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Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

dmitry.gr

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Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#41

Post by doright »

> In 2000, the famous American toy company Fisher-Price released a simple drawing-oriented handheld gaming console for kids called Pixter. It featured no brain-rotting social media and focused, instead, on drawing, sketching, and educational games.

I fear that the future will increasingly be filled with people framing old/new cultural artifact X or Y in terms of whether or not it reminds them of social media.

(Not a dig at the article or the immense technical skills required to accomplish all of this)

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#42

Post by RIMR »

seany wrote: post #24
MSFT_Edging wrote: post #7

I still follow Dimitry on twitter for his technical talent, as I've done some palmOS software reversing as well, but man every other post is something along the lines of "we should let X group fend for themselves in a rattlesnake pit because they don't produce value". All to say it's a major bummer his cool work is tainted by his dehumanizing words and I wonder if he understands how he comes off to people.

What's his x handle? It doesn't seem linked from his blog

The guy refers to social media broadly as "brain rot" in this article, and your first question is what his handle is on the most rotten social media site on the Internet?

I'd wager he doesn't use X.

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#44

Post by mghackerlady »

smusamashah wrote: post #32

Is there any dumb LCD console like that available these days for kids? (not those retro gaming consoles). I want to buy one for my kids. It looks so good, specially because it is a dumb and simple device. I found Pixter online but are there a little bit more capable systems like this for kids made today? EDIT: Looks like devices by LeapFrog and VTech are the closest alternative these days so far.

No, but realistically it wouldn't be hard to make something with a Pi and a touch screen of some kind

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#45

Post by dmitrygr »

mghackerlady wrote: post #8
TruffleLabs wrote: post #5

Thanks for the details :) I was half expecting you to find the Pixter Color VM to be a Forth like interpreter ;)

I was expecting either that or some lobotomised Java VM since everyone was crazy about it at the time

both forth and java would have made more sense than a custom vm. not sure why they went this way on ARM. on 6502 it makes sense though. small cpu -> custom work needed

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#46

Post by MisterTea »

smusamashah wrote: post #32

Is there any dumb LCD console like that available these days for kids? (not those retro gaming consoles). I want to buy one for my kids. It looks so good, specially because it is a dumb and simple device. I found Pixter online but are there a little bit more capable systems like this for kids made today? EDIT: Looks like devices by LeapFrog and VTech are the closest alternative these days so far.

Check this out: https://play.date/

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#47

Post by dmitrygr »

smusamashah wrote: post #32

Is there any dumb LCD console like that available these days for kids? (not those retro gaming consoles). I want to buy one for my kids. It looks so good, specially because it is a dumb and simple device. I found Pixter online but are there a little bit more capable systems like this for kids made today? EDIT: Looks like devices by LeapFrog and VTech are the closest alternative these days so far.

Pimoroni Presto (https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/presto) + some firmware you can write for fun :)

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#48

Post by seany »

RIMR wrote: post #42
seany wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's his x handle? It doesn't seem linked from his blog

The guy refers to social media broadly as "brain rot" in this article, and your first question is what his handle is on the most rotten social media site on the Internet? I'd wager he doesn't use X.

Someone else could have answered. I found it eventually. https://x.com/dmitrygr

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#49

Post by LeoPanthera »

MSFT_Edging wrote: post #7

I still follow Dimitry on twitter for his technical talent, as I've done some palmOS software reversing as well, but man every other post is something along the lines of "we should let X group fend for themselves in a rattlesnake pit because they don't produce value". All to say it's a major bummer his cool work is tainted by his dehumanizing words and I wonder if he understands how he comes off to people.

People who continue to use Twitter today have made their positions clear.

Frankly, that includes you, too.

You can't hang out at the Nazi Bar and complain about all the Nazis.

Re: Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter

#50

Post by contingencies »

genxy wrote: post #40
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was a law that all hardware vendors had to dump a sufficient amount of documentation if they discontinue a platform such that it can be emulated. The litmus test can be done by AI code generation in a sandbox during the period they don't have to make it open.

Could be part of the FCC certification process, which everyone has to file.

It is vastly more likely, historically speaking, for the EU to pass such forward-looking legislation in the public interest.
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