Tuesday
Jun182013
66: All By Myself
Posted on 
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 5:28PM | in episodes
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 5:28PM | in episodes 
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Are you lonesome tonight? Well, these people sure are! We salute and celebrate the ones who tend to do things by themselves: the crazy solo life of the hermit crab (and its nightmare cousin, the coconut crab), the physical and psychological effects of human isolation experiments, the amazing trail-blazing lone wolf game designers of the Atari age, and of course, famous band members who struck it big with their own solo careers.
Reader Comments (8)
Hi Brainers!
Just a correction on this show -- while your description of the Atari 2600 was mostly good, your 'duck hunt' was a little off.
The way the duck hunt gun worked was simpler than you said. The way the gun worked was to make the screen completely black, with white boxes where the ducks (or whatever we wanted to shoot) were. A light sensor in the gun then detected if it could see black or white. This is why if you pointed the duck hunt gun at a light, it would think you always hit! (although in some games they figured out ways of stopping this).
But, it is true duck hunt doesn't work on LCD TVs. While duck hunt didn't make use of the drawing of the individual lines, it did check the light gun between the end of one frame and the start of the next, while the gun was heading back up to the top. Once the gun is back at the top, the NES starts drawing the next normal game frame, and gun detection has finished. LCD TVs just don't get the black screen + white boxes on the screen fast enough, they have a small amount of lag.
But still, good job brains!
why, why, WHY did i do a Google image search of the coconut crab?
Great episode. Really enjoyed this on my morning eight mile run.
Congrats on the Marathon! Now to get bored with them and move to ultra's like I have. 50K plus is my drive now ;)
Hi,
Enjoy the show, but just wanted to correct the section about the marathon distance. Firstly, the distance run by the Spartan soldier is not known, but thought to be over 150 miles, as her ran to Athens, and then back.
When the marathon took place in the early Modern Olympics, there was no set distance, and varied around the 25 mile mark. At the 1908 Games in London, the race was to be 26 miles, from Windsor Castle to White City Stadium. The start was moved so it would take place under the balcony of the castle, and then the finish line was moved so it would end under the Royal Box in the stadium.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1908_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Men's_marathon
Great job Karen on the marathon. Runners unite! Check out the Spartathlon for 153 miles of fun. The Spartathlon aims to trace the footsteps of Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger sent to Sparta in 490 BC to seek help against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon.
why oh why did you mention coconut crabs! I can't get the image out of my brain!!!!!!!!
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Hi Guys,
Long time listener, first time writer!
Just a minor pedant point. The modern Marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards was standardised in 1921 and was based on the 1908 London Olympic race which was nominally set at 26 miles. The 385 yards were added so that the race would end in front of the royal box after a lap of the stadium.
There was a little controversy surrounding the 1908 finish and the winner of the race Dorando Pietri. The usual Marathon distance at the time was around 25 miles and this is what Pietri had trained for. The extra mile took it's toll on the Italian and as he entered White City Stadium and crossed what should have been the finish line he collapsed. He was helped to his feet and after falling a further three times managed to cross the finish line with a little assistance.
The judges initially wanted to disqualify Pietri but a public outcry led to him being reinstated. There is still video of Dorando finishing the race and he was quite clearly already struggling when he entered the stadium.
On another note, has anyone ever mentioned that Colin sounds just like the British based US disc jockey Paul Gambaccini?
Thanks for a brilliant podcast.
Regards
Al