Hello all!
We hope you haven’t been too busy. Things have been a little hectic this semester for some of the lab members, which has resulted in this newsletter being sent about a week later than usual. Now that we’re back, though, we have a small announcement to make.
New Open Hours
We have finalized our new open lab hours for this semester! You can check the Lab Hours and Room Number section of this email for more details. Feel free to drop by our lab in the ATEC building during any of these times to demo some of our old computers.
Demo of the Week
The demo of the week this week is The Print Shop Deluxe on the iMac G3 SE Tangerine!
The Print Shop is a card-making software originally developed in 1984. The version we own, Print Shop Deluxe, is the 1993 version. If you want to try out making an early 2000s themed birthday card (or a very late Valentines’ Day card 😉), stop by the lab during our open hours and give it a try!
Object of the Week
The object of the week for this week is Mattel’s Power Glove!
I love the Power Glove. It’s so bad.
The Power Glove, originally released in 1989, was an accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was officially licensed by Nintendo, but was designed and distributed by Mattel. You might be familiar with it from the movie “The Wizard,” which was also released in 1989 and gave us the iconic phrase linked above.
Although most remember it as cheap, ineffectual, and indeed “bad,” the development process behind the Power Glove is actually quite interesting. This article by Mental Floss’s Jake Rossen goes into much more detail, but essentially the Power Glove was originally based on a $8800 NASA glove called the “Data Glove,” which was envisioned to help astronauts “control robots in space.” If that excerpt piqued your interest, then I 100% recommend giving Rossen’s article a read.
Our lab has a Power Glove in a display case near the main entrance to the ATEC building. Make sure to look out for it next time you stop by!
Movie Screening of the Month
We are still figuring out the process for reserving the Meteor Theatre so, until then, the dates of our monthly movie screenings are TBD. Thank you for your patience!
Lab Hours and Room Number
We are located in ATEC 1.705, right next to ATEC’s welcome center. Our open lab hours are:
Monday: 4:00pm-6:00pm
Tuesday: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Wednesday: 1:00pm-3:00pm
Thursday: 4:00pm-6:00pm
Thank you for reading our newsletter! We hope to see you soon and wish you a stress-free week.
Sincerely,
The Media Archeology Lab
The University of Texas at Dallas
