Modern Mechanix Round-UP

Today on Modern Mechanix we learn all about video games in this Popular Electronics round-up called “New 1978 Electronic Games” which features the Atari 2600, Coleco’s Telstar Arcade, the Magnavox Odyssey, and many others you’ve probably never heard of. Reading the technical breakdowns of the platforms I couldn’t help but think that any of these machines would get clocked by a Wii… remote. We looked at the origins of in-flight refueling, a child’s mono-wheel racer that looks like it comes from the Victorian era, yet strongly resembles this device that Joel posted last week, a very modern looking TV camera used during the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and a test to see if your child has any musical ability that would make it worth spending the money to send them to piano lessons. We also learned how to send music over a beam of light, and how to turn the back seat of your car into a comfortable bed.

1. [TwoShort]

   Hey! I had a Coleco Telstar!
   If you want to understand why the 2600 was such a big deal, you need look no further than the Telstar, where you slid a 4 position switch to select which variety of Pong you wanted. Imagine the envy as my friend down the street demonstrated the dozens of (near identical, to be sure) game modes in his Atari fighter-plane game… And then he changed cartridges.

2. [Mikey Likes BoingBoing]

   I had a Magnavox Odyssey. Actually they had a few clever games, if nothing else, including a competitive version of Breakout with one player doing the usual pong breakout part and the other player controlled little guys who could rebuild the wall, and could get knocked off the wall if hit with the pong-ball (sorry, no wails or splats, not yet and a ripoff of Pac Man where the few remaining dots were not static but tried to run away from you…