photo by Michael Martine, Columbia SC 2017

It’s a beautiful world we live in, and the virtual aspects make it even more so.  A happy 40th anniversary celebration to Namco’s Pac-Man and 30th for Microsoft Solitaire.  Amazing to think about how games such as these have been around now for so long, and are part of the fabric so many people’s computer experiences.  Infocom’s text based adventures pop up in the discussion, and Michael M finds the scratch-n-sniff page from Phobos in his collection – see show notes for a picture!)

Microsoft’s GW-BASIC has now been open sourced, which prompts the expected memory lane conversation between Michael, Michael and Andy, and even lands on an audio description of the “snow” code in BASIC, faithfully reproduced for the listeners here:

10 print “* * * * * * * * * * * *”20 print “ * * * * * * * * * * * *”30 goto 10

With many people knowing of Michael R’s Devo fandom, the surfacing of the power dome face shield on Club Devo had many reaching out to him.  There is indeed something for everybody in the Devo store!  

The story about Eschaton as a virtual maze of twisty passages and rooms, all unalike spurs a discussion on Secret Cinema, and the breaching of the 4th wall where the viewer becomes the viewed, and possibly a participant in the event.

The reality of AR glasses represented by North Focals, and the rumors of what Apple is working on continues to inspire “spec”ulation on what the breakthrough app will be for AR.  Apple’s rumored Gobi puts an emphasis on business, and the idea of using AR for Apple’s Find My app for directing the user to find the lost device feels like a great way to bring AR to life for people who are unaccustomed to the technology.

Bird Chargers & Lime Juicers resurface as a remote job possibility, where riders can hail a GoX scooter that will be remotely driven to their desired position by a teleoperator driver.  This, coupled with the high demand for package and food delivery may be the interim step for autonomous vehicles, collecting detailed route data that can be fed into the AI corpus needed for fully autonomous vehicles.

We continue to hope that everyone is safe, healthy and well.  The team is looking forward to reassembling again for another episode next week!  Drop us a line with what you expect to be the next ways people will get together, whether for business or fun.

Selected Links

The Library Blog: The Origins of Bank Holidays — http://libraryblog.lbrut.org.uk/wordpress/2016/12/origins-bank-holidays/ 

The Verge article: Microsoft Solitaire turns 30 years old today and still has 35 million monthly players — https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/22/21266718/microsoft-solitaire-30-years-old-history-birthday-record-attempt 

The Guardian article: The game that ate the world: 40 facts on Pac-Man’s 40th birthday — https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/may/22/pac-man-video-game-40-years-old

The Verge article: Pac-Man will be playable on Twitch starting this June — https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/22/21266881/pac-man-live-studio-playable-on-twitch-june 

Wikipedia article: Scott Pilgrim vs.