Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jul 8, 2020 12 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Time for another pulp countdown now, as I list my top 10 (best) forgotten games consoles!

#ThanksToVideoGames... Image
At no 10: the 1995 Sega Saturn! Rushed into production to beat the Sony PlayStation it launched with only six games available. A massive advertising campaign couldn't rescue it's reputation... Image
At no 9: the 1982 Vectex! Who needs sprites when you've got vector graphics! Plus you could add a coloured sheet to the weird shoebox monitor to give you 'colour' graphics. A brave attempt... Image
At no 8: the 1995 Nintendo Virtual Boy! What do you get if you cross a ViewMaster with a Game and Watch and put it on a tripod? The answer was a commercial flop. Another brave attempt at something new, at a time when VR was all the rage... Image
At no 7: the 1990 Amstrad GX4000! Amstrad made a console? Yes they did! Was it any good? Erm... Image
At no 6: the 1994 Sega Mega Jet! A portable version of the Mega Drive this was used on Japanese airlines as in-flight entertainment. Many privately owned ones are apparently from a shipment hijacked by Indonesian sea-pirates that later turned up on eBay... Image
At no 5: the 1977 Coleco Telstar Arcade! Probably the world's only triangular console it let you drive, shoot and play tennis - but not at the same time alas... Image
At no 4: the 1994 Atari Jaguar! "The world's first 64 bit console" was actually two 32 bit systems crammed into the same box. That's not cheating, is it? Buggy hardware and a lack of games led to its demise and Atari's exit from the console market... Image
At no 3: the 2004 Nokia N-Gage! Was it a phone? Was it a console? Was it a digital belt buckle? Nobody knew. What we did know was what killed it: the iPhone... Image
At no 2: the Apple Bandai Pippin! Apple made a console? With Bandai?? With a croissant for a controller??? Quietly buried by Steve Jobs in 1997 next to the Apple Newton. Send no flowers... Image
And the no 1 best forgotten games console is... the 1984 Yeno Super Lady Cassette Vision - a pink console for the lady gamer!

If it's any consolation the boy's version was equally as crap... Image
More pulp video games another time. Most will be PAL compatible... Image

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More from @PulpLibrarian

Feb 1
In February 1974 something profound and inexplicable happened to author Philip K Dick that changed his life forever. Was it an illness, a psychotic reaction, or something truly mystical?

Today in pulp I look back at the exegesis of Philip K Dick... Image
Philip K Dick was both prolific and influential. In his youth he came to the conclusion that, in a certain sense, the world is not entirely real and there is no way to confirm whether it is truly there. Image
By the end of the 1960s Philip K Dick had published over 40 novels and stories, as well as winning the 1963 Hugo Award for The Man In The High Castle. But he still struggled financially. Image
Read 18 tweets
Jan 29
What with you being so busy and everythign you may not have visited your local library in a while.

So come with me on a virtual library tour, courtesy of stock photography, to see what we do for a living... Image
The enquiries desk is normally your first stop in a library, and this is where you will meet The Angry Librarian!

Why is she angry? Because people keep asking her stupid questions! Image
"Are you open?"
"Do you have a toilet?"
"That chair's wobbly!"
"Why isn't it available in audiobook?"
"Someone else is on the computer and that's not fair!"

On and on it goes... Image
Read 11 tweets
Jan 29
Today in pulp I look at the original white stripes: the world of dazzle camoflague! Image
Traditional pattern camoflague had been used by the British Royal Navy to break up a ship's outline for some time. But in 1917 artist Norman Wilkinson presented the Admiralty with a different idea - camoflague that confused enemy rangefinders. Image
Dazzle - known in the US as Razzle Dazzle - would use high contrast colours in irregular patterns to make it difficult for enemy gunners to calculate a ship's range and bearing. This would (hopefully) lead to them taking up a poor firing position when they attacked. Image
Read 12 tweets
Jan 28
Friendship is universal. So are human-eating alien lizards in sunglasses. At least that's what we thought in 1983, thanks to one blockbuster TV mini-series.

This is the story of V... Image
Writer Kenneth Johnson had a strong background in TV drama and sci-fi, having worked on The Incredible Hulk and The Six Million Dollar Man. In 1976 he created The Bionic Woman series.

But his next project would be more political... Image
Johnson was interested in Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here, a story about how fascism might take hold in America. He worked up a modern retelling of the story - called Storm Warning - and pitched the idea to NBC as a mini-series. Image
Read 18 tweets
Jan 26
Abraham Van Helsing may be the most famous of the early occult detectives, but there were many others who appeared in Victorian and Edwardian literature.

Today I look back at some of the early supernatural sleuths who helped to define a genre that is still going strong today… Image
Occult detectives explore paranormal mysteries, sometimes by using spiritual skills. They could be normal detectives investigating the occult, occultists who use the dark arts to solve crime, or detectives with supernatural abilities such as clairvoyance. Image
Occult detectives began in the mid-19th century: Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) had set the template for detective fiction, whilst spiritualism and paranormal research also began to interest the public. Séances and Ouija boards were familiar tropes for Victorian readers. Image
Read 19 tweets
Jan 23
In the shadowy corners of the shortwave spectrum lurk the Numbers Stations: strange radio broadcasts of mysterious blocks of numbers in creepy monotone voices!

It's actually an old form of spycraft which is still in use today. Let's take a listen...
A Numbers Station is a type of one-way voice link for sending information to spies in foreign countries. Operating on Short Wave radio bands they transmit a secret code of spoken numbers.

Use of Numbers Stations peaked during the Cold War, but some are still operating today. Image
Numbers Stations are operated by various national intelligence agencies. At set times on a pre-arranged frequency a musical tone is played, followed by a speech synthesised voice reading out blocks of numbers. To most listeners it sounds both creepy and meaningless. Image
Read 12 tweets

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