Strong Bad's Technology

From Homestar Runner Wiki

This article is about the running gag. For the Strong Bad Email, see technology.

"Why do all my thirty-year-old electronics keep breaking on me?!"

Strong Bad shows a strong preference for out-of-date technology. Sometimes his feelings are so strong they lead to a state of denial, in which he describes such outmoded technologies as cutting-edge. Similarly, the company Videlectrix, which Strong Bad endorses, seems to embrace a mission plan of releasing 8-bit and 16-bit "video computer games on TV" which they consider to have "good graphics". Strong Bad continually remains adamant that his computers are high tech. In animal and redesign, however, Strong Bad mocks The Cheat's use of "new computers".

Appearances

• Strong Bad Sings — Strong Bad appears to think that a record holds more than a CD, as the announcer states that the collection is available on 3 records or 7 CDs. Also, he claims that it's available on 8-tracks, which have not been seen in stores since the eighties.
  • An 8-track tape could also have more songs than a record, depending how long the songs are and if the record is 33, 45, or 78 rpm.
• Several occasions — The only telephone that Strong Bad ever seems to answer is a seventies telephone, with the only buttons to press being those used for dialing. Since the eighties, speed dial and redial have been standard on all phones.
  • Although the headpiece should be attached to the base, Strong Bad's appears to be disconnected from the base.
• Almost every Strong Bad Email until independent — Strong Bad uses outdated computers, and praised the Compy 386 and Lappy 486 as state-of-the-art computers with awesome features. The Paper, as well, appears to come from a tractor-fed dot matrix printer. In home use, such printers are now nearly non-existent.
• Almost every Strong Bad Email until independent — The operating system that Strong Bad uses on the Tandy 400 resembles that of ProDOS, while the Compy 386 and Lappy 486 resemble that of DOS, both of which have been replaced with GUI operating systems in most modern home computers.
• Almost every Strong Bad Email — Strong Bad's computer desk appears to have a case of either floppies or diskettes. Floppies were discontinued entirely when diskettes came out, and diskettes are almost extinct.
• Email duck pond — Strong Bad says that the Atari version of Duck Pond has state-of-the-art graphics.
• Email gimmicks — Despite Strong Sad's claim that he could replace the Tandy 400 with a comparable computer "at a yard sale for, like, fifteen dollars," Strong Bad asserts that he "liked that computer". He evidently disregards Strong Sad's encouragement to get a modern computer when he chooses the Compy 386.
  • Despite the accurate price description by Strong Sad, he still asks to borrow 900 dollars, most of which was presumably not spent on a new computer.
• Email weird dream — Strong Bad is unaware of how to use The Cheat's iMac's Mac OS.
• Email lures & jigs — Strong Bad refers to Fishing Challenge '91 as "the pinnacle of graphics".
• Email 50 emails (Easter Egg) — Old Timey Strong Bad used a "telegramophone" (more commonly a telegraph), although by the 1930s they had been almost completely replaced by the telephone.
• Email website — Strong Bad's Website is similar to many other outdated ones created during the '90s.
• Strong Bad is in Jail Cartoon (Easter Egg) — Strong Bad and The Cheat constructed a working telephone from the canister marked "eww" in the cardboard box prison.
  • However, the tin can phone is still able to call Marzipan's Answering Machine, when it should only be able to talk to another can.
• Email video games — Strong Bad considers the NES-style RhinoFeeder to be on a brand new and super-photorealistic system.
  • He also thinks that the individual red pixel that represents the player in Secret Collect. looks "kinda like [him]".
• Email haircut — Strong Bad edits a Polaroid picture of Strong Mad with a marker, claiming that he's using a light pen to edit a scanned picture.
  • Here, he also refers to the tech as "Cutting art, state-of-the-edge".
• Teen Girl Squad Issue 9 — Strong Bad is irate that Babbages has no Turbografx games (which today are next to impossible to find outside of Nintendo's Virtual Console system).
• Real-Live E-Mails — Strong Bad is unaware of the term "burning DVDs" and sets fire to a spindle of them using the BMW Lighter.
• Biz Cas Fri 3 — Strong Bad fails to back up his files, and then seems to think he can do so by keeping some of the ashes of his exploded computer.
  • Strong Bad's computer is unable to open the 3-gigabyte attachment entitled "catonfire_fallingfromanairplane.exe" and thus explodes.
• Email time capsule — Strong Bad decides that "cassette tape is definitely the way to go" for recording his number one jam to be played in the future, because "what could ever replace the durability of magnetic tape?"
• Email extra plug — Not only are the 'lectric boots low tech, taking up all the house's electricity, but the TV that Strong Sad, Homestar, and Strong Mad are watching is very old and outdated.
• Email lunch special — The walkie talkies that Strong Bad and The Cheat use are highly outdated.
• Email lady...ing — Strong Bad uses a Laserdisc and sings a brief, nostalgic tribute to the medium, saying that "everything is better on Laserdisc".
• Email animal — Strong Bad scoffs at The Cheat for using new computers.
• Email long pants — Strong Bad deems the email "too long" and proceeds to edit it with a white-out pen, which he calls a "light pen" with "expensive electrons". When the plan backfires on him, though, he refers to it as "stupid made-up technology that I made up".
• Email highschool — Baby Strong Bad wishes the video games of his earlier era were "better".
• Email portrait — Strong Bad is shown holding a "re-eally o-o-ld ce-e-ll phone".
• Email technology — A whole email on the subject; Strong Bad makes numerous references to older technologies being state-of-the-art. He also claims that he prefers early floppy disks over diskettes, erroneously stating that "they have more memory". He uses a screensaver for the Lappy, whose LCD screen does not require one.
• Email alternate universe — The Game Boy that Strong Bad uses to make his high tech "alternate universe portal" is an original monochrome model, which is highly outdated and no longer produced.
• Email senior prom — Strong Bad pretends to get a message on his "answering machine" from "Delilelia", when it's actually a clock radio with a paper reading "an answering machine (trust me)" taped to it. Strong Bad himself provides "Delilelia's" voice.
• Email isp — Strong Bad's computer, besides having a ridiculously slow Internet connection, uses an icon of a 5-1/4-inch floppy disk on its download-progress screen.
  • Strong Bad claims his internet connection potentially runs at "1200 baud" – while it is impossible to say how fast this really is without knowing the standard the modem uses to connect, describing the speed in baud typically was only used with older modems (1980s and earlier), so the modem is probably encoding around 2 or 3 bits per symbol, thus achieving transfer rate of either 2.4kbps or 3.6kbps. Note however that no ITU-T standard transferred at 1200 baud, jumping from 600 baud in V.22 to 2400 baud in its successor, V.32. It is possible, however, for a 2400 baud or higher modem to run at only 1200 baud if it is on a low-quality phone line.
• Email redesign — Strong Bad thinks that the LCD monitor on The Cheat's new computer had the backside sliced off, and he refers to