Category: Retro

Every geeky room needs some pixel art on the wall. But rather than just have some static image, why not go with something a bit more interactive? The Pixel Art Shop has got you covered. This Super Mario Bros.

Since I’ve mostly been using a laptop, an iPad and an iMac, it’s been a while since I had a computer with an upgradeable graphics card. But back in the day, I was constantly gunning for the latest and greatest graphics processors to play games like Quake II and Duke Nukem 3D at the fastest frame rate possible.

Full disclosure: as much as people loved Tetris, I sucked at the game. Every time the blocks started falling from the sky, I’d survive for about two minutes before I got overwhelmed, and they hit the top and my game was over.

Toymaker Super7’s ReAction line of action figures is designed to capture the feel and style of 1970s and 1980s action figures from brands like Kenner and Mego. So in other words, don’t expect them to be screen-accurate or well-articulated.

You know what the ghosts from Pac-Man could use? Plants growing out of their heads, that’s what. Yeah, that makes them much more adorable, and less intimidating for sure. That’s why I love these Pac-Man ghost planters from Dips and Prints. Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are all here, and ready to help provide a home for your indoor succulents.

I always loved playing Atari’s vector-based arcade games back in the 1980s. Games like Tempest, BattleZone, and Quantum were some of my favorites. And then there was Star Wars. I loved shooting down TIE fighters, zapping radar towers, and zooming into the belly of the Death Star to take aim at its exhaust port in hopes of blowing the thing to smithereens.

If you grew up in the 1970s or 1980s, Atari was located somewhere near the center of your universe. The brand kicked off the home video game revolution with the Atari 2600, and also created some of the best and most memorable arcade games.

I love playing classic arcade games. In fact, I love them so much, I spent several thousand dollars having a custom-built arcade cabinet put together. But you don’t have to spend nearly that much to have a professional looking cabinet these days, thanks to folks like Rec Room Masters and systems like their Xtension Gameplay cabinets. The cabinets come in kit form, and make it easy for you to put together a great looking, full-size arcade system that won’t break the bank.

The Nintendo Switch is a fantastic little gaming system, with a great library of exclusive games, and the ability to switch between a portable and home console in one. The standard Joy-Con gaming controllers that come with it are pretty good already – if a little small for those of us with bigger hands.

I love classic arcade games from the 1980s. Not only did they define my youth, there’s just something special about how much enjoyment you were able to eke out of games with such simple gameplay mechanics.

Not too long ago, I moved into a new decade of life, and am feeling a bit long in the tooth – especially after seeing how many candles were on my birthday cake. I suppose I might not have cared so much if the candles were as cool as these ones. These fun pixel art candles are made using fused perler beads by Burrito Princess, and are the perfect way to decorate a cake or cupcakes for any geeky birthday celebrant.

Due to graphical limitations, video games from the Nintendo 8-bit era pretty much played out on a 2-dimensional plane. But now, you can play some of these classics in 3D, thanks to an application called 3dSen.

Do you love retro arcade games? I certainly do. While the pixel art character sprites get a whole lot of love, the fonts used to display your score and life status deserve much more appreciation. Typeface designer Toshi Omagari’s book catalogs dozens of the chunky pixelated fonts used in arcade games from the 1970s through the 1990s.

These days, lots of people are replacing their bedside clocks with smartphones or other mobile gadgets which keep time. But there’s something about being able to just open an eyeball in the middle of the night and glance at the time that makes me still prefer a standalone clock.

It’s been about two decades since I had to use a 3.5″ floppy disk for anything. I used to have boxes and boxes of the things packing everything from Microsoft Windows ridiculously bloated installers to various “warez” that I really shouldn’t have had in my possession.

The Vocoder was wildly popular in the disco era, and was given a new lease on life by Daft Punk and other electronic bands. But it turns out that there was a similar device that was used all the way back in the 1940s, called the Sonovox.