Board "Gaymes" from the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives

What's in the Archives? Board Gaymes | CLGA Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives

Studio 54 Doumentary; Documents

c/f Never Before Published Photos of Studio 54 by Hasse Persson

Bataille TV!

Robot Workers

General

CGP Grey Explores the Rise of Robotic Workers and What That Means for Humans
Future of AI Robotics and Jobs
Sex Bots, Robo-Maids, and Other Sci-Fi Myths of the Coming Robot Economy

Emergency Services

Firefighting Robot
U.S. Navy unveils robotic firefighter
This Incredible Hospital Robot Is Saving Lives. Also, I Hate It
Health care: Hospitals cut costs with 'creepy' robots

Security

• Microsoft Built a Friggin’ DALEK

Office Robots

• SORA, The Receptionist Robot
• SORA the Secretary is a Robot For Your Office
• Swiss startup that makes lab assistant robots opens Boston office
• Freakishly realistic telemarketing robots are denying they're robots
• Robot Telemarketer Samantha West Isn't a Robot
• Robot-denying telemarketing robot may not actually be a robot

"But the peculiar thing about Samantha West isn’t just that she is automated. It’s that she’s so smartly automated that she’s trained to respond to queries about whether or not she is a robot by telling you she’s a human. I asked Haerich if there is a regulation against robots lying to you.

“I don’t…know…that…,” she said. “That’s one I’ve never been asked before. I’ve never been asked that question. Ever.”

Recording of Samantha West:

Home Robots

• Invasion of the domestic robots

“We have 12 robots in our house,” said Boisdron. “We have a vacuum cleaner robot, we have a floor cleaner robot that washes the floor with vinegar, we have a litter robot for the cat, we have a robot to wash the windows, and we have a robot to cut the grass."

• Dyson's first robot vacuum promises more suction than the competition
• Dyson Releases the Eye, a Robot Vacuum With a 360-Degree Camera | WIRED

Service Industry Robot

• Lowe’s debuts customer service robots in store
• Now on Aisle 3 at Lowe's: Customer Service Robots | NewsFactor Business Report
• A Drug-Dealing Robot That Upends the Pharmacy Model | Design | WIRED
• Meet the Company Designing Robot Bellhops for Hotels | Design | WIRED
• Burger Robot Poised to Disrupt Fast Food Industry
• Industrial cake-decorating robot
• Backed by Google Ventures, the First Robot Hotel Butler Just Reported for Duty
• Robot Butler Rolls Into California Hotel | News & Opinion | PCMag.com
• Don’t be alarmed by that robot delivering a toothbrush to your hotel room - The Washington Post
• Robot Bartender to Set Sail On Cutting-Edge Royal Caribbean Cruise Ship | Singularity HUB
• BoozeBot, A Cocktail-Making Robot That Can Mix Over 4,500 Different Drinks
• BoozeBots - The ultimate automated home cocktail mixer. BoozeBots
• Will pole dancing robots put human strippers out of work?
• The Dancing Stripper Robots Of The Future Are Now Here | So Bad So Good
• You will be 'romancing' robots in 2025, claims study

Proposed Makeovers for Abandoned Metro Stations of Paris

Proposal.
Source.

Inside the Mansfield Mansion

The Original Barbie House: Inside the Mansfield Mansion
c/f 60′s Sex Symbol Jayne Mansfield & Her Hot Pink Beverly Hills Palace

Things Imagined for Malls

Source. 

Source.

Source.

Queens, NY. "Grace explained to me that the bronze statue we admired in the Mall “represents the Chinese cowboy. He’s depicted as a gentle, playful child, much different than the Macho Men of the American West.” Source.

Source.

Source.

Part of Mamilla Mall's Biblical Series. Source.

Source.

 Living Statue. Source.

Source.

Derelict Theme Park Photography

Sources

• Stefano Cerio Photographs Abandoned Chinese Amusement Parks
• The Crumbling Chaos of Abandoned Amusement Parks
• Creepy, Crusty, Crumbling: Illegal Tour of Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans
• Abandoned Wizard of Oz Theme Park
• Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the Abandoned Land of Oz 
• Holy Land USA (Before & After): The Abandoned Christian Theme Park
• 5 Eeriest Abandoned Amusement Parks
• The Coming ‘Instant Planetary Emergency’ | The Nation
• Four Abandoned SoCal Amusement Parks With Creepy Pasts
• Disney's Abandoned Theme Parks Could Double As Scary Movie Sets
• More Photos of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch

Project X Magazine Archive

Source. Project X magazine was a fashion and music publication founded in the late 1980s that celebrated the New York City club scene and the club kids.

The Player

In full.

Great discussion of Nolan Bushnell's (founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese) early career, touching upon subjects of  consumer electronics and recreational robots, the possible social purpose of video games, the economic links between pizza parlors, midways and video game consuls, and divorced, single parents in the 1980s.

See also:
Androbot on the old robots page. A brief profile of Nolan Bushell's short lived personal robot company, in the eighties.

Intermark Ride Group. "Buy New Rides and Used Amusement Rides."

Browse.

"IRG offers the best selection of both new and used rides for parks, carnivals, family centers, zoos, and city parks."

The History Of Slot Machines

Source.

GAMBLING MEN

Source.

"1891 and against the backdrop of the town of Brooklyn, in the recently-booming east coast New York City, Sittman and Pitt had just developed the gaming machine that in the years to come would be considered THE precursor to the modern slot machine. Based on poker, possibly to cash-in on the popularity of the game, the machine contained five drums carrying a total of fifty cards and like it’s namesake in the table-sitting world, it proved to be a popular hit with gambling players everywhere but especially in it’s home city of New York. At this time you would be hard-pressed to find a bar in the city that didn't have at least one of these machines standing at the side of the bar waiting for potential players to insert a nickel and press the lever in the hope of a good poker hand. These machines had a drawback. There was no direct payout mechanism, so in order to cure this problem, establishments would for example, offer a patron a free beer should he receive a pair of Kings, maybe a cigar if he hit a lower hand. It was not ‘made’ easy for a customer to win. Once obtaining a machine, many establishments would typically remove two select cards from the deck: the Ten of Spades and the Jack of Hearts. This, naturally, cut the odds of winning drastically and to make it even more difficult to win, the drums themselves could also be re-arranged to the taste of the proprietor.

"What can not be re-arranged so simply however, is the differing accounts of a German immigrant named Charles Augustus Fey, and his invention over on the west coast. There are some who say he invented the first mechanical slot machine in 1887, four years BEFORE Sittman and Pitt’s machine hit the bars of New York. There are others who state that Fey conceived his innovation in 1895, four years AFTER Sittman and Pitt’s machine. It is the year 1895 however, that seems to prove more popular with gambling history enthusiasts. Regardless of the chronology, Fey’s invention was revolutionary.

"With what later would be termed the first "one-armed bandit," Fey had solved the problem of designing a machine capable of making an automatic pay-out for all possible winning combinations. This was achieved by replacing ten cards with five symbols ( Diamonds, Hearts, Horseshoes, Spades and a cracked Liberty Bell ), and utilizing three reels instead of five drums thereby considerably reducing the complexity of reading a win! Three bells in a row equaled the largest payoff, amounting to fifty cents or ten nickels. The machine, consequently called Liberty Bell due to it’s attractive symbol became a massive success and is generally credited with spawning the massive mechanical gaming device industry at this time.

"During the next five years Charles Fey also invented the first descendent of the Liberty Bell called "4-11-44" named so after the maximum winning combination of the machine, worth five dollars. After this success, Fey upgraded his business from small-shop trading to factory production and in successive years invented the "Card Bell" machine and then further improved it a year later in 1899. This latest innovation had an altered symbol ( Star ) and boasted a maximum prize of twenty dimes or tokens, achieved with a three bell combination!

"Fey had been enjoying limited competition and favorable government legislature in his bid to dominate the gaming device market. However, various companies including Kalamazoo and Monarch had also released slot machines and one company in particular would severely test his control. Again, there are conflicting theories as to what actually happened but it was well-known in gaming device circles around the turn of the century that Charles Fey refused to sell or lease his revolutionary Liberty Bell slot machine to anyone. One theory as it that in 1905, a robbery occurred at a saloon in San Francisco, a theft in which only two items were stolen - an apron and a Liberty Bell slot machine. Less than a year later, Herbert Stephen Mills who had inherited the ‘Mills Novelty Company’ some years earlier from his father Mortimer Mills, produced a new version of the Liberty Bell called the Mills Liberty Bell. Despite the competition, the Mills Liberty Bell saw off all challengers. Mills, at this point, was employing assembly-line techniques for the construction of slot machines and despite the controversy, later became known as the "Henry Ford of slot machines."

"The other theory however states that Charles Fey actually went into business with the Mills Novelty Company, and then manufactured the Mills Liberty Bell which stunted all competition.

Source

"The Mills Liberty Bell itself featured a cast iron case with a classic Liberty Bell actually cast into the front of the machine. Originally the machine had cast iron feet with toes, but this was scrapped in later versions and they were replaced with ornate scrolled feet. Playing cards ( the King, Queen and Jack ) were depicted on the machine’s reel strips, and it also featured a bell that rung when a winning combination was hit. This was later dropped for the Mills Liberty Bell, though this concept would resurface many years later.

"Charles Fey had not only had to contend with these commercial losses, but he suffered most heavily when his main slot-machine producing factory was almost utterly destroyed in an earthquake. After this point, Fey faded into relative obscurity and he died some years later in 1944. Herbert Mills’ company however continued to thrive.

A BOOMING INDUSTRY

"By 1910 slot machines could be found seemingly everywhere. The Mills Novelty Company introduced slight variations to it’s Liberty Bell design and named it the Operator Bell. The Operator Bell had a more fitting neck coin entry and also featured fruit symbols unlike previous models. The Mills Novelty Company was also now producing five different variations of it’s Liberty Bell design at it’s factories, and by the time World War One broke out, the company had expanded into Europe and it’s factories were manufacturing up to 30,000 gaming machines.

"The age of the cast iron machines came to an abrupt end when Mills introduced slot machines fashioned with cheaper wooden cabinets, and by the early 1930’s the Mills Novelty Company made a number of changes to it’s production line of slot machines that signaled another revolution of the gaming industry.

"The new wave of machines introduced a double jackpot that allowed players the luxury of knowing that they could win twice in quick succession. The machines were also designed to be quieter and these 1930’s machines are now referred to as the "Silent Bell(s)."

"New cabinet designs were also released as part of this new wave of slot machines and included such themes as the Lion Head, the War Eagle, the Roman Head and finally in 1933, the Castle Front.

"The War Eagle also boasted a new coin acceptor that displayed the coins played moving successively across the top of the machine. In the case that slugs were used to operate the machine, the operator would now be able to see if such an object was being used. The new specification also added additional movement. Herbert Mills passed away in 1929 at the age of 57, leaving a vast fortune to his wife and eight children.

"In 1909, the previously favorable laws were thrown out the window, and new laws were introduced declaring that slot machines could no longer dispense cash. Slot machine manufacturers and bar owners managed to cope with these new laws by giving away free packs of gum and other prizes for getting certain combinations of symbols on the machines. There is a theory that this was the idea for the fruit and bar symbols present on modern-day slot machines. The bars are said to represent the packs of gum and the fruit symbols indicate the various kinds of candy that were won. Another theory holds that an early slot machine rewarded it’s players by awarding fruit-flavored chewing gums with the pictures of the flavors depicted by the corresponding symbols on the reels. The popular ‘cherry’ and ‘melon’ symbols are said to have derived from this machine. According to this representation of events, the ‘BAR’ symbol now common in slot machines was actually derived from an early logo of the Bell-Fruit Gum Company.

"In 1919, the American government declared PROHIBITION and the consumption or supplying of alcohol was made illegal. The slot machines which mainly populated bars and saloons, were moved into the speakeasies that had been set up in light of the recent changes in the law. Since the speakeasies were illegal anyway, the managers figured they may as well go back to offering cash prizes on the slot machines. Because of this, the popularity of slot machines increased even more.

"Despite the governmental pressure the gaming industry continued to bloom and grow, especially in the state of Nevada where gambling was legalized in 1931. Several companies sprung up to take advantage of the situation, and they began to manufacture and sell slot machines to the fledgling casinos in Nevada. The manufacture and enjoyment of slot machines grew at an exponential rate well into the 1960’s.

"NEW LOOKS FOR NEW ERA

The pinball machine manufacturer, Bally, in 1964 began to produce a new slot machine named Money Honey. This machine was powered by electricity, and also possessed new sound effects as well as being classed as a multi coin machine. It was also the first slot machine ever to have a hopper - the name for the holder into which the coins get paid out. More innovations flowed from the Bally business brains; they added games that had more reels, bigger hoppers and more coins until 1970 when they produced a hopper large enough to hold dollar coins which meant larger jackpots for the consumers.

"In 1978, Atlantic City legalized gambling, and by this time Bally had cornered about 90% of the slot machine market. The company continued to add reels, knowing this would decrease chances of winning and so maximizing the size of a jackpot . In addition to increasing the number of symbols on each reel with 25 eventually becoming the maximum, they also raised the wagers so games could be played at $5, $25 and even $100. Bally also hired a computer programmer by the name of Inge Telnaus to increase the size of the jackpots without losing profits for the company. Using a computer program, Telnaus utilized a random number generator that cycled through the numbers on imaginary reels he had made. A revolution had been realized in slot machine gaming as Telnaus with these imaginary reels could radically change the amounts that could be won. This random number generator has ushered slot machines into a new age and opened up new markets with new opportunities to be explored much like the Californian gold fields did for the American populace over 150 years ago."

Ride-In Dalek

Specification (Source Zappies Ltd.)

• 128cm tall
• 360degree movement
• 10 sounds and phrases
• lights inside the sitting unit
• comes with 6v rechargeable battery
• recommended for children aged 3-6 years
• a maximum speed of 3km per hour
• surrounded by a soft bumper to protect furniture and is suitable for both indoors and outdoors activity (providing there is a flat surface)
• comes in 2 parts - a motorised base and inflatable body section
• fully supported by customer service hotline direct to manufacturing company in Wales
• The battery will take a minimum of 300 full charges and the battery will fully charge from fully spent in 8 hours.  Each full charge will provide approximately 1hour and 10 mins of continual use

$1bn Streets of Monaco Yacht a Floating City

Source.

A LAVISH new yacht recreating the billionaire's playground of Monaco is set to become the world's most expensive.

The staggering 155m Streets of Monaco yacht is expected to cost over $1.1 billion to build and is modelled on a section of Monte Carlo.

Currently in the design stage, the super-ship will feature smaller versions of the state’s famous landmarks such as the Monte Carlo Casino and racetrack, as well as swimming pools, tennis courts, a cinema, a go kart track and a Hotel de Paris.

Instead of traditional decks the one-of-a-kind ship will have buildings, and instead of a swimming platform it will have a beach.

Travellers will also spot waterfalls, a swim-in Jacuzzi-bar, helicopters and submarines on board.

Interview with with Shigeru Miyamoto, Creater of Super Mario (in Three Volumes)

I saw this article posted by Sheila Heti on Facebook. A fascinating talk of the conceptualization behind Super Mario Brothers, with the video game designer speaking as the (humble? unaffected?) auteur. This article is divided into three volumes and multiple parts, accessible from the links below.

Volume 1

• Mario Couldn't Jump At First
• The Reason Mario Wears Overalls
• I Saw A Pipe On The Way Home From The Office
• Letting Everyone Know It Was A Good Mushroom
• Allowing Novices To See the Ending Too
• A Medal for Skilled Players
• A Block Floating In Mid-Air Is Unnatural
• Capturing That Mario-Esque "Smell"
• The Correct Way to Enjoy An Action Game

Volume 2

• It All Began In 1984
• I'd Never Heard Of Pac-Man
• It Started With A Square Object Moving
• Adjusting the Map In A Daily Cycle
• Applying A Single Idea To Both Land And Sky
• No Rest After Completing Super Mario Bros.
• Persistence Led To Mario Riding A Dinosaur
• Coming Up With Ideas Together For Twenty-Five Years
• The Three Of Us Got Sucked Into The Development Process
• There's Something New To Discover After Playing Many Times

Volume 3

• Solving Multiple Problems with Bubbles
• Shouting "Roasted Riceball"?!
• With His Wife on His Shoulders!
• The Peer-Evaluated Super Guide
• New Courses Two Weeks Before Deadline
• Heart-racing Coin Battles
• Finding Your Own Way To Play

Lego City

Source.

Virtual

• Build with Chrome (virtual Lego building!)

In Real Life

• Lego House in Billund, Denmark, begins construction by laying giant Lego brick–shaped foundation stones.
• Lego bricks in the wall
• Lego forest flourishes in Broken Hill, outback New South Wales
• Legos: Growing Lab Plants
• Functional Chocolate LEGOs by Akihiro Mizuuchi | Colossal
• Using an Excavator to Stack LEGO Blocks
• Economist Uses Lego Bricks To Show The Ugly Truth Of Social Mobility
• 13 Year Old Builds Braille Printer Out Of Lego Launches Startup

Architecture

• Andrew Whyte -Legography
• Lego Wants You to Unleash Your Inner Modernist
• Oddly Appetizing Food Made From LEGO
• Lego Trains
• Lego Mall (on Youtube)
• Old Ward Parkway
• Lego Pop up Book
• LEGO Pop-up Todai-ji and Daibutsu
• Decaying Victorian Houses
• Haunted House
• Royal Court Theatre
• Norman Mailer and Friends - Lego City of the Future. Source. c/f Norman Mailer’s novel ‘An American Dream’ retold with LEGO
• Bricksy (Bansky Tribute)

Pop Culture

• An Unlabeled Series of Characters From Popular Films Built Out of LEGO Blocks
• P.E.I. Lego aficionado recreates Anne of Green Gables out of iconic toy
• The Lego Version of Springfield Is the Best Simpsons Fan Tribute Ever
• The Most Iconic Buildings in Springfield From ‘The Simpsons’ Rebuilt in LEGO
• Lego Batman Tumbler
• Cute Anime-Style DC and Marvel Comic Book Superheros Made Out of LEGO Bricks
• Lego Tardis
• Stop-Motion Animated Version of the First Television Spot for Marvel’s Film ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
• "Game Of Thrones" Lego
• Breaking Bad play sets
• LEGO Stop-Motion Animated Version of ‘The Walking Dead’ Season Five Trailer
• Celebrate romance with detailed Lego versions of famous Princess Bride scenes
• Howl's Moving Castle in Lego
• Harry Potter Destroys a Dementor With a Being of Pure Happiness in a LEGO ‘Harry Potter’
• Lord of the Rings Battle Recreated With Over 150,000 Legos
• These Cthulhu Lego Sets Will Drive You Insane with Little Plastic Bricks
• Monsterfink's Midnight Monster Spookshow: Lego Monsters
• LEGO Frankenstein
• LEGO The Winchester - from Shaun of the Dead
• LEGO The Walking Dead
• A Side-by-Side Comparison of the Original LEGO ‘Ghostbusters’ Set Design and the Final Product
• Stop-Motion Animated LEGO Version of the 1984 Film ‘Ghostbusters’
• Sets From the James Cameron Film ‘Aliens’ Recreated With LEGO
• The famous Blues Brothers car chase/mall scene
• The Brick Bible
• 10 disturbingly violent biblical stories depicted with Legos
• Famous album covers rendered in Lego
• BroLUG Apocalyptic themed group collaborations.
• Help Make The LEGO Hubble Space Telescope A Reality
• New Minecraft LEGO Will Fit Your Minifigs
• Lego Senate: 2014 midterm results, brick by brick
• Gaming worlds Recreated in Lego
• Lego Pokemon Centre Has All the Goodies a Trainer Needs
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• An Unlabeled Series of Characters From Popular Films Built Out of LEGO Blocks by SuckMyBrick
• Sci Fi from Daniel Stoeffler
• Minecraft

Sets

• The Lady-Scientist Lego Set Is Now Available!
• c/f Lego Academics (LegoAcademics) on Twitter

Mechanized

• Watch an Incredibly Complex Lego Machine Make Electronic Tunes
• How the Crowd Taught a Robot to Build a LEGO Turtle | Singularity Hub
• Lego Zip Line Homemade Toy
• LEGO Designer Builds a Wearable Telemetry Exoskeleton That Remotely Controls His Humanoid Robot’s Movements

Meme

• "I've made a terrible mistake."

Misc

• Lego Mosaics
• Lego Homepage.
• Google Image for: Lego City.
• Legoland Theme Park.
• Lego Fan Fiction

Source.

Source.

Virtual VCR museum

Source - Virtual Museum.

Variety - VHS, 30, dies of loneliness - Nov. 4 2006
The home-entertainment format lived a fruitful life
By DIANE GARRETT
 
After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old.
 
No services are planned.

The format had been expected to survive until January, but high-def formats and next-generation vidgame consoles hastened its final decline.

"It's pretty much over," concurred Buena Vista Home Entertainment general manager North America Lori MacPherson on Tuesday.


VHS is survived by a child, DVD, and by Tivo, VOD and DirecTV. It was preceded in death by Betamax, Divx, mini-discs and laserdiscs.


Although it had been ailing, the format's death became official in this, the video biz's all-important fourth quarter. Retailers decided to pull the plug, saying there was no longer shelf space.


As a tribute to the late, great VHS, Toys 'R' Us will continue to carry a few titles like "Barney," and some dollar video chains will still handle cassettes for those who cannot deal with the death of the format.


Born Vertical Helical Scan to parent JVC of Japan, the tape had a difficult childhood as it was forced to compete with Sony's Betamax format.

After its youthful Betamax battles, the longer-playing VHS tapes eventually became the format of choice for millions of consumers. VHS enjoyed a lucrative career, transforming the way people watched movies and changing the economics of the film biz. VHS hit its peak with "The Lion King," which sold more than 30 million vidcassettes Stateside.


The format flourished until DVDs launched in 1997. After a fruitful career, VHS tapes started to retire from center stage in 2003 when DVDs became more popular for the first time.


Since their retirement, VHS tapes have made occasional appearances in children's entertainment and as a format for collectors seeking titles not released on DVD. VHS continued to make as much as $300 million a year until this year, when studios stopped manufacturing the tapes.