Just to stress again, this is not a guide on what you should use to capture VHS tapes or best practice. This is just some fun seeing what's on these tapes and the kit I had to hand to share them. Enjoy! Neil
The clips for Marble Madness, Chuck Rock & Terminantor are from Australian adverts due to pronunciation of 'Seeega' which seems to be the way down under!
OMG!!! LOL!! That first clip of the Microprose F-1 Stealth game had the voiceover's done by the guys at Spinning Image !!! I know that Regan Impression ANYWHERE!!!! I have/had this VHS when I was a kid of their TV Special about the Regan Administration and me and my younger brother watched it OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER lol ... They did their own type of Jim Henson puppeteering but they were more like those charactures that you could get done on the Boardwalk where they would do a quick drawing of you and GREATLY over exaggerate your features like a SUPER long chine or big forehead... Well these guys did a whole bunch of shows of their own apparently, none of which I've ever really seen except for clips on YT but I know you can look them up and you'll hear that Regan voice.... I think the name of all their shows about Regan were called 'The Ronnie and Nancy Show" ... just a ll FYI nostalgia :D
I think not up-rezing them adds to the charm, I have seen this myself watching the original "karate kid" on Blu-ray and my TV switches down to the 24fps the movie was made in
I was going to say the same, that's Chris Barrie! He voiced a *lot* of spitting image, and he'd often mimic the likes of Kenneth Williams when he'd flub his lines on Red Dwarf ( see smeg-ups/outs for examples!)
When I played F19 on my old Tandy 1000, I was getting a blistering 2 FPS, and I was happy to play it. These youngins and their 120 and 240 FPS gaming rigs don't know the struggles we older folks lived through!
Very interesting stuff. I love how this channel is a hodgepodge of many things relating to computer/gaming history. Years ago, the first video I watched was the PC Engine Trash to Treasure video. I liked the info but I was almost turned off because it seemed a bit dry. I was so used to the over the top fake excitement and energy of literally every other channel out there. As it turns out, this has become my favorite channel on YT. You're an adult and the content is presented from an adult perspective. I much prefer a more sincere enthusiasm even temperament of your videos. Kudos and thank you.
Thank you! It's very much a case of "what's interesting me this week, let's take a look at it" when it comes to deciding on what to cover. This week I wanted to look at these tapes, next week I want to finish the Mega-Tech, who knows what's after that.
So much gold contained on VHS tapes from long ago. I have dozens of tapes of The Simpsons recorded during the 1990s I need to go through. Not for The Simpsons, but for the 30 year old advertisements from South Australian Free-To-Air TV! 🙂
Completely unrelated but totally related, I diligently stayed up late every week to record every episode of BITS (yup those three girls) on VHS. Ah those were the days, pausing the ads just on time, labelling each VHS tape, thinking I needed these for the future! How quickly things changed!
I have actually a very specific nostalgia for VHS tapes. They instantly remind me of cute little holidays homes and the like. Very often when we went on holidays, some of these homes had a (little) collection with VHS tapes. Even when DVD was already the standard. Since you were there anyway, you just decided to put on another one of those good old classic movies and still enjoyed it with the family!
It was, unironically, my entry point to Dune. The books were impenetrable to me as a youngster (I've since read and enjoyed them more as an adult) and the original movie similarly so for different reasons, but Dune II managed to make Frank Herbert's world accessible in a way a lot of the source material and other attempts did not. In fact, I would say that the foundation created by the game made reading the book a lot easier.
Every time you say "We thank them for their support." about PCB Way, it always reminds me of the teacher at the beginning of episode 1 of the 80's BBC show The Tripods, when he says "We thank the Tripods." 😂
It was an interesting time when people were buying their first PC, most people really had no idea how to use them or set them up. I had computers since the Sinclar Spectrum came out (i also owned an Amiga 1200) but i remember back in the early 90s asking a friend who was really into computers what the internet was and what you could do with it. It seems a long time ago now.
We got our first PC in 1991 (a 286) and it came with no OS installed and just a DOS manual with just a list of commands. Had to figure it all out myself 😂
It's amusing to see Jim Sweeney as the guy with the computers in the PC World video (13:10), as he's the PC sales rep whose time Victor Meldrew wastes in _One Foot in the Grave_ as revenge for carving him up on a dual carriageway 😁
i remember Shuttle it came with a full colour poster, which was probaly A3 size, of the complete Shuttle cockpit , as it included a fully clickable cockpit . 2 'manuals' stick out from the 8 bit era onwards, that shuttle poster , and the Falcon 4.0 manual, which is the only manual i made a thing to keep, still have it. Shuttle was hardcore and as a 12 year old , i never managed to lift off as if i remember if you did'nt accerlerate time, the countdown started at T-10 Hours
My father has always been both an early adopter and ridiculously bad at choosing good technology. When I was a kid we had a satellite dish (about 10 feet across), a Phillips CD-I for video games, and a laser disk player. He rode Harley Davidson motorcycles back in the '60s when they were garbage but switched to Honda with the earliest versions of the Gold Wing. He had a Dodge Stealth and a Ford Focus station wagon. He even had a car phone at one point in time.
I think that is Chris Barrie! Can anyone ask him? (Though he'll probably deny it out of embarrassment anyway!) VHS tapes are shooting up in value now, and there's a speculator's market appearing, so you might want to hold onto that stuff for a while. Speaking of holding onto stuff, that later model VCR you have is worth keeping handy: newer VCRs often have both PAL and NTSC support, so they're great for running NTSC consoles through PAL tellies.
He did the voice for Spitting Image's Ronnie Reagan and so I think this is that version of him basically. At the time it would have been more familiar and funny (kind of).
Chris Barry as Ronnie, it was good enough for Spitting Image for years - `The President's brain is missing` was great. Also, I have a completely different history with VHS tapes, my parents had a video shop at the time and being a 11yr old in 1984 with free access to as many horror and porn titles as I could get my grubby little hands on was sheer bliss (my parents did not know this at the time) - I even had my own old skool huge colour telly (for the time) and a video player of my very own. Loved it.
That looks like Jim Sweeney and his comedy partner Steve Steen doing the PC World Setup Guide, both members of the comedy store players, I'm sure his slightly odious demeanour was intentional :)
This is interesting to me being born in the mid 90s and enjoyed games from all ages is that you can forget how old these games you've played are. Seeing media about games from that time can really give you a crashing down to earth feeling as you realise just how long ago they were made.
I'd love for you to interview the legendary Fred Harris at The Cave, I know Iain Lee has tried to get in contact with him recently for similar reasons but didn't have any luck as far as I'm aware.
Funnily enough Jim Sweeney was in the One Foot in the Grave episode 'The Broken Reflection' where he turns up as a PC salesman. Victor Meldrew gets his revenge on the guy after he cut him up in the car and wastes his time by calling him round to sell a PC 😂
Awe man, that Commodore PC video really takes me back. The Computer City store in Dublin City centre where I bought my Amiga and would rent games, had that video on loop for a while. I remember the first time I saw it and being fascinated. Not only did I recognise Tim from British TV but was also amazed that Commodore made stuffy old PCs too.
That PC world is in Osterley (West London) on the Great West Road. In the background is a building I worked in for many years (Sky had premises there). Funny to see it in that period, I didn't work there til the mid noughties.
I've been there many times, the last time i was there i bought a fridge. That site used to be the Art Deco Firestone factory, it was a gorgeous building, but there was a huge scandal when it was demolished, lots of dodgy behaviour going on, you can google it to find out. If you know the Hoover building on the A40, it was a bit like that.
I used to work for Mastercare PC Service (part of PC World, Dixons, Curry's) in the mid-nineties. Driving around installing and repairing Packard Bell, Acer, Apricot PC's to name a few, my conscience wrestled with the company's ethos of pushing customer's towards a ridiculous premium rate 'helpline' - and let's not forget charging customers £59.99 to update their computer's Bios for the 'Year 2000' ouch !
"To this day Andrew Neill has been roaming free" - but not for a lack of effort. He's a tricky bugger, and a devil when cornered. We've all had our run-ins with him, let me tell you! Mine was in Penge. I'd just returned an orphan to Woolies, and I saw him over the road at Fashion House. I stalked him down the road and over the crossing, and made my move when he stopped to graze at the chippy. He was fast and fought dirty - I let my guard drop, took a saveloy to the knee, and crumpled. He slipped clean away, and I never saw him again. But his luck can't hold forever. One day we'll catch him. One day...
Holy crap that shot of the Lenton Lane tin shed (Just around the corner from the Games Workshop HQ) at 16:12 brings back repressed memories. I spent way too long in that place talking people through reinstalling Windows and removing malware...
I remember finding a VHS video in dad's bedside cabinet. I did not contain F19 Stealth Fighter, but was in dire need of a filter for the grubby image quality.
14:08 So my history story that disappeared. In the 80s I went to Gunnersbury School in Boston Manor. It was never The Great West Road. On this road was the big DoITAll. I loved going to that store as a kid, as I'd hang out waiting for my parents in the mock up kitchens. All those kitchens were posher and cleaner than ours at home. That DoITAll was the one that featured in the famous advert of the time. What has this all got to do with this vid I hear you ask. Well the PC World featured IS that DoITAll. The entrance is new because the DoITAll entrance to that building was down the left hand side. In that area were other business buildings and later on Sky HQ appeared there (not sure if they are still there) and Sega's HQ was also located there. It was known as The Golden Mile. The last post I put the coordinates to it, I wonder if that's why the comment got removed automatically? Just look up Golden Mile (Brentford) and you'll find it. The building is now a Currys. It is off the Great West Road down a road called West Cross Way.
Oh lordy lord the soundtrack for the Activision reel was completely of its time for stuff like this. So E-mu! That combo pan flute / bottle blow lead (OK it /might/ be a Synclavier) just screams late 80's :)
It's really weird that they say it like that when half of the games on the mega drive had the 'say-gah' jingle at the start of them. Although I guess it's just some random vo person reading a script
I agree with you, VHS belongs in the dustbin. We used it because we HAD to, we literally had no other tech available. Picture is beyond shit quality covered in fuzz and snow (and that’s when it’s not wonked out/damaged). I bought a DVD player and started replacing my collection with DVDs as soon as humanly possible.
I remember playing Jimmy White’s snooker and then switching to Virtual Pool (and snooker later on) and being absolutely mind blown how realistic VP was! Virtual Pool was the Doom of billiards games.
Fascinating video. I've still got a copy of Issue 1 of "Click", the VHS gaming "magazine" in a box somewhere from 1991. It lasted a whole 2 issues, I believe. I couldn't get enough of it as a kid when it appeared in my local newsagent. It's already been uploaded to RU-vid, if you're curious.
Well, although VHS was an inferior analogue way of recording TV channels and renting films (sometimes) months and months after the cinema release, especially in the UK. It was a way to record, own, and KEEP your videos until the demise of the format. I have old recordings of The Hit Man and Her, even Video 'n Chips, Sapphire and Steel and Dramarama on old VHS that I recorded on tape, LOST TO THE DIGITAL AGE, and I loved the new higher quality DVD period, lost to the so called "cloud".
I think if you want go get really fancy, you can go a similar route as Tech Tangents showed in the LaserDisc archival video, with direct signal tapping from the VHS head.
this was fun to watch. i think if you can get an old Panasonic NV-HS950B youll be able to squeeze even more out of the tapes and possibly loose some of the jumping. ive had one from new and recently dug it out to transfer some S-VHSC tapes. it has a pro chassis inside a consumer shell with digital noise reduction and to help locking the video a time base corrector.
I'm sure we all have *that* game but for me it was Dune 2, the defining game of my childhood which turned me into RTS fanatic. Still my favorite genre today and always will be.
13:10 the lovely Jim Sweeney. Pioneer of alternative and then improv comedy in the early 80's. He's on Who's Line Is It Anyway and The Young Ones. Sadly he's not very well now. I'm trying to work out who the guy getting into the cab is. I thought it was Mark Arden, one of the Carling Black Label men...but it's not. Steve is Steve Steen who was Jim's double act partner. Those two really were at the forefront of improvised comedy in the UK. Trying to work out who that lad is. Clearly a cash grab. I had a similar one a few years ago when I was in a bit of trouble financially. I got offered a lot of money for a day's filming. Dressed up as a superhero I had to save offices from the nightmare of whatever the product was. Awful soul destroying stuff but....whatever it takes to pay the mortgage! This is a great video, Neil. Really enjoyable stuff. And Fred Harris on sax? Absolute banging tune. I reached out to Fred a few months ago to ask for an interview but he wasn't keen...
It can't be a coincidence that they got lookalikes for that pc world video. The main character looks a bit like Hugh Laurie and the bloke passing by the window looks like Paul Merton
Shuttle was really expensive when it came out £49.99 on PC), but I got it for £4.99 about a year later as it wasn’t popular. I loved it though. It was super detailed and could be played in realtime…which meant a couple of hours watching the shuttle moving from the VAB to the launchpad 😂
