Author: Oliver Davies

Entries, Newsletter, Spring 2024

Media Archeology Lab Newsletter Week 8: New Open Hours!

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

Entries, Newsletter, Spring 2024

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 7: Welcome Back! Updates & Other Information

> 10 PRINT “Welcome Back!” 

> 20 END 

Hello all! We hope you’ve had a calm and uneventful first month of classes.😊 To start off our emails for this semester, we would like to inform you of a few changes and updates. 

Updated Hours 

Our open lab hours are in the process of being updated due to the changing availability of our student researchers. We have not finalized our new open lab hours yet, but they will be available by next Monday, so stay tuned! Because we do not have finalized open lab hours, we will not be demonstrating a demo or object this week. 

Movie Screenings 

Continuing from last semester, we will be having monthly movie screenings. Depending on how things go, we may have a new location for our screenings; some of the lab members are working to see if we can reserve the Meteor Theatre on campus, but this is also tentative as of now. Until then, screenings will still be available at our usual location in the ATEC building. 

Future Workshops 

The preparations for a TRS-80 repair workshop are currently underway. We are planning on having it this semester, if all goes to plan. 

Objects & Demos of the Week 

We will be continuing last semester’s Object and Demo of the week sections. Every week, we will pick an object from our lab or display cases and a piece of vintage software or media running on one of our old computers to showcase in this newsletter. We hope you are looking forward to reading about some of the esoteric items in our collection. 

That’s all for this week’s letter. Thank you for reading through until the end! We hope to see you soon and wish you a stress-free week. 

Sincerely, 

The Media Archeology Lab 

The University of Texas at Dallas

Collection, Computing Machines, Object of the Week

Apple eMate 300

It was one of the earlier examples of a touchscreen laptop; released in 1997 (which you might notice is extremely close to the release date of the iMac G3 in 1999), it is kind of similar to a Microsoft Surface laptop today. However, unlike the Surface, the eMate was not all that powerful, and was actually intended mostly for use in schools by young children. This is the main reason for its striking appearance, which even back in the time it was originally released looked more like a plastic toy than a laptop. 

You may be surprised to learn that despite looking like a cheap toy, the Florida police department had plans to replace their computers with the eMate due to it being cheap and user friendly, as described in this article from MacWorld by Benj Edwards. 

(Psst. You might also be interested to learn about the rest of the Apple Newton line of devices; where the eMate 300 is an early predecessor for a touchscreen laptop, the other Newtons were a predecessor for what we would call a tablet today. 😉) 

Entries, Fall 2023, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 6: Movie Screening Tomorrow!

Winter Break Approaches! 

We hope you’ve all been well. We can’t believe it’s already December… Our movie screening for the month is tomorrow! Come drop by and say hi and watch Rock & Rule with us 😊  

Winter Break Hours 

Since this is the last week of school, this will likely be the last weekly email of this semester—at least, until the next semester starts. So, if you do not receive the newsletter next week or during break, that is why! 

Additionally, during winter break, the media archeology lab will be closed. 

Demo of the Week 

Our demo of the week this week is Exploring Apple Logo on the Apple //c! 

This program is a basic introduction to Logo, a programming language at the time that specialized in creating vector graphics. 

Object of the Week 

This week’s object is the Apple eMate 300! 

It was one of the earlier examples of a touchscreen laptop; released in 1997 (which you might notice is extremely close to the release date of the iMac G3 in 1999), it is kind of similar to a Microsoft Surface laptop today. However, unlike the Surface, the eMate was not all that powerful, and was actually intended mostly for use in schools by young children. This is the main reason for its striking appearance, which even back in the time it was originally released looked more like a plastic toy than a laptop. 

You may be surprised to learn that despite looking like a cheap toy, the Florida police department had plans to replace their computers with the eMate due to it being cheap and user friendly, as described in this article from MacWorld by Benj Edwards. 

(Psst. You might also be interested to learn about the rest of the Apple Newton line of devices; where the eMate 300 is an early predecessor for a touchscreen laptop, the other Newtons were a predecessor for what we would call a tablet today. 😉) 

Movie Screening of the Month 

Our upcoming screening will be on December 5th at 7pm (tomorrow!).   

Come join us and watch this classic film! 

Lab Hours and Room Number 

We are located in ATEC 1.705, right next to ATEC’s welcome center. Our open lab hours are: 

Tuesday: 10:00am-5:00pm 

Wednesday: 2:00pm-6:00pm 

Thursday: 10:00am-4:00pm 

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 

Entries, Fall 2023, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 5: Welcome Back!

Hello all! 

Welcome back from fall break! We hope you had a good time resting and are renewed for the final leg of the fall semester. 

Demo of the Week 

The demo of the week for this week is Macintosh 128k. 

Object of the Week 

The object of the week this week is the iDog. 

Released in 2005, the iDog was both a toy and a speaker for the iPod, which was itself originally released in 2001. At the time the iDog was released, the iPod was massively successful, providing the public a truly sleek, portable MP3 player. If you want a glimpse into news articles describing it at the time of release, this article from 2005 provides an interesting glimpse into the past. 

Movie Screening of the Month 

Our upcoming screening will be on December 7th at 7pm. We will be watching Rock & Rule directed by Clive A. Smith. 

Come join us and watch this classic film!

Lab Hours and Room Number 

We are located in ATEC 1.705, right next to ATEC’s welcome center. Our open lab hours are: 

Tuesday: 10:00am-5:00pm 

Wednesday: 2:00pm-6:00pm 

Thursday: 10:00am-4:00pm 

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 

Collection, Computing Machines, Object of the Week

Nintendo Famicon

This is an Object of the Week post from the newsletter, originally posted November 13, 2023. I believe one of the lab members owned a Famicon at the time, but I do not think we have one inventoried.

The Famicon, the shortened nickname given to the Nintendo Family Computer and more famously known in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System (aka the NES), was one of Nintendo’s first video game consoles. 

However, as you might notice, the Famicon is strikingly different in appearance from the NES. Despite being the same console as the NES, it has a completely different design. Why is that?  During the Famicon’s initial release in Japan, the video game industry in the US was actually undergoing a massive recession. 

This Wikipedia article and this article have more information, but during 1983, the US video game market was severely struggling. There were too many video game consoles on the market and most of the games for them were awful. Additionally, while this was happening, the Famicon was not meeting immediate success in Japan; its launch was riddled with a few critical issues, and so it had to be recalled and revised before it started meeting demand. As a result of both of these things, initially, Nintendo did not plan to release the Famicon to American audiences at all. However, after the Famicon’s technical issues were resolved and it became a hit in Japan, Nintendo started slowly releasing versions of it in American arcades and, seeing its success there, started thinking once more of a US release. They eventually decided to release a completely re-designed version of the Famicon as the NES, to smashing success.

Entries, Fall 2023, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 4: Fall Break Hours & December Screening Info

Fall Break Approaches…

Hello all! 

We hope you’ve been having a good week and are staying safe and warm. We don’t have any major announcements but would like to inform you that during fall break the lab will likely not be open to visitors. Additionally, there will not be a newsletter sent next week, but the following Monday we should be back and ready to roll.

Thanksgiving Break Hours 

During the break, we will be keeping the lab closed to visitors.  

Demo of the Week 

This week, we will be demoing Bugdom on the iMac G3 SE Indigo, 

And High Rollers on the Apple //c. 

Object of the Week 

Our featured object this week is Nintendo’s Famicom. 

The Famicon, the shortened nickname given to the Nintendo Family Computer and more famously known in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System (aka the NES), was one of Nintendo’s first video game consoles. 

However, as you might notice, the Famicon is strikingly different in appearance from the NES. Despite being the same console as the NES, it has a completely different design. Why is that?  During the Famicon’s initial release in Japan, the video game industry in the US was actually undergoing a massive recession. 

This Wikipedia article and this article have more information, but during 1983, the US video game market was severely struggling. There were too many video game consoles on the market and most of the games for them were awful. Additionally, while this was happening, the Famicon was not meeting immediate success in Japan; its launch was riddled with a few critical issues, and so it had to be recalled and revised before it started meeting demand. As a result of both of these things, initially, Nintendo did not plan to release the Famicon to American audiences at all. However, after the Famicon’s technical issues were resolved and it became a hit in Japan, Nintendo started slowly releasing versions of it in American arcades and, seeing its success there, started thinking once more of a US release. They eventually decided to release a completely re-designed version of the Famicon as the NES, to smashing success.

Movie Screening of the Month 

Our upcoming screening will be on December 7th at 7pm. We will be screening Rock & Rule, directed by Clive A. Smith! 

Come join us and watch a classic film as it would’ve been seen during the 90s! 

Lab Hours and Room Number 

We are located in ATEC 1.705, right next to ATEC’s welcome center. Our open lab hours are: 

Tuesday: 10:00am-5:00pm 

Wednesday: 2:00pm-6:00pm 

Thursday: 10:00am-4:00pm 

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 

Entries, Fall 2023, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 3: Good Evening! 😎

System.out.println(“Good evening!”); 

We hope you all are enjoying the cooler weather this week! We are having a more relaxed week at the lab after Halloween, so there is nothing major to announce on our end. 

Demo of the Week 

We have two demos this week! 

The Grape iMac G3 will be running Microsoft Office applications from the year 2001, 

and the Strawberry iMac SE will be running the video game Nanosaur. 

Drop by the lab to mess around with either of these applications! 

Object of the Week 

Our object this week is the TR-005 Television! 

Every decade or so a new technological breakthrough will come up, one that often fascinates our collective imagination. The year 1961 launched one of these collective dreams, one in which humanity could break through the outermost layers of our stratosphere and have human bodies (as well as dogs and monkeys), whimsically facing the lack of our planet’s gravitational pull. That was the one of the very first milestones in the space race, which culminated in the Apollo 11 moon landing in July of 1969. 

Human fascination with space rocket technology then filled our collective imagination and spread out to consumer goods as the aesthetics of Space Age futurism were designed into household appliances, architecture, and cars in order to create the impression of technological advancement. Panasonic was one of the many companies that took advantage of this aesthetic. 

In 1966, Panasonic launched the TR-005, also known as the Orbitel. A five-inch CRT screen encased by two silver plastic hemispheres, the Orbitel was designed to look Space Age, resembling an astronaut helmet or an alien spaceship. It was built using cutting edge “solid state” technology, which meant that its futuristic case was filled with circuit boards instead of the more, at the time, common nixie/vacuum tubes. In its ads, Panasonic would boast that the TV would not need to be “warmed up” before a bright, greyscale, clear image would form on its CRT screen. 

While not currently located in our lab, you can still view this dreamy television set sitting proudly in one of our display cabinets at the ATEC building. 

Movie Screening of the Month 

Our upcoming screening will be on December 7th at 7pm. The film we will be screening has yet to be decided, but closer to the date we will let you know what we will be watching. 

Lab Hours and Room Number 

We are located in ATEC 1.705, right next to ATEC’s welcome center. Our open lab hours are: 

Tuesday: 10:00am-5:00pm 

Wednesday: 2:00pm-6:00pm 

Thursday: 10:00am-4:00pm 

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