1.  Intellivision – We were an Atari family growing up, but I was always so jealous of my friends who had an Intellivision.  I’m not sure if it was the superior gaming technology that made me want it so much as the form factor and design.

The system looks like it was yanked out of the main console of that spaceship in Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.  The controller really stands out:

Each game came with an overlay that you slid on top of the keypad, which would have specific controls for that game. The design on these things is incredible.  Tomheroes.com has a great collection of these.

George Plimpton even endorsed it!

 

2.  Today’s Special – a Canadian show exported to the US in the early 80s.  I loved this show so much.  It’s about a department store after-hours, where this mannequin comes to life if you put a magic hat on him and say the magic words.  And there’s a mouse who talks in rhymes and a talking computer that’s all-powerful.

And a rocking saxaphone intro.

 

 

3.  Shrieks and Creaks – in the days where VHS board games were getting popular, this haunted house game used an audio cassette to move things along.  I played this a few times at a friend’s house.  It looks really cool, but actually was more of a hassle than anything. We just ended up playing the audio cassette by itself, kind of like how you eventually give up and just activate the Mouse Trap to watch it do its thing.

 

 

4.  Youth Lagoon – can not stop playing this song. Pretty sure this is a fan made video, but its gorgeous.

 

5.  Backyard 8-track – playscapes delivers again:

 

 

-ds