Retro styled Instagram camera takes me back to the days of photographing high scores
These days your high scores can be automatically tweeted from your game console via Raptr and the entire game play can easily be recorded to a PVR for eternal posterity once burned to DVD. No one would think of something as primitive as snapping a photograph (digital or otherwise) of a score on the TV screen. but it wasn't always this way...
In gaming's Second Generation - what I refer to as "when I bought my first Atari 2600" - it was fairly commonplace for someone to present a photograph of their TV screen to prove a high score. Some were lucky enough to have a Polaroid and get the instant gratification of proving their score. Others reluctantly shut off their 2600s, hoping the flash didn't obscure the corner displaying the score, and waited for the film to be developed. The rest of us wondered why they used the flash.
Game manufacturers and magazines alike sponsored high score contests where that photograph was your only means of verifying your gaming prowess. I believe Activision let you send in such photos in exchange for patches that would clearly display your gaming wizardry - after your Mom sewed it on your jacket.
It's funny to think that in today's digital age, someone creates Instagram which will use modern tech to make your photos look 30 years old. And there's the fact that Instagram is seeking to make the dedicated camera obsolete and here's a product that wants to produce a physical device from that smartphone app. But, seeing this proposed Instagram Camera (The Socialmatic, by Antonio De Rosa) really takes me back to my childhood when Dad's camera was carefully pointed at the TV to capture a 2600 high score for posterity.
These days your high scores can be automatically tweeted from your game console via Raptr and the entire game play can easily be recorded to a PVR for eternal posterity once burned to DVD. No one would think of something as primitive as snapping a photograph (digital or otherwise) of a score on the TV screen. but it wasn't always this way...
