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vsp · 12-17-2002, 02:39 PM

As I said above, the PC release of WAC was the first major arcade-games-on-your-computer release that delivered actual authenticity. When it shipped, I bought it on day-of-release as a birthday present for myself, and cranked it up on my Packard Bell Crashmaster.

I started playing Sinistar... and my old television went NUTS! The volume started shooting upwards, the channels started changing by themselves... this freaked me out quite a bit, considering that _I didn't have a remote for the TV_, and had never been able to find one that was compatible. (I'd bought it from a college girlfriend for twenty bucks; the TV was a JC Penney model from the late 70's, and the remote had been accidentally dropped into someone's drink glass sometime in the 80's and rendered inert.)

I petitioned rec.games.video.classic for help -- I knew the games were intense, but I knew they weren't THAT freakin' intense. The answer someone came up with was that the TV used an ultrasonic remote, as compared to the infrared remotes that are common today. Apparently, WAC's version of Sinistar threw the PC into an oddball video mode that generated just the right frequencies to trigger the TV, causing random behavior.

"Only YOU would find a quirk like that," I was told. I took this as a compliment.

12-17-2002, 02:39 PM	#205
vsp Syndrome of a Down Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: West Chester Posts: 1,367	One more anecdote for Williams Arcade Classics As I said above, the PC release of WAC was the first major arcade-games-on-your-computer release that delivered actual authenticity. When it shipped, I bought it on day-of-release as a birthday present for myself, and cranked it up on my Packard Bell Crashmaster. I started playing Sinistar... and my old television went NUTS! The volume started shooting upwards, the channels started changing by themselves... this freaked me out quite a bit, considering that _I didn't have a remote for the TV_, and had never been able to find one that was compatible. (I'd bought it from a college girlfriend for twenty bucks; the TV was a JC Penney model from the late 70's, and the remote had been accidentally dropped into someone's drink glass sometime in the 80's and rendered inert.) I petitioned rec.games.video.classic for help -- I knew the games were intense, but I knew they weren't THAT freakin' intense. The answer someone came up with was that the TV used an ultrasonic remote, as compared to the infrared remotes that are common today. Apparently, WAC's version of Sinistar threw the PC into an oddball video mode that generated just the right frequencies to trigger the TV, causing random behavior. "Only YOU would find a quirk like that," I was told. I took this as a compliment.