Recapturing my childhood, one piece at a time

For some time now I've been trying to find information about a listening comprehension program which I remember from the first grade. It was called Creature Features. I was in first grade for the school year of 1980 - 1981. My teacher was Mrs. Belcher, who left part way through the year and was replaced by a woman whose name begins with an 'H', Hanson or Hammond, I think. Anyway, Creature Features involved listening to an audio program (played on a record player), then completing worksheets or a workbook based on the material. The program was the story of a boy and a girl (brother and sister?) who wandered into a haunted house and got trapped there, and spent the rest of the time trying to escape. They were guided by an adult male figure who was a denizen of the haunted mansion and who took on a teacher role. The young boy at some point made some blunder which resulted in a curse of some kind, which may or may not have involved losing his head or having his head replaced by an egg or a fishbowl (or did this happen to the teacher? or both?) There were cartoon-style drawings that went along with the story. I remember an image of a headless man in a striped shirt and tie. I'm not sure if our class ever got to the end of the program, I don't remember how the story ends.

I have looked all over the internet for information on this program and so far have come up empty. I have no information on the author, publisher, or publication date. There is another unrelated program also called Creature Features which is about animals and is published by National Geographic. It seems there was a TV program called Creature Features which showed monster movies. There is a movie guide called Creature Features as well. None of these are what I am looking for.

For a while I wondered if I had imagined the whole thing. Fortunately I am still in close contact with my good friend Julie who was in Mrs. Belcher's first grade class with me and also remembers Creature Features, though she wasn't able to add to my knowledge of it. I am deeply indebted to her for confirming my sanity.

So, if you have any knowledge pertaining to this chimera, please drop me a line.

Ah, nostalgia...

Although it was mentioned in WIRED magazine, you may have missed the article about pinball machine emulation. You too can play a facsimile of a real world pinball machine on your computer, through the help of the kind folks at VPForums. Registration is required to download files, but it is free. More than 400 tables have been recreated, so chances are your favorite machine can be found. Be a pinball wizard!

More stuff to look forward to...

William Shatner will soon be releasing a new album of music, produced by Ben Folds and featuring Henry Rollins, Adrian Belew, Joe Jackson, Brad Paisley, Jon Auer, Matt Chamberlain, John Painter and Sebastian Steinberg. The track featuring Rollins, Shatner, and Belew is titled "I Can't Get Behind That!" No definite info on a release date or label. Still, I am so there.

Of course, much anticipation for Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. Doom 3 may or may not be coming out June 15th, but that is the date listed on the preorders at Best Buy and on PC Gamer's release calendar. As for Half-Life 2, Valve has only committed to "summer". Also on the horizon are S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Call of Cthulhu.

I'm also hoping that a special edition DVD of The Iron Giant will be released sometime this year. What's the holdup WB?

Hello world!

This will be a place where I shall share my internet finds with anyone who cares to partake. For starters:

DOSBox: This open-source (read: free) program emulates DOS on your Windows (or otherwise) machine. They are on version 0.61. So far I've used it to play Epic Pinball and a few other DOS-only games. It works good!

Zelda Classic: This is a project which not only brings the classic Legend of Zelda to the PC (eschewing emulators), but also provides tools for making your own custom Zelda-style adventures!

Bootleg Toys: Todd pointed me towards this site spotlighting bootleg action figures and toys, generally produced (poorly) in foreign countries. Enjoy!

Look for more stuff in the near future...