Atari 2600 Pac-Man revisited (Pac-Man 8K homebrew and upcoming official 7800 releases)

In the past few years, I've gotten more involved in retro video gaming than I've been in a long time. One of the main catalysts of this resurgence was the release of the Atari 2600+ in late 2023. For those unfamiliar with the plus systems, the 2600+ and its later cousin, the 7800+, are consoles designed to resemble their 1980's-era namesakes (they're slightly smaller in total size), and to play original cartridges on modern TVs using HDMI (original consoles have to be modified to play on modern TVs, having been designed in the era of CRTs). Since then, I have been buying up and playing quite a few old cartridges, and my collection now is probably larger than the one my family had back in the 1980s (some of which my brother, who lives in the house I grew up in now that my parents have moved elsewhere, still has).

Mock Game Show: Pointless

Especially in the years since COVID-19 lockdowns, I've found myself gravitating to British game shows that are available to me despite living in the United States. One such show, Pointless, has been running for over a decade now, despite being all-but unknown here. 

The premise is that, before the show, 100 people are surveyed with questions. Unlike Family Feud, they're not looking for opinions, but rather how many of those 100 respondents can give correct answers. The contestants on the show are then asked the same questions, and seek to respond with answers that the fewest survey respondents could get right. Points are awarded for each respondent who got it right. For example, if asked to name a capital city in Europe, you might answer "Paris" (the capital of France). In the case of this survey (conducted in the UK), 98 people in the survey said "Paris," meaning you'd score 98 points, which really isn't very helpful, since that's practically everyone. But if the contestant instead tried something more obscure like "Stockholm" (the capital of Sweden), the score would be a much more attractive 30 points, since only 30 people in the survey could come up with the more obscure answer. What you really want is an answer like "Sarajevo" (the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina), because that answer is both correct and one that no one in the survey group could come up with, rending it "Pointless," not only scoring zero points, but adding money to a jackpot that can be claimed by the winners.

But beware! If a contestant gives a wrong answer, they're hit with the full 100 points representing the entire surveyed group. Lowest scores win.

If you'd like to see the actual show, you can find an assortment of episodes at either YouTube (free) or BritBox (if you have a subscription). (I'm assuming a US audience. If you're lucky enough to live in the UK, you can get everything for free with iPlayer!)

When I was asked to help close out the college year with a game the faculty might play along with, I had to adapt the game play of Pointless a bit to accommodate an auditorium of potential players, but the basic rules are the same. You can watch the video below. The first several questions even come from books published for UK Pointless fans, while the last couple come from surveys we conducted at the college. I hope you enjoy the game!

Transformers: The Last Knight Cybertron (2017)

While I'll never be a fan of Michael Bay's live-action interpretation of the Transformers franchise, I've had little trouble accepting that the popularity of those movies has meant that a lot of toys got released that would never have been done, otherwise. This toy is an excellent example. While it's true that the mold already existed (and has already been featured here), released back in 2006 as Primus, this 2017 repaint was created simply to meet the increased demand for toys that came out of the then-latest feature, The Last Knight. Specifically, this toy was released under a "Mission to Cybertron" banner as a Toys"R"Us exclusive.

The Memoirs of Nicodemus Legend: Skeletons in the Closet

"Skeletons in the Closet" was the twelfth and final episode of Legend, and first aired on August 8th, 1995. It was written by David Rich and directed by Steve Shaw. You can watch the episode via Amazon Prime Video or DVD.

Super Powers Collection Firestorm (1985)

Kenner's "Super Powers Collection" line of action figures certainly weren't the first superhero action figures. Companies had been doing such toys for literally decades by the time the Super Powers figures started to come out. But, speaking only for myself, most of those older toys only vaguely resembled the characters they were intended to represent. The Super Powers toys looked like they popped right off of the comic book pages! Although I only had a passing recognition of the comic books themselves when the line first hit shelves in 1984 (I was more familiar with the Super Friends cartoon at the time, but did start collecting comics only a year later), this immediately drew my attention.