HPU:Richmond Acres OOC

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:09 am

Ah. The picture on wikipedia didn't show that part of the Xerox. It only showed the monitor and keyboard.

That would be a good find. But would a person be likely to have all that back in the day or would there be a less complicated system they could use?

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:19 am

That's not unusual, even for later more-integrated systems like the Apple II you'd have separate floppy drives, monitor, joysticks. Here's a more compact computer, the Heath H8:

Oh, hey, look, an Exidy Sorceror!

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:33 am

Hehe that top one reminds me of the computer from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The Apple II seems a lot more compact than that other big one.

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:46 am

Yeh, a couple of years later they got a lot more compact. Though the Apple II wasn't exactly small: if you sat it on top of the Imsai the keyboard would overhang the faceplate and there would only be a couple inches at the side. That Exidy Sorceror ad was all about how small it was, less than half the size of the Apple II.

...

Oh, I missed that it was an Altair. Here's what that looked like.

And here's a working set up... again, with an ADM3a.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:58 am

So what type of computer would be most common or most likely to be found in a garage like this?

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:02 am

Pick a year?

Altair or Imsai were common for the '70s. Certainly more likely than a '20s limousine. ^^

If it was '80s or later... TRS-80, Apple II, then Atari 800 or Commodore 64.

Someone already called it an Altair in the thread.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:08 am

Well we'll go with the Altair then since it's already there, and I like the look of that system above.

Do you have a better suggestion for the car?

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:46 am

I don't know anything about cars.

That Sorcerer ad, man.

Jeans and a waistcoat, and worn leather boots.

And she's got a portable cassette player, and a peasant dress.

And it's COMPLETELY without irony.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:09 am

I don't know either. I just picked one I liked the looks of and did a little research on it. Cadillac is an American company (in fact, this car would have been made in Detroit, Michigan) so there would have been minimal shipping involved to get the car there which would be very convenient especially given the time this is set in. That car is a 7 seater so it would have fit Al and all his goons. It could also go up to 65 miles/hour - incredibly fast for the day and this would have allowed them to outrun any police vehicles. If the previous owner of the house had lived in there in the 30's (say he was born in the early teens) this would have put him in a position to own the house for many years. He could easily have lived in it into his 90's in the early 00's, meaning there wouldn't have to have been recent changes of ownership or completely new owners or anyone else who would know about the passages or the car or anything like that for the past however many years. Who knows, he may even have worked for Al, given that he would have been in his 20's in the 1930's.

I think the whole situation is quite feasible, all things considered.

Hehe, I haven't seen those old cassette players for quite a while. Any idea what the magazine is that she's holding?

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:13 am

I'm pretty sure that's a college textbook.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 11:51 am

So in case you missed it before, this is the car.

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:53 pm

Hlaoroo wrote:Flynn's eyes widen as he sees Ryyn climb behind the wheel and start pretending to drive. "Be careful, Ryyn. See that button there on the dashboard? Don't touch it - it'll start the engine and then who knows where you'll end up!

I think everyone knows by now where the clinic is, so it's no mystery where he'll end up.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:57 pm

True! True!

Did you know that in 1912 Cadillac became the first automobile manufacturing company to install automatic starters in their cars just 1 year after they were invented? Ford continued to use the old hand cranks until 1919.

hypernovatic · Post by **hypernovatic** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 7:52 pm

If anyone wants me to I can draw pixel art of a character from an NES or original Game Boy game(basically anything 8-bit). Just thought I'd throw that out there. And I'm not very good at custom spriting so I can't really do HP! characters yet.

Esper · Post by **Esper** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:00 pm

hypernovatic wrote:If anyone wants me to I can draw pixel art of a character from an NES or original Game Boy game(basically anything 8-bit). Just thought I'd throw that out there. And I'm not very good at custom spriting so I can't really do HP! characters yet.

Um, hey dude! I think maybe the Fan-Projects section might be more suitable for that... Also there you'd have a wider audience!

hypernovatic · Post by **hypernovatic** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:01 pm

I don't really know where to put it in there though.

Esper · Post by **Esper** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:14 pm

New thread?

hypernovatic · Post by **hypernovatic** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:15 pm

I don't know how to make one.

Esper · Post by **Esper** » Wed Jun 19, 2013 10:19 pm

There should just be a button for it

Keeshah · Post by **Keeshah** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 6:30 am

Hlaoroo wrote: True! True!

Did you know that in 1912 Cadillac became the first automobile manufacturing company to install automatic starters in their cars just 1 year after they were invented? Ford continued to use the old hand cranks until 1919.

The starter is a button you step on, in the floor of the car.

Cadillac commissioned the invention of a self-starter, after his best friend was killed trying to start his wife's car.
The car back fired and the crank spun around an clubbed him in the head.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 6:39 am

I did not know that. I knew there were both pedals and buttons used but I wasn't sure which Cadillac used. I shall change it accordingly.

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 5:41 pm

Windows? You're playing tease the old fogey, aren't you?

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 8:38 pm

Windows is primarily a graphic based UI. I wouldn't have thought that would have been invented until monitors were improved somewhat. MS-DOS yes, but Windows? Not so much.
Let's see...
Windows - released in 1985
MS-DOS - released in 1981
Altair computer - 1975

Keeshah · Post by **Keeshah** » Thu Jun 20, 2013 9:33 pm

Hlaoroo wrote:Windows is primarily a graphic based UI. I wouldn't have thought that would have been invented until monitors were improved somewhat. MS-DOS yes, but Windows? Not so much.
Let's see...
Windows - released in 1985
MS-DOS - released in 1981
Altair computer - 1975

Altar would be running CPM

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Fri Jun 21, 2013 8:30 am

When the Altair came out, CP/M was super high end. Usually you loaded code straight off paper tape. Or toggled it in on the front panel. Memory came on cards about the size of a folded newspaper, and in small numbers of kilobytes. It was pretty common to have 2K or 4K total RAM, and CP/M required several just for the OS! I used a Xerox 820 with 64k of RAM, and even after overlaying the CCP the TPA was about 52K, the rest was taken up by the BDOS and BIOS.

MS-DOS was a port of QDOS, a CP/M clone written by a guy in Seattle and licensed by Microsoft. You couldn't run MS-DOS on an entry-level IBM-PC with only 64K.

Windows was officially released in the mid-80s, but it wasn't actually usable until around 1990. Not only was Windows on an 8086 an exercise in frustration, but it was kind of crippled by Bill Gates demand that it be "just like the Macintosh" [ref: Edstrom and Eller, "Barbarians led by Bill Gates", 1999].

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Fri Jun 21, 2013 10:02 am

Is that a spook in the back seat of Al's car?

Keeshah · Post by **Keeshah** » Fri Jun 21, 2013 1:21 pm

Argent wrote:Is that a spook in the back seat of Al's car?

Oh yea.. Your going to need a 6-volt car battery to start a car that old.

An leaded gas, an new tires, an the fuel system cleaned out, new oil. it will have a generator instead of an alternator.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 11:36 am

Well it's been looked after pretty well, although probably not for the past couple of years since the house was put onto the market.

I'm assuming the animals are normal sized here and not scaled up and down like in the housepts world. Is that correct?

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 12:48 pm

This is supposed to be the Housepets world, no? I visualize Cinnamon as about the size of a human child, maybe a meter and a quarter, but skinnier and with a longer torso and shorter legs. There's no way he could carry a laptop if he was 20 inches tall.

Here's some Housepets 3.0 scales:

Given the relative sizes of pine martens and ferrets (martens 50-70cm torso, ferrets average 50cm including tail, per Wikipedia), Cinnamon would probably be a little taller than King. So, belt-buckle high on Pete/Gaspar:

As for the house, I'm imagining what Cinnamon would have found in my current home, if the squirrels in my neighborhood had thumbs.

PS: Just noticed this in a Popular Mechanics article: Because of this the Muon g-2 experiment will be able to put the Standard Model to the test, and perhaps see whether there is something strange left to be discovered. "It could be that there's a new force" or new particles, Morse says. "Another theory is dark light. All of these are possibilities. We don't know."

Edit: clarified the squirrel comment, I hope.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 1:30 pm

I've edited my post to fit that scale. Judging by that picture below and the "Great Water Balloon War" and "Temple Crashers" arcs, Flynn would be a similar size, wouldn't he?

Keeshah · Post by **Keeshah** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:37 pm

Squirrels do have thumbs in housepets, any mamalian/marsupial species that has paws got changed into upright standing housepet's.
Hooved animals, birds, croc & gaters, dolphins & seals only got the intelligence an ability to speak.
Fish, an everything else got nothing an are normal as in rl.

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:49 pm

Squirrels don't have thumbs in my neighborhood, thank Eris.

Zach looks like he's a little bit bigger than Keene in the Temple Crashers, so he's probably about the size of King.

Crystalwind · Post by **Crystalwind** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:28 pm

I've kind of been left stuck for weeks, and Snakebug hasn't been online for at least a fortnight. Not really sure what to do now.

Post by **Serence Frostbite** » Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:46 pm

maybe you could PM him and ask about this , if he doesn't respond for a day or two (up to you) then I guess just move on , cut to to the part after Snow left the house again , and maybe wander into one of the two pet groups

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 7:08 am

I was actually just wondering what had happened to you two last night. I'd suggest the same things as serence.

Sorry about my lack of posting about Flynn there, by the way. I was a bit confused about the placement/arrangement of the house in relation to the garage but I've got it sorted now. Also sorry for the looong post but I had a bit of catching up to do.

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:10 pm

Split my last post into two to keep the flow looking good with Ryze's comment that hyper ninja'd in while I was editing.

Cinnamon appreciates the vote of confidence, even if it does come from a cat.

hypernovatic · Post by **hypernovatic** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:13 pm

lol, I'm a ninja.

LovingCorgi · Post by **LovingCorgi** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:39 pm

Koa's intelligence on this project is only limited to the construction of the treehouse ( in terms of what it looks like and where everything goes)... nothing about where to buy things or how to handle any of these tools. So he's basically clueless on what to do once he gets all of the "small" things needs

Argent · Post by **Argent** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 6:49 pm

Cinnamon can help there, if you want someone with Dexter's brain and Dee Dee's personality as project manager.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigengrau

Wikipedia wrote:Eigengrau (German: "intrinsic gray"), also called Eigenlicht ("intrinsic light"), dark light, or brain gray, is a term for the uniform dark gray background that many people report seeing in the absence of light.

Post by **Hlaoroo** » Mon Jun 24, 2013 7:50 am

Yep, not much gets past John.

Wait... So Cinnamon's flash removes light from the room?