dp061 - Dirty Pair

Amstrad Action (October 1985)

Amstrad Action (October 1985)

The Amstrad CPC line of computers was popular in the U.K. and some other parts of Europe but was not available in North America as far as I know. It was Z80 based, had 64K to 128K of RAM stock depending on the model and included built in storage (cassette based or disk based on later models). Amstrad Action was an official Amstrad publication that included a heavy dose of gaming along with other software and hardware coverage. The premiere issue from October 1985 includes the following: Hot Reviews

• Way of the Exploding Fist - It laid us flat.
• Boulderdash - We dig it.
• Wordstar - Is it any better than Tasword and Microscript?
• Light Pens - Which one should you get?
• Red Moon - Level 9's latest blockbuster
• Cyrus Chess II - Superb 3D display isn't all
• Sorcery Plus - The supercharged disc version
• Everyone's a Wally - Except the programmers of these graphics.
• The Lords of Midnight - 32,000 screens of epic struggle
• Nonterraqueous - Cheapo with 1,000 screens

October Specials

• Amsyclopedia - Our huge survey of games software
• Talking Amstrad - Words from the men - and women - in the know.
• Amsoft power-sell - The duo in the driving seat speak to us.
• Dun Darach - Map and review of the best-seller

Juicy Offers

• Subscribe - And get two great Ocean games FREE
• Half-Price - Beyond's new Spy vs. Spy and Shadowfire
• Fist comp - 50 prizes of the explosive Melbourne House title.
• Rockford tease - Half a ton of Boulder Dash up for grabs.
• Questionnaire - Filing it in could win you software
• Mail Order - Get your pages on the cheap
• Maps, pokes, tips

Action Regulars

• Ed-lines - Lines from the Ed. A VERY important page.
• Amscene - News, including full details of the latest Amstrad launches
• Action Test - The start of our reviews
• Biz Progs - Word-processors compared, plus our top ten in serious software
• Plug-ins - All about add-ons - this month it's light-pens
• Adventure - A tour of text-entry action with The Pilgrim
• Cheat mode - Playing tips on piles of games legal and illegal
• Hot stuff - Introducing our readers charts and a very special offer

...and more!

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (453-456)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

No labeling on any of the photos in this set except for the date stamped into the first one (April 1966). Most likely, all of these are from the 1960s. The first is of an interior room of a house...maybe a bedroom, the second is of a girl posing on the sidewalk in front of a house, the third is of some random building (at least I don't know what it is) and the final shot is a scenic photo of a lake or river and hills.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

processed April 1966

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can be found here.

Electric Cars vs. Gas Cars: Is the Conventional Wisdom Wrong?

Joe Biden, the current front-runner of the Democratic 2020 field, promises the return of electric vehicle (EV) tax credits. The presidential candidate says that "a key barrier to further deployment of these greenhouse-gas reducing vehicles is the lack of charging stations and coordination across all levels of government." Biden wants 500,000 new charging stations by the end of 2030, thereby incentivizing the use of electric cars beyond the advantages given when buying them.

As it stands—and depending on the state in which the car is bought and withholding the individual tax situation of the buyer—some people can save up to $10,000 on a new Tesla thanks to this tax incentive.

This policy introduced under the Obama administration had the intention of promoting electric vehicles in order to reduce carbon emissions, but what happened in the countries that eliminated the tax credits tells a different story. When Denmark got rid of its tax credits for electric vehicles, Tesla's sales dropped by 94 percent. In Hong Kong, the company saw a decline of 95 percent as the city got rid of comparable tax advantages for those buying electric cars.

According to Biden, that is because the right user incentives aren't there, notably charging stations. However, the countries involved have considerably more charging stations than the US: Denmark has 443 charging stations in its capital Copenhagen, as well as over 500 more across the rest of the country. As for Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post reports:

The move [Tesla opening a super-charging car park in Hong Kong] followed the opening of Tesla’s first supercharger station – which can fully charge a Tesla in just 75 minutes [...]. Currently there are 92 Tesla superchargers at 21 supercharger stations, with more than 400 public and shared charging points.

Clearly, the question of EV is not one of convenience but of price.

The Full Story

Norway has the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the world, making up 60 percent of all new sales this year. Reporting on the story, NPR writes that "10,732 [sold cars] were rated with zero emissions."

The Institute of Transport Economics at the Norwegian Center for Transport Research lays out the ambition of carbon dioxide reduction through electric mobility.

For these vehicles a massive transition to electric engines can result in an up to a 97 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions and up to 76 per cent reduction in energy use per transport unit.

Adding to that, over 95 percent of Norway's electricity comes from hydropower, of which 90 percent is publicly owned. That does not come without its downsides. As electricity consumption increases in Norway, the sector is unable to keep up. Last year, lack of rainfall and low wind speed exploded Norwegian electricity prices to the level of Germany (which is still in the process of phasing out nuclear energy). Norway then resorted to coal power, and as fossil fuel power imports exceeded energy export, Norway has actually seen an increase in CO2 emissions.

This is despite the fact that Norway’s climate and geography make it ideal for the production of renewables, which is not the case for every state in the US. However, electricity production is only half the story of EV.

The Batteries

Electric vehicle batteries need a multitude of resources to be manufactured. In the case of cobalt, the World Economic Forum has called out the extraction conditions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 20 percent of the world's cobalt comes from. Miners as young as seven years are suffering from chronic lung disease from exposure to cobalt dust. Not only does battery manufacturing account for 60 percent of the world's cobalt use, but there are also no good solutions to replace it, which is something Elon Musk is struggling with.

This does not even address the extraction procedures, complications, ethical conditions, and emissions produced by the need for aluminum, manganese, nickel, graphite, and lithium carbonate.

With a European market estimated to reach a total of 1,200 gigawatt-hours per year, which is enough for 80 gigafactories with an average capacity of 15 gigawatt-hours per year, that need is set to increase exponentially.

The renowned German research institute IFO declared the eco-balance of diesel-powered vehicles to be superior to electric vehicles in a study released in April.

Petrol Cars

We know from the US Department of Energy that the average fuel economy of cars more than doubled from 1975 to 2018. Fuel economy is increasing while horsepower has also increased exponentially, making cars both cleaner and faster. In 2017, the average estimated real-world CO2 emission rate for all new vehicles fell by 3 grams per mile (g/mi) to 357 g/mi, the lowest level ever measured.



It doesn't even matter which car brand you feel loyal to since all brands have made comparable improvements.



No wonder: As much as consumers might care about CO2 emissions, they are even more price-sensitive. Even those consumers who aren't will eventually be swayed when they find out their car brand is costing them comparably excruciating amounts in fuel.

Electric cars won't be the one-size-fits-all solution to our current transportation challenges—at least not for the foreseeable future. As both technologies have up-and downsides, we need to consider what innovation can realistically achieve before we make calls for bans or rushed replacements.

Bill Wirtz

Bill Wirtz is a Eugene S. Thorpe Fellow at FEE and Young Voices Advocate. His work has been featured in several outlets, including Newsweek, Rare, RealClear, CityAM, Le Monde and Le Figaro. He also works as a Policy Analyst for the Consumer Choice Center.

Learn more about him at his website.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

ActionSoft (1988)

ActionSoft (1988)

This ad is sort of odd in that it is more of an introduction to the company making the games than an ad for the games themselves. This ad appeared in the U.K. based magazine The Games Machine in 1988. ActionSoft (or Action Soft...it is written both ways in the ad) was a U.S. based companies and their first two games, Thunderchopper and Up Periscope were originally released in 1986. As far as I can tell, these are the only two games released by ActionSoft though here they are two years later selling them in the U.K. Both of these games are simulations and that seems to be what ActionSoft was going to be all about. Thunderchopper is a flight simulator. The ad says that it "simulates the flight characteristics of high performance scout/rescue/attack helicopter". In addition to being grammatically incorrect, it's also sort of vague. This doesn't appear to be a simulation of a specific helicopter. I never though flight sims worked very well on 8-bit or even 16-bit computers. The graphics weren't really good enough and more importantly the frame rates were usually pretty abysmal. Having said that, there were a number of pretty realistic ones at that time given the hardware that was available. This one seems to have been a pretty average one overall.
Thunderchopper (Commodore 64) Up Periscope! is a World War II submarine simulator. Like Thunderchopper it is kind of non-specific in terms of what is being simulated. It is a generic World War II sub that has the equipment and weapons of subs of that era but if it is simulating a specific sub, it isn't specified. This game is somewhat similar to the earlier Silent Service. It isn't a bad game and I think this kind of simulator works a lot better than flight simulators on computers of that era. I don't really know what happened to ActionSoft. I remember their ads in the U.S. for these two games but I don't remember any other games coming from them nor can I find a reference to any. They seemed to have milked these two for a while and even marketed them internationally (at least in the U.K.) but they just sort of disappeared after that. I did find a reference that says ActionSoft licensed the graphics for Thunderchopper from subLogic. Also, there is a later DOS version of Thunderchopper that seems to have been released by subLogic and is compatible with Flight Simulator scenery disks. So perhaps subLogic acquired them....
Up Periscope! (Commodore64) Thunderchopper was available for the Commodore 64, Apple II and DOS. Up Periscope! was available for the Commodore 64 and DOS. The screenshots above are from the Commodore 64 versions of Thunderchopper and Up Periscope! If you want to play either one you'll have to find original copies or resort to emulation. While it matters less for Up Periscope!, DOS is probably better for simulations during this time. At least you will get better graphics and frame rates.

dp060 - Dirty Pair

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2019 – Music the Gathering – Part 5 (The Rolling of the Stones)

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2019 – Music the Gathering – Part 5 (The Rolling of the Stones)

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (449-452)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

This set is all from the 1960s. the only one labeled was the third image which was taken from the Negresco Hotel in Nice, France in 1966. The first image appears to be on a lake somewhere but I have no idea where. The last two appear to be at some sort of fancy dinner party or some other formal event. All of these were processed in the 1960s.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

processed August 1960
View from window of Negresco Hotel, Nice, France (5/20/66)
processed January 1967
processed March 1967

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can be found here.

Personal Computing Today (February 1983)

Personal Computing Today (February 1983)

Personal Computing Today was a computer magazine published in the U.K. in the early and mid 1980s. North American readers would find some familiar machines like the TRS-80 and VIC-20 but some of the computers covered were U.K. based like the BBC Micro. The February 1983 issue includes:

• Spectrum Software: Spectrum Zap - Do battle once more with the malevolent mutants from Mars in this all killing, all blasting game for the Spectrum.
• News - Brush up on the latest comings and goings in the computer scene.
• Letters - Comments or criticisms? Then this is your page.
• TRS-80 Software: Spelling Test - Let your Tandy test your spelling. With this program you can set up your own custom spelling tests.
• BBC Software: Squash - Learn how to program moving ball graphics and end up playing the computer a game of Squash.
• Next Month - Find out what we'll be up to in March.
• Atari Technique: Quick on the Draw - Find out more about the internal workings of your Atari's graphics.
• Review - Catch up with our review team in their latest escapades from the world of computer software.
• ZX81 Microspot: Instring Routine - Find out how to simulate this useful command on your own micro.
• Program Submissions - Want your name in print? Here's what you have to do.
• BBC Review: BBC Disc System - Thinking about treating your Beeb to some discs? Consult our review first and avoid the pitfalls.
• Letters: Micro Answers - If your Spectrum won't speak to you, or your RAM pack has rebelled, then drop us a line and we will set the experts on them.
• Sord: Review: The Sord's Edge - As the Japanese prepare to do battle for the control of the home computer market, Personal Computing Today agents sneaked a look at one of their secret weapons.
• UK 101 Software: UK Blitz - Bring your plane in for a safe landing by flattening the city below you.
• Survey - Personal Computing Today is your magazine, so complete our survey and help us give you what you want.
• Programming: Gamesboard - This month's Gamesboard will tell you all you need to know about setting up your own personal adventure.
• VIC 20 Software: One Touch Entry - Add a single key entry system to your VIC 20 with this invaluable program.
• BBC Hardware: Using Cassette Recorders - All you need to know about choosing, connecting and caring for your cassette recorder.
• Reference: Factfile - Mystified by the massive choice of micros? The Factfile will help you gain your perspective.
• Reference: Software Checklist - If you want a Toolkit for your Tandy or a Breakout for your BBC then turn to the Checklist to solve your problem.
• Reference: Micro Terms - If you're flummoxed by files of baffled by bytes then Micro Terms will straighten you out.

...and more!

dp059 - Dirty Pair

Why Medicare for All Is Already Looking More Expensive

After my study of the costs of Medicare for All (M4A) was published last July, a fierce debate erupted over whether M4A, while dramatically increasing the costs borne by federal taxpayers, might nevertheless reduce total U.S. health expenditures. Now, just one year after my findings, we have substantial additional evidence that M4A would further increase, not reduce, national health spending.

To be clear, no one on either side of this debate questioned my central finding that M4A would increase federal costs by an unprecedented amount, likely between $32.6 trillion and $38.8 trillion over ten years—a federal tab so large that even doubling all projected federal individual and corporate income taxes couldn’t finance it. Yet M4A advocates continued to believe that it could bring national health spending down. That’s become substantially more difficult to argue in light of subsequent events.

Various Cost Estimates

To understand how the picture has clarified, let’s review some of the specifics of my cost estimates as well as those of other experts. Prior to the introduction of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s M4A bill in 2017, various experts—including a team from the Urban Institute, Emory professor Ken Thorpe, and others­—attempted to score the costs of M4A. These studies concluded that M4A would not only dramatically increase federal spending, but increase total national health spending as well.

Subsequent to these studies, but prior to mine, Sen. Sanders introduced his M4A bill. That bill specified that health provider payment rates under M4A would be determined by the same methods used to set Medicare payment rates, which would average about 40 percent less than private insurance rates over the first 10 years of M4A.

Obviously, if one assumes that payments for all health treatments now covered by private insurance are reduced by about 40 percent, such a dramatic cost-reduction assumption would likely lead to the conclusion that total health spending would decline. My study duly reported the numbers that would derive from this cost-saving assumption but at the same time noted that “it is likely that the actual cost of M4A would be substantially greater than these estimates,” and that they should be regarded as a “lower bound.”

For one thing, federal lawmakers have historically balked at implementing provider payment reductions much smaller and less sudden than those. For another, dramatically reducing provider payments (and thus health care supply) at the same time that M4A markedly increases the demand for health services would almost certainly disrupt Americans’ timely access to quality health care, precipitating unpredictable political fallout.

Although my study was clear that the actual costs of M4A would likely be substantially higher than they would be under the aggressive assumption that all provider payments are suddenly cut to Medicare rates, mischaracterizations of my conclusions proliferated. Some M4A advocates wrote (and continue to write) that my study concluded that M4A would reduce national health spending, even though my study did not say this, and despite various Fact Checkers calling out this claim as a distortion.

Is M4A Less Expensive Than National Health Spending?

It was certainly fair for M4A advocates to express their belief M4A could and would reduce all provider payment rates to Medicare levels, thereby lowering national health spending. At the same time, it was never accurate to misattribute this finding to my study, which had found that such severe cuts were unlikely to be implemented. But now we know more about these dynamics than when my study was published. Based on events over the last year, even M4A’s strongest advocates can’t expect that such dramatic provider payment cuts would be successfully implemented under M4A.

When my study was first released, some M4A supporters argued that my lower-bound estimate was the best one because it most closely reflected the literal text of the Sanders bill. As one wrote in defense of my lower-bound projection’s credence,

For now, the Sanders bill would pay health care providers at Medicare rates, which are on average 40 percent lower than private insurance rates.

In other words, they argued that regardless of whether that course of action was politically realistic, it was nevertheless what was written into the bill, and so it was fair to assert that M4A “as written” would lower national health costs (setting aside the issue of whether my lower-bound estimate’s other assumptions of substantial savings in drug prices and administrative costs were too optimistic).

However, more recently M4A advocates have been rapidly backing away from this interpretation. For example, an Aug. 20 letter to The Wall Street Journal argued that

nowhere in the House or Senate Medicare for All bills does it state that Medicare for All would reimburse hospitals at current Medicare rates. The Senate bill states that payment would be established in a manner consistent with current processes.

An expert recently interviewed by Politifact offered a similarly revised interpretation of the Sanders language: that the text of the bill only requires that a Medicare-style rate-setting process, not actual Medicare rates.

The article states,

the Medicare for All bill sponsored by fellow Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) doesn’t actually say hospitals would be paid at Medicare rates. . . . Politically, Anderson argued, the odds are ‘quite low’ that the government would decide to pay all hospitals the current Medicare rates for all services, though it would set a lower price than what many private plans now pay.

High-Cost vs. Low-Cost Visions for M4A

The intended message to health providers of these statements is clear: don’t worry, if M4A is enacted, lawmakers won’t really cut your payments down to Medicare levels.

As interpretations of the M4A bill’s legislative language, these assertions are a stretch. The bill language says specifically that the federal government will establish “fee schedules” for M4A that are consistent with those that result from Medicare’s rate-setting process. My study observed that such stipulations were likely to be amended on the way to enactment, not that they would be enacted as is and then simply ignored. It’s difficult to construe the legislative language as leaving the federal government free to arrive at whatever payment levels are deemed politically acceptable, rather than those that arise under the current-law Medicare process.

But putting aside the interpretative stretch, advocates’ recent efforts to massage the bill’s intent would, if successful, clearly negate the basis for any claim that M4A would lower national health costs. Such claims of cost savings were always based entirely on the assumption that M4A would lower private insurance payment rates not just a little bit, but all the way down to Medicare levels. Indeed, projections by multiple experts indicate that if instead M4A’s payment rates were set higher than Medicare’s current rates—even if only at the bare minimum that enables hospitals to break even—national health spending would rise, not fall, as a result of M4A’s substantial coverage expansion.

Of course, the aforementioned quotes represent the perspectives of just certain individuals, and by themselves are not proof that every M4A advocate is now embracing a higher-cost vision for the program. But the quotes also align with what happens, and is now happening, when government-run health plans are developed.

As previously noted, M4A advocates’ recent shift to supporting higher provider payments is exactly what my study anticipated upon an actual attempt to enact M4A. The initial promises of lower costs would give way to the realities of federal government deal-making. It is always an analytical mistake to unfairly compare the messy reality of existing policies, which have been run through the real-world legislative wringer, to an idealized fantasy alternative that hasn’t. But we don’t need to wait to see these messy compromises rearing their heads with respect to M4A. The shift to countenancing higher government expenditures under M4A is already happening.

One such scenario recently played out in the state of Washington, which was attempting to set up its so-called “public option”—i.e., a state-run plan through which those lacking other health coverage could acquire it. Here, too, the initial idea was to pay providers participating in the public option at Medicare rates—until, that is, the legislation actually started to move.

Crumbling Rationale

By the end of the process, the legislation had shifted from paying providers at levels no higher than Medicare rates, to paying them at levels no higher than 160 percent of Medicare rates. Faced with the reality that providers wouldn’t support or participate in the plan at Medicare rates, sponsors simply buckled and promised more public funds until opposition was defused and the legislation could pass.

It should be obvious that this cost-increasing dynamic is even more inevitable with a federal M4A program than it was with Washington state’s “public option.” Under M4A there would be only the one single-payer plan, and providers would either have to participate in it, or cease to practice. Obviously, America’s health providers would fight several times as hard against payment cuts under M4A that they could not escape, as they needed to do against Washington state’s public option in which they could simply have chosen not to participate.

One M4A advocate understood the significance of the stakes in Washington state:

This would be a massive game changer . . . if they were able to somehow not only convince a statewide network of doctors and hospitals to agree to a 40% pay cut, but to also manage to make such an arrangement work without driving those hospitals, clinics or physicians into bankruptcy.

But they didn’t do so, because they couldn’t.

The great promise of M4A for its advocates is that it will be able to simultaneously offer Americans more comprehensive coverage while also bringing health costs down. But M4A can’t bring health costs down unless it dramatically cuts payments to providers. What we’ve learned over the last few months is that, when faced with a choice between abandoning government-run health care and abandoning cost containment, supporters are choosing to abandon cost containment. By so doing, the core rationale offered for Medicare for All—that it would deliver better health care for less money—is being undone.

This article is republished with permission from Economics 21.

Charles Blahous

Charles Blahous is a senior research fellow for the Mercatus Center, a research fellow for the Hoover Institution, a public trustee for Social Security and Medicare, and a contributor to e21.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

MEGA (January 1994)

MEGA (January 1994)


MEGA was a U.K. published magazine dedicated to the Sega Genesis or Mega Drive as it was called there along with its various add-ons. Why was the name different anyway? MEGA wasn't particularly long lived lasting only about 3 years between October 1992 and October 1994. The January 1994 issue includes:

• What Are You Playing At?
• Chances are, you'll either already have, or will seriously be thinking about buying, one of the ten most scrumptious games of '93. What are they? Well, turn to our feature, which starts on page 16, and you'll find out.
• Each of the games has a lovely two-page spread, in which we give you a bit of history on the game, a review, some tips, and various other relevant bits and bobs.
• And don't forge, to find out all about the Saturn Console, and what you can expect to see in 1994, turn to page 66, where our second feature begins.


• Regulars
• Mega City - MEGA asks Sega why sequels are often a disappointment. Plus all the usual hot news from home and abroad.
• The Charts - Same old crap, and precisely the same packaging. Yes, it's the sad charts page. Funny it ain't.
• Mega Play - No change here, thank goodness. Just the best tips section in the universe.
• Arena - And this is the bit that no other Mega Drive mag offers: wacky challenges to breathe new life into those tired old carts.
• Mega Retro - This month, Jon Smith takes a look at the development of the platform shoot-'em-up. He rates every game in the genre and picks out some historic moments along the way.
• Back Issues - Missed any of the previous 15 issues of MEGA? You have? Well, you'll be wanting to order some back issues then. Get 'em while they're still available.
• Top 100 - The top 100 Mega Drive games of all time, the top 10 Mega CD games, and our fabulous Tips List. What a wonderful section.
• Subscribe - Subscribe now and you get happiness, eternal life, and a Ferrari. Well, actually you get a copy of MEGA GOLD and an editor's newsletter each month, but whaddya want fer nothin?
• Previews - This month: Eternal Champions, Dragon's Lair, The Incredible Hulk, Jammit One On One Basketball, Rage In The Cage, Young Indy, Pele and Greatest Heavyweights.
• Mega Mouth - Andy Dyer searches through his bulging mail sack in the hope of finding something other than another "When's Street Fighter 12 coming out?" type letter.
• Shut Down - And this, dear friends, is the dreadfully inaccurate, and completely speculative look at what we may, or may not, be covering in the next issue. Accurate it ain't, but we like to think it's mildly amusing.


• 15 Reviews!
• Terminator CD
• Dragon's Revenge
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
• The Lost Vikings
• Dune 2
• Aero the Acrobat
• Boxing Legends of the Ring
• F117 Night Storm
• Toe Jam and Earl 2
• Rolling Thunder 3
• Spider-Man Vs. The Kingpin
• Round-Up


• More of the Same? - MEGA takes a look at game sequels and asks a couple of industry peeps if they're not a bit on the poor side.
• What's In Store For 1994? - The latest Saturn news, plus a rundown of what all the major software houses have planned for next year.
• Landstalker Solution - Part One - Introducing the first part of our brilliant solution to the best Mega Drive role-playing game of all time. Part two next month...

...and more!

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (445-448)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

The slides in this set aren't labelled but at least a couple of them appear to be of Notre Dame cathedral. The Notre Dame photos were processed in November 1958 so were probably taken near that time.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

processed November 1958
processed November 1958
processed November 1958

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can be found here.

dp057 - Dirty Pair

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2019 – Music the Gathering – Part 4 (Tom of Bedlam)

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2019 – Music the Gathering – Part 4 (Tom of Bedlam)

Grappler CD (Commodore 64)

Grappler CD (Commodore 64)

This ad is from the June/July issue of Commodore Power/Play and advertisers an add-on for the Commodore 64 that most people don't think of being an add-on today (because it isn't usually). It's for a printer interface.

The Commodore 64 did not provide a standard printer port out of the box. However, it had a user port that could be adapted to a number of uses, including as a printer port. Unfortunately, this required buying a separate adapter. These typically cost in the neighborhood of $30-$50 depending on the brand and time period we are talking about.

There were printers by Commodore and other 3rd party vendors that would connect directly to your Commodore 64 without an adapter but your choices would have been very limited. Adapters like these would allow you to connect your Commodore 64 to most major printers of the time. These would have been printers that connected to a parallel port (this was pre-USB) and usually either dot matrix or daisy wheel though an expensive laser printer was also a possibility.

I never heard of this particular printer interface and have no idea what the "CD" stands for in Grappler CD. However, Orange Micro was a major vendor at the time so I assume this would have been a quality product. I had a different and I think more generic brand but it always worked okay for me.

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (441-444)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

While only one of these photos is labelled, two others conveniently features signs that identify exactly where they are. One is at Hole in the Ground at Deschutes National Forest in Oregon and the other is at the summit of McKenzie Pass, also in Oregon. These photos are undated but are likely from the late 1950s or early 1960s.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

Leo at Fremont

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can be found here.

dp056 - Dirty Pair

18 Facts on the US National Debt That Are Almost Too Hard to Believe

At around $22.5 trillion, the United States national debt sits at 106 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). There is no disputing that this gigantic debt will someday become due and payable. However, there is hesitation among the political class as to what must be done to pay down and eliminate this debt.

Continual Spending Increases

Progressive lawmakers have largely refrained from discussing this liability, preferring to claim that the United States can continue to fund exorbitant government programs. Conservatives have unsuccessfully, on numerous occasions, attempted to limit federal outlays. With each failed attempt, conservatives instead continue to vote for spending increases. At the National Review, Michael Tanner writes,

there is no effort to prioritize or make the difficult choices of governing, there is only...more.

Each attempt to cut or reduce the growth of federal spending has been met with resistance and ferocious outrage.

If there is any takeaway from these unsuccessful attempts to reduce spending, it is that federal spending has subsidized numerous projects or programs, which have grown dependent on the federal government. There may be many good uses of federal funds, but this does not provide lawmakers with a “Get-out-of-jail-free card.” For now, lawmakers continue to spend as if they are children in a candy store with no limit on their parents’ credit card. At some point, lawmakers must address the underlying problem: federal spending.

Apathy and Unfathomability

Lawmakers are representatives for their constituents. This goes without saying, but lawmakers are unlikely to address the ever-increasing national debt until voters demand action. What remains unfathomable to many voters is how much money $22.5 trillion truly is. As Jon Miltimore has written, “the problem is that the human mind has trouble understanding a figure so huge.” Below are some facts that help put into perspective just how large is the sum of $22.5 trillion:

1. In order to pay down our national debt you would have to combine the GDP of China, Japan, and India.
2. The United States owes $68,400 per citizen.
3. The United States owes $183,000 per taxpayer.
4. The United States currently has $125 trillion (yes, trillion) in unfunded liabilities.
5. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the US debt held by the public will reach 100 percent of GDP in 2028.
6. In 2008, interest on the federal debt was $253 billion. Interest for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 is roughly 89 percent higher.
7. For FY 2019, interest alone on the federal debt is $479 billion. In 1979, total federal government receipts were $463 billion.
8. In the year 2000, the federal debt was $5.67 trillion. In 2019, federal debt is 297 percent higher.
9. At Forbes, Jim Powell writes that the old New Deal cost about $50 billion from 1933 to 1940, whereas the “future cost of old New Deal programs still in effect is reckoned at more than $50 trillion.”
10. A recent analysis by the CBO projected that the federal budget deficit (deficit as in the difference between federal outlays and revenues) will grow to $1 trillion alone in 2020.
11. As of December 2018, only ten countries have worse Debt-to-GDP ratios than the United States.
12. At NPR, Danielle Kurtzleben writes that Senator Bernie Sanders’ “taxation-and-spending plans...would together add $18 trillion to the national debt over a decade.”
13. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, roughly 24 percent of federal spending goes to Social Security, 26 percent to federal health insurance programs, 9 percent to safety net programs, and only 2 percent on transportation infrastructure.
14. By 2025, the cost of servicing our national debt will exceed the cost of our military spending.
15. The cost of implementing a Universal Basic Income, presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s central social program proposal, would cost $3.8 trillion per year or roughly 85 percent of current federal spending.
16. It would take the United States 713,470 years to pay down the national debt if we paid $1 per second of the year.
17. Modern presidents have doubled the national debt every nine years.
18. The Federal Reserve “purchased large amounts of federal debt as part of its quantitative easing program,” thus cheapening the cost (decreasing the interest rates) of money.

Lawmakers and political pundits continue to insist that federal revenues are the real issue despite continuous growth in federal revenues. Heated rhetoric over federal tax cuts ignores the reality that federal spending increases continue to outpace federal revenue increases.

At some point, purchasers of US treasury securities may request a higher return, materializing in higher interest rates, unless lawmakers address our growing national debt. For now, it is up to voters to demand that lawmakers implement responsible policies that protect our nation’s financial security.

Mitchell Nemeth

Mitchell Nemeth holds a Master in the Study of Law from the University of Georgia School of Law. His work has been featured at The Arch Conservative, Merion West, and The Red & Black. Mitchell founded the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at the University of Georgia.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Galaxian (Atari 2600, Atari 5200)

Galaxian (Atari 2600, Atari 5200)

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (437-440)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

Mostly landscape and nature photos in this set but the third one features a couple of individuals, one of which (the one on the left) I believe to be Leo Oestreicher who I believe was the photographer for most of these photos.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

Wild Foxglove near Cushman
Victor Hugo's Lag???

Road to Fremont + Fort Rock in distance

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can be found here.

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2019 – Music the Gathering – Part 3 (Cape Cod Shanty)

Brevard Renaissance Fair 2019 – Music the Gathering – Part 3 (Cape Cod Shanty)

dp055 - Dirty Pair

Amiga Down Under (April 1994)

Amiga Down Under (April 1994)

Vintage Photos - Oestreicher (433-436)

See the previous post in this series here. Feel free to skip the quoted intro text if you have read it before.

I had the opportunity to pick up a huge batch of slides recently. These are pictures spanning from as early as the late 1940s to as late as the early 1990s (maybe earlier and/or later but these are what I have sampled so far). These came to me second (third?) hand but the original source was a combination of estate sales and Goodwill. There are several thousand...maybe as many as 10,000. I will be scanning some from time to time and posting them here for posterity.

Apparently, getting your pictures processed as slides used to be a fairly common thing but it was a phenomenon I missed out on. However, my Grandfather had a few dozen slides (circa late 1950s) that I acquired after he died. That along with some negatives is what prompted me to buy a somewhat decent flatbed scanner that could handle slides and negatives (an Epson V600). That was the most money I was willing to spend on one anyway. It can scan up to four slides at a time with various post-processing options and does a decent enough job. The scanner has been mostly idle since finishing that task but now there is plenty for it to do.

This set continues a rather large batch of slides that originally came from an estate sale and appear to have belonged to a locally well known photographer from the Spokane Washington area and later Northern Idaho named Leo Oestreicher. He was known for his portrait and landscape photography and especially for post cards. He career started in the 1930s and he died in 1990. These slides (thousands of them) contain a lot of landscape and portrait photos but also a lot of photos from day to day life and various vacations around the world. Here's an article on him from 1997 which is the only info I have found on him: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/jan/04/photos-of-a-lifetime-museum-acquisition-of-leo/

Many of these slides had the date they were processed (presumably) stamped or printed on them (month and year). I've found that in cases where I could verify the date, either because a more specific date was hand written or there was something to specifically date the photo in the photo itself, that this date has typically been the same month the photos were taken. In other words, I expect that in MOST cases these photos were taken relatively near the processing date. No doubt there are some exceptions.

Most of the photos in this set are of foresty mountain areas (including the cross section of a massive tree that was cut down) except for one that is apparently a picture of someone's house post snow storm. A couple are labeled with one mentioning the Siuslaw River which is in Oregon. These are likely all from the late 1950s or early 1960s.

Click on one of the images or the link below to also see versions processed with color restoration and Digital ICE which is a hardware based dust and scratch remover, a feature of the Epson V600 scanner I am using. There are also versions processed with the simpler dust removal option along with color restoration.

In front of Bill Jones - processed March 1960

N. Fork Siuslaw Riv from hill above Ag's house

The entire collection that has been scanned and uploaded so far can be found here.