Strong Bad's Computers Surpassing Their Assumed Capabilities

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Revision as of 19:37, 18 January 2016

The Compy displaying a full-color photo

Despite Strong Bad's preference for older computers, they are nevertheless capable of performing tasks that the real-life computers they are based on cannot. The Tandy 400, Compy 386 and Lappy 486 all run operating systems that are heavily based on MS-DOS, and each computer's graphics capabilities are based on those of real-life monitor types. Mouse pointers have also appeared on these computers, when none have been shown to have a mouse or laptop pad, in the Lappy's case.

Appearances

Irregular File Names

File names of actual MS-DOS computers have an eight-character limit, with certain characters that are disallowed (such as apostrophes and slashes). Some of Strong Bad's file names have these.

• Tandy 400 — "strongbad's_email" (Contains an apostrophe)
• Compy 386, Lappy 486, Corpy NT6 and Lappier — "strongbad_email.exe"
• homestar hair — "temple_of_apshai"
• huttah! — "take-a-break.exe"
• autobiography —
  • "spellchecka.exe"
  • "print_of_it.exe"
• big white face —
  • "mr.smith" (Contains a period within the file name itself)
  • "b/w" (Contains a slash)
• mascot — "fightsong"
• privileges — "medalliongoldplus.txt"
• date — "hsramerdsxr.exe"
• couch patch —
  • "print out million dollar bill.exe"
  • "no for real, print me out a million dollar bill, man.exe" (Contains two commas)
  • "um, this time really print me out a million dollars bill.nofoolin'" (Contains a comma and an apostrophe)
  • "make homestar's head explode.exe" (Contains an apostrophe)
  • "print out million dollar bill, please.exe" (Contains a comma, this command works)
• other days — "polish_email.exe"
• virus — "Edgarware.exe"
• technology — "screen_savior.exe"
• retirement —
  • "clncknmsfrmyslf.txt"
  • "cldshplog.txt"
  • "ltr2bkrythrftstr.txt"
• the movies — "karatecar.exe"
• SBCG4AP Advertisement — "strongbad3Dtotal.wad"
• being mean —
  • "other_gems.exe"
  • "more_other_gems.exe"
• April Fool 2014 — "strongbad_eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee_windows98desktoptheme"

Irregular Graphics and Sound

Tandy 400

The Tandy has a monochrome green/orange display, yet multi-color graphics and photos have appeared on it. Its sound capabilities also surpass those of computers of its era.

• homestar hair —
  • The Tandy displays a Hairstyle Runner.
  • Temple of Apshai is in color.
• credit card — Strong Bad somehow uses a mouse on the Tandy. While real Tandy computers of the time did support the use of mice, they could not display a graphical mouse cursor on top of a text-based interface, let alone move it across the screen smoothly.
• sugarbob — The Tandy plays Mac OS 9 sounds and displays full-color fonts.
• sisters — The Tandy plays the Windows 9x "ding" sound.
• retirement — The Tandy highlights spelling and grammar errors in yellow, and again plays Mac OS 9 sounds.

Compy 386

The Compy has a monochrome white/blue display, yet multi-color graphics and photos have appeared on it. While it has been shown to be capable of playing musical notes in the form of scratchy tones (its start-up/error sound, Crazy Go Nuts University fight song rendition and (possibly) The Cheat is Not Dead music), sounds from more modern computers have been heard from it.

• ghosts — The Tandy-rendered Bad Graphics Ghost appears on the Compy, though this is likely caused by the Tandy's ghost.
• website — The Compy plays a Flash file and several animated GIFs, and displays two full-quality photos.
• marzipan — The Message Thyme pop-ups are in Windows style, and has vocalized instant messager-like sounds accompanying them.
• interview and pizzazz — The Compy displays a Gothic font.
• autobiography — The Compy plays the Windows 9x "ding" sound.
• big white face —
  • The Compy displays color (but heavily pixelated) photos of Marzipan, Bubs, Homestar Runner, Strong Mad, The Cheat and The Poopsmith.
  • In addition, a Macintosh 128K-like operating system is displayed, which could just be an image.
• couch patch — The Compy plays a Mac OS 9 sound after Strong Bad's first three attempts to print a million dollar bill.
• flashback — The Compy shows the email from some kinda robot in the Tandy's font and green color.
• lunch special —
  • The Compy once again plays the "ding" sound.
  • Additionally, a Microsoft Paint drawing is displayed.
• virus —
  • The Compy plays the "ding" sound.
  • The Compy gets many more viruses than could possibly fit on a computer of its kind.
• April Fool 2014 — After inexplicably reappearing, the Compy runs Windows 98, plays a sound clip of Strong Bad's voice, and has a microphone extend to the front of his face, which he uses to record a new startup sound for his desktop theme.

Lappy 486

In addition to running a DOS-like operating system, further technical specifications for this computer were listed in animal:

• 2 MB hard drive
• 512 KB RAM
• 5 minute battery life
• "Several" color monitor

While these specifications are greater than Strong Bad's earlier computers, they have occasionally been challenged as well.

• death metal — The Lappy runs a full-color video chat with Larry Palaroncini on a webcam that it doesn't seem to have.
• retirement — Strong Bad says he has "a lot of important text files on that 5 Meg hard drive" when it was previously stated that the Lappy's hard drive holds two megabytes. It is possible Strong Bad since upgraded it.
• from work — In this Lappy 486-era email, the Corpy NT6 (which is also DOS-based) displays a full-quality spreadsheet.

See Also

• Stylized Text on Strong Bad's Computers
• Angled Pixels