Categories
Video Games

Coleco shuts down video game division

ColecovisionColeco Industries formally announces the complete discontinuation of its Adam computer and the Colecovision home video game console, after revealing a $55,000,000 loss for 1984, a loss incurred largely by the market failure of Adam; only the hugely popular Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, another Coleco product, keep the company from losing any more money. Coleco’s remaining game and computer stock is sold to closeout retail chain Odd Lot, and the video game market crash claims another victim.

More about Colecovision in Phosphor Dot Fossils

Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: Attack Of The Cybermen, Pt. 1

Doctor WhoThe 629th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1, premiering the 22nd season of the series. Maurice Colbourne, Brian Glover and Faith Brown guest star in a story tying into both the first Cybermen story (1966’s The Tenth Planet) and the public’s fascination with the close approach, in 1985, of Halley’s Comet. This is also the first episode in Doctor Who’s new format for the 22nd season, which aired one 50 minute episode on the show’s more “traditional” Saturday night time slot.

More about Doctor Who in the LogBook
Order VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Categories
Crewed Spaceflight Discovery Space Shuttle

STS-51C

DiscoverySpace Shuttle Discovery lifts off on the shortest shuttle flight since the 1981 test flights, lasting only three days. A classified Defense Department payload is delivered to orbit, with the help of the first Inertial Upper Stage booster developed by the U.S. Air Force. This mission is the first time that shuttles had to be swapped out prior to flight – thermal tile issues on Challenger prevented that shuttle from being used for this mission – as well as the first instance of a shuttle launch scrubbed because of concerns over freezing weather and ice at the launch site. Discovery returns via the Kennedy Space Center runway, with Commander Ken Mattingly, Pilot Loren Shriver, mission specialists Ellison Onizuka and James Buchli, and payload specialist Gary Payton aboard.

Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: The Two Doctors, Part 1

Doctor WhoThe 635th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines return as the second Doctor and Jamie, and the Sontarans appear for the first time since the Tom Baker era. Jacqueline Pearce (Blake’s 7) guest stars. Where previous “multi-Doctor” stories have been tied to a major anniversary of the show, this story is merely a celebration of the second Doctor, and marks Troughton’s final appearance in the series before his death.

More about Doctor Who in the LogBook
Order VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: hiatus or cancellation scare?

Doctor WhoThe BBC announces that production of its popular science fiction series Doctor Who is to be paused to 18 months, allowing the show’s production staff to make alterations to the show’s content and style (at the request of BBC upper management following complaints of excessive depictions of violence), and affording the network an opportunity to redirect funds – temporarily – toward its new daytime TV service and the newly-started prime time soap opera EastEnders. Fans of the series rally to support the show, especially since several close to the production – including actor Colin Baker – reveal that the “18 month hiatus” is a cover for a complete cancellation of the show. Not helping matters is BBC1 Controller Michael Grade’s stated dislike for the series and its star.

More about Doctor Who in the LogBook
Order VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Categories
Doctor Who Television

Doctor Who: The Two Doctors, Part 3

Doctor WhoThe 637th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines return as the second Doctor and Jamie, and the Sontarans appear for the first time since the Tom Baker era. Jacqueline Pearce (Blake’s 7) guest stars. This is Patrick Troughton’s final Doctor Who episode, and the last original series appearance of the Sontarans.

More about Doctor Who in the LogBook
Order VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store

Categories
Computers

The first .com

InterwebsMassachusetts computer manufacturer Symbolics Inc., a maker of LISP-based computers with customers ranging from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to movie studios, registers the first .com internet domain name, symbolics.com. Ironically, despite being further ahead of the internet curve than nearly any other commercial entity, Symbolics struggles to last into the 1990s; both the company’s assets and its domain name will be sold off in the 21st century.