1. Pan Am Moon Reservations – Back when enthusiasm for our future in space was at its peak, Pan Am Airlines offered reservations for Moon flights. Well, not specific reservations, but you could get on a waiting list. You basically called or wrote to Pan Am, gave them your information, and you were all set for whenever commercial spaceflight was actually a thing. Let’s go over that again: You could get on a waiting list for a flight to the Moon. And it was for real – everyone involved thought it was just a matter of when and not if. You also got this slick club card:
And 93,000 people were on this list! If that’s not a chest-clenching dose of widespread optimism, I don’t know what is.
Here’s (supposedly) someone calling back in 1969 and making a reservation. The guy on the other end might as well be booking a flight to Topeka, he’s so matter-of-fact.
2. xGeekbyDesignx – Earlier this year I incorrectly attributed an amazing MST3k print I came across. It’s actually the work of xGeekbyDesignx, and I sincerely apologize for not giving credit where it’s due! You can check out his etsy shop here, and here are some of the other great prints he’s got available. This guy’s love of MST and Final Fantasy is right up my alley.
3. Red Sea Crossing – Getting chased by ghosts in mazes? That’s pretty thrilling. Fighting off a slowly descending Invasion from Space? Awesome. Back in the ’80s a Christian developer named Steve Schustack decided to release a game based on a similarly exciting premise, Moses’ flight from Pharaoh across the Red Sea.
The game looks pretty simple: run left to right, jump over things. The color palette is interesting, somehow. It looks like someone got it wrong but also like that error made it look pretty intentionally stylized. Here’s a video of the gameplay:
The print ad is also adorably quaint.
So according to legend only 100ish copies were made and those weren’t really kept track of, so this game is crazy rare. One copy sold recently for $10,000!
Take that, Pharaoh!
4. The Zero Stone – From Say, Hello Spaceman, an amazing sci-fi book cover. This has a real early-80’s-Nickelodeon font on it.
5. Moose’s Audition – Speaking of early-80’s-Nickelodeon (see what I did there?), here’s Christine Glade a.k.a. Moose’s audition tape from You Can’t Do That on Television. A grown up Ruddy also appears in this clip!
-ds