List of (COOLLIST) Episodes -- Real and Planned Prototype completed 12/10 0:21 Error Message March 1996 0:20 Debugger May 1996 0:29 Access Denied July 1996 0:29 (COOLLIST) Error Message -- Episode #2 -------------------------------------- Program Notes Opening sequence - Atari 130XE "READY" prompt -- person types RUN "D:COOLLIST", lots of disk drive noise followed by black screen -- cut to the black screen of the opening titles -- can achieve by loading a large BASIC program that has been altered by changing the first few lines to POKES to make the screen entirely clear then entering a GOTO loop. Opening credits screen (Bovine Productions, Techwood Broadcasting Foundation, COOLLIST, intro scroller) Use music from airabitt.mod (nice, clean, computer sounding). Since I found the cow picture my sister did, I may be able to use that with a shot of the computer screen to do a creative fade, or maybe stick that into a Toaster animation. -- Techwood Broadcasting Foundation and Bovine Productions present -- (COOLLIST): The Television Program 100 LET EPISODE$ = "Run Time" 110 GOTO 100 -- (scroller) Dear viewer, Please don't turn the channel just yet. Sit back and enjoy thirty minutes of clever television. We'll have a sloopy time, exploring cordless telephone technology, the films of Hal Hartley, alternate names for Led Zeppellin, and classic video games. Plus, a wacky commercial skewed the (COOLLIST) way. No paint-drying filler either, just down home kookiness. Your friend, Blick -- Charlie Patisaul Story - "The Fraternity and the Braid" (2:50, starts around 13:45 on (CL) The Video tape) Mentos commercial parody -- A male college student tries to get into a bar on Sixth Street, but the bouncer, upon checking his ID, denies entrance. In a display of freshness, the student displays his package of Mentos, pops one into his mouth, and then proceeds to demolish the bouncer with a Quentin Tarentino/John Woo-like display of excessive violence. The student starts to enter the bar, then turns around and holds high his package of tart delight as the off-screen announcer goes, "Mentos: the Enforcer." (I might want to disguise the Mentos as some very similar sounding candy, like "Mentals".) (:30) 2600 Games Review (For this segment, use video titler to put up game info on the screen, items such as game title, manufacturer, date of release.) Asteroids -- This 1981 release for the 2600 was based on Atari's ground breaking arcade game, Asteroids. In the arcade you manipulated your vector graphic spaceship while firing projectiles to destroy the tumbling rocks, first breaking them into smaller pieces, and finally eliminating them. The 2600 version preserves the same game mechanics, replacing the arcade's buttons with the 2600's joystick, and replacing the line-drawing asteroids with colorful filled ones. This is a very common cartridge for the 2600, so you should have little problem finding one. Jungle Hunt -- A precursor to Super Mario Brothers and other scrolling run-and-jump games was this 1983 (??) game from Taito. You control a jungle explorer who has to traverse four different screens to rescue your girlfriend from a soup pot. It opens with a vine jumping sequence, followed by a underwater crocodile fight, and rock slide, and a final confrontation with the canibles. The home version of the game does a good job at recreating the arcades game play, with no elements ommited. One piece of tri via: the game was originally titled Jungle King and had a Tarzan-like protagionist. After being sued by the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan stories, then changed the name and modified the artwork. Solaris -- In 1986, one of the original Atari programmers rejoined the company to develop games for the "revitalized" 2600. That developer was Douglas Neumhauser. The first, and arguably best, game he developed as Solaris, a complex space battle with outstanding graphics. In this game, you fly your ship the Solaris, through a grid like galaxy. You can land on occupied planets to rescue the humans before they are destroyed, combat aggressive aliens in space, and go through warp gates. Some similarites b etween this game and the classic Atari home computer game Star Raiders are due to Mr. Neumhauser having wrtten Star Raiders in 1979. The game play lacks slightly, but the graphics really push the 2600 far beyond it originally conceived boundries. Laser Blast -- I'm reviewing this game as an example of how the game companies often went wrong. Activision was the first third party developer of 2600 software, and this was their first science fiction-based game. In this one, the player controls a flying saucer that has to shoot trios of tanks while dodging their laser shots. Its not a bad idea, but the game is too easy. After a few hours of play, I was able to beat each wave in less than two seconds, before the tanks had an opportunity to fire on me. This game isn't the worst Atari cartridge, but its definately near the bottom. Kaboom! -- In contrast to Laser Blast, this Activision game is a classic. One of the few games that use the paddle controllers, Kaboom is a battle to save the city from the Mad Bomber. This bomber scoots across the screen droping bombs for you to catch in your three buckets of water. When you miss a bomb, all of them blow-up, you lose a bucket, and must restart the round. As the gameplay continues, the bomber drops move bombs, moves quicker, and has a greater random quality to his actions. There have b een more recent versions, but they have not changed the primary mechanic of the game. Kaboom! is a lot of fun, and is reccommended. Dodge 'em -- Dodge'em was one of Atari's early arcade game conversions. The home version isn't a great game, but it has its charm. You drive a slot car around a track picking up dots. Your controls are limited to changing lanes at special break points and selecting your speed (fast or slow). To make this more difficult, one or two other cars also travel the same paths, but in the opposite direction. These enemy cars are programmed to ram and destroy your car, so you'd better watch out. Ballblazer cut sequences (grab ball to goal, hand wave) Hacker Segment: Cordless Phone Privacy Myth (For this one, we'll shoot me talking on the couch or some other relaxed setting and video insert close-ups of the phone handset and base unit. We may also want to get shots of payphones and the Enterprise 9800 tags on the SWBT equipment. Towards the end of the segment, insert a clip from _Red_) Cordless telephones are a convienent way to access the public telephone system from your home or office. However, today on the Hacker segment, I'm going to tell you why using a cordless phone puts your privacy at risk. A cordless phone, basically, is a combination of a base station that plugs into your telephone line and a low-power transceiver that lets you send and receive an audio signal from the base station. Most cordless phones operate in a group of 25 channels around 49 MHz in the radio frequency spectrum. This is between a section of the spectrum just below television channel 2 (check). Other devices, like baby monitors, can operate on these frequencies. Older phones were limited to working on just 10 channels, but last year and extra 15 channels were given to the cordless phone industry to reduce interference caused by too many people trying to use the limited space. 49 MHz cordless phone transmissions are usually sent in the clear. That means that no encoding is done to keep the contents of the transmission secret. Anyone with the proper radio scanner, like those used to listen to police and fire broadcasts, can tune into those frequency ranges and listen to your conversations. In fact, you may not even need a scanner to listen in. One night, I was talking to a friend using a cordless phone while moving some computer gear. I unplugged the base set from the power strip by mistake, leaving my handset with nothing to talk to. To my surprise, I started hearing another conversation from a few apartements over on my handset. So, now that you know that other people can listen to your conversations, there is another danger to tell you about. If you have an older cordless telephone with no security features, your phone line may be at risk. All one would need to do is rig a transmitter and receiver that pretended to be your handset. He could move close to your house, turn on his unit, and make phone calls without actually physically altering your phone equipment. This used to be a big problem, but modern cordless phones usually use special security codes so only your specific handset can turn on the base station. Because of these problems, you should take certain steps to prevent problems. First, several manufacturers offer phones that encrypt the signals sent between the handset and the base station. This scrambles the signals so other people cannot easily listen to them. Second, never give sensitive information when using a cordless phone, especially information like credit card numbers or access codes. If you need to convey that kind of info, use a wired phone. Finally, the new phones that use digital transmission in the 900 MHz range are much less prone to security problems because they use an encoded transmission scheme on multiple channels. Until next time, Austin, hack on. The Vegetarian Avenger: Five years ago, mild mannered Bivvens Moonray suffered a great loss, when his twin sister, Lisachild, was killed by a mutant carrot. After a painful mourning period, Bivvens turned sour and cold, vowing revenge, transforming into his alter ego, the Vegetarian Avenger! Mindful for revenge, the VA takes every opportunity to eat plant matter to get back at the vegetable that murdered his sister. (scene opens with Ben sitting at counter, looking normal. There is a can of V-8 in front of him. Ben drinks the can, and, through editing, is replaced by Ben wearing the VA t-shift. We then go to a montage of vegetarian scenes: Ben confronts a bag of mini-carrots, looks nervous, and then eats one, laughing evily. Ben carries a bag of frozen vegetables from the freezer to the wok. Camera goes to a close-up of the bag as he dumps the veggies into the hot wok. Camera pans from the wok to the refrigerator where, attached by magnet, a list of carrot sillouettes, most Xed out, is visible.) Scroller: cannonical list of Led Zeppelin derivatives with MIDI version of "Stairway to Heaven" playing in the background Hal Hartley discussion with clips of Trust and Amateur NCSA httpd source code scroll by (parody of No Name movie production notes segments) USENET and WWW resources for above -- Classic Video Game home page, rec.games.video.classic, alt.2600, comp.risks, Led Zeppellin list on eden, comp.sys.atari.8bit, Hal Hartley page from Sony and the Hartley fan page Close with scroll out, credits to lowalt.mod -- CREDITS ------- Contact (COOLLIST) at cltv@yak.net WWW us at http://www.yak.net/cltv/ or you can even call at (512) 440-1355 Greetings to: fellow yellow jackets the Batwing-M Pager division The Show With No Name (Monday at 0030, ch. 16) Puppetose (Thursday at 0000, ch. 16) the progressive left people who watched "(CL) Prototype" and didn't immediately tune out this one the good, the bad, and the toasted guys who like watching trains go by fans of Picket Fences the Austin cypherpunks Jedi knights Got spare 2600 games? Give me a call at 440-1355. Opening Music: "Cool", Pylon Closing Music: lowalt.mod, unknown National Anthem: "Our National Anthem", Negativland (COOLLIST) Television Phone: +1 512 440 1355 Email: cltv@yak.net WWW: http://www.yak.net/cltv After this, make fake station ID indicating the (CL)TV Network is concluding its broadcast day. Follow this with shots of flags waving, children playing, birds flyings, with Negativland's "Our National Anthem" off _Free_ playing as the music. Technical Goals for Episode #2 * Use real scripts as much as possible, not just improvisation * shoot footage with other people * do SVHS taping as much as possible * be sure to set VCR playback to linear so odd strereo effects don't happen like they did on my VHS dub * take the Video Toaster classes * take the A/B edit class * need outside footage, perhaps by swimming pool * make sure mikes aren't recording noise like AM radio stations * be sure to credit all external music and video * use the Atari as a real creative source for video Music Sources * Pylon, Hits * My big collection of MOD and S3M files -- bring recorder into computer room, run cables from computer * MIDI file of "Stairway to Heaven" for use during scrolling sequence, perhaps SPEEDED up (COOLLIST) Syntax Error -- Episode #3 ------------------------------------- Ideas: (contributed by Zach Douglas) Parody of Samuel Adams beer commercials, the "Do You Love Beer?" ones. Do two seperate commercials, one where the narrator asks if you love bread, and the other where the beer questions lead into some sort of alcoholism intervention message.