Star Wars:The Arcade Game (ColecoVision, 1984) Game Cartridge – Early Concept & Film Screening Logo
Star Wars was an important movie for many reasons beyond the success it achieved as a motion picture. The Star Wars phenom had been born.
Not only did we see the almost immediate impact it would have on motion picture technology, or computer camera controlled stop motion animation, but it wrote the playbook on movie merchandising. Merchandising that included arcade games and home video games. Converting a state of the art Vector graphic arcade game into a home system was a challenge for all systems except for when it came to the ahead-of-its-time Coleco Vision. More on this later….
Had to pay for movie adaptation comic to be created
It’s hard to believe that a movie we have ‘only ever known to enjoy’ the runaway success it has now didn’t have that success so assured early on. That it really came down to one man, first LFL marketer Charles Lippincott – who barely managed to get a toy deal done with Kenner (after MEGO turned him down), and who had to pay (via Fox/Alan Lad Jr.) for the first 5 issues in order for Marvel to agree to draw and write the comic book series, and have the first issue ready before the movie would hit theaters in 1977.
By the time this video game was made by Parker Bros. for the Coleco Vision game console, Star Wars had become a movie merchandising juggernaut, and it was now time to not only refashion the same thrill late 70’s kids experienced through toys, comics and trading cards, but to open up their imagination by reinterpreting iconic ships like the X-Wing and TIE Fighters in pitched battle in a video game format to be played on on their own TV screens at home.
In 1984, Coleco Vision released this Star Wars arcade game.
And to anyone remembering the vibe and nostalgia of growing-up in those early days of video games and the arcade experience, it’s an image that’s been burned into your brain. However, what you might not realize is that this arcade conversion cartridge utilized a very early logo that was used on the first movie poster. It was part of early concepts logos that Ralph McQuarrie had come up with for use in the very early screenings of the movie. The cone-top of this original early Star Wars logo evokes the iconic opening crawl of the film, which was completely unknown to audiences in 1977. Don Perri, the person who came up with the conceptual design, was influenced by the 1939 film Union Pacific’s opening credits.
Label Variant
There are collectors of early arcade games, there are collectors of early Star Wars cartridges and video games, and then there are collectors who just buy any of the early logos used on merchandise. Because of the label, this cart has great cross-collector appeal, and while I haven’t tested it for some time (used to play it with my oldest, who is now off to college), here is a screenshot I took when we played it on our home projector. I have decided to pass this beauty on and so it is for sale and I am happy to tell you more about this totally awesome cartridge.
TV content used to be delivered from a long distance transmitter and received by a roof antenna on your house. The antenna had to be manually or automatically positioned whenever you wanted to watch distant channels. Work was involved. Mystery was involved. Finding something to watch was satisfying.
I’m often asked what I think about the original Star Wars series versus the “new stuff”. A debate that continues to rear its ugly head again ever since Episode VII was released back in December 2015 . I think, for me, I’ve determined what the problem is and why those of us who grew up with Darth, Luke, Han and Leia have a hard time with the newer movies when the younger generation just loves them.
The ‘rabbit ears’: two metal rods sticking up from the television set. The rods could be rotated, pulled apart, shortened and lengthened etc. to fine tune a distant channel.
The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980. I was an impressionable nine year-old. Although I had seen the original Star Wars, it didn’t resonate with me as much as Empire did. When May 21 of that year hit, my life it would seem was changed forever. After seeing the film, it was all I could do to stop thinking about it and what I had seen. The cliffhanger ending was killing me and yet I seemed okay with the fact that I was going to have to wait three more years to find out what happened to Han (no spoilers here in case somehow you have somehow missed Return of the Jedi).
That summer I saw the movie 13 times. The world was a different place. I took the bus by myself downtown to the beautiful Capitol Theatre (now the even more beautiful Sanderson Centre in Brantford). There was no internet (at least, not that mere mortals could access). I got excited by the occasional mention of the Star Wars universe on the television and I wouldn’t even get a VCR for four more years so the idea of being able to watch the movie “on demand” was not even a thought in my young mind. Instead, I had to rely on my mind through my memories and imagination.
For me, getting the action figures from the movies and being able to recreate scenes from the film helped bring me back to my happy place inside the Star Wars universe. We couldn’t afford to get all the playsets and ships, so I built a lot of them out of cardboard. I used my creative side to paint them like I remembered them in the movies and as soon as I could I ordered the photo books from the school book service so that I could go back there. When the movie eventually made it onto television, a VCR-less me compromised by recording the audio of the film onto cassette. I could then listen (and listen I did) to the movie with my eyes closed and pictured it all in my mind.
If I told this story to a nine year-old today, I would get strange looks. “Dude, why wouldn’t you just watch it on Netflix or look it up on your iPad?” It just wasn’t possible. I was so desperate for a connection to the universe I even cut out the black and white mini-movie poster that was printed into the newspaper with the local theatre listings and posted it on my bedroom wall. Yes, that’s honestly how it was.
Today, I feel like the instant access we have to everything “on demand” somehow diminishes our connections to content. I am pretty sure good movies have been made after the 80s, but I would be hard pressed to find one that hasn’t held such a close connection with me. Not only is there instant access to so much of the content we get today that there is, in fact, more content out there than I can possibly keep up with. This got me to thinking, how do others deal with content overload?
In my case the biggest problem I have is video games. With over 15,000 to choose from I am rarely bored. However, I have needed to come up with a system to keep track of everything I want to play. In my vast game collection there are surely a ton of stinkers, but there are also some amazing games from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s that I have missed. Heck, I’ve missed a lot of the games that made the most critically acclaimed lists in the past few years. So I had to come up with a system.
How easy is it to have access to thousands of movies? Netflix can be streamed anytime to your I-phone.
What I do now is maintain a list on Dropbox.com that I can access anywhere. It’s called “Games I need to play.txt” (notice the “need” and not “want”). It has two sub-sections: “Started and Never Finished” and “Games to Play”. I don’t really like leaving games unfinished and so when I look at this list I am reminded of what I need to finish up (as I am often playing more than one game at a time) and then for my larger list I prioritize it with what should be next “on deck”. The list is dynamic, changing as I remember what I want to play or come across things of influence from my colleagues. I also have to admit sometimes I choose to play shorter games so that I can get through them and feel more “accomplished”. The site www.howlongtobeat.com is an amazing resource for this sort of thing.
When I asked my friends how they deal with content overload I got some interesting feedback. One of them, John, actually has an algorithm for dealing with his backlog of books. John shared it with me and it goes something like this:
1. I always have one serious and one fun book on the go and which I put on top of the night stand along with my reading glasses. Sometime I cheat and have two of each kind on the go.
2. I keep a pile of books I want to read someday in my night stand.
3. If I get bored with a book, I trade it with one in my night stand.
4. When I finish a book, I choose another from inside my night stand.
5. If I get tempted by a new book I buy it. If it will not fit in my night stand, then I discard the book that interests. Same goes for books that I’m given.
6. I do have a book shelf at work and one at home for books that I want to keep for later reference. If they get too full, I discard things of least interest.
7. I discard books by giving them to someone, donation to a charity or yard sale.
That’s pretty organized. It’s a little more efficient than how I deal with movies I have yet to watch. Presently, the ones that are on the shelf (Blu-ray or DVD) get “pulled out” a little bit so I can see them clearly among all of my other movies. Since they are all in alphabetical order I don’t want to just pull them out randomly and create a new pile.
A friend shared with me a good way to deal with television content. Just PVR or DVR all the content and then watch as you can. I tried this, but filled up my hard drive so I had to go out and buy an external drive. That drive is now dangerously full. There was some good advice in there, however. “What I do is record all the episodes of a TV show and then when it’s all done I go on a watching marathon and binge on the content for an entire day or two. If it’s a new series and I find out it has been cancelled before I even watch it, I delete all of the content and that way I’m not investing in a show that will ultimately let me down with no additional content.”
Algorithms, mechanisms, processes and lists all to deal with an over abundant amount of content. It’s a wonder there is any room left in our brains to remember or think about what we consumed last week, let alone last year. Yet I find myself looking forward to more content in an ADHD kind of way, I can’t seem to get enough. This is, ultimately, why there will never be anything better in my life than the original Star Wars and other films of the 80s (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ghostbusters, Stripes, Uncle Buck, Back to the Future). At the end of the day, I’m okay with it because there is always something good and interesting around the corner, even if I have to implement a system to manage it all. There are definitely worse things in life. For the Silo, Syd Bolton.
Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox means that the House of Mouse now controls a huge amount of our most beloved films and television series.
Announced in December 2017 and expected to take until at least 2021 to complete, this $66.1 Billion USD deal (that included taking on a size-able debt portfolio from Fox) ranks among the largest mergers of its kind in history.
We’ve compared these media giants, looked at the potential impact of the deal on both their own employees and the end user and demonstrated how Disney is looking to leverage this deal to break into new markets.
Read on to see how the merger will affect everything from television and the cinema box office to streaming platforms and sports broadcasting this comprehensive infographic from our friends at abcfinancial.co.uk.
When your best friend moves into their new luxury residence say like these ones in Montreal, you may want to consider giving a high tech device for your housewarming gift. These new-fangled gizmos can really spice up any home, but they’re especially suitable for high end houses and condo units. Take a look at our suggestions for the new homeowner:
Smart Smoke Alarm and Detector. Surely your buddy has fire insurance, but a smoke detector is still a sensible precaution. What sets this apart is that it’s rather more advanced than other models. You need a model to detect carbon monoxide and also send alerts to your Wi-Fi devices.
Smart Home Security Camera and Alarm System. This is another smart device, which for luxury homes isn’t really foolish at all. Get them a wide angle camera with infrared, and it should be tied in to an alarm system that sends warnings and video straight to your smartphone. So you can make sure that you’re alerted when someone approaches your home, and you can get video evidence too.
Programmable Coffee Machine. This is great for mornings when your buddy wants to have a cup of java right after they wake up. If it’s a smart coffee machine, then your buddy can have it start making coffee right before the alarm goes off so there’s no waiting for the caffeine.
4. Automatic Pet Feeder. Again this is another smart option, and this time you have a feeder that sets up automatic feedings. If you want, you can also set it up and have it feed your pooch or kitty while you’re at work.
5. Smart Weighing Scale. Everything’s smart these days, and that even includes a weighing scale. Ordinarily, it may not be polite to give a weighing scale even to a friend, since it may seem like you’re saying that they’re getting fat. But they may not think that weigh when you get them this version.
You can find one with a minimalist design and it can come with smart features too. This can track weight, calculate body fat, and perhaps even measure the pulse wave velocity. It should be compatible with a smartphone since it’s normally controlled through an app.
Shower Speaker. Some people turn on their smartphones in the shower to get some music, but a waterproof shower speaker works better. The sound isn’t just nicer, but the waterproofing should help it last long. A device like this usually connects to a smartphone through Bluetooth. If you like listening to baseball radio broadcasts, you may want to get a speaker with FM radio.
Wi-Fi Range Extender. Many luxury homes have huge floor spaces, and the Wi-Fi may not be strong enough if your buddies like to hang out in the garage or backyard. Thick walls can also block Wi-Fi signals. But with this device, everyone at home can go online wirelessly.
3D Nightlights. This may be marketed towards kids, but plenty of adults are intrigued by them too. These are disks that emit lights that look like 3D images, though they’re actually 2D. This can show designs like Ironman’s mask, Star Wars vehicles, or even Sanrio characters.
Smart Thermostat. Try the one from Nest that was designed by the same person who created the shape of the iPod. It doesn’t just look cool, but it learns to automatically schedule and control your temperature. It turns itself off when no one’s home, and it starts heating or cooling your house when you’re on your way home.
10. Digital Art Frame. You know how your monitor can display cool wallpapers? You can have a frame that can do that too. It can display fine art or supermodels, depending on what images are saved in your smartphone.
Lots of these items are smart devices, and they’re all high tech. Get them for your buddy as the best housewarming gifts for luxury homes. For the Silo, Dimitry Karloff.
Featured image- The $6 million Penthouse on the 12th and 14th floors of the Residences Ritz-Carlton Montreal.
Can’t figure out what to get the film buff in your life? Delight any movie lover with high-quality EntertainArt. Set the scene with exclusive, limited edition, ready-to-hang wall art from some of the hottest movies, classic comics and TV shows like Star Wars, Alice in Wonderland, Batman and many more.
All products are officially licensed by entertainment studios and in-house designers develop this exclusive artwork with customization, accenting, vibrancy and creativity to every piece.
Featuring rich detail, deep color saturation, and exciting embellishments, EntertainArt is a modern way to display artwork on quality canvas with or without a frame. So what are you waiting for? Shine a spotlight on your space with the magic of the movies.
Whether you’re a fan of sci-fi, Disney princesses, or Marvel and DC superheroes, EntertainArt is the place to find the most unique designs and authentic wall decor. Want to class up your home while still representing your favorite flicks? Check out a few examples of EntertainArt’s growing selection of officially licensed artwork:
Batman Blimp: The world’s greatest detective, Batman, protects his beloved city of Gotham from the rooftops. DC Comics created some of the world’s most popular characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman and is the oldest active publishing company. Beautiful comic book covers like this one from Jim Lee will make for beautiful, bold designs to display proudly on your wall.
Alice Looking For Wonderland Tea Fall: Follow us down the rabbit-hole to a curious place filled with mad hatters, white rabbits, and evil queens. Create a world of your own with wall art that will transport you to wonderland with Alice.
Rogue One, A Star Wars Story: Rebel and Imperial forces collide in this legendary collage. Celebrate this inspiring tale with a creative canvas art piece. Decorate your home with the epic saga of a rebellion built on hope.
About our friends at EntertainArt
EntertainArt is created by entertainment enthusiasts who wanted to fill a void of online stores selling high-quality wall décor for movies, comics and alike. EntertainArt is the leading online destination for officially licensed entertainment wall art. We provide quality ready-to-hang wall art from your favorite movies, comics, and TV Series. Whether you’re a fan of sci-fi, princesses, or superheroes, we are the place where you can find the most exclusive designs and authentic wall decor.
‘Star Trek Mansion,’ Featuring Acoustic Innovations’ Most Celebrated Home Theater Design, Now on Market for $35M Featuring Award-Winning Theater Modeled on Bridge of Starship Enterprise, Home is Most Expensive Ever to Hit Boca Raton Market. Photograph: Andy Frame
BOCA RATON, Fla.– May 2014 — The “Star Trek Mansion” in Boca Raton, Florida, is now on the market for a cool $35 million, featuring a much-buzzed-about home theater designed by Acoustic Innovations. Created to model the bridge of the Star Ship Enterprise, the theater is the focal point of the 27,000-square-foot home owned by Marc Bell, managing partner of Marc Bell Capital Partners LLC in Boca Raton. Last year, Acoustic Innovations designed a smaller theater in the home to resemble a military encampment, creating the mood for game enthusiasts to play “Call of Duty” and other Xbox games.
“Acoustic Innovations and Jay Miller did a fantastic job of taking our Star Trek theater vision and turning it into reality. If you can dream it, Jay can build it,” said Bell. “Acoustic Innovations’ attention to detail for every aspect of the project — from the advanced A/V technology to the quality and comfort of the chairs — meant that we were able to create a home theater experience that exceeds anything you’ll find in a commercial movie theater. We’re looking forward to working with Jay and his team on the Star Trek theater and home 2.0, wherever that may
be.”
Winner of a Gold award and Best Architecture award from the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) in 2007, the
1,400-square-foot Star Trek entertainment space includes the theater, a bar, and a “ready room” filled with Bell’s collection of props, models,
and drawings from the Star Trek television series, as well as Star Trek and Star Wars movies. Modeled to recreate the bridge from the Enterprise, circa “Star Trek: Next Generation,” the theater even includes motion-activated air-lock doors that “whoosh” when opening and closing.
When the theater was originally completed in 2007, it featured the most advanced high-definition cinema A/V system available. Since then it has undergone three major technology upgrades to keep it on the leading edge, including 3D projection capabilities. In addition to the functional and aesthetic design and d-cor, Acoustic Innovations designed the acoustics both inside and outside the theater, as well as for the “Call of Duty” video game room.
The “Call of Duty” video game room. Get some!
“It’s incredibly exciting to work with Marc on a project, because he is always open to an interesting idea,” said Jay Miller, president, Acoustic Innovations. “A collaborative effort is extremely important on every job we do, and for this project Marc and I clicked very early on how to execute the Star Trek bridge. Now that the house is up for sale, it’s amazing and gratifying to see how the theater has gone viral in the online press; in fact, I’ve not seen anything like it in my 23 years as a specialty theater designer.”
For two decades Acoustic Innovations has been the source for personal theaters, theater seating, fiberoptic ceilings, acoustical panels, and residential noise control solutions. Over this time we have pioneered many of the materials and design specifications used today. Our staff has completed thousands of personal theaters throughout the world and has developed processes to ensure delivery of the ultimate client satisfaction. At every level of cost we blend the science of acoustics with the art of aesthetics. More information is available at http://www.acousticinnovations.com.
A long time ago, in 1977, Star Wars started its quick and never-ending ascent to the top of the science fiction film genre. How many people alive when the original Star Wars: A New Hope was released thought that our children (and for some, grandchildren) would still be wanting to be Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker for Halloween? It is a rare child in Canada who has not owned a lightsaber.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Shakespeare.
There are people who look forward to watching or reading Shakespeare about as much as they look forward to car repairs. Shakespeare can be seen as highbrow art which does not make sense. Why would someone watch a movie or play in an almost different language?
This is where Driftwood Theatre Group brilliantly played their hand. Using a book by Ian Doescher called, “William Shakespeare’s Star Wars,” Driftwood brought Star Wars geeks to play with Shakespeare lovers.
Everyone on both sides of the fence was blown away (no pun intended, poor Alderaan and Death Star).
Lines from Star Wars plays were eagerly anticipated, by some who were on the edge of their seats (One thing’s for certain, we’ll all be a lot thinner). But when those infamous lines were said, it had dramatic and, yes, Shakespearean flair (One thing is certain, we shall thinner be).
And there was laughter – from everyone!
There were also famous lines from Shakespeare plays which made Shakespeare lovers happy, (I bite my thumb at you, sir! Alas, poor stormtrooper, I never knew thee. Friends. Rebels, Starfighters, lend me your ears!)
It was also the formidable acting in the show which raised the play to mountainous heights. It was performed as a reading, with all actors reading directly from the book. It was enticing, enthralling, and highly entertaining. Dion Johnstone, who played a fantastic Han Solo, withheld laughter to the point where he looked like he would lose it, but never really did.
This play was a fundraiser for Driftwood Theatre. The evening included the reading, a silent auction, costume contest (sad point of the night, there were very few people in costume – it is Halloween time, people!).
The highlight of the night, for very lucky people, was the auctioning off of 3 walk-on role, Rebel, Imperial, or Interesting Creatures in the play. We (yes, I was a lucky one) were able to say such lines as, “UTINI!” and “This is a consular ship…” and, “Why aren’t you at your post?” I was Jawa #2 and the Innkeeper at Mos Eisley.
It was a truly incredible experience, watching Star Wars and Shakespeare geeks unite for 3 hours of Shakespeare/Star Wars bliss. For the Silo, Stephanie MacDonald. @mytimeatlast
Disney’s Michael Eisner, George Lucas and Mickey Mouse at the 1987 opening of Star Tours. Photo: Associated Press
The recent news of Disney’s acquisition of Star Wars was met with both trepidation and cautious optimism. For those from my generation and older (that would be the 40+ crowd) the release of the first three episodes in the Star Wars universe weren’t exactly over the moon with how it all unfolded. We all knew the basic plot points of how we got to a New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, but the inclusion of some surprise extras (Jar Jar anyone?) left many of us shaking our heads.
Before you start thinking this is going to be yet another bashing of Episodes I, II, and III let me say that the films are not as bad as most people say they are. Sure, the acting is a bit stiff but it’s made up of all of the stuff that we loved the first time around: interesting characters, worlds we had never been to before, space ships and amazing special effects. After spending a good amount of time in my own Star Wars room in my home contemplating what went wrong, I came up with the following conclusions.
When the first Star Wars came out, I wasn’t even quite six years old. I vaguely remember seeing it, but it wasn’t until The Empire Strikes Back came out that I really fell in love with the world. I was almost nine, and turned nine during the time of its release. In fact, I remember seeing the film 13 times that summer of 1980. The only other thing I remember from that summer was the release of the song Funkytown which will forever (for me) be associated with the film.
Looking in the rear view mirror, it doesn’t seem that long ago (30 years seems like a short time somehow) but it was definitely a different world back then. I was able to take the bus by myself to downtown Brantford to see the film at the Capitol Theatre (now replaced with the beautiful Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts). It was also a time when seeing films at the theater was something that lasted for weeks and months because fewer films were produced and home video releases were a relatively new thing. For a child, the time between the episodes seemed pretty much like an eternity.
There was little coverage of the Star Wars universe on television at the time. The film may have been mentioned periodically as breaking box office records, but the only ability to return to the universe outside of the theater was to save up your allowance and get your hands on as many action figures as you could. There were never enough funds to buy everything there was, either. It seemed like Kenner released new figures every week and the ships – oh the ships – they were just to die for.
Just a small part of Syd’s Star Wars collection.
I asked for a Millenium Falcon for Christmas in 1980. It was the coolest and best toy there was, but my parents could not afford it – or they couldn’t find it. So instead, I got the “put it together yourself” model version of the Millenium Falcon. Although it wasn’t really what I had wanted (you could not put your figures inside and play with them) I did end up spending a lot of time with it. Paint, stickers, and a cool battery operated light at the back that lit the whole thing up better than the Christmas tree made this a toy I grew to enjoy over time. In fact, it’s one of the few things that I cannot find from my childhood – I am not sure whatever happened to it but fortunately the rest of my Star Wars toys are intact and can be enjoyed anytime.
The key here is time. As a child, I spent a lot of my time in the Star Wars universe, even when I wasn’t in the theater. I used to tie a string from our tree to the neighbours railing and have Luke and his friends escape from the Stormtroopers and the evil Darth Vader in the nick of time, over and over again. It didn’t matter that we couldn’t afford those ships, I built my own from cardboard. I used pop cases as the base and made egg cartons into seats. I painted control panels and lights onto cardboard pieces that I fitted into the ships. I played out my own scenarios in these contraptions of my own imagination and created adventures that even George Lucas hasn’t thought of yet.
That is why Episodes I, II, and III – released at first when I had not quite reached my 28th birthday – would never capture my imagination, my mind, or my heart in quite the same way. Sure, I saw Episode I a number of times when it first came out and then bought the DVD (and the VHS, and now the Blu-ray) and I’ve seen it a few times since 1999. However, I did not build ships and think about the movie during over 75% of my free time. Life, bills, and a million other things were crowding my inner child. While Episode I was a fun (albeit short) trip back into that Star Wars universe, there was absolutely no way it was going to be as good or as fulfilling as the universe was the first time around.
With Disney at the helm, I hold cautious optimism that I can once again be transformed into being a child with a huge imagination and a roomful of action figures and cardboard boxes. Even if it is for only two hours, there is nothing that will ever replace or come close to my memories with Luke, Han, Leia and Darth from the 80’s. Star Wars helped shape the person I am today and there is nothing that will ever change that. Not even a new Princess in the Castle. For the Silo, Syd Bolton.
