The BBC took their cameras inside legendary text adventure house Infocom in 1985. And it all looks gloriously low-rent
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kindly shopkeeperreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit this is like watching an episode of the office where everyone is dwight
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I love how the QA tester is wearing the little "Don't Panic!" feelie button from Infocom's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" game. I had that game! I had that button!
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to kindly shopkeeper last edited by
@hannah There was nothing glamorous about computer programming in 1985. Absolutely nothing
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"Feelies" were Infocom's term for little add-ons they packed into the boxes of all their text adventure games. They were an inexpensive way to build atmosphere -- important for games with no graphics.
The "Hitchhiker's" feelies were particularly clever. But this online gallery shows the "Don't Panic" button being red, not blue. Maybe the blue one was internal only?
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kindly shopkeeperreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
@jalefkowit wasnt nolan bushnell like throwing cocaine parties out in sunnyvale
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The Beeb also has a 1985 interview with Douglas Adams on the process of turning "Hitchhiker's" into a computer game.
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to kindly shopkeeper last edited by
@hannah That was the '70s. Whole different era
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by [email protected]
At around 6:40 into that video Adams mentions being eager to put a computer game on a CD, which was an exceptionally forward-looking thing for someone to say in 1985
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by [email protected]
I say "exceptionally forward-looking" because the first CD-ROM drives came out just that year, and they were as large as a contemporary personal computer all by themselves
First CD-ROM drive: Philips CM-100
The first CD-ROM drive was the Philips CM-100, a product for the IBM PC/XT released way back in 1985. Here's what they used it for back then.
The Silicon Underground (dfarq.homeip.net)
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by [email protected]
Speaking of CDs, here's a BBC news segment from 1983 in which an executive from British music publishing giant EMI explains why they won't be publishing music on CD.
Oops
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@jalefkowit guy in this thumbnail looks so angry
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@Haikyoneko LEBLING SMASH
