I was out this past long weekend with my kid, taking a little day trip to Greensboro, NC, home of the first sit-in of the Civil Rights Movement, birthplace of an alleged embezzler who wrote about selling hair and watches, and this retro video game store that Otto and I like to visit. While we were in the neighborhood around there, my eye was tackled by the dazzling sight you see above: a terra-cotta-colored Mercedes-Benz S123 wagon, probably from, oh, 1983 or so. They made a few series of these cars from 1975 to 1986, and it’s pretty tricky to tell what year is what, so I’m just sort of guessing.
The whole scene I saw this car in was just so good, I had to pull over to take the picture. It was there, parked, on someone’s gravel driveway, surrounded by the lush, Dagobah-like greenery of this absurdly lush, alive state. It’d just been raining a lot, so everything was sort of sodden and dappled with the little lenses of raindroplets, and the diffuse light of the post-rain sun gave all the colors a sort of saturated feel, so what I was looking at was this biological riot of green, a chlorophyll explosion with this beautiful contrasting orange wonder at its center.
I didn’t exactly trespass onto the person’s property, but I probably came pretty close, and I regret nothing. Whoever owns this car clearly adores it, as it’s in immaculate condition and has been treated to a European front plate, even though this is clearly a US-spec model.
I think the W123 is at its best in wagon form, too – it’d be called S123 as a wagon. It was always a very upright, almost dowdy design, but so beautifully detailed and dignified I can’t help but love it. Even the US-spec sealed beam lights look great, with the smaller inset pair of driving/foglamps, and that big grille, flanked by the ribbed plastic that surrounds the lights. The car feels tailored, classy and understated, and in that color, man, it just works.
Plus, those hubcaps! I love the body-colored hubcaps. I miss those. There should be more of those.
Oh, and at the retro game store I did manage to find a pretty rare Atari 2600 cartridge: Tapper. You can see the 2600 version here, along with most of the other major computer and console conversions here:
This is a very rare cartridge, but what I respect about it is how hard it pushes the crude old 2600 well beyond its limits; take a look at a screen from the arcade version and the 2600 version:
Arcade is on the left, Atari 2600 on right. Now, sure, the 2600 seems crude, but when you think about what the system was designed to do – pong games and basic tank games – this is absolutely remarkable. Look how they managed to make those long wooden tables look dimensional, and cast a shadow! Your barkeep is pretty detailed and multi-colored, and the customers, while monochrome, at least are all there, as are the beer kegs and stands and glasses. Incredibly, this 8K cartridge manages to have all four different levels and the Mountain Dew-branded bonus levels. It’s incredible they crammed all this in there!
The 2600 could only draw the following on any given scanline: two eight bit sprites, a background made of four-pixel-wide “dots” that looked like hyphens and could only fill half the screen, with the other half being a mirror or duplicate, a background color, and a single-bit ball, and two single-bit “missiles.” That’s it! So, to do anything complex, programmers had to be wildly clever and use all sorts of tricks: changing colors from scanline to scanline, doubling or tripling sprites, flickering between sprites, and so much more.
Look at how the bonus stage had to be drawn, with visual coding shown via the Stella emulator:
So, to make the scene on the left here, all kinds of tricks had to be employed: the red and yellow are the two player sprites, changed and re-used from horizontal scanline to scanline (the 2600 has only one horizontal line of video memory, so it needs to be updated every scanline, a pain but allows for tricks like changing the look and color and purpose of the two sprites from line to line). Purple shows playfield hyphen-pixels, background colors are just grayed out, here, but you can see how they’re changed, and blue is the “ball” which is being stretched and changed in color to draw the hat and face of the can-shaking bandit.
It’s so much work!
I can’t find the names of the Sega programmers or artists who worked on this, but, holy crap, were they masters of their strange craft.
Tapper was a great game. I my multi-cade has the Budweiser branded version ROM on it. I remember a couple of places that had the Bud version, whereas most arcades had Root Beer Tapper. Torch, is there anyplace you’re writing/talking about your old video game and computer interests?
Jason,
I’m the owner of this S123. Google advertisement sent me the link (scary). Thank you for your admiration of the car.
I would like to correct a few details from the article: The wagon’s year is 1980 diesel (non-turbo). It’s actually a Euro spec and was imported with its original owner to NC. The euro spec is simple design with roll up windows (the best). The color is surprisingly not orange or terra- cotta, the color code is “English Red” (“Inca red” is more of a terra-cotta). This color option was a Euro only color. Here is the twist, the headlights are US spec, but they were converted from the Euro headlights. I believe the bumper was modified to US spec as well. 43 years old and starts up every time and drives like a tank. The reason I love this year and model is the butterfly headrests (only on earlier models). Oh and the A/C works. Again thank you for the love and article.
Best,
Cameron Lavinder
Love that you commented! Congrats on having that tank, and a lovely property.
I hate to be that guy, but I expect more from the knowledgeable Autopian staff.
W123: sedan
C123: hardtop coupe
S123: station wagon
Please do better.
And even more pedantic:
V123: limousine
Ehh, Mercedes actually refers to the whole range in official literature as the W123 platform. So it’s indeed technically correct per Mercedes to refer to the S123 as a W123… while pedantry is welcome here, there’s no need to be snide.
Bob Matta bought a terra cotta Benz,
But Bob’s “fatha” thought a lotta ‘bout his friends,
And when he got caught doing what-not,
In a tight spot with the “daughtah” of the local Big Shot,
They never fought a lot until a whole lotta pot appeared in back of the Benz.
Then a local TV snot got a mug shot shown in the 10:00 slot,
“Fatha” said “here it ends with that damn terra cotta Benz”!
“Tailored” Yes, absolutely! As opposed to modern styling that looks like a pile of dirty laundry or a random stack of building materials.
Also, great use of AI generating that picture. You guys are really getting the hang of this new technology!
This wagon is so awesome it needs a movie centered around it. Nice find.
I played Tapper on the Intellivision when I was young. I did not understand the game. I can imagine, 35+ years later it does?
Oh, and Merc is beautiful, good spotting!
When I saw Wreck-It Ralph, I’d never heard of Tapper and thought it had been created for the movie.
We had a 300TD (very briefly) in Ice Blue over Saddle MB-Tex. The car was beautiful, but the transmission died about a week after we bought it. Mercedes-Benz of Manhattan (NYC) wanted to sell us a new transmission for more than we had paid for the car. Luckily, the seller agreed to take the car back and return our money.
Completely unrelated, I worked on game graphics in the VCS era and the development rigs at Atari in New York had ribbon cable in the VCS cartridge port connected to Atari 800s to write code. Ugly, but functional. Player missle graphics in ROM made a lot of pretty amazing stuff possible. Everything was written in machine language or assembler due to extreme space constraints.
As a fun project, I wrote a text-based roguelike in a Mad Max setting for a Motorola 68KMB. Machine language is surprisingly easy to work with when you know how it behaves, dare I say greatly easier than C++ and having to deal with compilers that don’t work and segmentation fault errors, among other things.
That sounds like a slightly modernized version of the original Adventure game or Hunt the Wumpus.
“You come to an intersection. It is starting to getting dark out. There is a lovely 300TD here.”
1. Go to the left. 2. Go to the right. 3. Go back. 4. Get in the lovely 300TD.
Type the 4 key and then press the Enter key
My Assembler PTSD was triggered by your comment….
My apologies. What happens when people mention EBCDIC?
Hm, clear fog lamps, wheel covers, DOT bumpers… guessing this isn’t an 83 (those had amber fog lights), more likely an 80 or 81 non turbo car.
If it’s an 81, it’s the only year the w123 got an electronic speedometer in the USA!
As a “European” myself I’m a bit tickle by the “European front plate”, I mean It’s clearly a German plate with the D for Deutchland and the two round stickers, which is appropriate for a German car.
I’m sure you know that Jason but it’s still baflled me when Americans (oh shit I’m doing the same thing) I mean United Statians see Europe has a whole thing like it’s a country or something like that, country’s in Europe are so different in so many levels, we don’t even speak the same language.
I was used to a more precise Jason habitually 🙂
<Pedantic remark close>
The plate is of the style and standard required in Europe. It is therefore European (used as an adjective). I think that Jason (and many of us Americans from all countries in the western hemisphere) understand they are actually issued by the individual country within the European Union.
I haven’t tought of the size and shape, that’s a valid point.
I’m well aware the Autopian team know all of that, just a general remark that pop in my head when I read this.
I wasn’t implying Americans were dumb and think Europe is a country but sometimes people tend to generalise things in Europe that you can only relate for 1 or 2 country, and for me and because I see them eveyday the Euro plates are very different from country to country except the general size and shape (even that is a bit wrong).
Typical European chauvinism assuming the United States all speak the same language. 😉
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
That Merc looks awesome! Also, Chlorophyll BOROPHYLL!!!
100% agreed on the body-color hubcaps, and I think you captured the essence of the vehicle as a whole with “dignified”.
The developers of those early games were insanely talented: they were working inside incredibly tight resource constraints yet managed to create entertaining games. Even in the early days of the PC, applications had be written to use RAM and disk space as efficiently as possible because those resources were expensive. As we rolled into the 2000s, prices began to drop on disk space, RAM, and faster CPUs. Developers were able to code more quickly and less efficiently, because it had become easier to throw hardware at an app to make it run faster rather than trying to eke out every last bit of performance (as the Atari and Sega developers did).
I am not saying things were better back then, because they sure as hell were not. 🙂
Oh my, that color. We need to just raid the secret ’60s and ’70s color vaults of the Germans and bring them all to the present. Today’s various putty tones were interesting for a hot minute, but they’re already getting old, just another variation of grayscale. We need more color, and not just on the “fun” or entry-level cars.
I totally agree, and I wish I knew why we only get fun colors on entry-level cars. Why do I lose color options as I move up to higher trim levels? Why is the special edition only available in black-on-black-on-black? 🙁
Because people with money have no imagination. Creative people are not at the top of the payscale.
Also resale value, I suppose. Grayscale may put people to sleep, but it won’t offend most.
I seem to remember most of these were either a muted green (just slightly lighter and brighter than olive drab) and what I later came to recognize as German taxi beige being the most common colors for these. Whoever owns this one scored a rare and really good color.
I am currently shopping for a used car, and I probably don’t have to tell you how hard it is to find literally anything that is not white, black, or fifty shades of gray. My kingdom for green or blue or red.
Of my last nine vehicles, SIX have been white, two were gray/silver, and one was gold. I have not owned a car in an actual color since Bill Clinton was president. I don’t care if I have to scour the ends of the earth, I am changing that with my next ride. I’m sick of losing my car in the parking lot.
The W123 wagon is what I think of when I see Mercedes. Built incredibly, understated tasteful style like the moneyed had before the need to say LOOK AT MY WEALTH YOU POORS. Nothing extravagant but just really, really well made and of very high quality. Compare this to the Cadillacs and Lincolns of the era and the W123 stands out even now.
Hell, I still want one, even if it would cost a ton of money to keep up/restore to comfortable running state. Fast? Listen, I’m hopefully driving a W123 wagon, so fast is not the goal.
Great shot, Torch. I seriously thought it was another old brochure pic, but then again I’m on coffee cup number 1 for the day.
There was always a market for both flashy and unflashy wealth. Traditionally, the latter before they switched to imports were the Buick Electra/Olds 98 buyers. As for the former, Cadillac sold about as many Eldorado Biarritzes as Mercedes did W123s in America.
Agreed. It’s kind of funny to refer to the era of “power dressing” and incredible corporate excess as a time “before the need” to flaunt one’s wealth.
True, one cup of coffee didn’t help matters. Shoulder pad era was absolutely about flaunting things.
Probably was thinking more about the whole light-up Mercedes logo on grilles, Instagram steering wheel shots with a Rolex, stuff like that.
Good point. Social media has taken the flaunting to levels previously unimagined.
Shoulder pads were not about flaunting, they were about projecting power. Taking up more space is part of trying to dominate. This was particularly inportant to women at a time when they were trying to elbow their way into the c-suite. They had to try and take up as much space as the ‘old boys’ in the hope of getting any respect.
I’m not sure what crocs and yoga pants says about women’s ambitions these days though…
The children of those people are the ones making their living on Instagram nowadays.
The huge spending necessary to win WWII created a lot of nouveau riche. For example more than 12,000 B-17’s were built during the war. That required a LOT of small companies cranking out parts… same for tanks, trucks, machine guns etc. Manufacturing boomed.
In the 1920’s a Cadillac was as out of reach as a Rolls. However, after WWII a lot of people who had been poor middle class suddenly had upper middle class money. The classic definition of nouevau riche. GM decided to chase this nouveau riche market in the mid 50’s and that meant (50’s style) BLING!
Quality held on through the 60’s but by the 70’s Caddies were
all hat and no cattlemostly cheap caricatures of themselves.I remember the first Benz in our small town in the mid-70’s. A dentist my dad knew bought one. It was shocking to a kid like me because it didn’t have any of the trapping or appointments that were indicators of wealth to my young mind. Hard seats, a (compared to Americana) rough ride, not enough chrome to plate a tea pot. But…. you could see and feel the quality. The dentist said he was tired of buying cars every three years and them spending two years to have everything fixed only in time for it to start rusting out. Benz was the answer.
It really did change my attitude about how to use money; my first exposure to Captain Vimes boot theory. I now try to buy the best quality I can afford and keep (whatever) as long as possible. I like to think that my old boots, kept well polished, look as good as a new cheap pair, and they’re more comfortable.
As seen in the Esquire Guide To Men’s Style: “A $180 pair of shoes will outlast two $90 pairs of shoes, but a $360 pair of shoes will last forever.” A W123 is that $360 pair of shoes. There’s a lady I often see on my morning commute who dailies a 300CD coupe. I want it so badly. I’ve wanted to do some ludicrous engine swap on one for years and years.
If fast is the goal, send that injector pump off to Myna Performance out in Finland. They’ll upgrade the pump and threads to allow that engine to make 300 horsepower. The stock block can handle it reliably, without issue, a testament to how well-built these things were.
I used to own a 300 SDL. I loved that fat old tankster. 120 mph was pretty damned effortless in stock configuration, and 30 mpg at 70 mph was commonly achieved.
Nice shot of the car!