The Comdyna GP-6 is an analog computer from the late 1960s. The first question you might ask after looking at it is “how am I supposed to use this?” After looking up the operator’s manual as well as several YouTube videos, from what I could gather you would use various banana connectors to input information about the different variables involved in an equation, each variable set to a different “channel” of the computer, and the Comdyna GP-6 would compute the result and send it to output. Most applications I’ve found online of this computer seem to be for solving differential equations. To visualize the result of the program, you would often connect an oscilloscope to the computer (shown in this paper by Ray Spiess, the inventor the computer, on page 69).
Looking at it, you may think its relevancy ended after other non-analog computers, such as the Apple Lisa or TRS-80, were produced, but according to Ray Speiss it was in production for at least 36 years after its initial creation (p. 68). The previously linked paper goes into more detail, but essentially it was a very popular machine for teaching control systems to students in universities, as well as for a few other very specialized lines of work (Speiss p.70).
Note: This email was originally titled “Media Archeology Lab Newsletter Week 9: Spring Break Hours,” which was in error. However, renaming it would require renaming the rest of the newsletters and adding this notice in each of them, which is work that will perhaps be done in the future.
Hello all, and good luck on midterms!
Good afternoon! We hope any exams you have this week have been going well. We are very much looking forward to spring break. Speaking of which, please be aware that the lab will be closed over spring break. Since the lab is closed, there also won’t be a newsletter that week.
Demo of the Week
The demo of the week this week is SimCity 2000 on the iMac G3 Lime!
Come over to the lab during open hours to have some fun building a city on a period-accurate piece of hardware!
Object of the Week
The object of the week this week is the Comdyna GP-6!
The Comdyna GP-6 is an analog computer from the late 1960s. The first question you might ask after looking at it is “how am I supposed to use this?” After looking up the operator’s manual as well as several YouTube videos, from what I could gather you would use various banana connectors to input information about the different variables involved in an equation, each variable set to a different “channel” of the computer, and the Comdyna GP-6 would compute the result and send it to output. Most applications I’ve found online of this computer seem to be for solving differential equations. To visualize the result of the program, you would often connect an oscilloscope to the computer (shown in this paper by Ray Spiess, the inventor the computer, on page 69).
Looking at it, you may think its relevancy ended after other non-analog computers, such as the Apple Lisa or TRS-80, were produced, but according to Ray Speiss it was in production for at least 36 years after its initial creation (p. 68). The previously linked paper goes into more detail, but essentially it was a very popular machine for teaching control systems to students in universities, as well as for a few other very specialized lines of work (Speiss p.70).
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.
During the late 90s, these creatures were everywhere. Did you know they were, in part, influenced by the Tamagotchi? According to this article (which is a fascinating read), one of the big inspirations for the Furby was because the main architect of the toy, David Hampton, was disappointed that you “couldn’t pet” a Tamagotchi. Another part of what made Furbies such a hit was the innovative approach taken during their development; in order to stand out among many of the electronic toys of the time, the creators of the Furby decided to make it seem as if it had a life of its own, which, as Peters explains in the linked Bustle article, is also why they can also be seen as creepy. They are supposed to learn, adapt, and talk to each other.
We are big fans of the Furby here at the lab; we think they are ugly in an endearing way, which is why we have at least three of them. We have positioned them to guard our Laserdisc collection. They don’t quite work, so we don’t know what their personal opinions on our multitude of different movies and vinyl records are, but perhaps, in the future… 😉
We hope you’ve been doing well. We do not have any major announcements or updates for this week, but we are steadily working on various projects and plans.
Demo of the Week
The demo of the week this week is Nanosaur, on the iMac G3 Strawberry!
This demo is a personal favorite of the lab, so if you have seen it mentioned here before, that’s why! If you are at all competitive, you should come over and try and beat our high score! 😊
Object of the Week
The object of this week this week are the lab’s resident Furbies!
During the late 90s, these creatures were everywhere. Did you know they were, in part, influenced by the Tamagotchi? According to this article (which is a fascinating read), one of the big inspirations for the Furby was because the main architect of the toy, David Hampton, was disappointed that you “couldn’t pet” a Tamagotchi. Another part of what made Furbies such a hit was the innovative approach taken during their development; in order to stand out among many of the electronic toys of the time, the creators of the Furby decided to make it seem as if it had a life of its own, which, as Peters explains in the linked Bustle article, is also why they can also be seen as creepy. They are supposed to learn, adapt, and talk to each other.
We are big fans of the Furby here at the lab; we think they are ugly in an endearing way, which is why we have at least three of them. We have positioned them to guard our Laserdisc collection. They don’t quite work, so we don’t know what their personal opinions on our multitude of different movies and vinyl records are, but perhaps, in the future… 😉
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.
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!
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.
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.
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. 😉)
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.
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.
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.
