 July 10, 2008 - 9:35pm | About the time that the writers of TSR were taking pen to paper in order to whip out the new Knight Hawks boxed set (and coincidently the same time the purple Star Frontiers boxed set was released), Honda had unleashed a series of motorcycles sharing a similar name. The CB450, 650, and 750 Nighthawk debuted in 1982, the latter was in production until 2003 (and prior generations of the 750 date back to the 1969 CB750K, the bike that put Japan on the motorcycle map boasting more performance and handling than anything else in its time). 1982 CB750 Night Hawk  Two great icons in two different fields came out at the same time...further testimony that the 1980s were a great time to be around! |
July 13, 2008 - 2:57am | Yep, the bikes (if only I were old enough to have enjoyed them then), RPGs, the music, MTV back when MTV played music, Ronald Reagan...dang we need some of this stuff to come back! |
 July 13, 2008 - 11:04pm | oh, how much better the world would be with some of greatness of the 80's. Though I do not miss the fashions, lol. |
 July 14, 2008 - 8:29am | AZ - I don't miss the hairstyles, either! But other than that, the 80's rocked. A much more hopeful time. And a time with a lot less noise, especially on the entertainment and technology fronts. We dealt with the 32000 k on our Commodore 64s and we figured it out. |
July 14, 2008 - 3:14pm | Well...disco is making a fine comeback (music and clothing) so it's only a matter of time before parachute pants and mullets become cool again. Finally, I'll be able to dust off that Members Only jacket! |
 July 14, 2008 - 5:18pm | I had fun in the 80's. Wouldn't still want to be living them out though... At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
July 14, 2008 - 7:15pm | sherman, set the way back machine to 1986, I could live in that year forever! |
 July 16, 2008 - 10:34am | IL: don't you mean 32,000 B, as 32,000k 32,000,000 or a whopping 32megs. The only things going that high back then were ataris and miniframes... The Apple IIGS was getting dated, but did handle 8megs. (I can't find ram small enough to fill mine out... but it still runs like a champ.) OS's didn't allow running multiple programs, except Windows 3.x. And doz' didn't do it well. Games almost all came out for Dos, and some would run under windows just fine. Petrol under $2 per gallon. Short wars where we didn't try to win hearts and minds, just thump the exccrement out of the bad guys, and move on. (Panama, Falklands). |
July 16, 2008 - 2:37pm | Yes, Aramis, 32000 bytes is correct. |
July 16, 2008 - 5:18pm | We had a Texas Instruements TI99-4/A back then. I remember that was pretty much the ultimate home computer of its day. There was some story about why they didn't go any further with it, can't recall any of the details. I remember paying 93¢/gallon for regular (leaded) during my senior year in high school (1986). Wanted a bike so bad back then, the Honda Rebel had just debuted the year before at MSRP $1595 and I was jonesing for it ever since it hit the market (Playboy was even endorsing the bike as cool)...but the folks said it'd be a cold day in hell before I brought one home.  That cold day came 11 years later LOL Wasn't the same bike, but I ended up with something a little larger. |
 July 17, 2008 - 2:55pm | And gas wasn't 93 cents a gallon then either....:D "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
July 17, 2008 - 6:56pm | LOL yeah it was probably a buck and a half by the time I was riding. |
 July 18, 2008 - 10:57pm | IL: don't you mean 32,000 B, as 32,000k 32,000,000 or a whopping 32megs. The only things going that high back then were ataris and miniframes... The Apple IIGS was getting dated, but did handle 8megs. (I can't find ram small enough to fill mine out... but it still runs like a champ.) OS's didn't allow running multiple programs, except Windows 3.x. And doz' didn't do it well. Games almost all came out for Dos, and some would run under windows just fine. Petrol under $2 per gallon. Short wars where we didn't try to win hearts and minds, just thump the exccrement out of the bad guys, and move on. (Panama, Falklands). What kind of memory are you looking for there aramis. I just might be able to get you some. I have some computers from the late 70s still in my arsenal of computers. They are in a robot controller setup. But, I have a source for memory for older systems and cpu's if you need one of those, too. Tell me what you need and I will get you some or someplace that has it. |
 August 28, 2008 - 7:16pm | Well, y'know...my entire existence is, effectively, predicated on the notion that the 1980s were the awesomest anything ever. Dr Rotwang! Totally Different Head. TOTALLY. |
August 29, 2008 - 8:34am | No comment, but considering we almost ended up not having this discussion, due to the nearness of Armageddon.... "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
 August 30, 2008 - 12:48am | I guess the awesomestness of the 1980's is all in the eye of the beholder, we had a McCarthy supporter for president who's claim to fame was 'B' rated movies with a chimp co-star named Bonzo. He probably had a chimp for a co-star because he turned all his movie buddies in for being "pinko-commies" 'cuase they wanted to unionize and provide a better standard of living for the common worker. OH MY GOD! Their enemies to the state! They're trying to make life better in the U.S.! But, I must admit, TSR was hitting their stride with the success of D&D and games like Star Frontiers, Boot Hill, Gangbusters and Top secret. What more could a nerdy teenage boy ask for? Armageddon? Cuban Missile Crisis? just a "few" years before the '80s. |
August 30, 2008 - 9:18am | While I live in the now, and enjoy all of its hocus pocus foolery that so beguiles the masses to want to stay in and live spectator lives, i do long for the simpler and higher quality days of the 80's. While my hobby of digital artwork would not exist, I would just have to go back to doing it all by hand with actual ink and paint (oh how horrible would that be). |
August 31, 2008 - 4:58am | I would just have to go back to doing it all by hand with actual ink and paint (oh how horrible would that be). Aside from my deckplans and heromachine character renditions, that's the only way I do it. Here's an elven waterfall stronghold (complete with towering statues rising out of the pool and a behind-the-falls cavern) I just rendered for the D&D game my wife and I are doing:  |
August 31, 2008 - 8:17am | /me whistles in appreciation. Nice work, Shadow. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
August 31, 2008 - 8:46am | While I live in the now, and enjoy all of its hocus pocus foolery that so beguiles the masses to want to stay in and live spectator lives, i do long for the simpler and higher quality days of the 80's. While my hobby of digital artwork would not exist, I would just have to go back to doing it all by hand with actual ink and paint (oh how horrible would that be). Every era's had its hocus pocus foolery, and the "masses" have much preferred staying on the sidelines instead of taking action. I'm actually better at hand drawing than computer animation...now, if they can whip up a cheap computer drawing program which is simple as hand drawing.... Music had more substance (ok so the pop music, while entertaining, did suck almost to the point of embarassment at times, at least its not like todays rap where anything goes from drugs to rape to violence all ryhmed out to a catchy beat). No argument there, and the 80s did spawn some of my fav bands(R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Metallica[up to Load], GnR, and the Cowboy Junkies). Movies were better, they still had good guys & bad guys. Today we have good guys who want to be bad and bad guys who really want to be good but are just misunderstood tortured individuals. A trend which started in the 80s, with such movies as Wall Street, whose best summed up the 80s(and beyond)mentality with the infamous line "greed is good." And, it could be argued that Han Solo and Lando Calrissian were just two examples of "rogues with hearts of gold." (And, was Khan not motivated by revenge based on personal loss?) Books were way better for the most part! No cell phones bugging you every minute of everyday. No argument on the former, and the latter was true only because cell phones back then were monstrosities requiring the lifting of weights just to carry around. Role Playing Games Rocked and you didnt need a computer to play them . Of course, there is the recent trend towards rules-light and narrative RPG systems which can give the old-school systems we grew up a run for their money. Also, a lot of the RPG companies back then didn't want to change with the times(e.g. GDW still clinging to Twilight:2000 even after the Wall fell). I get more lost on bad directions from gps and mapquest then I ever did cracking open an atlas. Thrusday, I had to redirect a Mexican who allowed Mapquest to get him lost on the way to Fort Smith...of course, I forgot to tell him he needed fifty cents to get on the Muskogee Turnpike.... Tom Tom's actually good about giving you decent directions, but why should I use Tom Tom, when I have my girlfriend's Dad Dad? Payfones were cheap and abudant Payphones? Didn't they go the way of GDW? Gas was cheap and abudant $0.99/gallon gas will never return.... all of our political enemies were afraid we'd nuke 'em Which was why everyone, his brother and pet duck was busy developing nukes of their own back then(and now)...which, in turn, justified our own nuclear insanity and the billions still being wasted on SDI.... Dont get me started on politics (they have always sucked) Politics have sucked since 4 July, 1776(and beyond). No one ever got fired for giving a compliment to a pretty lady And, they don't now, given the backlash from a few women standing up for themselves due to legitimate cases of sexual harassment. If you worked in America for an American Company you had a future You mean aside from layoffs, jobs going overseas, pay cuts and loss of benefits resulting from fear of foreign competition, mergers and hostile takeovers by greedy corporate raiders financing their empires on junk bonds, multiple etc. In the words of another fav singer of mine: The good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
August 31, 2008 - 6:18pm | Shadow, I have always appreciated the artwork you post on your site and this one. Your newest piece is great. I like working with the digital artwork because it allows me to do in hours what would take me months to do on a canvas or drawing pad. However, I still whip out the pen to do my mock ups and story boards for my amatuer art hobby and digital comic book. Additionally I think the only thing I would miss if my computer went away tomorrow is the richness and depth of color I can generate in my artwork that could not easily be reproduced with ink or paint. I really wish I could make money doing the artwork, but I dont, so it really sits on the back burner often. Which is the primary reason I really have been slow to put out the second issue of my comic book. It took four months to do the first one and I just dont have that kind of time to spend 5 hours a day, everyday for another four months. Thus the new project, while very exciting to be working on, is much less ambitious, smaller, and a lot more manage-able with spending only about three hours a day for one month and now the art for the first issue is ready. Just getting everythin preped for formatting and making some final story, dialogue, and technical decisions. Next will be to load the images into the format (cut, paste, resize, splice etc.) use gimp to put in the new dialogue transparencies (crossing fingers on that one) and then the digital copy will be ready. I doubt I will do a printed copy like the first project because it was just too darn resources draining. I may make some copies for the arizona comic-con, but i hope by that time to get a website up and running and offer a digital subscription or a reason-able pay by the episode for downloads. I played around with animation, as my software allows me to do animations, but that was so much more time consuming then even the static art and made my antique computer have several small strokes. I may revisit doing animation since I know have the resources and the know-how when I can afford the hardware to support the endeavor. Thus the catch 22, gotta make money doing the art before I can afford more goodies to do the animation. |
September 1, 2008 - 9:40am | Yeah, Arizona, life sucks that way sometimes. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
September 2, 2008 - 4:18am | Thanks for the comps. The actual pice looks far better than depicted...since my scanner took a dump I took a digital pic with the camera to upload it LOL That pice took me about 3 hours, although it's merely finished pencils. I'm a terrible inker so I usually photocopy my artwork before making printable copies, and my color perception isn't too keen either. Cool that you're doing a comic! That was another former unrealized aspiration of mine from the 90s. A friend and I submitted tons of stuff to Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse and to this day I continue to be amazed at what some of the crap that their regular artists are turning out. I'm glad I don't make that cut LOL We even began to try our hand at self-publishing, he gave me some basic plots to an idea he had brewing and I belted out some storylines, and together we began character designs. But he ended up in a messy divorce and moved out of state before it got off the ground. |
