The main signal delivery mechanisms for 8-bit and 16-bit consoles was the RF adapter. This turned video and audio information into a radio frequency modulated signal. It worked on pretty much any tv that could tune itself to channel 3 (or 4) and delivered a fuzzy, yet usable signal that replaced the evening news with Yo Noid! or whatever.

Most of these consoles did have better output options available, but those were for fancier TVs. The RF unit is what came standard until the onset of the 32-bit generation. The Sega Saturn and the Sony Playstation both came with Yellow/Red/White RCA cables, which were pretty common on newer tvs.

But most people did not run out and replace all their old tvs and if you didn’t have the right input, it wasn’t as easy to get a replacement cable as it is now. Now you hit a button, a series of human rights violations occur and BAM! a new cable is dropped on your doorstep. Back then you had to not only explain the difference between RF and RCA to an unwitting parent, you had to get them to drive you to the store and hope they had the thing in stock.

So my PS1 was a strictly RCA affair, which was fine when I had it at my house, but less so on weekends with my dad. Though the weekends should have been prime video game time for me, the only tv with RCA inputs was in the living room, where my stepmother would enjoy a steady stream of pirated pay-per-view movies. If there was a particularly boring film, she would sometimes take a little nap and I had to drop whatever I was doing to savor a few brief moments of Tekken 2. But the more likely situation was I would just stay up until three or four in the morning, waiting for everyone to go to sleep so I could finally switch the tv from an endless loop of Titanic to playing Mortal Kombat Trilogy until the sun came up.

And so, I became a night person.

Out of the thirteen or so jobs I’ve had, only three have been first shift and I hated every fucking minute of them. I probably still would have hated them if I started later in the afternoon, but the lack of sleep wasn’t helping. Once I had a third shift job that turned into a second shift job without warning, so I just keep coming in at my regular third shift time until someone finally stopped me six months later. My current job is actually supposed to be a 9 to 5, but after a week of that, I was like “I think I’m going to start coming in at noon”. Everyone just went with it.

My preference for the dark hours seemed to cause some amount of consternation amongst my family, who were apparently unaware that their disapproval only makes the juice sweeter. My father used to constantly try to reason me into getting up earlier. I specifically remember when I was having issues limping a grey Volvo 240 through the lenient Connecticut emissions process. In talking to him on the phone, his advice was “get a good night’s rest, get up early, make some calls, get some prices.” Turns out you can sleep until noon and accomplish the same thing, because all the morning people are already in bed by 3pm or something.

I do wonder what my life would be like if I were born a few years later, when video input options were less of an issue. There are 3 screens in my eye line right now and with little to no effort, I could be playing a game of Mortal Kombat on each one of them. Would I be the same person if a good portion of my teen years weren’t spent waiting for an adult to pass out in front of the living room tv? Maybe, maybe not. But have I also mentioned that I hate the sun?

The Headline When You Die

Do you ever wonder what the headline will be when you die? Most of the time, the answer is “there won’t be one”, but I don’t think it’s something you can control or predict.

I’ve done some questionable things in my day. One of my favorite pastimes used to be making giant KISS-like pyro flames using a small campfire, an old candle and a cup of water taped to a broomstick. I also once took a cheap, non-flying, glorified sparkler “firework” I bought from Wal-Mart and taped it to a model rocket engine I also bought from Wal-Mart and flew it in a state park. It was a glorious ascent and an impressively loud explosion upon landing.

(I dug out some video of one of the candle fires. I assure you that I always checked the Smokey The Bear fire safety sign before ignition)