The Computer Chronicles - Computer Games (1985)

Special thanks to archive.org for hosting these episodes. Downloads of all these episodes and more can be found at: archive.org/details/computerch...

[@lancelovecraft5913]

I just love the way ppl spoke back then. So professional. I watch the computer chronicles to relax and listen to their voices

[@zobook]

You're not alone. That's why there are ASMR edits of TCC.

[@jessihawkins9116]

there’s still professionalism on tv. Try watching cnn.

[@oksyar]

OMG, i was thinking the same, they are soooo amazing specially that blue lady and Gary Kindall. The way they speak, their voice their humor their style, i am totally blown away. Soooo wish i could meet these guys. I hate how time works!!!!

[@oksyar]

@@jessihawkins9116 yes but this is much more special and remember it was a TV show not news channel. Try comparing it to any TV Show of today's world.

[@CloneShockTrooper]

Totally get you 😊

[@GeoChild]

I played Ghostbusters on the Commodore 64 when I was a kid. Fantastic game. The graphics blew my mind back in the day!

[@justinandmaxgames5472]

I had it on the Atari 800XL - I was a teen - long for those days...!

[@ibazulic]

This lady Kathy Spracklen is just amazing. She speaks with so much joy about her invention, so much pride, it's amazing to watch.

[@erickleefeld4883]

I miss giant eyeglasses being more common. They're so comfortable to actually look through.

[@andersdenkend]

Yeah. I wear glasses and need sun glasses with eye sight. So instead of always removing them and putting on my regular glasses I just keep them on most of the time when I'm indoors. Peoplr are probably thinking: "What a douche!"

[@dexterford8094]

I have a copy of Dan and Kathe Spracklen's Sargon book. I remember typing the program into a mainframe computer, writing a Z80 Assembler in COBOL, and then manually loading the generated hex code into my Z80 system so I could have a chess program. Worked on it for months, but never succeeded in getting it going. I did, however, learn a lot about the Z80 and how to write cross assemblers during this exercise. Fun Days! Loved them!

[@csmith9684]

You can only truly see how amazing the next big tech is only after seeing what was before it.i feel lucky i was alive to see the start of: pong, Atari, C64, Cable TV (still remember the cable guy walking door-to-door with clip board asking us kids about this new TV tech.) then beepers, , cells phones, Internet (dial-up), 3dFX Voodoo Fx (lol) to DSL, Flat Screen TVs to CRT's to High Speed cable to HD TV's to LCD's 5.1 Surround sound - 7.1 ++ to Gig Speed + Fiber..... to everything in-between -you know what i mean.

[@alles_klar]

"Macintosh is a very very powerful computer", says man who just waited 5 seconds for a window to resize.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

RIP Infocom. I spent many a day working my way through your games. Hitchhiker's Guide stands out as one of my favorites.

[@spearPYN]

Interactive Fiction community was huge in the 90s, but Infocom is still the best company that produced them in the 80s.

[@JohnMichaelson]

It was great that Stuart and Gary would do these gaming episodes and not dismiss game design and programming as something trivial for kids and beneath wasting time on.

[@Maskddingo]

Perfect! He pulls out E.T.. I'm sure tht was done on purpose while talking about 'hard times' for video games.

[@calvinsaxon5822]

I doubt he had to walk very far to run into one. It looked the entire bargain bin was filled with just E.T...Wait, was he in New Mexico?

[@jcp012000]

Lady Sargon can see into next year with those glasses

[@misterskippy2u]

Great lineup of stocks shown in the Millionaire game! Bendix, American Motors, Tandy, Sears, Kmart.

[@AlainHubert]

Charming, smart lady, and humble too. Dan Spracklen (her husband) is a lucky fellow. This is the kind of high quality TV programs that's missing these days. BTW, I own the chess computer shown at the beginning of the program. It's called the Milton Bradley Grandmaster that came out in 1983. The later version (1988) called Fidelity Phantom Chess 6100 (which I also own), has a version of Kathe & Dan Spracklen software in it, and it plays quite a good game of chess (ELO 1835).

[@wohlhabendermanager]

I agree, Kathe is a very charming woman. I also found an interview of Dan and Kathe from 2005: www.computerhistory.org/chess/orl-43343fb422232/ Seems like she has lost nothing of her charm. :)

[@cubematrixstudio7605]

I bought a copy of Sargon III in 1979 it was in assembly language. I never got around to finish creating a version for my Heathkit H88... mostly because of how long it took to compile and for my cassette tape storage to save the code... I dreaded having to save over and over and run the risk of a single unwritten bit corrupting the whole program... Good times!

[@filipsostaricc]

The way people spoke fascinated me. Genuine emotion and soul in your time. Thank you for the history.

[@MrFaceHead]

It always sucks being the Infocom rep sitting next to the guy with the fancy schmancy graphics. What does the future hold? More text I think. Only text. Text is good.

[@frother]

I thought his pitch was a lot more interesting than the Ghostbusters guy with the universe's most slowrolled demo

[@ryanyoder7573]

I’m going to make a text game free to play but with loot boxes. Bring it into the modern era.

[@bertwhetstone3173]

I took it the opposite way. With all respect to David Crane, Infocom had a far more interesting and sophisticated product than "Ghostbusters" and Crane's pitch in this interview is frankly embarassing. But I grew up with all these games, most of them were great in their own way.

[@MrJWTH]

@@frother It make sense since it would take more effort to get people interested in a text only game over a game based on a hit film.

[@GeoChild]

With games like Baldur’s Gate 3 out now, we can have both graphics and the depth of text. 👍🏾

[@tbk2010]

That intro was perfect. It's like they knew the E.T. game would become a meme some day.

[@rerun3283]

I miss going to computer game stores and looking to see what's new. Steam is great and i like that too but it was nice having actual stores.

[@jamesg872]

There is a wealth of information about the systems and software of this critical time in computing history. Not to mention the people, who are true pioneers.

[@Dazlidorne]

7:35 This reminds me of when I wrote a program called The Algebra Tutor or TAT in the eighth or ninth grade. I was failing Algebra at the time, but I was able to design a program for the Commodore 64 that taught you Algebra and also quizzed you. I entered it in both the math and science fairs and my Algebra teacher actually passed me one semester even though I had a failing grade in the class.

[@mikewatt8706]

almost 40 years ago. imagine what it will be like in another 40

[@filipsostaricc]

Your time was sincere and full of quality, honest individuals who dedicated themselves to their work and were always there with genuine smiles and enthusiasm. A wonderful show. Of course, the way the show is conducted, kudos to you. It's a shame there aren't many people like you today. Many thanks to the channel's creator who uploaded these videos.

[@MrBronsonNY]

That self playing chess board still looks amazing!

[@wohlhabendermanager]

Kathe Spracklen wears the same kind of "upside down" glasses another lady wore some episodes (I think from 1983...) ago! Must have been quite a hit back then.

[@Mrx2002]

End of the qwerty layout now thats funny!!

[@HabadzaKalfa]

Watching this on my brand new lap portable, dreaming of a touch sensitive CRT on my car's dashboard, after having spent the evening by stretching grammar on a text adventure game parser, since my previous generation luggable does not yet support graphics and it's therefore a no-go for LucasFilm fractals.

[@Mintcar923]

I remember playing Ghostbusters on C128.. I quite like the ps4 remake too..

[@4jp]

QWERTY was designed to increase typing speed, not decrease it. Typewriters had mechanical arms that struck the paper. Pushing several near each other at once could result in them getting stuck together. QWERTY spaced out characters to help prevent jams, which made typing faster.

[@marctronixx]

lol i would push several together just so i COULD get them stuck together. :) i remember when my mom got an IBM typewriter that was electric and had that rotating silver ball that had the letters embossed on it. that was a cool thing back then!

[@grandmaster1004]

"This game was being made before the Ghostbuster movie came out, we just added the name to it." That explains a whole lot. Granted this PC version looks worlds better than the NES version.

[@nowthatsjustducky]

That was the Commodore 64 version. He was demonstrating it on an SX64.

[@andreinoooo]

Marketing dept at its best

[@Zioncity2k9]

The great thing about this program is that there is no "corporate jargon" or any zoom meeting buzzword 😅

[@gamingtonight1526]

Video games on a console, Computer games on a real PC. Remember that in 2021 you console owners!

[@Frostie3672]

Can remember nearly jumping out of my seat playing rescue on fractalus the very first time an alien popped up in front of the window lol

[@trickywoody]

Ghostbusters was played by everyone in my family with my mother asking me to get her past the marshmallow man every time she played through.

[@ryanwiseman9141]

Cheifet came in second to the micro machines guy. Jesus! Here read 5 minutes of news in 30 seconds

[@aamirhakeem3253]

That's exactly what I thought. He kept on reading without making any mistakes or taking a seconds break.

[@nickwallette6201]

He had a video monitor in front of him with a recording of himself saying “I’m sorry, we’re out of time.”

[@AutumnGracy]

I f***ing screeched when he pulled out the ET game

[@WowplayerMe]

Girl Nerds ROCK!!!

[@felicciasc]

Brains over B00bs

[@CMDRScotty]

This was made in January of 85. I would have made it in November going into the shoping season. But cool to see video game development from the beginning of the year I was born.

[@Bang666]

I was born that year too!

[@filipsostaricc]

Thanks Stuart. I miss TV hosts like those

[@DyoKasparov]

that self-moving chess on the beginning tho...

[@juliomartines2866]

Is liks opening up a time capsule from the 80s in 2019

[@MarvelousLXVII]

Nice video. A commodore SX-64! I had one of those!

[@focusmicro]

Today, we have games like CyberPunk 2077, Starfield, Star Citizen. What will the next 30 years look like in gaming graphics!?

[@silverhawk7324]

Dude the guy that made Millionaire looks like Harrison Ford kind of aka the guy from Indianna Jones. wow lol.

[@madfinntech]

They knew how the future was going to be and used 21:9 screens already back then!

[@Del-Canada]

I still own the original of Rescue on Fractalus and Ghostbusters. So addicted to those games back then.

[@Del-Canada]

1985, the year I first went online. Have been going flatout ever since.

[@BF-Gator]

Leaving nothing in your will for your wife? How could you Paul!?

[@ridiculous_gaming]

And David Crane brought along his Commodore SX64 to show off Ghostbusters.

[@michaelperry1698]

Love it. I had an sx64 along with Ghostbusters and a slew of other games in 1986.

[@dexydark]

R.I.P. LucasArts

[@Fivefortyrightnow]

I love the intro music to this. I wish it was my alarm clock sound.

[@marctronixx]

pitfall was my favorite!!!!!

[@Dorelaxen]

Cars with touch sensitive screens built right in. In 1985.

[@tremorist]

6:02 imagine her presenting doom ;)

[@Zylstra555]

....hmmm, I wonder how the Dvorak keyboard fared..

[@wallacelang1374]

I have enjoyed playing the Atari video games published by Activision, so I am familiar with David Crane and the games that he has created. However I have both of the Lucasfilm Games that are reviewed here: Ballblazer & Rescue From Fractalus. I knew that I would enjoy playing video games on both my home video game console and my personal computer system.

[@codebeat4192]

4:30 Gary likes the looks of Kathe ;-)

[@blazed85]

16:50 Notice how the guy in the blue shirt was dead quiet after hearing that question 🤐......🧐

[@johntucker23]

Her glasses... so thats what inspired the Hubble...

[@mfaizsyahmi]

The Ghostbusters guy really wanted to show off how they emulated a human singing voice with PC speakers that can only do sine tones.

[@andreinoooo]

The whole Ghostbusters demo looks like a big marketing blow up. The karaoke-y title screen has been intentionally made (at the end of the development) do distract buyers from the unappealing and repetitive gameplay.

[@ImpetuouslyInsane]

​​@@andreinooooI'm not entirely sure if that worked because even though they're distracting from one thing that's repetitive, they're trying to bolster the other thing that's very repetitive, and that's Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr being played over and over and over and over again. If they just had it where they could shut the music off or at least try a different song every so often, it might not have given people so many freaking headaches.

[@CloneShockTrooper]

I owned a game called Wallstreet and their you also could invest in stocks. It was fun to play.

[@Sinn0100]

Look at Paul Schindler predicting the futures of gaming....well, and social media. The more we play the further isolated we can become and don't get me wrong, I love gaming. Social media on the other hand is dragging us down.

[@megabojan1993]

3:25 Nice stache there bro :)

[@than0zZ]

1:50 - I've been hearing that all my f* life! So it's become a Legendary phrase

[@fordxbgtfalcon]

@18:55 that’s actually David’s own voice in the game. Lol.

[@sologals361]

Karaoke before karaoke was invented. GHOST BUUUUSTEEEEEERRRS.

[@wojiaobill]

that Crane guy is so high

[@magnum333]

15:35 Our games are all text. Your brain performs better than any IBM AT. DEAL WITH IT.

[@PhoenixNL72-DEGA-]

Lol, still true today though.

[@InfiniteClouds]

Antialiasing in 1985!? Of course it wasn't on a PC -- seems like it was 'PC Peasants" for much of the 80s until VGA came out. If I was a gamer I'd want an Amiga, ST, or GS. You'd think PC ports wouldn't have often been dog-crap CGA-only as late as 1987 but you'd be wrong.

[@CeeStyleDj]

Warning for headphone wearers at 13:40.

[@BaconMinion]

I had a pretty hard laugh at the promise of a failure proof computer. It's been about 31 years and there's still no such thing...

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Not so. There are fault tolerant computers out there. They are not for consumer use, but mission critical environments that can afford the cost of such systems. There's an entire science involved in redundancies for continued operations, with automatic relays that send out messages to the company to send a tech person over with replacement parts while the computer still operates.

[@jessihawkins9116]

@@oldtwinsna8347 oh your talking about dell

[@Zioncity2k9]

They never imagined a PC beating a grand master.😅

[@RahulAeri]

I actually still have my old Atari COMPUTER and SARGON Chess cartridge!!! :) :)

[@felicciasc]

24:33 . What's this "Human Interaction" he speaks of?

[@mikemurphy8714]

They should've played ominous horror movie music while he slowly pulled E.T. out of that bargain bin.

[@ferreday1]

I can't stop looking at his comb over I suppose he doesn't think it's noticeable .

[@ryanwiseman9141]

ferreday1 no way, that's his sideways, naturally accurring, forehead hair

[@Bill-Sama-Gates-Laden]

A built-in micro floppy!? *swoon*

[@tr1p1ea]

Didn't AVGN roast the ghostbusters game?

[@musicbreath6757]

Few know that her glasses are now part of the Webb space telescope. 😋

[@WannabeMarysue]

23:31 Its shocking how alien this opinion piece feels, in an era where the clear answer is "both are good".

[@mfaizsyahmi]

At the time of airing, Gabe Newell hasn't even started work at Microsoft.

[@JustWasted3HoursHere]

"Some people are saying that computer games are kind of dying out now. Do you believe that is true?" Um, no. Computer games now rake in more money than the filmed entertainment industry. Personally I think that the mid nineties were kind of the beginning of the end of the good old days of gaming. Systems have become much Much MUCH more powerful now, but they have also largely become very similar to each other with first person shooters dominating. Also just want to say that David Crane is the man!

[@joaogoncalves1149]

Such a sweet an passionate woman. We need more of those!

[@TomO-nx1bd]

Most are dead now unfortunately

[@fraizie6815]

Oh no, Gary killed all

[@laffolympics3458]

QWERTY Lives!!!

[@jeansamuelbrisebois5148]

Portable !!

[@dkraft7958]

Spot and reject my micro floppy drive, story of my life.

[@justingreen8006]

The "go ahead and.." disease was even a thing in the eighties. Not nearly as bad though.

[@Dazlidorne]

I think this show would have been a lot better if Stewart Cheifet wasn't always rushing the guests.

[@OrbitalSP2]

21:20 So this guy invented new game+

[@colinsphoneemail]

She had a semi truck double windshield for glasses

[@BimBims]

gw belum lahir, gw taunya main kelereng, orang-orang ini udah bahas main game huhuw

[@8bitromania263]

watching in 2021

[@musicbreath6757]

Agree to disagree, David. I played text games, and they lose hands down to a good looking game.

[@andreinoooo]

24:37 yuck opinioners… I guess everyone has to put food on the table

[@1984tatin]

What is that in 0:58? Is that supposed to be a microchip implanted on a thumb/finger? On a human? :O

[@sologals361]

you fulltard.lol. it represnts the size of a chip/

[@megabojan1993]

Solo Gals That chip must be powerful as much as my calculator :)

[@SuperDanny1212]

+Solo Gals Fulltard??? HA!

[@CeeStyleDj]

It's just displaying how small the chip is...that it can fit on a finger.

[@johneygd]

tedd morales conspirtually that scene in the beginning despites looking innocent but it just looks suspicious,because that microchip fits in that thump nail, well i tell you what anno june 2018 3500 swedish people already wearing a microchip in their right hand, how creepy is that?

[@TheKatsumin1024]

素晴らしいビデオをありがとう。 キルドールが懐かしい。

[@LightGameFrameworks]

Long Live QWERTY!

[@BLRCOLO10]

Nice hair bro !

[@megabojan1993]

Brian Rossi Which hair are you referring to?

[@Copperrooney]

A new portable at 15 lbs. Lol

[@megabojan1993]

Steve C Light as a feather, ain't it? :)

[@DeafOnAllFronts]

There always been women in gaming...