Hey Smarty Pals! Have you heard of Forever Ago Host Joy Dolo’s new exciting game, History Sound? No I didn’t say Mystery Sound, I said History Sound. It’s an entirely new thing that bears no resemblance to that other game. Why would you even think that? Listen as Joy pulls intriguing, silly, stupendous, sounds from her pocket and see if you can guess when the sounds came from and what made them!
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SUBJECT 1: Now entering Brains On headquarters.
[DOOR OPENS]
JOY DOLO: Oh, hey, smarty pal. Joy Dolo from Forever Ago here. So glad you could join us. You probably know your way around HQ already. But just in case, that's Molly Bloom's office over there. She's at an international breakdancing competition this week in the Pennsylvania mountains, otherwise known as the pop, lock, and Poconos for pros.
[FOOT STEPS]
Oh check it out. It's Gungador and Ruby.
GUNGADOR: Smarty, hey. Gungador and Ruby going to eat salsa. Want to come?
RUBY: No, no, no, Gungador, we're going to dance the salsa, not eat it.
GUNGADOR: Gungador hungry, not dancing.
RUBY: OK, how about we dance in a bowl of salsa, that way we're both happy.
GUNGADOR: Yum. Ruby, genius.
RUBY: Come on, let's go.
JOY DOLO: That sounds a little messy. Hey guys, maybe keep it in Molly's office since she's away this week.
ELISE: Joy.
JOY DOLO: Oh, hey, it's a lease. One of my fabulous Forever Ago co-hosts. Are you also here to dance?
ELISE: Did you forget that we're recording an episode today?
JOY DOLO: No, I didn't forget. I just temporarily misremembered.
ELISE: That's kind of the definition of forgetting.
JOY DOLO: No, because right here in my pocket. I have a brand new game for Forever Ago. It's called--
SUBJECT 2: History sound.
ELISE: You have a sound in your pocket?
JOY DOLO: They're very deep pockets.
ELISE: Whoa, wait, Joy, don't they already do the mystery sound on Brains On?
JOY DOLO: Oh no, you must have misheard. This is the--
SUBJECT 2: History sound.
JOY DOLO: See? It's totally different.
ELISE: OK. How do you play?
JOY DOLO: OK. Here's how it works. I'm going to play three sounds from way back when sounds we don't hear so often anymore. And you're going to try to guess what they are. Elise, are you ready for your first sound?
ELISE: Are you going to explain how a sound is pulled from a pocket, or--
JOY DOLO: Don't think too hard about it. Here it is.
[PAC-MAN SOUND]
Elise, what do you think that was?
ELISE: OK, well, I actually know this is a classic game called Pac-Man. I know that for sure.
JOY DOLO: OK. So it's Pac-Man. What is Pac-Man doing in all of these sounds?
ELISE: Well, basically Pac-Man is a game where he's just eating. He's trying to get all of the little-- I don't know-- like points. And they're just-- he's trying to eat them. And then there are these other characters and they're trying to get him while he's eating all the points. And you have three lives. Once you get to your last live, you're out. But if you make it before your lives are done, you get to go into the next level.
JOY DOLO: OK, so he's eaten. He's being chased down by some people. He's eating. You got to get your lives, right? And they do it all with that blub, blub, blurb, blurb, blurb sound. You are correct. It is the Pac-Man game sound. Good job, Elise. You know you're history. And I'm an old, old woman.
[LAUGHTER]
The very first Pac-Man arcade machine was installed in Tokyo, Japan in May 1980. The main character Pac-Man is trapped in a maze with a bunch of little dots and four ghosts, like you were saying. The player moves him around trying to get Pac-Man to eat, eat, eat as many of the dots as he can while avoiding the ghosts who want to eat him.
It was actually called Pac-Man when it was released. The name was later changed to Pac-Man when it was imported into the US. And the game became so popular that a hit song called "Pac-Man Fever" came out in 1981 and ranked number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following year. I got to look up this "Pac-Man Fever" song. Pac-Man fever, Pac-Man fever.
[BUCKNER & GARCIA, "PAC-MAN FEVER"]
BUCKNER: (SINGING) 'Cause I got Pac-Man fever.
GARCIA: (SINGING) Pac-Man fever.
BUCKNER: (SINGING) It's driving me crazy.
GARCIA: (SINGING) Driving me crazy.
BUCKNER: (SINGING) I got Pac-Man fever.
GARCIA: (SINGING) Pac-Man Fever.
JOY DOLO: Elise, are you ready for your second history sound?
ELISE: Let's do it.
JOY DOLO: Oh, what was that sound?
ELISE: Oh, I think I might know. Is that an old phone where you had to clink in all the numbers and like roll it around? I'm thinking it's like an '80s, '70s phone. That's what I'm guessing.
JOY DOLO: That thing you're talking about of going around in the circle, could you describe what you're talking about?
ELISE: It's like a circle on the phone. And it has like numbers. And you have to dial the phone number, and you have to turn it. So it's like, two, and then you press the number, then it's dupe. And then you have to keep turning it around.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, to get through all the numbers.
ELISE: I've seen that on like Stranger Things. That's-- yeah, I've seen it on many shows. And that's my guess, Joy.
JOY DOLO: That's a great guess. Let's see what it says. I can't roll my tongue. Da, da, da. It is a rotary phone. That's what it's called, a rotary phone. You were right. Yeah, you were right and just like Stranger Things kind of let it go too.
Before rotary phones, all phone calls were connected through an operator, which was a person. You had to dial the operator, this person and tell them who you wanted to reach and then they would connect you. And this system could be a little annoying because sometimes you had to wait a really long time to be connected to an operator, because they're on a lunch break or something.
And rotary phones allowed users to dial each other directly, just like we do now, which was a huge invention, right? And also a lot of people lost their jobs. It's a whole thing. But instead of buttons, each number had a little hole next to it. You'd put your finger into the hole and rotate the dial clockwise until you hit the stopper. That's what you were talking about, right, Elise?
ELISE: Yep.
JOY DOLO: Yep, yep, you're exactly right.
ELISE: That circular motion. Yay.
JOY DOLO: We stopped using these around 1990 when push button technology became popular. But it's where we get the term dialing a phone number from.
ELISE: Oh, wow. History, history, history.
JOY DOLO: Come on through, history.
[LAUGHS]
ELISE: Yeah, let's go.
JOY DOLO: All right, are you ready for your last sound, Elise?
ELISE: I sure am, Joy.
JOY DOLO: This is so fun. Oh my gosh. OK, let's hear the last one.
[DIALING]
[COMPUTER ERROR]
OK, Elise. What's that sound?
ELISE: All right. Well, I'm thinking that it's a person dialing a phone number, and it just going to some type of robot. I don't know about this one.
JOY DOLO: A robot?
ELISE: I'm going to tell you straight, that's what I'm thinking, Joy.
JOY DOLO: I'm not judging at all. I'm actually like weeping on the inside because I know exactly what this is.
ELISE: Oh, I know. I mean, I know-- I might actually be educated on this, but I'm hearing a dialing. So that's what I'm going go with.
JOY DOLO: OK. So we have the dialing. We're going to a robot. The robot gets the dial. And then what happens after that?
ELISE: I don't know. It's just fuzz. Maybe the answer never gets called.
JOY DOLO: And it just goes into an abyss, an abyss of phone calls.
ELISE: Yeah, an abyss of foam. I don't know.
JOY DOLO: Well, I will tell you right now the reveal is-- I know this because I grew up with this. It is the dial up computer noise. And all the parents are scrunching their heads right now, like, oh no. The dial up computer noise.
Dial up was a way of connecting to the internet using a telephone line. You heard the sound of the number being dialed and the connection being established. That's the sounds that we were hearing there. An early version of this technology was invented in 1979 by two Duke University graduates. But people only really started using dial up at home in 1992. I was five years old.
Because dial up internet used phone lines, you couldn't be surfing the web and be on the phone at the same time. I remember this because I would have to tell someone to hang up so I could get on the internet. Could you imagine such a world, Elise?
ELISE: No, I cannot imagine such a world. Thank God for this generation. Thank you, Apple.
JOY DOLO: Thank you, Apple. Yeah, I remember like-- because I have four sisters. I'd be like somebody is like on the phone, and I had wait till they're done with their phone call before I could surf the web or vise versa. I'd have to wait till they were off the internet before I could call anyone.
ELISE: That is terrible. That's terrible. Just terrible.
JOY DOLO: These are the olden days.
ELISE: The olden days.
JOY DOLO: Well, either way, you did such a wonderful job, Elise.
ELISE: Thank you. Thank you. And Joy, I have to say that is such a fun semi original game.
JOY DOLO: I know, right? I'm so glad I came up with it because we better pack it up, huh? I have to go take my Guinea pig Kevin Bacon to the groomer.
ELISE: Don't forget, we're back with a new season of Forever Ago on May 17?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOY DOLO: That's it for this Smarty Pass episode. It was produced by--
[LIST HONOR ROLL]
Special thanks to--
[LIST HONOR ROLL]
Our executive producer is Beth Pearlman. And the executives in charge of APM Studios are--
[LIST HONOR ROLL]
Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program. Thanks, smarty pants friends.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[DOOR OPENS]
JOY DOLO: Oh, hey, smarty pal. Joy Dolo from Forever Ago here. So glad you could join us. You probably know your way around HQ already. But just in case, that's Molly Bloom's office over there. She's at an international breakdancing competition this week in the Pennsylvania mountains, otherwise known as the pop, lock, and Poconos for pros.
[FOOT STEPS]
Oh check it out. It's Gungador and Ruby.
GUNGADOR: Smarty, hey. Gungador and Ruby going to eat salsa. Want to come?
RUBY: No, no, no, Gungador, we're going to dance the salsa, not eat it.
GUNGADOR: Gungador hungry, not dancing.
RUBY: OK, how about we dance in a bowl of salsa, that way we're both happy.
GUNGADOR: Yum. Ruby, genius.
RUBY: Come on, let's go.
JOY DOLO: That sounds a little messy. Hey guys, maybe keep it in Molly's office since she's away this week.
ELISE: Joy.
JOY DOLO: Oh, hey, it's a lease. One of my fabulous Forever Ago co-hosts. Are you also here to dance?
ELISE: Did you forget that we're recording an episode today?
JOY DOLO: No, I didn't forget. I just temporarily misremembered.
ELISE: That's kind of the definition of forgetting.
JOY DOLO: No, because right here in my pocket. I have a brand new game for Forever Ago. It's called--
SUBJECT 2: History sound.
ELISE: You have a sound in your pocket?
JOY DOLO: They're very deep pockets.
ELISE: Whoa, wait, Joy, don't they already do the mystery sound on Brains On?
JOY DOLO: Oh no, you must have misheard. This is the--
SUBJECT 2: History sound.
JOY DOLO: See? It's totally different.
ELISE: OK. How do you play?
JOY DOLO: OK. Here's how it works. I'm going to play three sounds from way back when sounds we don't hear so often anymore. And you're going to try to guess what they are. Elise, are you ready for your first sound?
ELISE: Are you going to explain how a sound is pulled from a pocket, or--
JOY DOLO: Don't think too hard about it. Here it is.
[PAC-MAN SOUND]
Elise, what do you think that was?
ELISE: OK, well, I actually know this is a classic game called Pac-Man. I know that for sure.
JOY DOLO: OK. So it's Pac-Man. What is Pac-Man doing in all of these sounds?
ELISE: Well, basically Pac-Man is a game where he's just eating. He's trying to get all of the little-- I don't know-- like points. And they're just-- he's trying to eat them. And then there are these other characters and they're trying to get him while he's eating all the points. And you have three lives. Once you get to your last live, you're out. But if you make it before your lives are done, you get to go into the next level.
JOY DOLO: OK, so he's eaten. He's being chased down by some people. He's eating. You got to get your lives, right? And they do it all with that blub, blub, blurb, blurb, blurb sound. You are correct. It is the Pac-Man game sound. Good job, Elise. You know you're history. And I'm an old, old woman.
[LAUGHTER]
The very first Pac-Man arcade machine was installed in Tokyo, Japan in May 1980. The main character Pac-Man is trapped in a maze with a bunch of little dots and four ghosts, like you were saying. The player moves him around trying to get Pac-Man to eat, eat, eat as many of the dots as he can while avoiding the ghosts who want to eat him.
It was actually called Pac-Man when it was released. The name was later changed to Pac-Man when it was imported into the US. And the game became so popular that a hit song called "Pac-Man Fever" came out in 1981 and ranked number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following year. I got to look up this "Pac-Man Fever" song. Pac-Man fever, Pac-Man fever.
[BUCKNER & GARCIA, "PAC-MAN FEVER"]
BUCKNER: (SINGING) 'Cause I got Pac-Man fever.
GARCIA: (SINGING) Pac-Man fever.
BUCKNER: (SINGING) It's driving me crazy.
GARCIA: (SINGING) Driving me crazy.
BUCKNER: (SINGING) I got Pac-Man fever.
GARCIA: (SINGING) Pac-Man Fever.
JOY DOLO: Elise, are you ready for your second history sound?
ELISE: Let's do it.
JOY DOLO: Oh, what was that sound?
ELISE: Oh, I think I might know. Is that an old phone where you had to clink in all the numbers and like roll it around? I'm thinking it's like an '80s, '70s phone. That's what I'm guessing.
JOY DOLO: That thing you're talking about of going around in the circle, could you describe what you're talking about?
ELISE: It's like a circle on the phone. And it has like numbers. And you have to dial the phone number, and you have to turn it. So it's like, two, and then you press the number, then it's dupe. And then you have to keep turning it around.
JOY DOLO: Yeah, to get through all the numbers.
ELISE: I've seen that on like Stranger Things. That's-- yeah, I've seen it on many shows. And that's my guess, Joy.
JOY DOLO: That's a great guess. Let's see what it says. I can't roll my tongue. Da, da, da. It is a rotary phone. That's what it's called, a rotary phone. You were right. Yeah, you were right and just like Stranger Things kind of let it go too.
Before rotary phones, all phone calls were connected through an operator, which was a person. You had to dial the operator, this person and tell them who you wanted to reach and then they would connect you. And this system could be a little annoying because sometimes you had to wait a really long time to be connected to an operator, because they're on a lunch break or something.
And rotary phones allowed users to dial each other directly, just like we do now, which was a huge invention, right? And also a lot of people lost their jobs. It's a whole thing. But instead of buttons, each number had a little hole next to it. You'd put your finger into the hole and rotate the dial clockwise until you hit the stopper. That's what you were talking about, right, Elise?
ELISE: Yep.
JOY DOLO: Yep, yep, you're exactly right.
ELISE: That circular motion. Yay.
JOY DOLO: We stopped using these around 1990 when push button technology became popular. But it's where we get the term dialing a phone number from.
ELISE: Oh, wow. History, history, history.
JOY DOLO: Come on through, history.
[LAUGHS]
ELISE: Yeah, let's go.
JOY DOLO: All right, are you ready for your last sound, Elise?
ELISE: I sure am, Joy.
JOY DOLO: This is so fun. Oh my gosh. OK, let's hear the last one.
[DIALING]
[COMPUTER ERROR]
OK, Elise. What's that sound?
ELISE: All right. Well, I'm thinking that it's a person dialing a phone number, and it just going to some type of robot. I don't know about this one.
JOY DOLO: A robot?
ELISE: I'm going to tell you straight, that's what I'm thinking, Joy.
JOY DOLO: I'm not judging at all. I'm actually like weeping on the inside because I know exactly what this is.
ELISE: Oh, I know. I mean, I know-- I might actually be educated on this, but I'm hearing a dialing. So that's what I'm going go with.
JOY DOLO: OK. So we have the dialing. We're going to a robot. The robot gets the dial. And then what happens after that?
ELISE: I don't know. It's just fuzz. Maybe the answer never gets called.
JOY DOLO: And it just goes into an abyss, an abyss of phone calls.
ELISE: Yeah, an abyss of foam. I don't know.
JOY DOLO: Well, I will tell you right now the reveal is-- I know this because I grew up with this. It is the dial up computer noise. And all the parents are scrunching their heads right now, like, oh no. The dial up computer noise.
Dial up was a way of connecting to the internet using a telephone line. You heard the sound of the number being dialed and the connection being established. That's the sounds that we were hearing there. An early version of this technology was invented in 1979 by two Duke University graduates. But people only really started using dial up at home in 1992. I was five years old.
Because dial up internet used phone lines, you couldn't be surfing the web and be on the phone at the same time. I remember this because I would have to tell someone to hang up so I could get on the internet. Could you imagine such a world, Elise?
ELISE: No, I cannot imagine such a world. Thank God for this generation. Thank you, Apple.
JOY DOLO: Thank you, Apple. Yeah, I remember like-- because I have four sisters. I'd be like somebody is like on the phone, and I had wait till they're done with their phone call before I could surf the web or vise versa. I'd have to wait till they were off the internet before I could call anyone.
ELISE: That is terrible. That's terrible. Just terrible.
JOY DOLO: These are the olden days.
ELISE: The olden days.
JOY DOLO: Well, either way, you did such a wonderful job, Elise.
ELISE: Thank you. Thank you. And Joy, I have to say that is such a fun semi original game.
JOY DOLO: I know, right? I'm so glad I came up with it because we better pack it up, huh? I have to go take my Guinea pig Kevin Bacon to the groomer.
ELISE: Don't forget, we're back with a new season of Forever Ago on May 17?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOY DOLO: That's it for this Smarty Pass episode. It was produced by--
[LIST HONOR ROLL]
Special thanks to--
[LIST HONOR ROLL]
Our executive producer is Beth Pearlman. And the executives in charge of APM Studios are--
[LIST HONOR ROLL]
Brains On is a nonprofit public radio program. Thanks, smarty pants friends.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Transcription services provided by 3Play Media.
