Video of Owen Rubin and “Kermit” – Atari’s Robot Pet

Stumbled across this video tonight with Owen Rubin, creator of Major Havoc and a number of other famous Atari games, talking about ‘Kermit’ the electronic pet that was way ahead of its time. This video really doesn’t have any classic arcade information in it other than Owen’s general connection arcade lore, but there were some references that came out during the live chat with Owen on Coinopspace about ‘Kermit’ that I had to at least watch a little bit.

Kermit and the ‘Wolf Whistling’

I didn’t know who Jeri Ellison was until last week when she started to show up in my friend suggest on Facebook. Jeri is a little bit of an electronics phenom and has photos of her storage unit filled with pinballs and a couple of arcade games. Good to know that the habit is not discriminatory in any way, although I can’t say in three years of collecting games I have run across too many female collectors.

Check out the video, it’s fun to see a glimpse into Owen’s lair, see his mannerisms in person and really get a better understanding of the breadth of his technical genius. Published just under a month ago, hopefully not too many of you have seen it yet. The Wolf Whistling piece was my favorite part, a sign of the times.

I poked fun at Atari’s personal robot a while back, and while the consumer uses seemed a little extravagant the technology appeared unquestionably futuristic. Even looking at this simple robot the rest of us feel a little silly looking at something that might be considered ‘tinkering’, but it out of the grasp of your average Joe.

I will be checking out more of Jeri’s light hearted videos, looks like she just posted one of a demonstration of exploding capacitors.

Here are some similar arcade posts

• Nolan Bushnell & Sente – A promotional item from the ‘non-compete’
• The creaky, dusty Atari vault door is showing signs of life
• Derailed (2005)
• Beyond Borders (2003)
• Atari’s I, Robot Monitor Bezel Sticker Reproductions

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