Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on December 31st, 2013 in Main2013 was for the most part, a good year. Although the O’Haras had a typical number of hospital and emergency room visits this year (Susan had knee surgery, Mason thought he broke his knee, and Morgan cut her finger bad enough to require six stitches), everybody made it to the finish line. Another year down, with hopefully many more to go. Mason and Morgan turned twelve and eight years old this year. Both of them are among the tallest in their classes and both of them signed up to play basketball at the YMCA this year. This is Mason’s second… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on May 17th, 2013 in MainUnless you hang around a few select retrogaming forums or have previously attended the Oklahoma Video Game Expo (OVGE) in in Tulsa, chances are you’ve never heard the name “Brad Prillwitz” before — and even if you have been to those places, you still may not be familiar with Brad’s name. Never one of the flashiest or loudest people in the room, all it took was a few minutes of talking with him to know that he was one of the nicest. Late one rainy evening in 2006 I found myself in a hotel room with Brad (who went by… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on March 16th, 2013 in MainAfter back-to-back 60-hour work weeks with two more months of them ahead, it’s hard to remember a time when I was more exhausted by work. Working at Oklahoma Graphics still tops it, of course. The summer I worked there I worked 12-hour shifts, between three and seven days a week. It was 12 hours a day of doing physical labor while standing on the concrete floor of a warehouse with no air conditioning. The summer I worked there I doubled my food intake and still lost over 30 pounds — an effective weight loss plan, yes, although a difficult one… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on January 1st, 2013 in MainHello, and Seasons Greetings to you and yours! I hope each and every one of you had a great holiday season! I had originally intended to e-mail this message exclusively to my e-mail subscribers. However, only around a hundred of you rascals subscribe to my e-mail update list and since robohara.com currently receives (on average) 2,000 unique visits each day, I decided to simply post it here so everyone would get a chance to read it. First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you for visiting robohara.com and reading my posts. While I spend my… (read more)
This weekend marked the 9th annual Oklahoma Video Game Expo (OVGE) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I attended the first show in 2003 as a spectator, but have participated as a presenter (almost) every year since then. Along for the ride this year were my friends Robb and Steve, who I previously mentioned flew in from Colorado and New York (respectively) to attend the show. Robb Sherwin is, among other things, the author of the award winning interactive fiction game Cryptozookeeper. Steve and Robb have known each other since the BBS days. Photo by Brandon Staggs Since our local NBA team (the… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on June 23rd, 2011 in Apple II, MainWhile killing time during the two-hour drive to Tulsa for the Oklahoma Video Game Expo (OVGE) last weekend, I reminisced to the passengers in my car (Jeff and Robb) about the time I “accidentally” bought 300 computer keyboards. I just searched robohara.com and can’t find a post dedicated to that story, so later this week I’ll correct that omission. The gist of the story is, while not paying attention at an auction one time, I bought 300 (mostly useless and broken) computer keyboards for $10.50. As I often say, I told you that story to tell you this one. One… (read more)
I can think of three reasons why anybody would rent table space at a video game convention. The first is, you own a video game store. Those guys are there to sell games and promote their stores. The second reason is, you’re a video game collector looking to (a) sell video games (often duplicate titles from your own collection) and (b) trade video games with other vendors. And then there are people like me — people who rent table space for the sole purpose of showing off things. At OVGE 2004 I displayed my collection of vintage console copiers (old… (read more)
The 8th (!) annual Oklahoma Video Game Expo (OVGE) will take place this Saturday at the Spirit Bank Event Center in Tulsa, OK. Out of the seven OVGE shows (there was no show in 2007) I’ve had a table at five of them, each year with a different theme. So far I’ve done Console Copiers (2004), Star Wars games (2005), Commodork (2006), Invading Spaces (2008), and “Stuff For Sale!” (2009). This year I’ll be doing GET TEXT, a tribute to text adventures. GET TEXT will consist of several retro computers (Commodore 64, Apple II, Amiga 1200, DOS) running classic text… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on October 26th, 2010 in MainYesterday it was announced that Sony has halted the production of Walkmen. “This makes sense,” I thought to myself. After all, with the proliferation of mp3s players in today’s market, who needs portable CD players? It was only after reading further that I discovered they were actually talking about the Walkmen that play cassettes. My reaction was probably the same as yours: “They still make those?” When most people think of advances in technology they think of things getting smaller, but during the Awesome 80s, cassette players actually got bigger. Boom boxes (or “ghetto blasters” as we called them) were… (read more)
Posted by RobOHara ( @Commodork) on July 12th, 2010 in MainAfter 40 years of dishing up weird and wacky tunes, Dr. Demento’s radio show is coming to an end. I suppose it’s ironic that I read about this in the Tulsa World, as Oklahoma’s Clear Channel stations dropped Dr. Demento’s show years ago (which, I suppose, is the problem). Back in high school I used to listen to the good Doctor Sunday nights on 107.7 (KXRO), and I remember being disappointed when they quit airing the show. According to the official website, there are (er, were) only six radio stations still carrying the show. Everyone interested in still listening to… (read more)
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