Lookspring » This is why.

I’ve mentioned before that I get the ‘so how come you like games’ question pretty regularly, and don’t have a particularly cogent answer, beyond ‘because they’re awesome’ and some stuff about the funny quizzes my brother used to write for me in Basic. But one key component was an amazing pop-up book about computers that made it perfectly clear that they were the most exotic, powerful and fascinating things ever made and that, if at all possible, I’d quite like to grow up inside one. I’ve long lost the book, and long given up trying to do it justice in words and gesticulations, but now I don’t need to, because The Internet has found it!

Jonathan Ryan has been kind enough to post a complete set of pics over on his blog. I still remember every single page, perfectly. He doesn’t, however, mention the crucial fact that the tab on the dot matrix printer page was cut in a saw-tooth, so it actually made the printer noise when you pulled it. I bet there’s a whole army of us out there, who grew up into geeks partially thanks to its cheery oversimplifications. Good times.

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[...] Lookspring » This is why. "I’ve mentioned before that I get the ’so how come you like games’ question pretty regularly, and don’t have a particularly cogent answer, beyond ‘because they’re awesome’ and some stuff about the funny quizzes my brother used to write for me in Basic. But one key component was an amazing pop-up book about computers that made it perfectly clear that they were the most exotic, powerful and fascinating things ever made and that, if at all possible, I’d quite like to grow up inside one." Turns out Margaret owned *that* pop-up book. (tags: computers games popup reasonswhy ) [...]

Thanks for the link! I actually didn’t know that it made the sound until I read a comment about it on another site that linked to me. The pop-ups in my copy are a bit worn, and take some coaxing to get to work just right. The pull tab for the printer didn’t line up right to make the noise. After reading, I figured out how to pull it just right. Little details like that are what make the pop ups in this book so amazing!

Numerous copies available on ebay, not too spendy either.

Cheers

Update: I bought one on ebay and flipped through it with my 6-yr old son yesterday. Wonderful mix of ‘this is how computers work’ and ‘this is how they used to work in the old days’ (CRT’s, dot matrix printers, floppy disks)

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