I remember one pitch meeting when someone was suggesting a story on a company that had a pharmaceutical hair loss solution, and I blurted out, "IT'S MADE IT TO PHASE III?!" with far too much enthusiasm, and everyone laughed at me. One of my Top 20 Most Costanza-esque Moments at Wired...
SO SO SO AWESOME! What a fantastic beat to get to write about, and they are so lucky to have you!
I feel like all of the badass pubescent dudes from the 1980s game ads should have formed a gang. "Oh shit, the Ray Ban Posse is coming. I hear they're playing with power!"
@annaleen.bsky.social i feel like when they did, it was about books adapted for film or tv, or stuff like this
Your face turns a particular shade of red that should be called your apoplexion
I had this happen at an outlet where I wrote scores of stories. It stinks. Did the page at least archive.org?
Yes, my first thought was "I assume this was in cursive? Otherwise, that is the highest degree of difficultu imahinable."
The use of second person makes this read like the most nightmarish Infocom text adventure ever.
Page 1 of Pop Cultural Precursors zine Issue #2. It tells the story of the world’s first robot competition, the Critter Crunch. | We see a grainy old photo of members of the Denver Mad Scientist Club engaging in remote-controlled robot combat at the 1989 MileHiCon. Participants wear lab coats, and two robots battle it out on a sheet of wood on the floor. | The type on the page reads: “The Event that Birthed Battle Bots: The 1989 MileHiCon Critter Crunch introduced the concept of competitive robot combat to the world.”
Page 2 of Pop Cultural Precursors zine Issue #2. It tells the story of the world’s first robot competition, the Critter Crunch. There’s a photo of the box of the 1964 Toy Rock Em Sock Em Robots, and a postcard and a matchbook from the Executive Tower Inn, where the event was held. | Text on the page reads: “For yea, the idea of automatons fighting to the death, which had been foretold by the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots in 1964, actually came to pass in Colorado in late October of 1989. The 21st Annual MileHiCon, a sci-fi and fantasy gathering in Denver, played host to a truly epochal moment in the history of geekdom: the birth of robot battles as a spectator sport.” | Page 3 of Pop Cultural Precursors zine Issue #2. It tells the story of the world’s first robot competition, the Critter Crunch. | Text explains that the event was organized by the Denver Mad Scientists Club. There’s a photo of the club’s official insignia, which says “don’t try this at home” in Latin. There’s also a photo of Mad Scientist Club members wearing their standard uniform, a white lab coat. | Text reads: “The year before, MileHiCon had hosted the Critter Crawl, a sort of beauty pageant for windup toys and remote-control gizmos, But no official winner was declared, and there were no prizes.‘This year, all of that will change radically and violently,’ wrote event organizer Bill Llewellin in a pre-convention mailing. ‘The winner will be the last critter standing (rolling, crawling) on the field of combat.’ What he proposed was an event dubbed the Critter Crunch, in which competitors would face off on a folding table provided by the Executive Tower Inn. ‘Some potential entrants are discussing critters capable of significant mayhem,’ warned the even mailer. “So don’t get too attached to your entry.’ (Imagine a time when contestants actually needed to be warned that their robots might be damaged in combat!)”
Page 4 of Pop Cultural Precursors zine Issue #2. It tells the story of the world’s first robot competition, the Critter Crunch. | Photo of a vintage hardback version of I, Robot: Stories of Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov. | Text reads: “Llewellin devised the parameters of the game, with input from fellow members of the Denver Mad Scientists Club. They codified 11 rules, a sort of Magna Carta of mechanical warfare. (No, scratch that, it was bigger than the Magna Carta: It was like a real-life version of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.) The laws Asimov devised: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.” | Page 5 of Pop Cultural Precursors zine Issue #2. It tells the story of the world’s first robot competition, the Critter Crunch. | A crude Xerox copy of The Rules of the Critter Crunch as of as of 7/11/97. An excerpt: “SPIRIT RULES: A. No Cheating! You know, like intentionally subverting the rules. B. Frankenstein Rule: In honor of the most famous Mad Scientist, and to Mad Scientists everywhere; the audience may verbally behave like an offended and outraged populous towards any and all critters/ operators that they deem offensive and outrageous.1. CRITTERS: A. Critter size at the start of combat will be a cube 12"x12"x12". The critter must be able to stand alone on the combat surface within these dimensions until combat begins. After the start of combat, the 12" cube restriction no longer applies and the critter may transform to fighting mode in any way not otherwise restricted.” It goes on like this for hundreds more words. The rules are extensive!
Page 6 of Pop Cultural Precursors zine Issue #2. It tells the story of the world’s first robot competition, the Critter Crunch. | We see grainy vintage photos of robotic combat from the Critter Crunch. TEXT: “”The Crunch attracted “five or 10” competitors, according to Llewellin. He himself fielded a fearsome forklift creature named Fluffy Bunny that upended numerous opponents before being outmaneuvered by a tiny Radio Shack radio-controlled car. (The lack of weight classes made for some chaotic David-and-Goliath matches.)” | Page 7 of Pop Cultural Precursors zine Issue #2. It tells the story of the world’s first robot competition, the Critter Crunch. | We see a grainy 1989 photo of two Mad Scientists performing repairs on a robot. PHOTO CAPTION: “Pat Thompson and Bob Pfeiffer try to untangle Thing One's control cables after a match.” | We see a grainy close up photo of a robot with battle damage. PHOTO CAPTION: “A hole is left in Thing One by an air-powered harpoon from the machine Big Punch. The harpoon stuck in the aluminium, but failed to do any damage.” | TEXT READS: “The ultimate winner was Mad Scientist member Pat Thompson’s Thing One, a 19-pound behemoth armed with a can of Silly String that it sprayed at foes — and the audience.”
LATEST NEWSLETTER: Before there was Battle Bots, there was the Critter Crunch. Read the story of the world’s first robot death match at the 1989 Denver MileHiCon (@milehicon.bsky.social). Trying out a different format—an online version of an 8-page zine. www.popculturalprecursors.com/p/the-event-...
1000%, and I hear people call it WEF, [wheff], and I think "Ah yes, the sidekick of Davos, the ruthless Kaled scientist Wef."
Haha, i initially misread “1st time travel” in a sci-fi way. Still an impressive year even if you weren’t traveling into the past and future!
yes, right at broadway & 20th
Art deco facade of the I. Magnin bldg in Oakland.
I was just grabbing coffee and noticed how cool this building is. Apparently, its the old I. Magnin department store, built 1931, and it’s on the tour of great Art Deco architecture in the Bay Area…
We all need to be dancing among the clouds next year ☁️💃☁️
www.cnn.com/2025/12/04/s...
Gance Napoleon Act 1 snowball fight: best Xmas action film. Forget Die Hard.
I saved up and sent off for it. Ther were a third to a quarter the size of green army men
Every platform had its own maze-based Pac-clone
16% left! We can do this, people!
Mend the world with words.
ko-fi.com/africantrans...
#translations #writingcommunity
I was tempted by this one, but the power setup seemed so elaborate and confusing that I gave up. Ornaments should not require their own dedicated dilithium crystal chamber. www.hallmark.com/ornaments/ke...
People who mute your sports posts only saw a third of these…
Screenshot of a battle from the game Demonschool
My pal & former colleague @brandon.insertcredit.com has a new game out! Congrats to all @necrosoftgames.com & @ysbryd.net on Demonschool, which CGMag says is “thoughtful, stylish, innovative and incredibly fun.”
That’s “demonschool” with no spaces, available on most platforms except the Saturn 2.
OUT THIS WEEK: “Unfinished Conversations Package” by Chris Baker. Dad persona has so many things to share with you!
@chrisbaker1337.bsky.social
#writingcommunity #sciencefiction #flashfiction
www.flashfictiononline.com/article/unfi...
Black text on a yellow background - This is Alice's friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice's wishes, this message is being shared at the time of her passing. Hi everyone, it looks like I ran out of time. I have so many dreams that I wanted to fulfill and plans to create new stories for you. There are a few in progress that might come to fruition in a few years if things work out. I did not ever imagine I would live to this age and end up a writer, editor, activist, and more. As a kid riddled with insecurity and internalized ableism, I could not see a path forward. It was thanks to friendships and some great teachers who believed in me that I was able to fight my way out of miserable situations into a place where I finally felt comfortable in my skin. We need more stories about us and our culture. You all, we all, deserve the everything and more in such a hostile, ableist environment. Our wisdom is incisive and unflinching. I'm honored to be your ancestor and believe disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future. Don't let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
My story in Flash Fiction Online's FamPunk issue is now available online. Thanks again to @flashfictiononline.bsky.social and guest editor @slashnburnett.bsky.social for selecting it! www.flashfictiononline.com/article/unfi...
I have a story in @flashfictiononline.bsky.social’s FamPunk issue guest edited by the incomparable @slashnburnett.bsky.social! Buy the issue or subscribe to FFO, & go subscribe to Emma Burnett’s Patreon for a sneekpeek at her book that’s out next summer.
www.flashfictiononline.com/product/flas...
Colorful illustrated book cover shows a cowboy in silhouette who is striding towards a town that is being torn apart by some sort of glowing green cosmic vortex in the sky. TEXT: Twisted Trails: Tales of the Weird Wild West, Edited by Eric Fomley
For Shacklebound Book’s new #WeirdWest anthology, I examined a tragic event in Texas history through the lens of Mexican ghost ballads, dark fantasy pulp, EC horror comics, Swinging Sixties steampunk, spaghetti Westerns, sci-fi manga, & psychedelic Jodorowsky fever dream www.amazon.com/dp/B0FSPD4FP4
Out today! Twenty flash fiction stories of the weird wild west, infusing horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Check it out and snag a copy! www.amazon.com/dp/B0FSPD4FP4
"And this one alerts my secretary that I need her to mix my special pick-me-up cocktail. I call it The Manhattan Project."
This is fun and all, but it distracts from the deeper systemic issue: an ongoing campaign by law enforcement to persecute and oppress the po' boys
