I updated the calendar function on my watch with a windows 3.1 program that flashed the screen black- and- white in an epileptic nightmare.
You put your watch into update mode, and then held the face towards the computer screen.
Edit: behold the Timex Datalink
:O ?!
I need to see this thing!
Had never heard of this, and my first computer had a tape drive. Went to a tiny computer camp and we had a sweet D&D game, but it took 10-minutes to load, if it didn’t fuck up. Had to start it before our break or we’d only have 5 minutes to play.
Reminds me of TV remotes that worked with sound. Both before my time but very interesting to read about.
When I was a kid my parents still called the remote control a “clicker” because of these.
Most notably the Zenith Space Command
https://www.theverge.com/23810061/zenith-space-command-remote-control-button-of-the-month
This reminds me that I once read about a Thompson Twins game that was distributed as a flexi disc record. In order to actually play the game it had to be copied to a cassette first. Apparently it’s pretty rare, since it was only available as a bonus with a specific issue of a magazine.
As Wi-Fi is a form of radio technology, we still basically do this today.
It’s so gratifying to hear from people on the internet who are older than I am. And this article reads like it bounced off a Listserv to a yahoo email address.
You don’t even need to go that far to see this technology in action. In the Eastern Europe we got microcomputers pretty late but that also meant our journey through the technological advancements from 1990 to 2010 started with a trickle of obsolete western stuff but then became a wild rollercoaster ride. At close to 40 I remember games being transmitted on the scout radio. You could also get games from magazines which simply printed source code.
I’m pretty sure WiFi is a kind of radio signal…
