What was under your Christmas tree in 1977 - That hand knitted sweater from grandma? A tub of Slime? Orthello? or how about a skateboard? Or did you get an Atari Video Computer System?? In 1977 I was 6 - I don't remember what I got that Christmas but I do know it wasn't a 2600.... That I had to buy myself many years later.
Released in October 1977, the Atari VCS (renamed to Atari 2600 after the release of the 5200), went on to sell 30,000,000 units world-wide. Although released a year after the Fairchild Channel F, it marked the start of the home video game revolution and kept kids glued to the telly ever since.
     
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You can take a look at all 154 cartridges on my Flickr set |
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Back in the 80's, in a time long before the DSi and PSP, gamers who wanted to entertain themselves while in the back of mum & dad's car were restricted to playing just one game! Yes, that's right - JUST ONE GAME!!! I know that may seem just completely outside the realms of sensibility, but it's true. And to prove it, here's one of those games...
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A whole bunch more can be seen in my Flickr set. |
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One of the blogs that I often visit is Dick's Rocket Dungeon and his New Years Day post featured a scan of if Worlds of Science Fiction magazine from x-ray delta one's Flickr photostream. I really loved that it looks both futuristic and time-worn at the same time.
And since I'm now the proud owner of RockSim 9, I thought I would see if I could make it fly (at least in the sim). And it seems as if it's nice and stable!
 
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Built using an 18" length of BT50 body tube, paper laminated balsa fins and an 18mm motor mount, this should get to about 400' or so with a C6 motor.
The body and large fins are painted grey while the nose cone and small fins are painted black - the whole lot then got the dry-brush treatment with silver. |
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Hacked Gadgets, Alan Parekh's blog, has featured my Camera Rocket. It must have been popular as the video received almost 1200 views in a single day :)
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 As my last scratch-build of 2009, I thought it was time I would have a go at building a square rocket. So here I present Rocket Squared or Rocket2!
Built using a central core of BT50 body tube with four strips of balsa glued around the outside. The rocket stands 42cm (or 16½") tall and has a 18mm motor mount. I have no idea how to build this in Rocksim?!
 I spent some time trying to build a square nose cone but nothing looked quite right, so I sanded down the corners of the top-end of the airframe and stuck in a round one. Launch report to follow!
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I recently ordered these motors from the Vlaamse Raket Organisatie.
| Russian MRD20-10 (D Motor) | | German D7-3 |  | |  |
- Total impulse: 20 Ns
- Average thrust: 10 Ns
- Thrust duration: 2 s
- Dimensions (Ø x l): 20,2 x 85 mm
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- Total impulse: 20 Ns
- Average thrust: 12 Ns
- Thrust duration: 1.7 s
- Dimensions (Ø x l): 23 x 70 mm
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