Tag: fall-2024

Entries, Fall 2024, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 20: Gaming Gauntlet Showdown! Tomorrow @ 5-9p.m

Hello all!

We hope you’ve been doing well! Things have been going smoothly and steadily over at the lab.

The Gaming Gauntlet Showdown

The Media Archeology Lab and Games and Media Library are hosting a games tournament tomorrow, Oct. 15, from 5pm-9pm located inside ATC 3.705. Come and duke it out in a variety of different vintage video games!

Demo of the Week

The demo of the week is Blade Runner on the Dell PC!

Come visit us and play this classic video game on a vintage Windows machine!

Object of the Week

The object of the week is the Apple Yum Advertisement Poster!

If you have entered the lab then you have seen this poster. We have it framed on our wall, and when our lab first opened to the public in 2023, we had all our vintage iMacs arranged on our circular white table as a reference to this poster.

This advertising campaign is so iconic that Apple’s new line of iMacs directly references it.

While we do not currently have our iMacs G3s arranged like this advertisement, we still have some available for public demo during our lab hours. So, if you are curious about the original colorful jellybean Macs, make sure to stop by our lab!

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: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Tuesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Wednesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Thursday: 1:00pm-3:00pm

Friday: 2:00pm-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 2024, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 19: Alien Screening Tomorrow @ 7pm!

Hello all!

We hope you’re doing well and surviving midterms! It has been a busy two weeks for us at the lab.

Alien Screening on October 1st!

Tomorrow, located in ATC 3.705 at 7p.m., The Media Archeology Lab is once again collaborating with the Games & Media Library to host a movie screening! You will need your Comet Card to enter, so make sure you remember to bring it with you! 

 We hope to see you there. 

Demo of the Week

The demo of the week is Unreal Tournament on our Dell PC! 

Stop by during our open hours and enjoy a session of this classic game. 

Object of the Week

The object of the week this week is the Apple Lisa! 

If you are not already aware of it, the Apple Lisa is an extremely historically important computer. The computer cost $9,995 USD in 1983 upon its release, which is roughly equivalent to $32,171.64 today according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ online inflation calculator. Its operating system was called Lisa OS, and featured a very early graphical user interface (as opposed to being an Apple DOS or another command-line based operating system). You can read more about it from its article on computerhistory.org by clicking here.

The Lisa: Apple’s Most Influential FailureCHM publicly releases the source code to Apple’s Lisa computer, including its system and applications software.computerhistory.org

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: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Tuesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Wednesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Thursday: 1:00pm-3:00pm

Friday: 2:00pm-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 2024, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 18: (Not) Your Parents’ Board Games, Tomorrow @ 5pm!

Hello all!

Hello all! We hope you’ve been having a wonderful week. We’ve been busy preparing for tomorrow night’s event. 

(Not) Your Parents’ Board Games Night

Tomorrow, from 5pm-7pm in the ATC Lobby, we will be co-hosting Not Your Parents’ Board Games Night with the Games & Media Library! Stop by the ATC building and explore these vintage board games with us, and bring your own if you have one. We hope to see you there! 

Object of the Week

Our object of the week is the Rotary Dial Phone! 

Dead, but not forgotten. If you are under the age of 40 you have likely seen this kind of telephone through re-airs of old cartoons, such as Tom & Jerry or the Looney Tunes. If not, you likely remember using one! The beautiful red phone pictured is one currently on display inside our ATC lab, so if you would like to try dialing one in-person, come and visit us during our open hours! 

You can check out this short silent film from 1927 for a guide on how to use a rotary dial phone, or this website from 2004 by William Lee Roberts if you want to see a visual history of the evolution of old rotary telephones. 

Lab Hours and Room Number

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

Monday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Tuesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Wednesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Thursday: 1:00pm-3:00pm

Friday: 2:00pm-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

Fall 2024, Newsletter

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 17: (Not) Your Parents’ Board Game Night!

Greetings and Salutations!

Last week’s film screening, which was located in the Games & Media Library.

Hello all! We hope you have been having a good first month of the semester. 😊  

Before we get things started for this week, we’d like to extend a big thank you to everyone who came and watched Part 1 of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with us last Tuesday! We had an absolute blast hosting you all, and we hope you had a great time too. 

(Not) Your Parents’ Board Games Night

Next week, on September 17th from 5:00pm-9:00pm in the ATC Lobby, we will be collaborating with the Games & Media Library to host a vintage board game night! Come stop by and experience old and forgotten table top games with us. If you have one of your own, feel free to bring it with you! 

Demo of the Week

The demo of the week this week is Neverwinter Nights on the iMac G4!

Stop by the lab to play this classic RPG on a contemporary vintage machine! 

Object of the Week

Our object of the week is the Tomy Chatbot! 

The Tomy Chatbot was a remote-controlled robot from the mid 1980s that also had a built-in tape recorder. This allowed the owner of the robot to “deliver” a message. Because of the way the arms of the robot were designed, it was also able to carry a small tray around.  

Unfortunately, it seems the poor Chatbot was overshadowed by its more well-known cousins, the Tomy Omnibot line of personal robots, as there is not as much information about it available as there are for the Omnibots. If you are interested in various personal robots from the early 80s-90s, this website hobbyist website from 2008 has a massive collection of information on them available. If you don’t like dated websites from 2008, they’ve also been briefly mentioned in a PCMag article as the “ultimate platform for vicarious, vulgar jokes” due to the ability to record pranks on them and send them into another room. 

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: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Tuesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Wednesday: 2:00pm-4:00pm

Thursday: 1:00pm-3:00pm

Friday: 2:00pm-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