sure you know exactly what you are getting into before purchasing such memberships.

And, Activision? You won’t have my loyalty again unless you fix this.  I used to think you all were the best. No longer.  You aren’t any better than EA.

XBOX represents the current state of home video games.  It has innovative controllers like Kinect and high resolution graphics. It is the penultimate gaming console for this generation.  Now, let’s rewind some thirty years and take a look at gaming in the early 1980’s, specifically, the Emerson Arcadia.

Emerson Arcadia?  I bet you’ve not heard of that one. Well, that’s OK.  Most people probably won’t either. 

Emerson has long been a brand in the United States.  For quite some time, in fact, it was as ubiquitous as General Electric or RCA.  Your parents or relatives may recall watching Emerson TV’s or listening to an Emerson console radio.

Well, during the early 80’s, video games were hot.  The management at the company decide that it, too, needed a console. They wanted to compete with Atari, who was still cashing in on the VCS, THE console to have at the time. Arcade games were all the rage and Atari was cashing in with home versions of those games.  Emerson saw a huge market.  The Arcadia would be more powerful than the Atari and, at least on paper, on par or a little better than Atari’s competition, the Intellivision.

So, in 1982, the Arcadia hit the market.  To build up the library of games, and hoping to cash in on the arcade phenomenon, Emerson brought out copies of hit games. Problem was, most were not licensed and licensing the arcade games for home use was becoming a lucrative deal.  Companies began to sue and win.  The most famous such case was against Magnavox and the KC Munchkin game.  KC was an Odyssey 2 game based loosely on Pac-Man, THE hottest game at the time. Fearing the lawsuits, Emerson exec’s panicked and many of the clones were either reworked or cancelled. As a result, Arcadia had few games at launch that anyone would recognize.  The system was cancelled almost as soon as it was released. It hit clearance bins almost immediately.  Couple that with the release of the Colecovision, which featured arcade quality graphics and sound, and you can see that Arcadia was obsolete before it got going.

Arcadia failed right away and Emerson withdrew from the market.  I cannot say that had they stuck with it, we might be playing EmersonStations today, but I think the system COULD have found a following. It wasn’t all that bad and was superior to the VCS.  It more closely resembled the Intellivision. It’s graphical ability was similar and the controllers were near copies except they had little screw on joysticks for the controller discs.

The games for the system were mostly re-worked clones, of which a few are standouts like CatTrax, a Pac-Man like game. There were a few actual licensed titles like Jungler, but those were games that were not nearly as popular (and probably why Emerson could license them, they were probably cheap to license.)  In fact CatTrax and two other games were ported to the Atari VCS and were moderately successful on that system (probably more so than on the console for which they were developed.) I have played CatTrax and love the game.

I don’t know how collectable the Arcadia really is, I’ve not yet been able to acquire one, though I would love to so.  I have played around with the games via emulation and they are mostly mediocre, but the CatTrax game is clever and fun. 

Comparing this console to something like the XBOX or the Wii is not fair to either system. But, there is something to be said about the rather simple nature of the Arcadia (and, indeed, most of the games from that time) games. I may be addicted to Call of Duty, but I get just as big a kick from CatTrax.  Emerson is no longer a household name (nor a standalone company for that matter) and their only true contribution to video games is a console that went straight to the bargain bin yet there is that question ‘what if’. What if they had done things right? What if they had not out and out lied about the abilities of the system (claiming it had 28K memory when it like 2k) or what if they had more hit games to sell the system.  What if…

As was the case with the Magnavox Odyssey 2, this system was sold overseas and actually did fairly well in some areas, though it still did not have a long life.  The system was sold with strange design changes and, worse, the cartridges were not always electrically compatible with the US counterpart. I guess that just confirms most people’s opinion of the console: Odd. It was an odd console. It was odd for Emerson to put so much effort into the product, only to pretty much abandon it at launch.  Very odd, indeed.

In fact, the show seems to be kind of a dud.  Granted, I was not there in person, but, then again, with all of the coverage and live blogging, I didn’t need to be.  In fact, I don’t feel the need to even really cover it since it is already over covered.  However, I do feel like I need to say something about it…it is, after all, a big deal.

So…did anything catch my eye? Well, yeah, a few things did.  The MakerBot Replicator 3D Printer, for me, is the most exciting product shown off at the show. The printer, much like the replicator on the Star Trek the Next Generation program, MAKES THINGS. Yes, it is a true 3D printer.  Feed it a pattern and it will, layer by layer, build a real 3D model for you.  Now, you won’t be able to replicate, for example, a television or a full size auto, but you will be able to make individual parts, toys, forks and other small things.  This is great for prototyping, toy making, replacing smaller parts, etc.  I see all kinds of uses for this thing.  Miss that Lego brick? No problem…print a new one.  And therein lies the problem too.

As with video and audio, copyright infringement will come into play.  Go ahead, make that Lego brick and risk breaking the law.  Just imagine the wheels at the Lego company when they figure out how easily their product can be reproduced.  These printers and the material are currently very expensive but they are coming down in price.  $2000 will get you a dual color MakerBot replicator.  Next year, they may cost half that.  As soon as they break the $299 barrier, that is when you will see a real cry from companies that, previously, did not normally have to worry such things as homemade parts.  Oh man…DRM on 3D patterns.  Progress.

Another product that caught my eye was the Roku HDMI stick. Until, that is, read more about it. ON the surface, it looks great. Roku’s next set top box is not a box but a dongle. An HDMI dongle. They squeezed an entire Roku into something not much bigger than a USB stick.  Pretty amazing…but…most HDMI equipped sets will not be able to use this thing as it uses a different type of HDMI connector…one that is not yet on most devices.  Sigh.  I would buy one, two or more of these things but…not going to replace my TV’s any time soon.

So, two products out of thousands.  Not good.  I am starting to think I have gotten jaded.  I’ve grown so used to be being wowed and, when I’m not, I’m really bummed and that is how I feel about CES this year. Just not much happened.  Other than Nintendo demoing the Wii U to a handful of people, that is.  Oh well, I guess there is always next year. Or Apple’s next big announcement…I wonder what that could be.

Type it into the Model EXACTLY as you see here (you do not need to enter blank lines between each line of code):

10 CLS

20 LINE(0,38)-(66,48),1,B

100 SC=0:BP=20

105 PRINT @201,”Score: 0″;

110 H=669:L=75:X=0

115 B$=CHR$(230)+CHR$(239)+CHR$(229):B=(40*7)+19

116 C$=CHR$(144):C1$=CHR$(145):L$=CHR$(152)

117 ALIEN$=C$:D=LEN(ALIEN$)

120 PRINT @X, ALIEN$;

121 PRINT @B, B$;

122 IF X/2 = INT(X/2) THEN ALIEN$=C1$ ELSE ALIEN$=C$

130 PRINT @X, ” “;

140 X=X+D

200 K$=INKEY$

210 IF K$=”q” THEN END

215 IF K$=”,” THEN BP=BP-1:BM=-1

216 IF K$=”.” THEN BP=BP+1:BM=-1

217 IF BP<13 THEN BP=13 ELSE IF BP>27 THEN BP=27

220 IF K$=” ” THEN F=6:SHOOT=1

221 IF BM=-1 THEN PRINT @B,”   “;:B=(40*7)+BP:PRINT @B,B$;

230 IF SHOOT=1 THEN PRINT @(40*F)+BP+1, L$;

231 F1=F

232 IF SHOOT=1 THEN F=F-1:IF F=0 THEN SHOOT=2

233 MP=(F*40)+BP+1

234 IF SHOOT=2 AND X=MP THEN FOR Z=1 TO 4: PRINT @X,”*”;: FOR YY=1 TO

100:NEXT YY:PRINT @X,”+”;: FOR YY=1 TO 100:NEXT YY:NEXT Z:PRINT @X,” “;

235 IF SHOOT=2 AND X=MP THEN PRINT @140,”HIT!”;:SOUND H,L:FOR DL=1 TO

300:NEXT:PRINT @140,”     “;

238 IF SHOOT=2 AND X=MP THEN SC=SC+10:X=0:D=LEN(ALIEN$): PRINT

@201,”Score:”+STR$(SC);
239 IF SHOOT=2 THEN F=6

240 IF SHOOT=-1 THEN PRINT @(F1*40)+BP+1, ” “;

245 IF SHOOT<>-1 THEN PRINT @(F1*40)+BP+1,” “;

390 IF X<40-LEN(ALIEN$) THEN D=+D ELSE D=-D

395 IF X<0 THEN X=1: D=LEN(ALIEN$)

400 GOTO 120

And here is the formatted, commented code:

10 CLS                ‘Clear the screen
20 LINE(0,38)-(66,48),1,B    ‘Draw the score box
100 SC=0:BP=20            ‘Set score and base position
105 PRINT @201,”Score: 0″;    ‘Write our score label
110 H=669:
    L=75:
    X=0            ‘Set the pitch and length for our sound
                 and set the initial alien position to zero
115 B$=CHR$(230)+CHR$(239)+CHR$(229):
    B=(40*7)+19        ‘Create the base and set the position
116 C$=CHR$(144):
    C1$=CHR$(145):
    L$=CHR$(152)        ‘Create the alien and missile character
117 ALIEN$=C$:
    D=LEN(ALIEN$)        ‘D holds the direction for the alien
120 PRINT @X, ALIEN$;        ‘Draw the alien
121 PRINT @B, B$;        ‘Draw the missile
122 IF X/2 = INT(X/2) THEN
        ALIEN$=C1$
    ELSE
        ALIEN$=C$    ‘Animate the alien
130 PRINT @X, ” “;        ‘Erase alien from previous position
140 X=X+D            ‘Calculate the new position for the alien
200 K$=INKEY$            ‘poll the keyboard
210 IF K$=”q” THEN END    ‘Q will quit
215 IF K$=”,” THEN
    BP=BP-1:
    BM=-1            ‘comma (<) moves base left
216 IF K$=”.” THEN
    BP=BP+1:
    BM=-1            ‘period  (>) moves base right
217 IF BP<13 THEN
        BP=13
    ELSE
        IF BP>27 THEN
            BP=27    ‘determine the boundary for the base
220 IF K$=” ” THEN
    F=6:
    SHOOT=1        ‘space bar fires your missile
221 IF BM=-1 THEN
    PRINT @B,”   “;:B=(40*7)+BP:
    PRINT @B,B$;        ‘Move the base
230 IF SHOOT=1 THEN
    PRINT @(40*F)+BP+1, L$; ‘Show Missile
231 F1=F            ‘Remember the missile’s previous position
232 IF SHOOT=1 THEN
    F=F-1:
    IF F=0 THEN
        SHOOT=2    ‘Row calculation
233 MP=(F*40)+BP+1        ‘Calculate the new missile position
234 IF SHOOT=2 AND X=MP THEN
    FOR Z=1 TO 4:
        PRINT @X,”*”;:
        FOR YY=1 TO  100:
        NEXT YY:
        PRINT @X,”+”;:
        FOR YY=1 TO 100:
        NEXT YY:
    NEXT Z:
    PRINT @X,” “;        ‘If the alien was hit, show an explosion
235 IF SHOOT=2 AND X=MP THEN
    PRINT @140,”HIT!”;:
    SOUND H,L:
    FOR DL=1 TO  300:
    NEXT:
    PRINT @140,”     “;    ‘If alien was hit, show ‘hit!’ on screen and play sound
238 IF SHOOT=2 AND X=MP THEN
    SC=SC+10:
    X=0:
    D=LEN(ALIEN$):
    PRINT  @201,”Score:”+STR$(SC); ‘If alien was hit, update score and reset alien position and direction
239 IF SHOOT=2 THEN
    F=6            ‘Reset the missile row after destruction of alien
240 IF SHOOT=-1 THEN
    PRINT @(F1*40)+BP+1, ” “;     ‘Erase the Missile
245 IF SHOOT<>-1 THEN
    PRINT @(F1*40)+BP+1,” “;    ‘Erase the Missile (added to fix a bug)
390 IF X<40-LEN(ALIEN$) THEN
        D=+D
    ELSE
        D=-D        ‘ Update the alien direction
395 IF X<0 THEN
    X=1:
    D=LEN(ALIEN$)
400 GOTO 120            ‘Loop back for more

Yeah, the code is crap, but it was fun to go back in time and mess around with such an ancient language on an ancient computer (that still works and works well.) 

The Game

Objective: Shoot the alien until you are bored of doing so.

Controls:

Recently, I dusted the computer off and took it for a spin.  I wanted to show my son just how a geek in my day had ‘fun’.  I sat there, while he played Call of Duty on the Xbox and wrote a crude space invader style game. Right there, on the device. NO development environment to speak of, just the line oriented editor.  Oh, and LINE NUMBERS.  Remember them?

100 Print”Hello, World”

Wow. I have not used line numbers in years…decades, even.  I don’t know, there’s something quaint about them…having to figure out a decent increment because, you know, you will, at some point, have to insert a line or two of code because you left something out or, more likely, figured out you needed to add or move something to fix something somewhere else.  Ah, the joys of spaghetti code.  Nothing like it.

So, in that hours time, I managed something that sorta kinda resembles a one invader space invaders game. My little invader, which was sorta animated, would go back and forth on the top line of the 7 line screen. My base was centered on the bottom of the screen and touching the space bar would ‘fire’ the missile at the invader.  Only a direct hit would score your ten points. The game continued until you press Q.  This version does not have the alien invader retaliating, only moving back and forth.  With only about thirty lines of code, there isn’t much there.  But, hey, not bad for such a crude little machine and hours worth of time. 

This little exercise reminded me that sometimes we don’t always need the most recent, hottest or best of anything to have a good time.  I was having a ball playing with the computer, figuring out how to do things without reading the manual (which I have.)  And, for this developer, using that old flavor of Microsoft Basic was a blast.  Line numbers, PRINT @, and the ever so enthralling ‘SOUND’, which makes high pitched beeps. Good stuff.  Makes me appreciate .Net even more.

If I can transcribe (I.E. feel like retyping) the code, I’ll post it here, if there is any interest.

One note about the computer: while the LCD screen is terrible, the rest of the computer, ergonomically, is superb.  The keyboard has a nice feel and the whole thing is surprisingly light.  The fact that it uses AA batteries is awesome. No cumbersome recharger, expensive batteries or funky adaptors. Just AA batts. Oh and the menu screen is easy to use, but, for some odd reason, you have to actually go into BASIC and issue a command to delete a file.  Weird.  Hey, it was the 1980’s. Hell, it’s easier to use than some newer devices today…like Pandigital’s e-Reader and the Kindle.

Update:

Here is a wonderful site full of TRS-80 information and nostalgia. Also, there is an emulator for the Model 100.  I won’t put a direct link here since the emulator contains copyrighted material, just use Bing or that other search engine.  Search for VirtualT.

Without a doubt, the most significant even in 2011 (at least in the tech world) was the death of Steve Jobs. The second most significant event was Steve Jobs resignation from Apple.  Now, had he not passed away, this would be the number one event. However, his death over shadows everything else. When he announced his resignation, people had already begun to speculate on his health and the health of Apple.  Indeed, death knells for both were foretold.  Much speculation over the future success of Apple was tied to Steve Jobs and nay sayers were writing that the iPad was Jobs’ last influential product for the company and all innovation would, somehow, dry up.  This just is not the case.  He was the guiding hand, no doubt, but the real talent-the designers, the thinkers, the engineers, you know, the people that made him look good-is still there. Apple is in good hands and they have a lot of very smart people working there.

The third significant event turned out to be rather a non-event, but could have ramifications for years.  The aborted merger between AT&T and T-Mobile resulted in the sidelining of T-Mobile for most of the year, a time during which they did little. They missed out on the iPhone and have done very little advertising.  AT&T, on the other hand, comes out smelling like a rose, no matter the outcome.  The three billion dollar (US) fee they will pay T-Mobile for the breakup is nothing to them, plus they will, likely, end up recouping that when Deutsche Telekom breaks up the company (which, they likely will do.)

Next is the killing of Palm.  HP purchased Palm in 2010 with the idea of incorporating webOS into everthing from printers to computers and tablet.  They brought out three cell phones and the wonderful webOS based TouchPad tablet.  During the time that HP was ramping up webOS, they went through three CEO’s.  The first one bought Palm. The second decided HP was not a consumer company and disbanded most of Palm and killed of the Palm hardware.  The TouchPad was a product for a mere seven weeks before it became the number two tablet when HP sold them for $99 a pop.  Then, CEO #2 was forced out and CEO #3 came in.  She decides that, for now, they will not make any webOS based tablets, but may in the future. They won’t be making phones, but they will continue webOS development. Oh, they are going to open source the operating system.  Huh.

The downward spiral of RIM is the next major event.  Well, not really one event, but a series of blunders, miscalculations and mismanagement.  RIM, to their credit, tried to catch up, but they failed.  The Playbook tablet, while the hardware is nice, was a huge blunder because: they sort of forced you to have a Blackberry phone to use the calendar and contacts; gave the impression that you needed a Blackberry in order to use the device; priced it to compete with a Lexus auto; made it nearly impossible for developers to develop apps for the thing.  I could go on, but you get the point.  The dual CEO debacle probably does not help them either.  Oh, the next gen Blackberry was, initially, not going to work with existing BLACKBERRY infrastructure, which is what  made RIM RIM.  Sad. Now they are desperately playing catchup.  They are in far worse shape than even Palm was…or is, for that matter.

Other notable things would include the fall of Nintendo, Netflix’s indecision’s, Blockbuster’s demise, Sony, Sony and Sony.  Let’s look at Nintendo for a moment.  The Wii has, effectively, ended its reign as the top selling console.  It seems everyone has one so Nintendo cannot give them away. Couple that with the dearth of good games and that adds up to lackluster sales and Nintendo’s loss financially.  Blockbuster was purchased by Dish Networks and was forced to shutter a significant number of stores as the rental market has tanked. Netflix could not seem to do anything right.  They announced several price hikes, the separation of DVD and online rentals, the creation of the DVD only company only to shutter that before it got going and the assinine ramblings of its CEO. They were a good study in what NOT to do in the PR department. Or in business.  Or anything.

And then there’s SONY.  This company tries so hard to make you think they are the Lexus/Cadillac/Infiniti/Maserati/Porsche of the consumer electronics world.  They fail on so many levels. It is sad, really.  Take the PS3.  This turd of a console was released at a high price and, eventually, Sony was forced to price it so that normal people could buy the thing.  Touting its online play, they build an online presence and backbone so we could play things like Motostorm and Call of Duty on line. For free.  Problem is, they didn’t quite know how to protect this online backbone and they were hacked. Multiple times. The worse was in April. They were offline for a month worldwide and six weeks in Japan. The Japanese government was not convinced that Sony had fixed the problem that they forced them to keep the plug pulled for two more weeks.  Since then, they’ve been hacked several more times. Sad. Oh, the replacement for the  PSP, the Vita, has already tanked-less than a month on sale, no less.  Sales fell nearly 78% from the first week.  This is one company that has its head up its collective ass.

All was not doom and gloom during 2011.  Bright spots include Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft. The release of the early developer preview of Windows 8 got rave reviews, Mango-the Windows Phone 7 update-was released to rave reviews as well. Windows 7 is selling very, very well as is the Office line. XBOX 360 sold nearly one million units over the black friday weekend and the fall update was released for the XBOX with nary a hitch.  And, they reported record profits. Again.

Ford proved its meddle in technology with it’s Sync.  Sync is, technically, a Microsoft product, but Ford has incorporated the product in most of its line and they are doing very well.  The latest version has a revamped interface (one of the big complaints was that it was confusing to use) and they seemed to listen to users.  This is how to run a company.

I would not venture a guess or make any prediction about 2012. I have tried for the last few years but will not do so this time.  Suffice it to say that the tech world is changing so quickly that what seemed like science fiction yesterday will be fact tomorrow.  I am, though, still waiting for that flying and folding car that George Jetson has as well as a VCR that’s easy to…oh, wait…

Image via Wikipedia

One of the joys of being a parent is that you get to play with toys that you would not others get by with playing.  And, today is a good time to be a parent as the toys are super cool.  Take, for example, today’s Hot Wheels.

Hot Wheels has a cool set of tracks that use the Command Strips to fasten connectors to the wall and mount tracks there. These things are really cool and solve the ages old space problem of where to store the tracks. With these, you just leave them on the wall, provided, of course, you have a room where you don’t mind them hanging around.  For us, it is in our game room.

There are several sets, including a starter set. Each set comes with the hangers, Command Strips, track pieces and one Hot Wheels car. Note, not all Hot Wheels will work on the various pieces parts. For example, one set has a launcher mechanism shaped like a motorcycle engine. Only a certain type of car will go through it, some boxier shapes and those with oversize wheels will, likely, not work.

Each set is designed to be interchangeable and reconfigurable.  They vary in price but you should be able to get two to four sets for under a hundred dollars.

Another cool toy this season is the Innotab from VTech. This is a children’s tablet.  Although similar to the VReader, it is, of course, not compatible with any of the VReader software.  The device has a small touchscreen with vibrant colors and is fairly responsive. While is resembles (to a four year old) an iPad like device, it is no iPad. Or even a crappy assed Android tablet, but, this is OK. Those devices tend to confuse whereas the Innotab (and the LeapPad Explorer) are designed to be used by children.  The built in software is simple yet functional and most things you would expect from a tablet are there, including an accelerometer. There’s no web browser as the device lacks any kind of connectivity. Again, this is not a problem since it is a device for young children.  It costs $79.95.

Lastly, the Nintendo 3DS is, by far, the coolest toy on the market. It is a standard DS that plays 3D games and takes 3D photos and video.  The software is mostly well done and the ability to turn off the 3D is a huge plus. I found the effect pleasing until I moved either my head or the device . Once that happened, I could not get it quite right and ended up turning off 3D.

Mario Kart 7 for 3DS is, quite simple, a great game.  Almost perfect.  The only problem I had was the wonky control pad on the device itself.  This might be the 3DS’ achilles heal. It just did not feel overly responsive.  The game, however, has much going for it, including the return of 16 mostly great tracks and 16 brand new ones.  All versions of the game have at least one track, though most of them are redone versions and contain new elements, like underwater sections.  Overall, though, MK7 is one great game.

Now, the 3DS is one device that anyone who is just a kid at heart can actually own and not feel like a moron. It is priced right too: just $169 for the device.  Oh, it has a browser built in and a virtual console to play older Gameboy games.

I guess I am still just a kid heart as I found the Hot Wheels tracks to be quite a bit of fun and our kids did too.  Who says you need to be between 4 and 12 to enjoy them? I’ve been accused of acting like a five year old from time to time…maybe there is something to that after all!

Cheers!

The humble beginnings of the home video game market actually go further back than Baer, but for our purposes, we will ignore Higginbotham’s ‘Tennis for Two’ as it was just a computer demo, on an oscilloscope and never commercialized. As Baer was actually able to see his creation hit the market, his will be considered the first home video game console.

Shot in 1968, Baer and associate are playing with the Brown Box.

Baer, an engineer for Sanders Associates, came up with the idea for a video game device in the mid 1960’s and built several prototypes beginning in 1966.  Sanders was a defense electronics company and had no interest in manufacturing the game, but allowed Baer to continue working on the device with the hopes of licensing the technology to a proper consumer company. 

Many companies were pitched the idea and Magnavox had the foresight to take out a license and actually market the device.

The Brown Box, the codename for the prototype, was primitive by today’s standards.  It consisted of discreet parts, no microprocessors (none were available at the time of the prototype development) so it was built of transistor technology. It employed several ‘spot’ generators which created two ‘players’, a ball and vertical or horizontal lines. The controllers allowed for vertical, horizontal and ‘english’, which applied a curve to the path the ‘ball’ would take. It had a ‘fire’ button as well. The prototypes were capable of color and sound, but the final product was monochrome and sound was absent. Baer proposed adding sound a year later, but the idea was rejected.

The game cards were really jumper boards that configured which spots were to appear and where.  There were twelve initial cards that could be used to play hockey, baseball, football, roulette, etc.  The ‘graphics’ for each game were really just plastic overlays in two sizes for the most common television screen sizes. They clung to the CRT screens via static electricity. It was a clever, but cheesy solution.  Packed in the console were playing cards, chips, the game cards, and various other accessories that were needed to play the game. In effect, the package was more traditional board game play with the television aspect thrown in.  The only game to actually resemble what it was, was the ‘ping pong’ game on card 1. 

Higginbotham’s Tennis for Two demo

Baer’s services  were called upon time and again to fix issues with Odyssey, Magnavox’s product name for the device.  Since Magnavox was a licensee, it was in Sander’s best interest to guard the patents and make sure that no one used the ideas without paying.  Unfortunately, other companies would try.  The most notable, at least early on, was Atari.

The story goes that Nolan Bushnell had attended a demo of the Odyssey and signed the guestbook.  When Atari introduced its Pong home console in 1974, they were sued. Baer trotted out his notes, patents and, most importantly, that guest book with Bushnell’s signature.  Atari settled out of court and got one of the most lucrative deals: perpetual rights to the home console for little money.  More important, for Sanders, was the precedent: they never lost a case.  I suppose one could argue that consoles like the Fairchild Channel F and the Atari VCS did not violate the patent since they were microprocessor based.  I don’t believe anyone did, though.

Baer went on to serve as consultant for Magnavox on the follow up Odyssey II, which was microprocessor based. In between, there were numerous ‘Odyssey’ labeled devices, but they were all variations on Pong and used a generic chip that was popular at the time.  Baer also invented the popular Simon game and other handheld games, but his contribution to video games is what he is best known for and deservedly so. 

Nolan Bushnell tends to get the credit for the home video game and not Baer.  Bushnell’s contributions were, no doubt, important-arguably there would be no market without him, but it was Baer who started it.

Odyssey was never a huge seller for Magnavox, though it was not a failure either. Magnavox sold the console only through its dealers, who knew nothing about how to market the device and Magnavox further muddied the waters by only demoing the console on Magnavox televisions, giving the image that one needed to own a Magnavox television in order to use the device.  And the accessory gun and games were almost never displayed along with the console, so they did not sell well at all.

I was lucky enough to own the console and the rifle.  It provided hours of fun back in the late 1970’s and led to an Odyssey 2 a few years later. I was a huge Magnavox fan and was delighted to find out, years later, that my Odyssey was a piece of history. Unfortunately, it did not survive one of my moves and has long since disappeared. (I did manage to score an Odyssey 2 last year via eBay.)

There were many pioneers who got the home video game market going, like Baer, Bushnell, Al Alcorn and others.  (And, no, again, Willy Higginbotham does not count.) Each one made significant contributions but it was Baer who got his ideas turned into an actual product for the home and, thus, the home video game came of age.