Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello there, everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poette
Speaker 1: and I'm and the tech editor here at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com. A cross from me, as he often
Speaker 1: does on afternoons such as this one would be senior
Speaker 1: writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, all right then, so time
Speaker 1: to talk about you know, this time of year we
Speaker 1: kind of get to uh wanting to talk about our
Speaker 1: favorite stuff. Yeah, because turns and easy and it gives
Speaker 1: hence to certain significant others and family members and friends
Speaker 1: of what to get us for Christmas or any other
Speaker 1: kind of holiday. It's Christmas for me. Yeah, Well, I
Speaker 1: mean I could say Hanakah, but let's I'm not Jewish.
Speaker 1: Well there you go, but it's it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: all over the world now people are you see ads
Speaker 1: everywhere about stuff? You know, we could buy this stuff
Speaker 1: and electronic gizmos and gadgets. You know, our Baileywick is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest segments of the uh, the economy.
Speaker 1: Around this time of year, we do a lot of
Speaker 1: business so so. But but this year, we're not really
Speaker 1: doing a gift guide so much as we are talking
Speaker 1: about some of the favorite things that Yeah. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: had a listener right in UM and unfortunately I have
Speaker 1: misplaced the email, but we had a listener right in
Speaker 1: and asked us behind the couch what our favorite tech
Speaker 1: gifts were actually our favorite pieces of tech total, but
Speaker 1: that's a huge category. So Chris came up with the
Speaker 1: brilliant idea, like, Hey, the holiday season is coming up,
Speaker 1: how we talk about the our favorite tech thingies that
Speaker 1: we have received as gifts on the holidays? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: and part of the reason I did that was because
Speaker 1: some of the biggest tech stuff I've ever owned I
Speaker 1: never got as a gift, and I thought some of
Speaker 1: the coolest tech stuff I got wasn't really gadgety enough.
Speaker 1: So I figured this worked out. It'd be a little
Speaker 1: different with order to the geek squad. Right, we're not
Speaker 1: talking just about about gadgets or uh are we. We
Speaker 1: We opened up the category a little bit so that
Speaker 1: it'll be a little easier. So let's take a little
Speaker 1: walk down memory lane and chat about some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that we got as UM We're gonna start with
Speaker 1: some stuff that we got as kids that kind of
Speaker 1: sort of falls into the toy slash tech line and
Speaker 1: uh and and work our way up from there. Now,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna obviously go year by year, because no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I would take too long. Chris and I have lived
Speaker 1: far too long for that. Yes, thanks a lot for
Speaker 1: pointing right now. God, I feel so old. Yeah, start
Speaker 1: go to your first one. Okay. The first one I
Speaker 1: really wanted to bring up, uh was something um that
Speaker 1: I got under the tree at my grandmother's house when
Speaker 1: I was I think eight years old, And that would
Speaker 1: be Milton Bradley's Big Track and the Transport. Have you
Speaker 1: never seen this thing? I have no idea what you're
Speaker 1: talking about. I am impressed, you know, well, I am
Speaker 1: older than than Jonathan is. However, um, someone will right
Speaker 1: in and and and vindicate how cool this thing was.
Speaker 1: Big Track was. Go ahead, it's it's t it's t
Speaker 1: R a K. However, um and Big Track was. And
Speaker 1: in my opinion, this totally fits into tech stuff though,
Speaker 1: because it was a programmable tank. It's sort of like
Speaker 1: a tank of the future. Look at that thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was really cool. Um And it would allow you
Speaker 1: to do and it had like a nu merit keep
Speaker 1: had on them back on the top of it, and
Speaker 1: um it would allow you to give it a simple
Speaker 1: program like you could say, I want you to go left.
Speaker 1: I don't know that it had a specific uh distance
Speaker 1: programmed into it. You had to kind of go, okay,
Speaker 1: I want you to go ahead five some things and
Speaker 1: turn left, and then I want you to go forward
Speaker 1: seven some things. And by trial and error, you could
Speaker 1: program it to go into the next room and shoot
Speaker 1: its little laser cannon at the dog, the television, your parents, uh,
Speaker 1: some random corner, and then you'd have to take it
Speaker 1: back in reprogram it to turn the other direction. But
Speaker 1: it also came with a really cool transport which you
Speaker 1: could plug into the back and it was like a
Speaker 1: dump truck thing because you know, every robotic tank needs
Speaker 1: a dump truck thing that goes in the back. But
Speaker 1: you could also you know, go in, turn around, shoot
Speaker 1: at the dog and dump the three nerve balls that
Speaker 1: you piled into the back of the transport. UM anyway,
Speaker 1: really cool basic programming thing and really techy sort of
Speaker 1: went along with the starboard, which I also got one
Speaker 1: of um no programming involved there. But it did have
Speaker 1: an accelerometer in it so that you know, because you
Speaker 1: turned it on and it made engine noises. And it
Speaker 1: was basically a little spaceship. Uh. And you can modify
Speaker 1: it by taking little spaceships on and off of it,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of vultron like you could plug it in.
Speaker 1: But um, if you tilted it up, the the sound
Speaker 1: would get, you know, higher in pitch to make it
Speaker 1: sound like it wasn't climbing, or you know, you turn
Speaker 1: it down and it would go lower, so you could
Speaker 1: fly around the house annoy the living daylights out of
Speaker 1: your parents. And uh, you know they were sort of
Speaker 1: related because we were both from Milton Bradley, now owned
Speaker 1: by a much larger company that starts with hasbro Um,
Speaker 1: but both neat tech gizmos I got as a kid,
Speaker 1: and I just I love those things throve my parents crazy.
Speaker 1: I still have I still have all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: You know what that makes me think of? What's that? Okay,
Speaker 1: I wasn't gonna start with this. Actually this wasn't even
Speaker 1: on my list. It was only because after hearing you
Speaker 1: that it sparked a memory. Okay, Um, I have the
Speaker 1: Blue Army me fisto, rumble robot. I don't think I'm
Speaker 1: familiar with that, the rumble robots. First of all, I
Speaker 1: have to admit, rumble robots are not very old. You
Speaker 1: see what the picture looks like right there, that's him
Speaker 1: right there, So that that's totally not interesting to all
Speaker 1: you audio podcast people out there. So go look up
Speaker 1: me FISTO M E F I S t O, and
Speaker 1: that's a rumble robot. Um. All right. First of all,
Speaker 1: interest a full disclosure. I got this gift maybe four
Speaker 1: years ago, so this is not a kid gift. This
Speaker 1: is a big kid gift. It's meant for little kids.
Speaker 1: But I have the mentality and emotional development of a
Speaker 1: little kid, so it worked out well. But this was
Speaker 1: a present to me from a friend of mine, a
Speaker 1: friend that he goes by the nickname oz Oz also
Speaker 1: has a rumble robot. Oz, by the way, is at
Speaker 1: least six years older than I am. Actually he's older
Speaker 1: than that, but I'm going to be nice to oz
Speaker 1: Um and so Um, a person even older than I am,
Speaker 1: went out and bought rumble robots so that we could
Speaker 1: have robot fights. And that's what these things are. They're
Speaker 1: remote controlled rumble Rumble robots. They have UM an ability
Speaker 1: to uh both a physical attack and a little laser attack.
Speaker 1: And the way that you determine how strong your robot
Speaker 1: is is you have elector cards that you scan, and
Speaker 1: you could scan up to I think it's three or four.
Speaker 1: I can't remember now, it's been a long time since
Speaker 1: we played with these UM, but you could scan three
Speaker 1: or four of these cards, which gives your robot certain abilities,
Speaker 1: like it will actually determine how fast it can move.
Speaker 1: So if you have a speed of five, it's gonna
Speaker 1: go much faster than someone who has a speed of
Speaker 1: three and you so you could determine how hard it strikes,
Speaker 1: how fast it moves, how powerful it's laser is, how
Speaker 1: good its defenses are, and uh, and put your robot
Speaker 1: in battles with another robot. You could also buy supplemental
Speaker 1: armor and weapons, which I did so that I could
Speaker 1: defeat my my hated opponent. UM. We really should have
Speaker 1: entitled this one Tech Toys, because I have a feeling
Speaker 1: where we've started a threat that we're just gonna go
Speaker 1: through all the different toys that we've owned. Yes, this
Speaker 1: was this was a gift that a gift that my
Speaker 1: wife would say, it's the gift that keeps on taking
Speaker 1: as and it takes her sanity bit by bit as
Speaker 1: her husband that rolls the robot around and and uh essentially,
Speaker 1: when ever Oz was not over for us to have
Speaker 1: our robot Wars, I was using the Rumble robot to
Speaker 1: antagonize our dogs, which was hysterical alright. Anyway, that that
Speaker 1: technically was not the one I was gonna start off with. Um.
Speaker 1: I was actually gonna talk about a collection of the
Speaker 1: stuff that I got as a kid that really got
Speaker 1: me kind of interested in technology and allay, So now
Speaker 1: I would I grew up in the in the late
Speaker 1: seventies early eighties, so I grew up just as the
Speaker 1: merchandizing craze began for for like, where the cartoons and
Speaker 1: the toys were really closely tied in together. So you know,
Speaker 1: started by Star Wars. Okay, so Star Wars Lucas he
Speaker 1: hit on something brilliant. He managed to hit that merchandizing
Speaker 1: nail right on the head. So of course I did
Speaker 1: own a lot of Star Wars toys, including the Millennium Falcon,
Speaker 1: which I count as a gadget because it made noises
Speaker 1: and it was awesome. And I had uh you know,
Speaker 1: I had like a high interceptor at a Thai fighter
Speaker 1: had the X Wing fighter. Um, I didn't have a
Speaker 1: y Wing. I need to talk to my parents. And
Speaker 1: I have an ad AT either. That's what I always wanted,
Speaker 1: was one of the ad ats, the huge ad ats, yes,
Speaker 1: the all terrain attack transports. Um did not have one.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine did though, and we we used
Speaker 1: to have amazing battles. So. But I also was a
Speaker 1: big human fan. I don't make apologies. I was a kid.
Speaker 1: I had no sense of taste. So I had a
Speaker 1: castle gray skull at a snake mountain. Uh. And I
Speaker 1: was a big Transformers fan, so I had lots of Transformers,
Speaker 1: which also kind of sort of count as gadgets, but
Speaker 1: not really because then you know, again, it was something
Speaker 1: that got me interested in science fiction and gadgetry in general. Um,
Speaker 1: these toys. Yeah, and the robots, which literally led to
Speaker 1: my enjoyment of the Rumble robot. Um. But these were little,
Speaker 1: tiny building blocks upon which I began to build my
Speaker 1: obsession for gadgets in tech. I I just thought of something.
Speaker 1: They thank you for that, because I actually just thought
Speaker 1: of something that fits perfectly in that. Oh, dear lord,
Speaker 1: this is good. This is going to be like a
Speaker 1: fifteen minute podcast. You know. I will mention it briefly.
Speaker 1: Do you remember those kids that you used to be
Speaker 1: able to buy at radio shack. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you could still do it, but the ones with the
Speaker 1: little springs and wires and basically they were a very
Speaker 1: simple computer and you could you attach you know, you
Speaker 1: attach a wire to spring six and oh, you know,
Speaker 1: you you move it over to other stuff. Now they
Speaker 1: have stuff like this and uh, you know, make magazine.
Speaker 1: They have much more advanced versions of this where you
Speaker 1: can you know, basically pull the wires in and out
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's not the same type of thing.
Speaker 1: This was really aimed at kids. But you could make
Speaker 1: like a basic AM crystal radio receiver thing, and you could,
Speaker 1: you know, modify at different places. I haven't. I have
Speaker 1: no idea where that thing went. I have most of
Speaker 1: my choice from childhood, but I don't have that. But
Speaker 1: I do remember getting that early on, probably when I
Speaker 1: was you know, uh, you know, ten years old or
Speaker 1: something like that. Yeah, right around that same time, same age,
Speaker 1: not the same time, but when I was about ten
Speaker 1: years old. Um, I got one of my favorite gadget
Speaker 1: gifts of all my childhood, which is weird concerning the
Speaker 1: fact that I never really developed a proficiency with it.
Speaker 1: It was a Cassio keyboard. The musical keyboard, not the
Speaker 1: computer keyboard. We're talking about a a little electronic piano.
Speaker 1: Please tell me. It wasn't a little itty bittye with
Speaker 1: the It wasn't that. No, No, it was a model.
Speaker 1: It was a step up from that. Um No, it
Speaker 1: was that one definitely definitely had the horrible pre programmed
Speaker 1: electronic drum tracks. Yeah, and I can't remember. I can't
Speaker 1: remember what the demo song was anymore. But I could
Speaker 1: only play by ear and because I never learned to
Speaker 1: really play the thing. But I really enjoyed it. Um
Speaker 1: and uh and I remember that. Uh. I was a
Speaker 1: big fan of learning different songs somehow. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's just a law that if you own a
Speaker 1: little electric keyboard, eventually, even if you've never heard the
Speaker 1: song before, you eventually learned how to play Heart and Soul. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know how that happens, because that was one
Speaker 1: of the songs I learned to play by ear. I
Speaker 1: don't ever remember hearing that song before I had the keyboard,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how the hell I I encountered it,
Speaker 1: but I learned how to play it, and thankfully it
Speaker 1: has replaced I mean, the Heart and Soul is at
Speaker 1: least timeless. When I was around a lot of people
Speaker 1: who were playing around with those, it was axel lef from.
Speaker 1: I did learn how to play that. I learned how
Speaker 1: to play the Empire March from the Impress dricks back
Speaker 1: the Imperial March. Um. Yeah, I learned a few pretty
Speaker 1: lame songs. I also was very envious of my friend
Speaker 1: who lived down the street because he had one of
Speaker 1: the electronic keyboards that allowed you to record a a
Speaker 1: sound bite and then it would play it back at
Speaker 1: different pitches, which of course meant that we spent hours
Speaker 1: of fun giggling over saying naughty words into the synthesizer
Speaker 1: and then making it play it at chipmunk and uh
Speaker 1: and like super stoner speeds. And you know, we have
Speaker 1: a whole lot of people who are are our younger
Speaker 1: listeners who are just going, dude, I could so totally
Speaker 1: do that. You just gave them all ideas. It's there's
Speaker 1: nothing like playing jingle bells using an expletive at different
Speaker 1: pitches as the only note through the whole thing. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I'm going to change the subject now, Okay, go ahead,
Speaker 1: I'm any of their parents. I'm actually about to start
Speaker 1: giggling all over again. I'll bet you are. I wish
Speaker 1: I could remember the name of the manufacturer because it
Speaker 1: wasn't a brand name. But I got one of my
Speaker 1: very first portable cassette player. I got us a gift,
Speaker 1: and uh it, it's really cool because it's not cool now.
Speaker 1: It was really cool then because it had a cassette
Speaker 1: adapter that would allow it to receive radio. So you know,
Speaker 1: I could take out the tape and put in this
Speaker 1: adapter and you know, scroll a things sideways and it
Speaker 1: would actually get radio, which was really cool. I used
Speaker 1: it for years and years to paint war off of it. Yes,
Speaker 1: it had paint. And were they actually broadcasting radio back then?
Speaker 1: Jonathan h Later it turned so ugly before the end
Speaker 1: of the podcast and the in the in the not
Speaker 1: too uh even distant past, it's probably five or six
Speaker 1: years well now, it's probably around two thousand, two thousand one.
Speaker 1: I got a my last portable device that wasn't an
Speaker 1: all digital device would be the Reo volt player from
Speaker 1: Sonic Blue, which was would allow you to play discs
Speaker 1: like I had a couple of discmn that I bought,
Speaker 1: actually got one as a gift, you know, My very
Speaker 1: first discman was a gift. But the Sonic Blue was
Speaker 1: kind of cool because it would allow you to play
Speaker 1: to make a disc of MP three files, so you
Speaker 1: could listen to a you know, off the shelf CD,
Speaker 1: or you could listen to a CD of m P three's,
Speaker 1: which until I got an iPod, was really useful. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: that was kind of cool. It actually got stolen along
Speaker 1: with a pair of den On headphones, really awesome headphones
Speaker 1: that guy as a gift from my dad. Um and
Speaker 1: unfortunately those we're both stolen when my house was broken into.
Speaker 1: But anyway, those were all my music type gadgets together. Well,
Speaker 1: if I'm talking about music type gadgets, they're really only
Speaker 1: two that I can talk about. There were gifts. One
Speaker 1: was my very first CD player, which was a portable
Speaker 1: CD player. You plugged headphones into it, it didn't you know,
Speaker 1: or you could plug it I guess you could have
Speaker 1: a male to male connector and plug it into an
Speaker 1: auxiliary for you know, some other radio. But it had
Speaker 1: no native speakers. It's just a little c CD player
Speaker 1: And uh, I got it. It was probably a couple
Speaker 1: of years after CDs came out. Like, guys, you gotta
Speaker 1: remember if you weren't around when compact disks first came out,
Speaker 1: Compact displayers, like all new technology, were pretty expensive. Um,
Speaker 1: that was something where I really wanted one. But at
Speaker 1: the same time I knew that it was it was
Speaker 1: kind of an extravagant gift, so I felt badly about
Speaker 1: asking for one. But my parents did get me. They
Speaker 1: got me a refurbished uh portable CD player or Christmas gift,
Speaker 1: a couple a couple of years after the CD players
Speaker 1: had first hit the market, so still they're still in
Speaker 1: the fairly expensive rangel that they weren't extravagantly expensive at
Speaker 1: that point. Um, and I think that gift, I think
Speaker 1: they ended up really liking that gift for me, because
Speaker 1: from on subsequent Christmas is I would ask them for um,
Speaker 1: classical music cd s, which I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: ever gone shopping for classical music CDs, but you can
Speaker 1: buy like fifty for a buck. I mean, it's crazy
Speaker 1: how many you can purchase, uh for a really cheap price.
Speaker 1: And so they were like, you know, my sister would
Speaker 1: be asking for a new computer, and I'd be asking
Speaker 1: for you know, I would like this Broms collection. So
Speaker 1: uh so that ended up being the gift that kept
Speaker 1: on giving. But the other music present that I received
Speaker 1: was my first MP three player, which was a Creative
Speaker 1: Zen Touch twenty gigabyte. And you might have heard me
Speaker 1: talk about this once before, the Creative Zen Touch. It
Speaker 1: was what a heavy MP three player that thing was.
Speaker 1: I mean, it felt like a brick of lead, but
Speaker 1: it was awesome. It held so much music. It was
Speaker 1: the first time I had ever had a device that
Speaker 1: could hold that much content, uh, you know, considering how
Speaker 1: small it was. And I had a little touch sensitive
Speaker 1: bar in the center that would allow you to scroll
Speaker 1: up and scroll down, although that did get a little
Speaker 1: wonky towards the end of its life. But that was
Speaker 1: a great device. I really enjoyed it, um despite the
Speaker 1: fact that it did weigh just under a metric time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: actually that reminds me because um my, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I wasn't actually done with my music gadgets the very
Speaker 1: last one was my my very first iPod, the click Wheel,
Speaker 1: the very last black and white, which is still running fine,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Battery life is terrible when I
Speaker 1: haven't had it replaced. Unda, you can't even get through
Speaker 1: the whole song. It darnish um now, um, actually it's
Speaker 1: kind of hard to get through, and it got a
Speaker 1: veto on a new iPods a long song. It approximately
Speaker 1: lasts about as long as your average German opera. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just just teasing now, um, but yeah, that was
Speaker 1: my my first all digital player and coincidentally, uh just
Speaker 1: before No, it was just after my my house was
Speaker 1: broken into. But my wife and I exchanged iPods that year,
Speaker 1: decided to well here's your here's your iPod. Well now
Speaker 1: we have a reason nice. Well now we got them
Speaker 1: engraved with our names, so sweet you know yea, So
Speaker 1: now I'm going, okay, I need to recyclist. But it
Speaker 1: has my naming graved on. Darn now someone will know
Speaker 1: my name. Well you never know, you got it. You
Speaker 1: have to run it through the shredder and it it
Speaker 1: just match this big mess. Yeah, you definitely don't want
Speaker 1: people seeing how many like of the Wiggles songs you
Speaker 1: have on there or whatever. I do have wiggles songs. God,
Speaker 1: I was hoping you didn't. I was so hoping I
Speaker 1: also have children. This is true, all right. So so
Speaker 1: game consoles. I've actually received three game consoles as gifts.
Speaker 1: Now I own more than three game consoles, but only
Speaker 1: three of them were presents. It could me me also, um.
Speaker 1: And then I also got a Sega Dreamcast, and I
Speaker 1: got the Sega Dreamcast after the Dreamcast was already a
Speaker 1: dead product. So but it didn't matter to me because
Speaker 1: the games were still awesome. You could pick up any
Speaker 1: used game form for a song. And also that was
Speaker 1: really embarrassing going in and singing to those people. Well,
Speaker 1: but didn't get anything. I'm a ham like I care.
Speaker 1: I'll go in and sing anywhere. People have to stop
Speaker 1: me from singing here. Uh. And then the third one
Speaker 1: was the PlayStation two. Ah, yes, which I also got
Speaker 1: well after it had started to Uh well, I mean
Speaker 1: it's still they're still making games for it. So yes, yes,
Speaker 1: well I actually got mine. Uh. I bought my PlayStation two,
Speaker 1: but got one of the very last ones before they
Speaker 1: went to the new slim design. Um. Yeah, the actually
Speaker 1: wasn't a gift around a holiday or anything like that.
Speaker 1: It was one of those things that I think my
Speaker 1: parents just decided to spring on me because they wanted
Speaker 1: to and nice an occasionally. Hey, you know what, surprise
Speaker 1: here it is, so it counts it's a gift. I
Speaker 1: also got a Sega Genesis as a holiday gift one
Speaker 1: year or so. That was kind of If any of
Speaker 1: these sounds unfamiliar to you, guys, because you're fourteen to
Speaker 1: the end, are a lot of you who are four teens? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I go to the internet and look them up, and
Speaker 1: you can see what kind of crazy game systems these
Speaker 1: two old fogies like to play when they were kids.
Speaker 1: Have another older gadget too, but it's not a game system.
Speaker 1: What's that? Uh? I got my very first p D
Speaker 1: a Personal Digital assistant, uh when for a gift one year,
Speaker 1: which was the hand Spring Visor Deluxe, which ran on
Speaker 1: the old Palm operating system. So a p d A
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know, it's like a
Speaker 1: smartphone without the phone. Yeah, yeah, black and white. You know,
Speaker 1: I think, what's sixteen shades of gray? I don't know anyway,
Speaker 1: uh No, but it was no. It was my my
Speaker 1: introduction to the world of handheld computing because I hadn't
Speaker 1: ever had anything that was that advanced before. But you know,
Speaker 1: it was actually kind of a cool device UM because
Speaker 1: it allowed you to plug in cartridges with other programs
Speaker 1: on it from other manufacturers. UM, something that I feel
Speaker 1: like kind of got underutilized by short of people, but
Speaker 1: nonetheless a nice idea. UM. And of course, Handspring went
Speaker 1: on to UH start the Trio line of smartphones and
Speaker 1: then later was acquired by the company who's founders founded
Speaker 1: both companies, Palm. You know, then Palem went on to
Speaker 1: do other smartphones and stuff like that. But anyway, my
Speaker 1: very first PDA was a gift and that was very cool. Now,
Speaker 1: if even if we had just uh decided to restrict
Speaker 1: this to favorite games you've ever received as gifts, it
Speaker 1: would be an incredibly long podcast for me because I've
Speaker 1: received lots and lots of games as presents, which that's
Speaker 1: great because I love playing various computer and video games. UH.
Speaker 1: But I decided to narrow it down to my two
Speaker 1: favorites which have a theme in common. See if you
Speaker 1: can spot it, there is Sid Meyers Pirates and this
Speaker 1: was the pirate game for the UM the Apple to
Speaker 1: actually I believe was the original one recent remake which
Speaker 1: I also owned for the Xbox UM. But no, this
Speaker 1: the original one, which I think was for the Apple too.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was for our PC. And then
Speaker 1: the second one was The Secret of Monkey Island. Do
Speaker 1: you spot the theme? Well? Should I be? Is this
Speaker 1: for me to spots this for our listenersers can totally
Speaker 1: spot it. This is for you. It's a challenge for you.
Speaker 1: It's that challenge for them. They're smart. Well, see seeing
Speaker 1: as how that I I've never played either one of them.
Speaker 1: In um okay, Well, the the hint is in the
Speaker 1: title of one of the two games, and it's not
Speaker 1: Monkey Okay. Sid is There's nothing like playing a game
Speaker 1: of pirates. I was gonna say, though, isn't there aren't
Speaker 1: there monkeys and in Pirates? Though? No, not in the
Speaker 1: original one. No. I mean maybe in some of the
Speaker 1: game aren't somewhere in the background, But no, there's no Like,
Speaker 1: it's not like Oregon Trail. It's not like you're sailing
Speaker 1: your trail. No. I'm just saying like, it's not like
Speaker 1: you're sailing between ports and you suddenly get a message
Speaker 1: saying your ship was beset by monkeys. It doesn't happen. No,
Speaker 1: that would be awesome. So in the next Pirates game, said,
Speaker 1: if you're listening and your next Pirates game, make sure
Speaker 1: you have a moment where just on by random chance,
Speaker 1: like if you were struck by lightning or something, you
Speaker 1: will get a message that just says your ship was
Speaker 1: beset by monkeys. Maybe you lose like half the crew
Speaker 1: and all the bananas are gone or something like that. Um,
Speaker 1: so that's the only that's the that's the representative game
Speaker 1: I decided to choose. I mean again, the list itself
Speaker 1: as exhaustive. I would take forever to go throw them all.
Speaker 1: But um yeah, if you guys haven't played sid Meyer's Pirates,
Speaker 1: there is a version out for a newer version out
Speaker 1: for computers and for the x the old Xbox, not
Speaker 1: the Xbox three sixty. Um, and there might be for
Speaker 1: other for the other platforms as well. It's just I
Speaker 1: happen to have it for the Xbox. It's a fun game.
Speaker 1: It's not quite the same one that I played back
Speaker 1: on the Apple two, but um it's it's really faithful
Speaker 1: to the original and it's uh, it's it's interesting. The
Speaker 1: only thing that's weird is there's now a dance game
Speaker 1: included in the the new version where you have to
Speaker 1: you know, it's one of those we have to time
Speaker 1: the button press to to match what's on the screen
Speaker 1: that was not in the original version the original game, Okay,
Speaker 1: a little mini game inside of it. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of my favorite, just to just to choose one
Speaker 1: game that was a gift. Um, I'll stick with the
Speaker 1: Sigemira theme, and I'm going to go with Civilization To,
Speaker 1: which was my introduction to SIV games, which I think
Speaker 1: it was a huge improvement over the first one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and a lot of people said that the three
Speaker 1: was sort of a disservice to fans of two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: two was great, and three felt I liked three, but
Speaker 1: I didn't like it as well as I like Too.
Speaker 1: And I haven't played for Yeah because I just simply
Speaker 1: don't have. Tom Merritt dissed me when I when I
Speaker 1: said Civilization To with superior to Civilization and so Tom,
Speaker 1: this is just calling you out. You're wrong. Civilization Too
Speaker 1: was a superior game to the first Civilization. Well, I've
Speaker 1: never played Civilization one, so I will you know now, granted,
Speaker 1: it did. It did still get a little irritating when
Speaker 1: you would use a tank to attack a pike like
Speaker 1: an Italian of people who all are armed with our pikes,
Speaker 1: and they would beat you, because occasionally that could happen
Speaker 1: and you're thinking, seriously, what did you do with that
Speaker 1: stick that destroyed this tank? Well, they do have little
Speaker 1: you know, maybe they found the exhaust port. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: Look that exhaust port is got to be less than
Speaker 1: three ms wide. There's no way you can hit that.
Speaker 1: You all know that I set him up for that,
Speaker 1: right night? Okay, okay, well you know many both ins
Speaker 1: died for this podcast returned too. My last, my last,
Speaker 1: my last present that I received. Um well, oh wait,
Speaker 1: well I get sticking with Star Wars really quickly. Um.
Speaker 1: You know I mentioned Star Wars early on in my childhood.
Speaker 1: So my parents, their their memories are long. Obviously, they
Speaker 1: remember back when I was a little wee lad enjoying
Speaker 1: my Chewbacca and uh that was not a youth, don't
Speaker 1: write in. So they decided to give me a gift
Speaker 1: a few years ago. Um, you've seen the the lightsaber replicas,
Speaker 1: the ones that have the actual fluorescence where it lights
Speaker 1: up and makes all the noises and everything. I have
Speaker 1: one of those, and it is the most awesome toy ever.
Speaker 1: That same buddy I was telling you about the guy
Speaker 1: who got the robots, as I called him, over the
Speaker 1: day I got my my lightsaber and he drives up
Speaker 1: into the driveway and it's, uh, it's dusk, so the
Speaker 1: lights are down. I fire that thing up and he's
Speaker 1: just like ah, and we're we revert to you know,
Speaker 1: eight year old boys. It's awesome and then you can't
Speaker 1: help but run around the neighborhood going wow, wow wow
Speaker 1: and terrorizing other kids. Well other kids. Well, as I said,
Speaker 1: we revert to that age. It happens. Um, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know back when Star Wars was first out. I I
Speaker 1: don't remember. This was a gift and it's certainly not
Speaker 1: very techy. I got an original Star Wars lightsaber. I
Speaker 1: don't want these. The original. It was an inflatable vinyl
Speaker 1: tube that you know, sealed like a balloon and an
Speaker 1: attached to a flashlight. No. I had one of these
Speaker 1: two and it took I'd give it maybe six minutes
Speaker 1: before sprung a leak, and I could never find the
Speaker 1: I mean, we stuck that thing in a tub to
Speaker 1: try to you know, inflatable. If you've ever done this
Speaker 1: with a big schole tire, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: You know, to put some soap on it, maybe on
Speaker 1: the seams, or you know, stick it underwater in the bathtub.
Speaker 1: Never could find the leak on that thing. I still
Speaker 1: have the flashlight. Clearly the force is weak for you,
Speaker 1: certainly weak with that toy. So did you want to
Speaker 1: mention anything that you wanted? Yeah, we'll do this really
Speaker 1: quickly because this is running long. So this year, what
Speaker 1: I would like for Christmas as a tech gift. Well,
Speaker 1: you might remember last year I mentioned that I wanted
Speaker 1: an Xbox three sixty or maybe a PlayStation three. I
Speaker 1: remember that that still holds true. This year, someone did
Speaker 1: not get the hint. I'm looking at you, jolly red
Speaker 1: Elf up there in North Poland. Um, I would very
Speaker 1: much like an Xbox three six or p S three.
Speaker 1: They're even better than they were last year, so there's
Speaker 1: more reason to buy one for me. Um. I also
Speaker 1: would like a nook, but apparently I'm too late for that,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna have to wait till next year before
Speaker 1: I can get a knook. Um. Yeah, I actually I
Speaker 1: like the Nook design. I'm now granted maybe it's a
Speaker 1: good thing that I'll have to wait because I can
Speaker 1: read the reviews. The one thing I'm curious about is
Speaker 1: the Nook. Of course, it's an e ink e reader,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of like the Kindles, except that it
Speaker 1: has a touch screen at the bottom. And that touch
Speaker 1: screen at the bottom, I'm wondering if that puts a
Speaker 1: bigger drain on the battery life. So I wonder how
Speaker 1: long the battery lasts for the Nook. What's color? So
Speaker 1: you know that that that one color, a little touch
Speaker 1: screen at the bottom, it's gonna draw probably significantly more,
Speaker 1: which is why I want to know how long the
Speaker 1: battery life, because the Amazon can last for like two weeks,
Speaker 1: but how long can the Nook last? If the battery
Speaker 1: life is not that great, then I would prefer a
Speaker 1: Kindle to as opposed to the Nook. But I love
Speaker 1: the design of the Nook. Yeah, I actually like all
Speaker 1: of the different major e readers for different reasons. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't mind Anook, I wouldn't mind a Kindle, and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't mind the the Sony Reader, the touch version, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's got the touch screen technology and all. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure all of them out at least Sony,
Speaker 1: when I know works with Mac, and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: that the Kindle does too. Um, you know, I would
Speaker 1: certainly want one of those, and I wouldn't mind one
Speaker 1: of the gaming system I wouldn't like a nice pair
Speaker 1: of headphones. I kind of missed my nice pair of headphones.
Speaker 1: I haven't really I replaced the ones that got stolen
Speaker 1: into the break in, but uh, the case on them
Speaker 1: cracked and it costs a pretty significant amount of money
Speaker 1: to have them sent back to the manufacturer and fixed.
Speaker 1: I have to say, it is pretty sad to walk
Speaker 1: by Poulette's desk and see him wearing those massively huge
Speaker 1: headphones that eventually cut off all circulation to his brain. Yes,
Speaker 1: what were we talking about again, Let's see he was
Speaker 1: wearing them just before this podcast. All right, Well, um, so,
Speaker 1: if any of you are dying to buy your favorite
Speaker 1: text stuff, hosts of Present, now you have an idea
Speaker 1: of what to get that you should No, I'm told
Speaker 1: over and I'm told over and over again that we're
Speaker 1: not supposed to solicit gifts. Although Stuff you should Know
Speaker 1: has received several gifts, by the way, Yes, including liquor. Really,
Speaker 1: I am not joking. I am not joking. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: not asking for liquor because I don't drink. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: would just have to give it to the stuff you
Speaker 1: should know guys. So I guess if you really love
Speaker 1: stuff you should know, you can send us licker and
Speaker 1: we can give it to them. But they're already drunk
Speaker 1: as it is, so what No, I'm not right now.
Speaker 1: Well maybe right now. They're not in the office, so
Speaker 1: who knows what those two are up to. But uh no,
Speaker 1: we love stuff you should know. They're great guys. Uh No,
Speaker 1: don't send us stuff that went on a lot longer
Speaker 1: than anyway. Okay, we'll wrap it up with a little
Speaker 1: listener mail. Okay, this listener mail comes from Frank G.
Speaker 1: And this is overdue. So I apologize Frank, because you
Speaker 1: are owed a kudos because Frank was the one who
Speaker 1: figured out what it meant when I said, Michael, let's
Speaker 1: drive to Congress. Do you figured out that it has
Speaker 1: a connection through the actor who played both the voice
Speaker 1: of Kit and John Adams in the musical seventeen seventy six. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's the same actor and he is brilliant in both roles.
Speaker 1: I kept on hoping that he would start bursting out
Speaker 1: into song as Kit, but he never did. So watch
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six. It's fun. It's a goofy musical. It'll
Speaker 1: teach you a little bit about the history of America. Um,
Speaker 1: some of it's accurate. Turns out, the Failing Fathers did
Speaker 1: not regularly burst out into song and dance, but if
Speaker 1: they did, it would look a lot like seventeen seventy six.
Speaker 1: Some of them did not have much of a sense
Speaker 1: of humor to begin with. Yeah, John Adams among them, actually.
Speaker 1: But if any of you have any comments, questions, suggestions
Speaker 1: you want to yell at us because we spend an
Speaker 1: entire podcast talking about stuff that we love. Uh, you
Speaker 1: can email us. Our address is tech stuff at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. And if you want to read
Speaker 1: about the stuff we talked about. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the heck is wrong with you, but I'm sure you
Speaker 1: can find many of the articles on how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Chris and I will out to you again
Speaker 1: about stuff that you care about really soon, for moralness
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com and be sure to check out the New
Speaker 1: Tech Stuff blog now on the House Stuff Works homepage,
Speaker 1: brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you