As a result of participating in the Wii ethnography I remembered a computer console that I used to play as a child. It was a pretty distant memory that was recalled as a result of playing Laser Hockey (part of Wii Play). The game reminded me of a Pong-esque game that I used to play on a TV based console that I had a distant memory of. I felt like I had not thought about this console since it had been played by my family over twenty years ago. Although I didn’t realise it a the time, the brief connection/observation that I had made would eventually lead to me rediscovering the console (although sadly not the actual one that we used to play with) and attempting to buy one from Ebay.
Whilst waiting for last week’s MA session to start I was talking to another member of the group (Hanna) about retro, or vintage computer consoles. I now have vivid memories from my childhood of the games system that my Mum brought back from the school jumble sale – it was bright orange and black and was controlled by a handset with a dial on it - I also remember the sounds that the console used to make, but this wasn't going to help in the search. After some brief Internet searches I was not able to find it but with the help of Hanna I managed to find a website in which the console was featured (www.benwaysworld.co.uk). It turned out to be a Binatone TV Master IV and the site that we had found contained a photo of this specific console as well as others in the range.
Even though I had not seen the console in roughly twenty years, and could only vaguely remember what it actually looked like, I was able to instantly recognise the exact model from the photographs displayed within the site. Of course, my first and almost instinctive reaction was to copy the image description and paste it straight into Ebay. Sure enough there were several different versions of the console available, I picked out the one in the best working condition and put a bid in. The auction ends tonight and hopefully I will win. I will of course be adding some of my own photographs and video footage if I am successful in the auction. And hope to make further comparisons between the two consoles (Binatone and Wii)
Playing the Wii has brought up a lot of areas for investigation, which is why I have included this story of recollection. The Wii includes games that hark back to the early days of home games consoles such as the Laser Hockey game that I have referred to (similar to the Tennis/Squash Binatone game which was an imitation of Atari's Pong). Here is the only recording of a Binatone TV Master Output that I can find at the moment, I will get a better version up if I win the console that I am bidding on. This is from a Binatone TV Master 8, a later model than I used to play but looks to be essentially the same. Here it is played in one player mode:
...and here is a short clip of the Wii Play Laser Hockey game. The basic principle and rules of the game along with direction of control (not method of control of course) are very similar, if not the same:
...as well as the Wii Play shooting game that is a reincarnation of NES based Duck Hunt; I think this is made particularly clear by the clay shooting level 3 (on Wii) which looks amazingly similar to the original Duck Hunt clay shooting (sorry about the small image size, the NES output would have been pretty low res - click image for slightly larger verion):
I have also found that the potential for present play to act as a vehicle for recalling past play amazing and something that I seem to be experiencing more and more. After speaking to my parents about the Binatone console I have worked out that I was somewhere between the ages of three and five when the console was present in the house - a lot younger than I had first thought in dating the presence of the console at roughly twenty years. Playing the Laser Hockey on the Wii started a cascading memory recall that has resulted in me finding the exact model of computer that I used to play so many years ago. Each memory recalled provides the means for other memories to be recalled; from the initial comparison to the Wii game to the recollection of the colour of the console and the sounds that it produced.
// I even remember the vessel that it was taken back to the jumble sale in – a very 70’s flower print blue plastic laundry basket. //
I need to investigate the areas of interest that have arisen so far (stimulation of recollection through play and remediation of specific games) further – they provide two lines of inquiry that work really well together as I can compare my own experiences of virtually the same games from both the present day and my early childhood whilst using memory to bridge the time based space between them.
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