In late 1982, my best friend had a Sony TCS-310 Stereo Cassette Recorder. Audio cassette tape was the affordable recording media at the time and one wintery November day while on our way to the arcade ‘Just Fun’ in Ithaca, NY, we came up with the idea to record video game sounds. —Daniel P. Hower —Classic Arcade Sounds: Hear for Yourself (CoinOpVideoGames.com)
Visuals, schmizuals! We don’t need no steenkin visuals! Thanks to Mike Sichok for pointing out this little piece of heaven. Mike writes,
I love that you can also hear adjacent games in the background.. such as if you pick “Zaxxon,” you can also hear “Berzerk” and “Frogger” being played nearby. I forgot how ear shattering loud games were back then.. I remember a ton of bass, such as in “Tron,” and “Asteroids,” but geez. Hardcore…. kill the lights, turn on the blacklights, and turn this up.. I am in vintage bliss.
What T.S. Eliot wrote about writing applies equally well here to gaming technology:
You wouldn’t have your playstation if there hadn’t been a generation of gamers who loved Atari and Magnavox. You wouldn’t have your iPod if there hadn’t been a generation that jogged around with their Sony Walkman or installed 8-track players in their fake-wood-paneled station wagons.
One day, Kevin, you’ll be an oldster saying, “Back in my day, we didn’t have subdermal holographic implants. And if we were hungry, we had to get up, walk to the refrigerator, take out the food, put it in our mouths, and chew it ourselves without help from genetically modified intelligent houseplants. Three times a day, every day!”
Personally, I’m a Sony Playstation 2 and iPod man myself. My young age and my complete ignorance may prevent me from seeing the significance of “old school” technology. Nevertheless, I know that they were the precursors for all of the lovely gadgets that we have today. Our reaction (as a society) to some of these devices reminds me of the popular 1980’s kids show “Inspector Gadget”. We have so many gadgets and have no idea to use most of them. GO GO GADGET !!