Transistorized

Insert hilarious Strike It Lucky catchphrase here

My box rummaging adventure continues; as I posted to Twitter the other day, here’s an article from the May 1990 Issue of Acorn User going behind the scenes of the computer setup of Strike It Lucky:

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#(byowwwwwwwww) Doo doo, doo doo doo doo dooooooooooooo

Rummaging through some old boxes yesterday, what did I find? A couple of letters from Central Television, and proof that the Central cake looked just as good on paper as it did on-screen:

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Bad news everyone, etc

This afternoon, between 12:30pm – 6pm, Sky1/Sky1 HD are showing three of the four Futurama movies. (Missing out Bender’s Game, but for various reasons, if you were going to not show one of them, that’s probably the one I’d drop.) Now, you’d think that would be difficult to mess up, yes?

Don’t be stupid. This is television. They can mess up anything.

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Why I love Strike It Lucky/Rich Despite the Game Mechanics Themselves Actually Not Being Very Good At All

Something I recorded off the telly last week. It really comes alive three minutes in, although the start is worth watching purely so you get the amusing impression later on:

Don’t Worry, Iggle-Piggle

“The night is black,
And the stars are bright,
And the sea is dark and deep…
But someone I know is safe and snug,
And they’re drifting off to sleep.

Round and round, a little boat, no bigger than your hand,
Out on the ocean, far away from land.
Take the little sail down, light the little light,
This is the way to the garden in the night.”

Why do I love In The Night Garden so much?

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More Than Meets the Eye

I never watched Transformers as a kid. As a now-28-year-old male geek, this is tantamount to sacrilege, but it’s true. I’d avidly watch Wacaday, and then lose interest in Transformers shortly after the opening theme tune. The only eight year old boy in the world who found giant robots and battles boring. And as for the toys, I was too busy playing offices to notice.

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The Young Ones: Building the Fourth Wall

MIKE: This calls for a celebration. Vyv, throw another record player on the fire.
VYVYAN: Oh, certainly, Michael.
RICK: You bastard! That’s my record player!
MIKE: [to Vyv] You said it was your record player.
VYVYAN: No, I didn’t, Mike. I said “Let’s throw Rick’s record player on the fire, that’ll be good for a laugh.”
MIKE: Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, it is yours, Rick.

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Hi-Dee T.V.

Fancy a scan from Which Video, July 1983, on high-definition telly? Shut up whining at the back there, I’m going to post it anyway. Clickity-click to get a larger version:

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Cartoon Network UK in 2003

I’d hoped to make this video rather longer, but today I have learnt one important thing: it’s hard to scrape images off a dodgy VHS without a Time Base Corrector. Nonetheless, it gives a good idea of the kind of presentation Cartoon Network had back in 2003. (It’s very easy to date a video when there are 10th anniversary trails on there…)

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