Thursday 14 August 2014

Oracle, 12th November 1981 (4 teletext lines per field)

Here's a really good quality early grab.  It was taken from a tape with Space Shuttle launch coverage on it; this is from STS-2, the second Shuttle launch.




This would appear to be a first generation copy.  Earlier in the tape there is coverage of STS-1, from April that year, but it was terrible quality, in terms of teletext; I think it was a dub. 

This is the best P100 I could find:



Bear in mind that this is P100 too, which has the most instances of the page to integrate.  I wonder if it's possible to better integrate each character?

Anyway, back to ITV, and telesoftware made an earlier appearance than you would think.  The BBC offered a similar service.  The BBC Micro wasn't around at this point, so what was the target platform here? 



Here's some source:





Schools programmes, complete with opt-outs:



Yes indeed: this is teletext 'Spot the Ball':



News headlines for that day:



The news stories themselves kept this format up until Oracle closed in 1992:




Now this I must try and decode at some point!



On to some 80s lulz:




The below is now covered in Kerrang! magazine:




Come on, STV, pull your fingers out!




Testing now:



...it wouldn't be teletext without a clock cracker:



...and finally, sunglasses at the ready for this monstrosity: