...You mean the console?

[Nyx]

I blame you Summerfly . I had never encountered this particular brand of stupidity before. But then I read this and it happened today. A lady asked me if we sold "bead making kits", logically one would assume she wished to make beads! So I told her that all we had for that were rollers and molds to make beads out of clay. She says "So you don't have any jewelry making kits?" Somehow you have cursed me. lol

[Summerfly413]

Must be a gift, Nyx haha.

-I had yet another call last night asking for "the wii game". *sigh*

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I've come across a lot of customers who will call games "Tapes"

Ummmm I can't quite figure out where this comes from. From the atari days forward games have been sold as either various types of cartridges or various types of disks but NEVER as a tape (like with film in it) as far as I'm aware. So why do they call them "tapes"?

[Imogene]

tape (like with film in it) as far as I'm aware. So why do they call them "tapes"?

Way back before floppy disks, information came on tapes, like... pre VHS tapes... usually for hard copies of important info...

[Ironclad Alibi]

I've come across a lot of customers who will call games "Tapes"

Ummmm I can't quite figure out where this comes from. From the atari days forward games have been sold as either various types of cartridges or various types of disks but NEVER as a tape (like with film in it) as far as I'm aware. So why do they call them "tapes"?

My first computer was a TI-99/4A. While most of the programs were on cartridges, you could use cassette tapes to load and save progams. I used a standard Radio Shack tape recorder to load and save programs for that computer. And yes, it was a slow process.

[Chromatix]

The various 8-bit home computers - including the Apple ][, the ZX Spectrum, and the TRS-80 - tended to use audio cassette tapes for data storage - and that included games. It was a remarkably cheap and simple storage system. Loading times were abysmal.

The BBC Micro was also among these, but a floppy disk controller and drive was a very popular upgrade for that machine, so tapes were less universal for it.

[leesyITFC]

Why people can't be more specific is beyond me lol

[Sapphire Silk]

The various 8-bit home computers - including the Apple ][, the ZX Spectrum, and the TRS-80 - tended to use audio cassette tapes for data storage - and that included games. It was a remarkably cheap and simple storage system. Loading times were abysmal.

The BBC Micro was also among these, but a floppy disk controller and drive was a very popular upgrade for that machine, so tapes were less universal for it.

Yeah, I remember those! Way back when, a guy in my gaming group had a C-64 with one. We loaded up Castle Wolfenstien, then went into another room, played D&D for about 40 minutes, came back, still loading. Another round of D&D, still loading. Another round, loaded!

It was still a wickedly fun game though

[Shalom]

Yeah, I remember those! Way back when, a guy in my gaming group had a C-64 with one. We loaded up Castle Wolfenstien, then went into another room, played D&D for about 40 minutes, came back, still loading. Another round of D&D, still loading. Another round, loaded!

It was still a wickedly fun game though

http://www.virtualapple.org/castlewolfensteindisk.html Try this.

It's the Apple ][ version, but it should run the same. Note that you have to have Caps Lock on for this to work, as the original software was written for machines without lowercase support.

(They also have a hacked version on the same site called Castle Smurfenstein. I leave you to guess what the difference is. )

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

The various 8-bit home computers - including the Apple ][, the ZX Spectrum, and the TRS-80 - tended to use audio cassette tapes for data storage - and that included games. It was a remarkably cheap and simple storage system. Loading times were abysmal.

The BBC Micro was also among these, but a floppy disk controller and drive was a very popular upgrade for that machine, so tapes were less universal for it.

Thanks for the info, but that doesn't really excuse my customers lol. Most of the people that use the "tapes" name for the games don't seem to me the type to have ever had video games before. Either that or the last time they actually had video games was way back when they were tapes.

[Zellie Crescent]

We have almost every console exept for the Wii, PS3, and the 360. The main problem we get though is people ask for stuff that isn't out yet.

[BeeMused]

http://www.virtualapple.org/castlewolfensteindisk.html Try this.

It's the Apple ][ version, but it should run the same. Note that you have to have Caps Lock on for this to work, as the original software was written for machines without lowercase support.

(They also have a hacked version on the same site called Castle Smurfenstein. I leave you to guess what the difference is. )

You are EVIL!!!111!!eleventy!! I found almost all the goodies I had for my Apple //e!11!!1! There goes my spare time!eleventy!!111!!

[Zoom]

They also have a hacked version on the same site called Castle Smurfenstein

Ah! One of my favorite games ever! I loved finding a box with an atom bomb in it, or finally finding the way out of the castle only to be ambushed by the battletank marked "Peace". And who could forget the acronym "Secret Military Underground Resistance Force"?

On another note, Nintendo is slightly to blame for keeping alive the renaming of things.

When they released the NES, they had to distance themselves from the perceived failings of Atari, so they renamed cartridges to Game-Paks, video game consoles to Entertainment Systems, etc.

The real reason the whole thing started was all those unscrupulous knock-off manufacturers of home Pong-like systems titled them "TV GAME", and since then people have equated systems with games even after they started being sold seperately.

In a similar vein, often in the 1980s a customer showed up who tried to buy a game (usually a cartridge) and thinks it will play without added hardware.

[Estil]

What I mean is that I've been in video gaming since 1990 (got my first NES for my 10th b-day), and I've seen console launches come and go. Typically they're red hot and in high demand say, 6-12 months or so, but by this time (remember the PS3 already has their mini-version, as they always did for PS1 and PS2 after about four years after the launch of the regular bigger console) the consoles should be well past their peak. Yet here is the Wii, STILL in short supply and red hot in demand, even though I bet by the middle of this year (E3 in particular) we'll get our first peek at the eighth generation consoles (PS4 and whatever the next Nintendo/Microsoft consoles end up being called; I originally thought the Wii would've been called the "N5" for Nintendo's fifth home console). This is very unusual and unprecedented.