spring-2025 – MediaArchaeologyLab

Entries, Newsletter, Spring 2025

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 32: Wrapping Up the Semester

Hello all!

First of all, sorry for the radio silence! It has been a hectic couple of weeks for us.

We wanted to extend a thank you to everyone who attended the Halo LAN party two weeks ago! That event was more successful than we could have hoped for, and we hope you had as much of a blast playing as we did hosting.

Future Newsletters

Due to the rapidly approaching finals season, this will likely be our final newsletter for the semester. We will be sending another smaller email next week just to remind you all about our upcoming movie screening and to provide any updates regarding open lab hours, but after that, the next time you hear from us may be next Fall.

Open Lab Hours

As the semester comes to a finish, we will be closing our current open lab hours to begin preparing for this summer’s Vintage Computing Festival. This means that around May 12th, our current tentative closing date, we will not be providing open lab hours until the beginning of next semester. At the beginning of the Fall semester, after we have figured out our student workers’ and volunteers’ schedule availability, we will send out an email and update our website with new open lab hours.

If anything regarding this changes, we will provide more information in a future email.

Demo of the Week

The demo of the week this week is Grim Fandango on the Dell PC!

Stop by the lab and play this classic adventure game!

Object of the Week

The object of the week is the Space Shuttle Phone!

Originally made in 1986 by Electrical and Electronic Factory Limited (a fact that I was unfortunately only able to verify through an eBay listing, since it does not seem to have a page of its own on other vintage phone websites), this novelty telephone is part of our growing assortment of working vintage phones. Currently, it is hooked up to “Cat Facts,” a program supplied by the wonderful people at SneakyNet, a telephone service provider for Vintage Computing Festival Southwest.

If you are interested in using landline or touch tone telephones, the lab has several different models that we are currently experimenting with. Please be aware however that you are not able to call any outside numbers, including 911, from these phones.

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: 1:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Tuesday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Wednesday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

Thursday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Friday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

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 2025

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 30: Welcome Back!

Hello all!

We hope you had a lovely spring break!

There are no events coming up this or next week, but we will be having a movie screening on April 3^rd. You can expect to hear more details about the screening in next week’s newsletter issue.

In the meantime, our open-lab hours have returned to what they were prior to spring break. You can reference these hours at the bottom of this newsletter or by visiting our website.

Demo of the Week

The demo of the week is Spider Solitaire on the Dell PC!

Stop by the lab to experience a nostalgic classic using a computer running Windows XP!

Object of the Week

The object of the week is the Sony Micro TV Model 5-303W!

This TV, released in 1962 in the U.S., is a lot smaller than it seems. Its antenna is able to pick up VHF television signals; you can use the handle near the top of the antenna to move and adjust it towards the direction with the clearest signal reception. Our model also came with a fairly swanky carrying case, although this is not pictured in the above photo.

Fascinatingly, our model also included the forms, receipt, and packaged documents from when it was initially purchased!

The U.K. based Science Museum Group has a silver edition of our model available in their collection, so if you would like to learn more about it, you can check out this linked page from their website to learn a little more about it.

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: 1:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Tuesday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Wednesday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

Thursday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Friday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

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 2025

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 28: Fantasia Screening This Thursday @ 7p.m.!

Hello all!

We hope you’ve been doing well! Although midterms are rapidly approaching, we hope you still have some time to spare to relax and watch a movie with us. 😊

Fantasia Screening This Thursday @ 7p.m.

Have you ever seen Fantasia? If not, you should join us this Thursday (March 6th) at 7:00p.m. in ATC3.705, because we are once again collaborating with the Games and Media Library to host a movie screening! Make sure to bring your Comet Card for check in.

Demo of the Week

The demo of the week is Deimos Rising on the iMac G4.

Don’t forget to stop by the lab and play this classic game on one of our vintage computers!

Object of the Week

The object of the week is this 56k Windows Internal Modem!

This modem is perhaps a little too old for our Dell Tower PC.

Before broadband internet became the norm around the early 2000s, dial-up modems were the most common medium for accessing the internet. While currently less than 1% of the US still uses dial-up internet (HowToGeek), its influence on life today is evident in both computing history as well as internet culture; you have likely heard the infamous modem dial-up tone, or heard someone make a joke about being kicked off of the computer so that their parents could make a phone call.

If you’d like to learn more about the history of dial-up internet, this article from HowToGeek offers a brief and interesting introduction. This YouTube video showcases an example of what a dial-up modem handshake sounds like, and if you are curious about what is happening behind the scenes, the description links an excellent write-up by Oona Räisänen describing exactly what is going on step-by-step.

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: 1:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Tuesday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Wednesday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

Thursday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Friday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

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 2025

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 27: DIY Shirt Design Event This Thursday @ 7:00p.m.!

Hello all!

We hope you’ve been doing well! We’ve been busy for the past few weeks preparing something fun for you all. 😊

DIY Shirt Design with KidPix!

This Thursday (Feb. 20th) from 7:00p.m. – 9:00p.m., we will be collaborating with the Games & Media Library for a fun DIY shirt-making event—with a twist!

Do you have fond memories of messing around with KidPix Studio as a child? We have several computers that run it, and, during this T-shirt event, you will be able to have any art you make on them printed on any cotton T-shirt you bring with you! The event will be hosted in the Media Archeology Lab’s room in ATC1.705, so make sure to stop by.

Demo of the Week

The demo of the week is Cave Story on the iMac G4!

Come on over and try out one of the original releases of this classic video game!

Object of the Week

The object of the week is the First-Generation iPad!

Look at the massive bevels on that thing!

It’s hard to imagine a college classroom now without at least one student taking notes using a tablet. While the iPad was not the first electronic tablet, it was by far the most famous and influential, kickstarting the massive market for tablet computers that we now have today. This article from Cult Of Mac is a great rundown of the iPad’s initial reception and success. It also briefly touches on some of Apple’s prior attempts at making a tablet, such as the Newton MessagePad, which is a device interesting enough to warrant its own object of the week sometime 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: 1:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Tuesday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Wednesday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

Thursday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Friday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

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 2025

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 25: Princess Bride Screening This Thursday @ 7:00pm!

Hello all!

We hope you had a decent first month of classes! To start off the week, we have a couple of announcements regarding our next event as well as our open lab hours.

Updated Open Lab Hours

Open lab hours have been decided for the semester! You can find them further down in the newsletter, where they will continue to be listed in each email. They’re also listed on the front page of our website for ease of access.

The Princess Bride Screening

This upcoming Thursday, on February 6^th at 7:00p.m., we will be collaborating with the Games and Media Library to screen The Princess Bride!

We thought we’d celebrate Valentines’ Day a bit early with this classic movie. Just like the previous semester, this screening will be happening at the Games and Media Library’s room, located at ATC3.705. Make sure to bring your Comet Card, since you will likely need it to sign in.

Demo of the Week

Our highlighted demo for this week is Oregon Trail on the Macintosh SE.

Stop by the lab to experience this classic video game on a classic machine!

Object of the Week

Our object of the week is the NeXTSTEP Operating System!

A screenshot of NeXTSTEP version 3.3 from the infinitemac.org online emulator.

The NeXTSTEP Operating System may be something you have never heard much about, if at all, unless you’re invested in Apple computing history, because the machines that ran this operating system, the NeXT Computers, were incredibly expensive commercial failures, developed by Steve Jobs during the brief period in the late 80s and early 90s when he had resigned from Apple to create his own company. Despite this, it is somehow the foundation behind every modern Apple device you have used (Apple Insider).

This operating system was used to create the World Wide Web and the original Doom (which I found out from this HowToGeek article). It also had the first App Store, it was the originator of the macOS Dock, and it was one of the first major GUIs to feature “large full-color icons” for various applications (you can read more from this DigitalTrends article).

If you’d like to learn more about the history behind the NeXT Computers or the operating system, in addition to the great writeups already linked, I’d also highly recommend reading this Apple Insider article (it is very interesting and explains a lot of the history behind these machines).

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: 1:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Tuesday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Wednesday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

Thursday: 12:00p.m. – 4:00p.m.

Friday: 1:00p.m. – 8:00p.m.

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 2025

Media Archeology Newsletter Week 24: Happy New Year & Welcome Back!

Happy New Year & Welcome Back!

We hope you had a refreshing winter break! We’re excited to be back for yet another school year, and have been quite busy these past few weeks getting everything set up and ready for you.

Movie Screenings & Events

This semester, we are continuing our collaboration with the Games & Media Library to host monthly movie screenings and events. Details are mostly but not completely finalized, so you can expect to hear more about them soon! Updates regarding our upcoming events be disseminated in our newsletter each week as well as posted on our website, which you can access by navigating to https://labs.utdallas.edu/mediaarchaeologylab/ in your preferred web browser.

Open Lab Hours

As we have in previous semesters, we will once again be hosting open hours every week where anyone who is interested in demoing our vintage machines, looking around at our collection of antique devices, or just hanging out with us will be able to visit.

Our lab hours for this semester are not yet finalized, but as soon as they are, they will be announced in the newsletter as well as on the lab’s website.

Additionally, please note that because our open hours are hosted entirely by student volunteers and researchers, our lab will be closed during academically busy weeks, such as Midterms or Finals week, and our hours may be subject to change if our volunteer’s availability changes. We will try to keep you up to date through email if this happens.

Anything Else?

Nope! We are not having any major changes to the format of the newsletter, but if anything comes up, we will let you know.

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