1980's Pulitzer Prize winning book A Confederacy of Dunces caught me completely off guard

 

I was not ready for this book. I wasn't ready for the backstory of its author, John Kennedy Toole, a victim of suicide eleven years before his book found its way to publication through the efforts of his mother who discovered the manuscript after his passing. I wasn't ready for the humour, especially after being warned in a foreword that this book was funny, which immediately sets me up in a "prove it" mindset (it did prove it). 

Frankly, and this is a little cynical on my part, but I don't think it's wrong, I get a little suspicious about those heaping praise placed on posthumous work of any kind because I can't help but wonder how much of it is sympathetic. For this book to win the Pulitzer Prize, for example, almost seems like a noble gesture.

Except, I feel like this is the kind of book that, had it been published in Toole's lifetime and been lost in the shuffle, somebody would have found it, been bowled over by it, passed it on to a friend, and that would be the start of another path to notoriety.

I've also since read about the troubled history of trying to bring this novel to the screen, and the tragedies that have also left those efforts reeling (John Belushi and Chris Farley are among those slated to have played Ignatius) is a wild story in itself. 

It's an easy first read because it just keeps moving and it really is fun and funny. I look forward to returning to it sometime for a more leisurely take.

1980 at the movies: Star Wars returns and Redford rules

 

I made a little mistake.

With Star Wars it was a no-brainer to watch the original, untouched 1977 version. With The Empire Strikes Back, though, I got a little lazy. Yes, I could have watched the Laserdisc which pretty darn close to the original version, but it hadn't been that long since I watched the LD anyway, so I figured I'd just watch on Disney+ because, for one thing, it looks great and I'd like to give Empire that treatment. Also, as I recalled, Empire was the Star Wars movie with the least adjustments made in those Special Editions. I was thinking, of course, of seeing it in 1997, and forgot that more changes were to come later.

For the most part, I don't mind the changes anyway. Most of them are cosmetically improving the effects and not adding new characters or musical numbers. I don't mind Cloud City opening up, although I don't need it, and I really couldn't remember any other changes.

Well, as soon as Luke said to R2 "You were lucky to get out of there" instead of "You're lucky you don't taste very good" I was reminded that some changes cannot be explained. Meanwhile, the scene of two characters clearly *not* intended to be brother/sister at that time sharing a kiss, a scene that could easily be cut without any impact on the plot whatsoever, remains untouched after who knows how many special editions. 

I also missed my old Emperor: 

I should've watched the Laserdisc.

Anyway - the movie is so good. So good, in fact, that I'm convinced that it sets the bar for every other Star Wars film too high and "it's not Empire" becomes a very convenient and accurate statement about every film to come afterwards (Rogue One comes closest).

This time I was also struck by Oz's performance as Yoda. He looks really, really good and lifelike, and there were only a couple of times where puppeteering looked at all obvious. The rest of the time it really is Yoda acting with Hamill.

Now then, let's change the mood:

Is it weird to say I love this movie? Ordinary People, Best Picture winner from the following year, isn't something I'd pop it in at any old time, but from start to finish I find it fascinating. Each performance, each little story told within the larger tale, each time the focus changes to roles both big and small to reveal yet another impact of the tragedy - I think it's brilliantly done. 

Sutherland fits this role to a tee, but this is another time when I wish I'd been around to experience the reaction to Mary Tyler Moore taking on this role and excelling in it. I don't expect that this tone of film from Redford would have been much of a shock, but it would have almost certainly been of a quality beyond expectations for a first time gig.

And, not that Ordinary People invented psychiatry, but does Good Will Hunting owe some very specific things to this movie? 

1980 in music: Pink Floyd's The Wall and the Junos being the Junos

 

While I certainly didn't go into my listening of The Wall, released in late 1979 and becoming 1980's top-selling album, as determined to not like it, I was at least prepared to feel that way. The truth is that I tend to get my guard up about "must-sees", "must-reads", or any kind of "must". I can't help it, and it's making for a lot of challenges during this project that's pretty well 100% comprised of "musts". 

Within seconds of starting The Wall, though, any reservations I had disappeared and I settled in for the excellent listen. Despite being a big fan of Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2, even though the video messed me around a bit as a kid, and also knowing Comfortably Numb fairly well from it being around in high school, I knew nothing else about the album so I had no idea that it is exactly my kind of concept rock album. I love the shifts from longer and shorter tracks, and I love the musical themes that pop up throughout.

Here was my listen: https://youtu.be/wCSqmHV7fsE

I'm listening to it again as I write this.

Now, I'll ask you this: what kind of awards institution hands out their Album of the Year honour to a Greatest Hits collection? The Junos, of course.

And she still can't really break me down, either. I'm not being purposefully negative, but this is a pretty tame Greatest Hits album, and still somehow feels like it has some filler tracks.

Dallas Part One: 1980

 

At first, I thought what good fortune it was that I would get to watch the season three finale where J.R. is shot (!) and the season four run of episodes to solve the mystery - but then I realized that's not good fortune. Naturally, it was the highest rated TV series of the year because, even as a kid having never watched an episode of Dallas, I was still very aware of the drama surrounding the shooting at the time.

Turns out that I loved watching this show. I loved J.R.'s Lego hair. I loved seeing Ann Nelson from Airplane! I loved seeing Mary Crosby, who I've only ever known as Samantha Gregory from Tapeheads. I loved seeing Janine Turner in what seems to be her first credited role.

I really just loved watching legitimately scripted, trashy TV for the first time in a long time. 

I've got two more weeks of Dallas as the top show of the year coming up, so I'll be revisiting this troubled family again soon.

1980 food: Behold the McChicken in all its glory (and Big League Chew too)

The idea of food (or any product, really) as presented in commercials being a far cry from what ends up in front of you is old news, but I was nonetheless a little bummed by the experience of my first McChicken in years - especially because it was always my favourite fast food burger (technically, they call it a sandwich).

It still tasted fine, but look at that mess. The added bummer is that McDonald's was always a go-to for cheap food and you weren't expecting more than a cheap meal. Does that McChicken up there look like a $6.99 meal? The correct answer is no.

Thankfully, and surprisingly, Big League Chew didn't let me down. Also let loose on the world in 1980, this gum wins the next-level award after Popeye candy cigarettes were apparently deemed too tame for kids and a tribute to chewing tobacco was the obvious move. What was surprising about how much I still enjoyed it is that now, like most gum, it has opted to include an artificial sweetener - and I hate sweeteners. Still, I didn't find that it ruined the flavour like it does to most things.

 

1980's video game scene powered by Space Invaders, Flight Simulator, Game & Watch

A simple round-up this week:

Space Invaders was still champ in the arcade and on home consoles (specifically for Atari); Flight Simulator was the top home computer game for the Apple II, and Nintendo kept on being innovative and weird with its release of Ball for Game & Watch, the precursor to Game Boy and, more amazingly, the DS: https://youtu.be/dptuQNXQu74

1979's games: Adventure, Invaders, and ... Touch Me?

I never played Adventure as a kid, and didn't feel any particular draw to it through retro consoles. Frankly, I didn't get the big deal with it.

Well, I still won't stand up and say that I now believe in this #1 console game for 1979, but having played my way through at least one level I can at least claim to finally be part of the phenomenon. And, I'll admit, as I played it through this retro games site, I do see how it could have taken home gaming by storm - especially as I've been complaining about the over-abundance of Pong clones for the past couple of years. Adventure is different, stressful in its way, and, yeah, it's fun. Darn it - I might be talking myself into playing some more levels now. 

Elsewhere in gaming: Space Invaders continues to steal quarters from kids; Nintendo keeps plugging along in its console development with the Color TV-Block Kuzushi system, which only sold in Japan and offered a home version of Breakout with some variations on the block patterns; and Atari, who found last year's top-selling Simon handheld game a little too similar to their own Touch Me arcade game (I didn't know about this when I wrote about Simon last week), decided to take back the crown and release a home version of their original game ... and, incredibly, didn't take advantage of this moment to change the name.

So, Touch Me it remained. 

1979's Breakfast in America proves that not all disco is meant for dancing (plus: a forgettable Anne Murray experience)

 

I've made a point in some previous posts about my newfound fascination with disco - how quickly it came and went but how emblematic of its time it was. Although I already knew Breakfast in America fairly well, listening to it within the context of the other music coming out at the same time has me now recognizing that disco bled into other works in ways I'd never considered before. 

Exhibit A is definitely Goodbye Stranger. To be honest, I'm not sure if I even have an Exhibit B, but if you were to delete my cache of musical knowledge and told me that this was a Bee Gees song, then I wouldn't have a problem with that.

I don't know if this is already an accepted and obvious statement, or if it's the kind of observation that might make a Supertramp superfan super mad, but disco is in this album, purposefully or not. 

In short: I'm just loving how I feel that I know an album like this in one way, but I now have a whole new perspective on it when I play it alongside its contemporary partners. 

Amazing album all around. 

Now, for this Murray album, I have far less to say. I actually have nothing to say off the top of my head about any track. Admittedly, I put it on while I was working on the computer, and while I wasn't expecting to be bowled over by anything, I was surprised when the album was suddenly ... over. Over without any track really grabbing my ears and saying "Listen to this."

I feel that I owe it another shot, but it's going to the back of the queue and I won't promise that it won't fade away forever. 

Update: I didn't know that this album was in my basement! It definitely didn't belong to either of my brothers and I never bought it - it must have come our way in a batch donation.

Now that I've paid my debt, lived up to my word, and given it another shot ... I enjoyed it a little bit more on the second listen, but only a little bit. 

I'd pick Take This Heart as my top track.

1979's top TV show - an elegant program for a more civilized age?

 

How's this for good fortune: a YouTube channel called The AVTB Archives posted a two-part recording of the very show that I needed to find for 1979 - but the videos were only posted about three months ago. Had they posted them three months from now instead, I'll have probably moved on, maybe without finding a full episode to watch.

Instead, I get a feature on Mikhail Baryshnikov, an exposé on sketchy oil-selling business practices, and a look into a battle between thrill-seeking desert-riders and the desert-lovers seeking instead to protect the environment and creatures.

And the bonus: commercials! A promo for a short-lived Steve Guttenberg sitcom called Billy that plays like a version of Walter Mitty; a speaker phone to help you succeed in business; and Barney Miller himself selling a Chrysler hard.

Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKD2S1WJg8

Part Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JetmxwKP_VQ

I have fond memories of watching this throughout high school with my parents, wrapping up the week with what now feels like old-fashioned (maybe ancient), in-depth reporting. 

1979's top-grossing movie Superman sets the hero bar sky high

 

I've often described this movie in this way, as it relates to Laserdisc sides:

Perfect side 1.

Super fun side 2. 

Ruinous side 3.

Here come some spoilers for a nearly 50-year-old movie....

That ending, man. It just kills me. I don't mean that I fail to feel Superman's anguish over Lois' death, as Luthor finds the perfect way to guarantee his nemesis' failure by dividing and conquering. It's a horrific death scene, really, but there's got to be another way to do this. I am not advocating killing Lane for good (not even Zack Snyder would consider going so dark), but if you remove her death then you have an amazing opportunity for an ending with consequence: Superman saves as many as he can but he will have to live with his limitations, and Luthor will score a moral victory even as he goes to jail because he hurt the Man of Steel's heart.

Or at the very least, provide some consequence for turning back time - because if Superman can do that without suffering anything then he should always do it. If, however, it costs him something like a reduction or loss of a particular power, or years off his life, or something ... then it becomes another terrible choice for him to struggle with.

Anyway - no need to dwell further on the story choices of an otherwise great movie. 

The helicopter rescue is phenomenal. The rooftop patio scene where movie magic shows both Clark and Superman talking to Lois seconds apart from each other in the same, one-shot scene is, well, magic. 

The wildest part is always that off-screen mom's slapping of her kid for lying about a flying man saving her cat because ... surely Superman heard that as he had only just flown off, but saving the cat was more important than stepping in to stop child abuse. 

1979's top book The Matarese Circle is Cold War-certified

I won't lie - I didn't love it, but found it fun in a nostalgic way as it read like the template of a fairly standard 80s spy thriller. The story just keeps on chugging along, never feeling like it's amounting to much beyond action set pieces, and if you were to stop in between chapters to think too much on it you might lose the momentum.

This is my first reading of a Ludlum book, although I'm a big fan of (most of) the Jason Bourne movies so I knew what kind of style I was getting into.

Wouldn't not recommend it, and I'm happy for what are surely loads of people who hang onto loving this bestseller, but it really only helped me to pass the time.

1979's Kramer vs. Kramer wins Best Picture but barely holds up for me

 

It's important, I think, to start here: I don't really care for Dustin Hoffmann as an actor. I've always found him to come off as insincere, as if the moving parts of his acting performance are showing rather than allowing me to believe in his character. The one exception is when he played Hook for Spielberg and, funnily enough, his performance is the only thing that I really like from that movie.

The point of Kramer vs. Kramer is essentially that men can be loving parents, too. I suppose that's a fine statement to make, and I wish I could watch this through the lens of living in 1979 when this was perhaps a bolder claim, but there's a real ankle weight that drags the movie down: Ted isn't all that likeable, and I believe that goes beyond my thing with Hoffmann. 

Even as he goes on his journey to become the best father he can be, he's still selfish and explosively angry right until the end. I understand that presenting a character with flaws makes for a more interesting story, but I don't believe that the movie is trying to present him as a complicated figure when he smashes a wine glass against the wall moments after the above image with Streep - I think the movie wants us to take his side in that moment. 

His burgeoning friendship with his neighbour Margaret has a bizarre feel to it, as he goes rather quickly from haranguing her about her hand in the dissolution of his own marriage to wrapping his arm around her, kissing her casually on the forehead, and tapping her backside while telling her what a good mother he is. That's weird, right? In tandem with his kissing of a random (soon-to-be) co-worker at an office party, the dude's creepy.

And let's call this what it is: what kind of person, no matter how work-obsessed, wife-suppressing, child-distancing they may be, thinks that you mix French toast in a coffee mug and is then shocked when the bread doesn't fit? 

At first I was surprised that Hoffmann's name came before the credits and Streep's afterwards, but it's been so long since I've seen this that I forgot how little she's actually in the movie (although her impact is tremendous). It hasn't been so long, though, that I forgot about Hoffmann running like Tom Cruise through the streets of New York with his son in his arms - that moment has stuck with me since whenever I watched this (roughly forty years ago).

Thank you, 1979, for Honey Nut Cheerios

 

When push comes to shove, this is my favourite cereal and it makes the best flavoured milk left in the bowl.

The picture is from someone's eBay page, selling a 1979 box. Maybe I can help him make a sale: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/364635071158

The Deer Hunter, 1978's Best Picture, is a beautiful tragedy

 

I knew nothing about this going in, save for the setting and the accolades. By the time the first third of the movie was wrapping up - the first movement in the piece, so to speak - I was rather mesmerized by the pacing and the refusal to push the plot forward, instead giving us time to see the characters interact with one another and get to know them that way.

The jarring beginning of the second movement ,which skips all of the expected war movie overtures (things like basic training and deployment) and jumps straight into the end of the group's active service, again lets us know that this isn't really about the stuff that's happening but it's about what's happening to our people. 

Same goes for the final movement - the idea of characters returning to where they started, a place where the world hasn't changed but they have, is certainly familiar, but again I think it's the pacing and length of time given here that makes it feel like more than just a catchy hook.

It's certainly another in the long run of Oscar winners that love downbeat, hard-to-watch movies. It has been quite striking going through the Best Picture winners alongside the top-grossing movies and seeing that while the Academy gravitated towards The Deer Hunter, people were flocking to Grease. It's been like that every year except for Rocky's double-victory, and as far as I can remember it's going to keep playing out the same way.

It's always fun to see Christopher Walken and his developing characteristics before he simply becomes "Christopher Walken" on screen (I'd guess that happens around Batman Returns?), and I'd never known the sad fate of John Cazale - being a part of an unlikely run of historically revered movies before succumbing to cancer before the release of The Deer Hunter. 

1978 was a good year for peanut butter fans

I didn't try a Whatchamacallit until I was in my 20s, but I do remember seeing the commercials as a kid: https://youtu.be/9TY836z8NSo - hold up ... were these child actors actually really good in this commercial? 

I like it, and it's a nice treat to find because it doesn't pop up all that often. If it were available all the time, though, I wouldn't say that it'd be a go-to.

Reese's Pieces are an interesting one for me because I always feel that I should like them, seeing as Reese's Cups are probably my favourite treat, but with the Pieces I just miss the chocolate. They're fine, but I just feel let down every time.

1978's best-selling Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is the height of disco

Released in late 1977 and becoming the highest-selling record of 1978, this double LP is peak disco which, now that I'm tracking albums through the 70s, I've learned that the disco craze was remarkably short-lived. I mean, by the time Airplane! came around just two years later, disco was the butt of a joke in the movie. I would guess that it would have been the butt of jokes even in its prime, but at least it also boasted best-selling and Grammy-winning albums.

I like the mix of soundtrack and score, I think that Disco Inferno is one of the best choices ever for an album closer, and I'll stand up for A Fifth of Beethoven as my favourite track. 

 

A Christmas miracle delivers my missing Laverne & Shirley from 1978

You'd think that, because Laverne & Shirley topped the TV ratings for the second year in a row, it should be readily available, but I was unable to find an episode from that year from any library or streaming service. Thankfully, CHCH was running a series of Christmas-themed episodes from a number of classic shows on December 25th and so, even though that meant I was watching this way out of order, I'll roll back the publication date so it fits where it belongs.

The episode was "O Come All Ye Bums," and it was a heartwarming enough affair with the gang trying to patch together a turkey dinner as a sort of holiday food bank, and it ended with the poor but thoughtful roommates giving each other homemade autographed pictures of Elvis.

Most notably, perhaps, as a reminder to anyone who thinks that today's youth are worse off than they ever were, it featured a kid waiting in line to see Mr. DeFazio as a mall Santa, and the youngster acts like a grade-A jerk. So it shall always be.

1978's Grease remains a glossy musical of a rough and tumble story

 

Beyond all of the obvious trappings of movies, books, shows, and songs that encapsulate moments of life into highlight reels that create unrealistic depictions of what those moments will play out like in real life, there's the matter of growing up watching movies about high school featuring actors aged in their early 20s (and sometimes well beyond), and yet when you arrive there yourself you don't look like Danny or Sandy - you're still actually a gawky fourteen year old.

Okay, in all honesty, it seemed like some people you ran into in grade nine did arrive as fully formed T-Birds or Pink Ladies, and maybe those were the folks that were having problems like turf wars, pregnancy scares, and lecherous TV hosts hitting on them. Me? I was worried about my math marks, I guess.

So whenever I watch any kind of super-sized high school drama, I'm always very detached from the salacious plotlines - and having made it through the years of parenting my own kids through high school, I can now say that I'm twice removed from all of that nonsense. All I want now is a good show.

And Grease is a good show. The songs are top-tier. The dancing is all fine - but boy is it obvious how Travolta is leagues ahead of everybody. I mean, his walk is a dance.

This project has also revealed to me that while I grew up presuming that Grease was the beginning for Newton-John, that's just because her prior success was in a blind spot for me. 

My favourite scene from the movie also happens to be one of my favourite scenes of all movies; I don't have a list or anything, but how about top 50 for this: https://youtu.be/ZS9SXH3DfT8

The looks shared between Travolta and Channing are, especially in the context of this rather blunt movie, quite subtle and layered. 

Oh, and I don't think that Danny boy is any good for Sandy. 

Tuning into 1978's Battle of the Planets for just one scene

 

This show occupies a hazy region in my brain, and I have a theory that I watched it sometime late in its actual TV run of 1978-1980 even though that would have made me really young at the time. Obviously, it could have been that I watched it in reruns later on, but it couldn't have been so much later that I'd remember it better.

For that reason, I don't think that I watched the 1986 version because I would definitely have stronger memories of that. In truth, I really only remembered one scene: Mark's propeller plane banking to the side of the screen, returning in its transmuted jet form: https://youtu.be/3XSaN4zfEm0 

So, my going theory is that while I was hardly of an age to really follow the show, I must have seen it enough times to absorb that sequence.

So it was that this week, while watching a handful of episodes on a trial of HIDIVE, that scene of Mark's plane was all that I really needed and it made my day to see it. I think I actually performed the DiCaprio pointing meme for my wife when I realized that the sequence was approaching. 

It was also surprising and touching to hear Casey Kasem's voice - an important player in so much of the stuff I watched growing up. 

An eye-opening dip into 1978's collection of John Cheever stories

 

After a run of reading exclusively best-sellers in the previous weeks, I decided to step into the other timeline that I've been tracking for each year: winners of Pulitzer Prize for fiction. 

The main reason I chose this path for '78 was because the top-selling book of the year was Chesapeake by James Michener and, as much as I had enjoyed reading Centennial, I'd rather spread the wealth and read a different author's work. 

This week, I read just a handful of selected stories from Cheever's collection and approached the book the way I've been taking in highlight episodes of a TV series. I can happily say, though, that I look forward to returning to the book to read everything else.

Cheever's cheekiness and ability to turn his own short tale on its head was a lot of fun to read. There's both a bit of shock value and of economy that suits the format when his characters speak or act in a duplicitous manner and, at least from the few stories that I read, he's not preaching about people getting their comeuppance, but rather presenting the notion that people, good or bad, well-meaning or otherwise, can turn their life or the lives of those around them upside down with a flash decision.

Only the tale of The Enormous Radio struck me as particularly plot-heavy (and maybe The Swimmer, which read like a Twilight Zone story), whereas the others (The Country Husband, Goodbye, My Brother, The Five-Forty-Eight) had plots that played supporting roles to a character's actions. Again, there weren't any easy summations of the story, no author's voice wrapping things up to offer a point or purpose, but just a lot of room to think and wonder.

Writing this now, I think I'll sneak in some more stories whenever I can before I have to return the book.

Burton Cummings wows and has fun on 1978's Dream of a Child

First, I want to talk about Burton Cummings the singer.

Then, I want to talk about Dream of a Child the album.

Finally, I’d better share something about my listening experience.

An off-handed remark by one of my brothers when I was starting to collect CDs about Cummings being an all-time great singer left its mark, and by the time I was into The Guess Who’s Greatest Hits disc I'd accepted it as an understood truth. He is, of course, a great singer, but I guess I kind of took that for granted and I think I’ve only come to truly appreciate his voice in the last couple of years.

I also always presumed that The Guess Who fell apart due to declining interest in the band, which certainly has to be part of the story, and that Cummings' solo career was more or less an effort to ride out the band's success. I've now read several times that, amongst many personnel changes (including Randy Bachman leaving to form BTO, featured twice in this project already), Cummings left the band due to displeasure with the musical direction.

Listening to Dream of a Child, it seems that his musical direction of choice is "all over the place."

The album is really a showcase of his range, giving his all to When a Man Loves a Woman, jazzing it up with Shiny Stockings, and, oddly enough considering the reason for leaving The Guess Who, only offering one new song that sounded to me like it could have come from the band's catalogue (Break It To Them Gently).

Unless I'm mistaken, only Guns, Guns, Guns was previously released as an actual Guess Who track. Along with that cover/new version, my favourites were Wait by the Water (which feels indebted to Wearin' That Loved On Look by Elvis), Meanin' So Much (indebted to Bob Seger), and It All Comes Together.

Now, as to my listening experience: if I can't find a physical copy of whatever I'm listening to, I'll try to listen on a vinyl recording from YouTube. For this album, I found someone who had posted both sides.

Side one sounded great. Never mind that I found out that the track order was all wonky - maybe it was an alternate printing for another country or a re-release: https://youtu.be/I7Yr7Z3GmmY

The real kicker came at the start of side two, for about two and a half minutes: https://youtu.be/MqP_Wu99LD0 

I won't tell you what it is; you've got to hear it and see if you can crack the code of what's going on. Is this somebody's home-recorded, mixed-vinyl? Was that ever a thing? Are they spinning the record just for the video but playing the tracks off something else? But if so, why does the opening part of the track have a skip in it?

Such a bizarre thing. There's no question though that, for me, this is how Break It To Them Gently begins.

1978 in video games: Space Invaders, Simon, and Pong still won't die

 

This week's emulator is https://freeinvaders.org, allowing me to check the box with a round while confidently expecting that I'll find a Space Invaders cabinet at an arcade bar sometime to make a tactile connection to 1978. In the meantime - it's still as fun, easy to pick up, and surprisingly stressful as ever. I ran the game I played to 52,000 points (plus an extra 200) because that seemed like an appropriate number in regards to this project.

I also played a bit of Space Invaders: Infinity Gene on Xbox:

Next up: the concept of a handheld video game is an interesting one in the early years. From the Mattel football game from last week to countless Game & Watch systems, that which constitutes a handheld game, before Game Boy arrived and locked in the standard, is a bit fluid. 

So, while I never would have considered Simon to be a handheld game, it came up as the best-selling game/system/toy hybrid of the year and, the more I think about it, the more it fits in with prototype portable games.

Plus, I definitely played it. A lot. 

I know I could pick it up today at Best Buy or Walmart, but I'd rather keep my eye out at a Goodwill throughout the year for an older one. In the meantime, I enjoyed watching this: https://youtu.be/-kSXWapXLn0

Lastly: just when you thought Color TV-Game 6 was the height of home gaming technology - now there are 15 games! And yes, they're all variations on Pong!

The picture above is from this exhaustive look into the games and system: https://nicole.express/2023/not-another-color-post-i-swear.html, and while the detachable controllers seem like a a worthwhile upgrade (and very much in Nintendo's wheelhouse), the actual gameplay with the controllers doesn't sound so good.

Is 1978 the final year for Pong's grip on the home console market? I actually don't remember the answer off-hand, but I'll find out this weekend when I flip the calendar.