[22] Procastination is the Thief of Time

 Remember me?  I'm the guy that used to write occasional blog entries.

Each time I plan on it, I get sidetracked and put it off.  And then put it off again.  "I'll do it tomorrow."

So today, let me get back to an entry I intended to write in April.  It was after I took my yearly trip to Wall, New Jersey, to check out the annual VCF East Festival, run by the Vintage Computer Federation (formerly MARCH, or Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists)

Before I get there, though, I need to eat.

It's become somewhat a tradition of mine to start the morning there with some Cannoli Pancakes from the Sand Dollar Pancake House.  Along with a bottomless coffee.  Because breakfast IS the most important meal of the day.

First, the facility.  The VCF has a museum that, over the years, has grown into a large section of an abandoned barracks at a decommissioned army base.  Camp Evans was a major base in the development of technology such as radar, and as such, the main road it faces was long ago renamed Marconi Road.  A collection of smaller museums has been developed there, under the banner of InfoAge, that are mostly science-related.  While my visit was primarily to the Computer History Museum run by VCF, I have a soft spot for the Military Technology Museum of New Jersey.

Mostly cars and tanks you'd see in M*A*S*H or an Indiana Jones feature, but there's a lot of random, one-off production models to be found also.

But the main focus of my visit was the museum run by VCF, to see what was new.

The VCF museum has many systems that range from the very old...

...to the more recent.

And, of course, the show.  Some random shots:

And there's always a marketplace for those who wish to buy/sell/trade.  For those who know me as a reviewer at the TAG blog, I almost found some new games to play:

Back to the boardwalk at the end of the day, and a visit to another important destination.

How about a museum dedicated to 80 years or so of pinball machines (and a few other notables) which you can play unlimited, by the hour?

And then, the drive home.  All this is just about 2 hours from my house, so it's not an imposition.  (Anyone in the area, my lunch choice is a Korean-fusion taco place nearby...)

[21] Blame Canada

Let me get away from the computer screen for a little while.  I'll do something we haven't done in ages, and read a book.

My favorite author from age 8-13 or so was Gordan Korman, author of many books about kids my own age doing wacky and unusual things. About 20 years ago, I decided to start looking up some of his works on the internet, since I had long since given away or misplaced my books (or so I had thought).

[20] Do not pass GO, Do not collect $200.

As a kid, I always loved to play board games, even though my parents never really wanted to play them.  One of the favorites was, of course, Monopoly.  What kid wouldn't like this game, sculpted around (in some ways) the "American Dream"?

My family still has this edition somewhere, I hope.

The history of Monopoly is a storied one, with many books and documentaries about it.  One of my favorite books is a book about the history of Parker Brothers, which makes you almost long for the olden days, but there are many other sources as well.  The following is loosely adapted from another (perhaps slightly biased) account.

[19] Imitation is the Most Sincere Form of Flattery

I apologize for my absence.  Since my last post, I moved into a new house, helped family with an overseas move, and was otherwise procrastinating.  I started writing this post back when I was doing a playthrough for TAG, and almost from the start, I had to wrestle with the question of emulation.  After all, it's a DOS game from 1993.  I don't have a souped-up 386 sitting around, so I had to find other ways to run the program. 

Emulation isn't just about MS-DOS, but it's a starting point for this discussion.

Modern incarnations of Windows choke at the thought of running a DOS program.  So, over time, people have come up with ways to run the new programs, the ones the hardware merchants and operating system folks wish you would just forget about, so that they can sell you new replacements at a new higher profit.

[18] I Think I'm Gonna Be Back in Time...

 

A new post is coming soon.  Promise.

But until then, I'm doing another playthrough for the community over at The Adventurer's Guild, for the Coktel Vision 1993 release of Lost in Time.

Introduction Post

Gameplay Post 1

Gameplay Post 2

Gameplay Post 3

Gameplay Post 4

Gameplay Post 5

Gameplay Post 6

Gameplay Post 7

Final Review & Scoring