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Nostalgic screenshot of Fedora Linux circa 2006 I found, plus some Linux memes

While doing a Duck Duck Go image search, I found this image of a Fedora desktop, circa 2006. This looks exactly the way my old laptop did after my friend installed Fedora on it, breathing new life into it. This is just so nostalgic for me. That was my first real experience with Linux. I’ve updated the essay I wrote a few years ago in the Greg’s Life section with the above image.

Another friend shared this article with me. The journalist is rather excited about SteamOS putting a dent in Microsoft’s market share. But since SteamOS can’t just be downloaded for free and put on any random computer, I’m not sure how far it would go. Still, people are getting very sick of Windows. Windows is like Star Wars and Star Trek… it’s like an abusive, violent husband whose battered wife refuses to dump him. “BUT I NEED HIM AND HE LOVES ME!” No, you can do better. He needs you; you don’t need him. Leave him! The way people refuse to leave Windows is like battered wife syndrome.

Here are a few Linux memes I saw recently.

One interesting thing about Win10 was the return of the Blue Screen of Death. I hadn’t seen the BSD since my WinXP days. Good going, Microsoft. I have to admit though that my Mint computer can screw up at times, but usually it’s Steam playing a Windows-made game through the Proton or Glorious Eggroll compatibility tools.

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Pac-Man pocket game by Tomy

I’ve had this since I was a child in the early ’80s. The steel balls inside once shown with luster, but have dulled over 40 years. The plastic has gotten scratched up considerably. This is a pocket pachinko-type game. Roll the dial and it drops the balls onto the pegs. Move Pac-Man across the bottom to catch them as they fall and bring them to the center hole for points. My daughter Ulan used to play with this in the car when she was a tiny girl. Now she’s grown up and has a smartphone. She’s growing so quickly…

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Memories of the Bag-A-Tel arcade in Valley West Mall (Glendale, AZ)

When I was a boy, the #1 game arcade I went to in Glendale, AZ was Bag-A-Tel in Valley West Mall. My #1 go-to game was, of course, Atari’s Star Wars sit-down cabinet. Released in 1983, this game came out the same year as Return of the Jedi, yet it involved the first Star Wars movie. I remember playing Atari’s Red Baron, a similar vector graphics shooter cabinet, before Star Was was released. The Return of the Jedi game by Atari came out in ’84, featuring an isometric view that I really could not get the hang of. Then in ’85 the first game was modified to play the Empire Strikes Back vector graphics game, which was not as good.

If Star Wars was occupied, my #2 choice was the Namco’s Pole Position II (released by Atari in the US) sit-down cabinet, which was located next to Star Wars. (This animated gif is actually of the first Pole Position game though.)

I have very fond memories of Bag-A-Tel. I loved that place. Whenever we’d catch a movie at the dollar theater, we’d be sure to stop by that arcade. Valley West Mall was eventually closed down, then later re-opened as Manistee Town Center. Eventually that mall went goodbye as well, and the mall was used for filming the movie Eight-Legged Freaks starring David Arquette and featuring a very young Scarlett Johannsson. The mall was demolished for that movie.

Here is a photo of the movie theater in Valley West Mall, courtesy of the CinemaTreasures nostalgia website.

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MOAR ’80s game arcade memes

So, here is Pac-Man, Frogger, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Defender, and the last two on the right are kind of small and I can’t recognize them.

For me, when my family would go to Valley West Mall in Glendale, Arizona, there was a game arcade there called Bag-A-Tel. My first go-to game was Atari’s Star Wars sit-down cabinet! If someone was there already, I’d go to Atari/Namco’s Pole Position II sit-down cabinet. I have so many great memories of that arcade. Valley West Mall died, was reborn as Manistee Town Center and died again. It was eventually demolished for the movie “Eight-Legged Freaks.”

Related: A couple of clever ’80s game arcade memes

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Strawberry Switchblade

You may not have ever heard of these two girls from Scotland, but Strawberry Switchblade made a HUGE impact on Japanese pop music and street fashion culture in the ’80s, and their style of music is exactly the aesthetic which modern-day Synthwave musicians emulate. Resembling something like dime store doll versions of Siouxsie Sioux, these two girls harmonized wonderfully to make cheerful-sounding New Wave pop music, infusing bubblegum sweet melodies with lyrics of melancholy. That android from Robot Carnival immediately comes to mind when I see their self-designed clothes, a polka-dotted amalgamation of Victorian and Flamenco styles. When you watch them, you can see their impact on ’80s J-pop and Harajuku fashion echoes their cute, punk rock doll aesthetic to this day. I see where Strawberry Switchblade heavily influenced the J-pop singing duo Wink in the ’80s. I can definitely see how their fashion aesthetic was a precursor to the “goth loli” fashion which sprang out of Osaka 20+ years ago.

While I was building the KUKQ playlist I mentioned in my previous post, their video for “Since Yesterday” kept showing up in my recommendations on YouTube. I finally clicked on it and loved what I heard. Then the more I thought about it, I unlocked a forgotten memory. I remember hearing a song by them on KUKQ when I was in high school, which was probably this same song. I fell in love with the cute female vocals and wanted to learn more. I think it was probably a Saturday afternoon when I heard the song on KUKQ, and I remember the DJ saying that they were big in Japan. I called in and talked to the DJ and told her how I thought that the band was so cool, and how I wanted to hear more from that band. My mom and sister were in the car waiting for me since we were leaving to go somewhere, but since I didn’t write down the band’s name and I never heard them again on the radio, I forgot all about them until recently.

Their song “Since Yesterday”:

What’s up with the weird people under the stage?

“Poor Hearts” (I particularly love the chiming guitar in this song, and it reminds me of a cross between Siouxsie & the Banshees and Kitchens of Distinction.

“I Can Feel” is quintessential Synthwave.

A brief history on Strawberry Switchblade:

Interviews on Japanese TV:

Super neat stuff. I bought their CD, and hopefully it will arrive sometime this week. You can see how deeply they inspired the J-Pop band, Wink.

Wink

Here are a couple of interesting history videos on Strawberry Switchblade.

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A couple of clever ’80s game arcade memes

The first time I visited Japan was in 1998, and at that time all I saw were sit-down cabinets like the Sega Astro City, Taito Egret, Namco Cyberlead, etc. So, I was unaware that game centers here in Japan once had standing cabinets like America did until talking with my Japanese friend. He said that he would play Atari’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in the ’80s. Atari had some successes in Japan back in the ’80s, especially Gauntlet and Marble Madness. And going back further, Breakout obviously made quite an impression in Japan, giving birth to the “block kuzushi” genre with Arkanoid being the most exemplary title. Dang, if only I could travel back in time, or at least Quantum Leap into my childhood self and relive those memories…