MetaFilter posts tagged with toys and games

Ages 3 and Up

Artw — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:44:10 -0800

"Queen Frostine turned into a Bratz doll" - The evolution of sexed-up Candyland.

New from VIDEO Magazine, it's Electronic Games!

JHarris — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:43:30 -0800

NEW from VIDEO Magazine, arising out of its popular "Arcade Alley" column, it's ELECTRONIC GAMES Magazine!(page of PDF links) Brought to you by editors Frank Laney Jr. and Bill Kunkel, and filled with all the latest news on programmable home console games, computer games (with special coverage for the new ATARI 800 system), stand-alone electronic devices and arcade gaming. In the premier issue on newsstands now:

Page 8: "Congratulations on the debut of your new magazine. As games designers, we are naturally pleased that there will be a magazine entirely devoted to the field of electronic gaming. Good Luck!
-- The ActiVision Design Staff: Alan Miller, David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Bob Whitehead, Steve Cartright."
Pages 10-11: One of the infamous George Plimpton ads promoting the Intellivision over the Atari 2600. "Atari Casino. No Dealer. Intellivision Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack. You play cards with a shifty-eyed dealer."
Page 12: An article on David Crane's Freeway. "'That's where the San Diego Chicken came in,' says Activision spokesperson Diane Drosnes."
Page 14: "Atari confirms rumor; secret messages exist! Sources at Atari have confirmed one of arcading's most persistant wild stories. If a gamer sends the hero to a certain room in the VCS Adventure and performs a specific action, a secret message revealing the designer's name will appear on the screen."
Page 14: "There's quite a story behind the delay in the release of the VCS Asteroids cartridge. The version the company showed a year ago received such a frosty reception from those who got an advance peak that the designers went back to the drawing board. They developed a special process that puts twice as much program--8K vs. 4K--on the cartridge as was previously possible. It seems that Atari's wizards came up with a special bank-switch that flips back and forth between two 4K programs, fooling the VCS into reading them both..."
Page 16: "Those who were planning to give (Atari's standalone game system) COSMOS to someone this holiday season had better start looking for a substitute present. Although Atari lavished much advance publicity on its holographically enhanced stand-alone programmable, the company has shuttled it back to the design department for more work. Although the accomplishment of actually developing a commercially viable holographic process drew much admiration, the game itself received mixed reviews. The chief complaint: The holograms served as mere decoration and did not directly affect play."
Page 18: "Holiday Gift Guide for Gamers," features a chess computer, a calculator watch with a game mode, a satin jacket reading "SPACE INVADERS," and the new Merlin and Pocket Simon handheld electronic games, among other things.
Page 22: Introducing the new Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer! "Gamers who have felt shackled by the black and white output of the TRS-80 series can now fill the screen with green, blue, yellow, red, buff, cyan, magenta and orange."
Page 24: Q&A with the Game Doctor! "Q: Do video games damage television sets? A: No, no, a thousand times no!"
Page 25-28: A four-page ad for the Odyssey 2's classic game Quest for the Rings, a combination video and board game. "Ten rings of power lie hidden within the Dark Lands of the evil Ringmaster. In gloomy dungeons. Crystal caverns. Molten infernos. And mysterious shifting halls. Each posing its own challenge. And its own threat."
"Each ring is guarded by the treacherous minions of evil that lurk within these halls of doom. Menacing Orcs and Firewraths. The loathsome Spydroth Tyrantulus. Doomwinged Bloodthirsts. And hiddeous (sic) firebreathing dragons."
Page 29: 15-year-old Atari VCS Space Invaders champion Frank Tetro Jr. gives game tips!
Page 31: An article on the rivalry currently heating up arcades, between Space Invaders and Asteroids.
Page 37: "The Player's Guide to Programmable Videogames." "Programmable" systems are consoles that can accept cartridges on which are coded new games you can play without buying a whole new unit, as opposed to all those units that only play Pong or other simple games. The age of those systems drew to a close with the recent release of the new Atari Video Computer System.
Page 39: "1981: Game of the Year: Superman." Although if you ask me, Adventure was robbed.
Page 40: The guide continues. Coverage of the state of the industry, covering the major companies. Atari, Activision, Phillips (who have taken over distributing the Odyssey2 from subsidary Magnavox), Mattel, and Zircon, who is reviving the Fairchild Channel F, the original programmable game console. Although the images in all these articles are obviously artist recreations, probably from the game companies' own promotional materials. If only someone could reliably take a picture of a video monitor, making some kind of "screen shot," it would advance the art of game magazines tremendously....
Page 49: Reviews of Quest for the Rings, and also Missile Command, Air-Sea Battle, Breakout (Atari), Kaboom, Tennis and Boxing (Activision) for the VCS, Auto Racing and Space Battle, for the Invellivision, UFO and Alien Invaders--Plus! for the Odyssey2, and... Video Whizball for the poor Channel F. Of the latter: "If you like explosions, you'll love UFO. There are at least three different ones, plus an occasional strange hybrid the machine concocts to take care of extraordinary occurrences[...]"
Page 58: Computer Playland is the magazine's computer software review column, covering among other games Star Raiders for the Atari 400 & 800, Empire of the Over-Mind from Avalon Hill, and Scott Adams' version of Lunar Lander.
Page 63: An arcade column covers Phoenix sequel Pleiades, Space Odyssey, the awesome Venture, and the even-more-awesome arcade version of Warlords. "Fantasy adventures, role-playing games, dragon-slaying and heroic quests have been hot media topics for over a year now. Just as 'Star Wars' launched the science fiction boom a few years back, films like 'Dragonslayer,' 'Knightriders', 'Excalibur' and even 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' are piquing nationwide interest in 'adventure' simulations."
Page 66: Joyce Worley contributes an article on the burdgening standalone game device scene, with reviews of several devices, including Dark Tower.
Page 70: An article on (dare we dream) buying your own arcade machine!
Page 73: "Within the next year, a sizable number of arcaders may be playing games on their very own IBM computers. The company, virtually synonymous with electronic brains to most folks, is finally going to produce machines for the home and small business markets. IBM plans three systems, ranging in price from $1,560 to $4,500. Gamers will most likely be interested in the low-end unit. Sold without monitor or cassette, it comes with 16K of memory. An additional 64K is available for slightly over $500. All the IBM personal computers are based on a 16-bit microprocessor, the 8088. This chip is faster than the ones used in most other home computers and will be able to handle significantly more complex programs. This could lead to the creation of some mighty complex games, particularly in the realm of fantasy adventures. How soon will games be produced for the IBM system? IBM will initially concentrate on business software. Once there's a sizable corps of owners, however, suppliers will undoubtedly begin pumping out entertainment software."
The issue wraps up with rundowns of football games and chess-playing devices, and "Arcade Spotlight," a general arcade news column.

Coming up in the NEXT ISSUE of ELECTRONIC GAMES:

The History of Videogames
The 1982 Arcade Awards
The Videogame Hall of Fame
How Videogames Are Made
The Players Guide to Electronic Science Fiction Games
All these columns, plus one devoted to electronic role-playing games, Passport to Adventure.

So watch for the second issue of Electronic Games ON SALE JANUARY 14 1982! - - - - - - - - Electronic Games is also preserved at the Internet Archive.

“Digitize Her!”

zarq — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 08:37:05 -0800

Earth, 2147. The legacy of the Metal Wars, where man fought machines—and machines won. Bio-Dreads — monstrous creations that hunt down human survivors... and digitize them!
In 1987, before he created Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski was a writer for Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, a live-action sci-fi show for kids. 24 episodes were produced. Straczynski wrote or co-wrote 14 of them, including multi-episode plot arcs. A line of interactive toys brought the battle into kids’ living rooms, and Captain Power was also one of the very first shows on television to feature computer animation in every episode. But in an attempt to appeal to both children and the adults who watched with them, the campy show included some concepts and scenes critics deemed too violent for children and lasted only a single season in syndication. The full run of the show has now been uploaded to Youtube. Alternate Playlist. These videos are of a lower quality, but are not broken into parts. * Fan Site. * 20th Anniversary Site * More on the toy line at Parry Game Preserve

It is a Puzzlement

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:54:11 -0800

The Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection, given to Indiana University in 2006, is now online, with images and descriptions of some 24,000 puzzles, from an 18th century Japanese puzzle to nearly 300 kinds of Rubik's Cubes. More on the collection. More on Jerry Slocum.

"no holds barred, no avenue in Toytown left untraveled, no chamber in the Castle Colorforms, unexplored..."

jessamyn — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:20:25 -0800

"From 1965 to 1971, we played together, inventing one thing or another.... But, like the bride of Bluebeard, there was one door I was not allowed to enter. That was the door marked “Colorforms”. That alone was off limits. Harry had invented Colorforms, the vinyl plastic pieces that stuck to a shiny surface. And he was convinced that there was no idea or application involving Colorforms, nor could there be, that he had not thought up already.... [H]e would entertain no further discussion on the subject. The very mention of “stick-ons” was off limits. The door to Colorforms was shut and bolted. Until 6 years later, through a curious set of circumstances, I broke it down once and forever." The Colorforms Years is Mel Birnkrant's illustrated history of two decades of ups and downs working with Colorforms, the first plastic-based creative toy and one of the first toys promoted in television commercials. If you grew up in the 1970s, you will probably recognize many of these toys: Pound Puppies, Peanuts, Mickey Mouse, Holly Hobbie, McDonalds, and more.

I'm Remembering

reenum — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 10:29:36 -0800

I'm Remembering has pics of things that people aged 30-40 will remember from their childhood and adolescence. Who could forget Tiger Handheld games, Hypercolor shirts, Paint With Water books, Surge soda, Scholastic Book Club, Slice cola, Madballs, Ring Pops, and, last but not least, Zack Morris's cellphone?

The jolliest indoor games. . .demand a floor.

EarBucket — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:47:53 -0800

Floor Games. H.G. Wells and miniature gaming.

Hey Boys And Girls!

amyms — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 21:42:40 -0800

Gobler Toys: The Fun We Can't Remember. A fictional toy company with an online collection of toys, dolls and games that only exist in the inventors' imaginations. Don't miss the hilarious Star Wars Toys That Never Were. (flash animation)

Shooting Rubber Bands at the stars your co-workers

anastasiav — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 12:56:20 -0800

The Ultimate Guide to Rubber Band Warfare

Etch-a-Sketch

oissubke — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 09:39:59 -0800

Etch-a-Sketch

This is so ghetto.

bhayes82 — Thu, 09 Oct 2003 15:27:15 -0800

This Monopoly parody is causing quite a fuss among "black leaders". Is it a stereotype of the "ghetto life" image the media shows us? Sure. But is this game (and the "ghetto life" image) a stereotype that you connect directly to dark-skinned people, as the clergymen seem to think?

Toys of the 80s

Mwongozi — Fri, 23 May 2003 14:45:12 -0800

Toys of the 80s
They don't make them like they used to.

Mystical Knights of Tyr Na Nog !!!

Espoo2 — Wed, 02 Apr 2003 21:12:13 -0800

The Virtual Toy Chest is a collection of mostly action toys from the 70's through the 90's, from The A-Team to Zybots.
I found it after reading Pretty_Generic's great cartoon post while searching for pictures of old M.A.S.K. toys. Does anyone remember Madballs? A monster in my pocket? The Infaceables?. How about Visionaries with their cool holographic staffs?

Paintball

billman — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 12:04:55 -0800

William Shatner's SpplatAttack was one of the biggest paintball events in 2002. There were a couple of other mefi threads on it earlier last year [here and here]. In December Shatner released a DVD of the event. Maurice Gibb, who died just the other day, owned a paintball shop and other celebs like Tommy Lee are rumored to be huge paintball fans. Is this the next extreme sport? How many mefi'ers play?

Nyaah nyah nyaaah nyah! The Rules of Childhood.

Stan Chin — Wed, 16 Oct 2002 12:19:51 -0800

Nyaah nyah nyaaah nyah! The Rules of Childhood. While searching for the origin of "Jinx! Pinch! Poke!" I came across Greasy Kid Stuff. Nostalgics rejoice! Regress into terminology like the "cootie shot" and proven methods of gaining elementary school fame. Also check out the radio program. Anything missing from this list?

Create your own Monopoly Game

RobertLoch — Fri, 28 Jun 2002 06:20:11 -0800

Create your own Monopoly Game Surely the perfect customised gift? You can change the name of the game, the theme, the name of the properties/stations, and also the rules. Apparently it uses a 'What You See Is What You Get Realtime Interface', which allows users to personalise the game completely to their requirements, and then print out and proof the new design. What I find most interesting about this product offering is that the whole process is completely automated. Once you've designed and ordered your customised game, it goes straight to print/production, and is then sent out to you. No human intervention is required. This appears to me to be pretty ground breaking stuff (well in the Toy World anyway), or am I just way behind the times? (via the Ecademy discussion list)

The Internet Pinball Database

Ufez Jones — Wed, 12 Jun 2002 08:58:40 -0800

The Internet Pinball Database has shots of backglasses, playing tables, and promotional flyers for just about every pinball machine ever created. I loved pinball. Now, it seems impossible to find a machine to play on. Back when I worked at a local pizza shop, we had a rotation of some great machines. I really enjoyed the Addams Family, Star Wars, Lethal Weapon 3 (which i remember as being really easy), and especially the Twilight Zone game, with the special white power ball. A walk down memory lane that served me well. Find a place near you to play some pinball here. Or, you could just go pro.

Lego-lovers

Badmichelle — Thu, 28 Mar 2002 12:56:34 -0800

Lego-lovers beware...because this is fun to play with. (I haven't seen this link before, but if it's a double-post, my apologies. I live in fear of making a double-post)

2 hours of Playstation vs. 2 hours with a good Book

Voyageman — Tue, 19 Mar 2002 06:18:28 -0800

2 hours of Playstation vs. 2 hours with a good Book If true, (big if given source) life as a parent just got more complicted. Maybe our children's toys really do need to be "smart" .

I know what I'm buying this year.

MegoSteve — Tue, 27 Nov 2001 06:36:57 -0800

I know what I'm buying this year. Reverend Rose of the Grace Episcopal Church in Hartford, CT has released his annual Warped Toy List. "A variety of toy stores and discount chains are visited on a monthly basis by members of the Grace Church Warped Toy Committee, in order to track what sort of toys are being offered for children ... Only the very worst, most psychologically dangerous and most offensive toys are selected."

Get your Enduring Freedom Trading cards!

kaefer — Tue, 06 Nov 2001 14:54:48 -0800

Get your Enduring Freedom Trading cards! Topps releases a new series "documenting America's greatest challenge". But don't worry, they didn't include any "disturbing images from national newscasts". Will Wizards of the Coast be next?

Maori challenge Lego to stop using Maori words for its toys

phartizan — Mon, 29 Oct 2001 08:26:56 -0800

Maori challenge Lego to stop using Maori words for its toys Certain Maori objected to what they claimed was Lego's inappropriate use of Maori words, and the way Lego's Bionicle game mixed together strands of many cultures. So what's next? No syncretic philosophy/art? Although I suppose marketing Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha as crappy plastic superheroes might cause a little stir.

Farewell, e-Toys...

EricBrooksDotCom — Thu, 08 Mar 2001 19:03:18 -0800

Farewell, e-Toys... Your former hijack victims offer you a moment of silence...

BRIDGE BUILDER

crunchland — Tue, 06 Mar 2001 03:42:44 -0800

BRIDGE BUILDER : It's fun for a girl and a boy! A downloadable demo of a pretty cool but geeky bridge building simulator. Each level, you're given the task of spanning a gap using limited materials. Your goal is to build a bridge not only strong enough to stand under its own weight, but to also support the weight of a train crossing over it.

There is no right way to build a bridge, but there is a lot of wrong ways.

System Requirements: 200 MHz or faster CPU, Windows 95/98/00/NT, Direct X version 6 or later, Keyboard recommended, OpenGL video card and drivers

alan — Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:55:04 -0800

It looks like LEGO has licensed Eric Harshbarger's Pixelego Mosaic program. The cool part? You upload an image to the Lego servers, and they send you "building instruction, a mounting panel, a wall hanger and 1,936 bricks to build [the] mosaic"